OPPO officially unveiled its latest F7 smartphone in India on Monday, challenging the likes of other mid-range selfie-centric smartphones. The launch comes just days after Vivo launched its V9 smartphone in India, which also boasts similar design as the OPPO F7.
Continuing to fulfil the demand for better-looking selfies, OPPO brought the new F7 smartphone with new camera features and a massive overhaul in terms of design. OPPO F7 is priced at Rs 21,990, and it will be available across all online and offline stores starting April 9, 2018. But the question is whether OPPO F7 truly stands in the way of Vivo V9's success or is it going to be the other way around.
Sky Li, global VP, OPPO and president of OPPO India, expressed his optimism towards the F7 smartphone, which will only strengthen the company's position in the Indian mobile phone market. "With the launch of F7 in India, we will further strengthen our stance as 'The Selfie Expert and Leader' and truly represent our ambition to continue being the leaders in the market," Li said at the launch.
Before we start a straight out a comparison between OPPO F7 and Vivo V9, let us just give you the key highlights of the new smartphone.
OPPO F7 features a truly bezel-less design with a notch at the top and a 19:9 aspect ratio, a 25MP front-facing camera with AI Beauty 2.0 to enhance your selfies using 296 facial recognition points and 20 percent better than AI Beauty 1.0. Users also get to enjoy with AR stickers, much like most phones these days.
Let us now see where OPPO F7 stands in the real world.
Design and display
OPPO F7 features a bezel-less design identical to the Vivo V9. There's a 6.2-inch Full HD+ Super Full Screen with 2280 x 1080 pixel resolution and 19:9 aspect ratio. The notch at the top has the front camera, light sensor, and a brand-new antenna.
Vivo, on the other hand, offers a 6.3-inch Full HD+ (1080x2280 pixels) IPS panel with the same 19:9 aspect ratio, along with an identical notch.
So, there's not much you're losing out on the display part. As for the design, OPPO F7's rear panel has a single camera and a fingerprint scanner. But the Vivo smartphone has a vertically-aligned dual camera and the fingerprint scanner at the same position at the back.
Camera
The front cameras on both smartphones are key highlights.
OPPO F7 features a 25MP front snapper with HDR, AI Beauty 2.0 with more accurate facial recognition capability, better beautification effects for gender and age. The AI-integration goes a step further and understands your selfie needs better with each selfie you take over time.
Vivo V9 comes with a 24MP front snapper, which promises to deliver just as good selfies. We'll be comparing the real-world results in our upcoming reviews.
On the rear, OPPO F7 features a 16MP snapper with f/2.0 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, 4K video taking capability and real-time HDR modes.
Vivo V9 gets a 16MP primary sensor with f/2.0 aperture lens and a 5MP secondary sensor with f/2.4 aperture along with 4K video recording support. We've briefly tested the Vivo V9's cameras, and they appear to meet the expectations, but we will be testing it under different conditions to thoroughly convey our verdict.
Hardware
Vivo V9 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 octa-core processor clocked at 2.2GHz, paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage. OPPO F7 doesn't fall too far behind. It has a MediaTek P60 octa-core processor with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. But there's a special Sunrise Red edition with 6GB RAM and 128GB (for a higher cost, of course).
Under the hood, OPPO F7 features a 3,400mAh battery while Vivo V9 gets a 3,260mAh battery. Given our experience with phones from both companies in the past, the new models can easily give you 8-9 hours of runtime.
Software-wise, both phones are based on Android Oreo but Vivo V9 runs FunTouch OS 4.0 based while Oppo F7 comes with ColorOS 5.0 custom UI.
Both phones have dual SIM card support, microSD card support, facial unlocking feature, fingerprint scanner, 4G VoLTE, and other standard connectivity options.
Pricing and availability
Vivo V9 is priced at Rs 22,990 and the OPPO F7 costs Rs 21,990. Even though it's cheaper than the Vivo V9, the dual camera at the back can be a winning feature. For power users, OPPO F7's 6GB RAM edition in Diamond Black, which is quite impressive for someone who loves to flash their phones, is priced at Rs 26,990.
For our final verdict on both smartphones, stay tuned for our reviews coming soon.
