Oppo F1 Plus review
Introduction
It has only been a few short months since Oppo released the original Oppo F1, the self-proclaimed "Selfie Expert". Now, if the F1 Plus is not the fastest upgrade this industry has seen, it must at least be in the running. The super tight release schedule aside, if the original was touted as a "Selfie Expert", the 16MP-front-facer-rocking Plus version must be a certified selfie DoP.
To be fair, the F1 Plus may be viewed as a completely different device. In its home China, it's even known as the Oppo R9 and is part of a different lineup within the company's portfolio. And while this selfie credentials are the major selling point of the F1 Plus, Oppo won't miss an opportunity to emphasize a few other aspects of the new handset.
For one, the design is a lot sleeker - Oppo has traded the rough edges for a bit curvier shape, an overall more uniform texture and color scheme. Impressive 6.6mm thickness, almost edge-to-edge 5.5-inch screen and a 2.5D glass on top add the sought-after premium feeling to the package.
The innards of the F1 Plus have also been refreshed even if they only seem good for a midrange experience. The octa-core Mediatek Helio P10, 4GB of RAM, a bigger Full HD AMOLED display and the VOOC fast charging support are all clear points in favor compared to the still fresh, yet now desperately out-of-date Oppo F1.
Here are some of the Oppo F1 Plus's features.
Oppo F1 Plus key features
- Metal alloy body
- Hybrid Dual SIM/microSD slot
- 5.5 inch AMOLED display with 1080p resolution and 401ppi
- Octa-core 2.0 GHz, Cortex-A53, Mediatek MT6755 Helio P10 SoC, 4GB of RAM
- 64GB of built-in memory
- Color OS 3.0 on top of Android 5.1
- 13 MP, f/2.2, phase detection autofocus main camera with single LED flash
- 16 MP, f/2.0 front camera capable of shooting 1080p video
- Cat. 6 LTE (300/50Mbps) with 2x20 carrier aggregation; Dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.0; GPS/GLONASS; microUSB
- 2,850mAh battery capacity with VOOC fast charge support
Main disadvantages
- Non-removable battery
- MediaTek P10 isn't much faster than last year's mid-range chipsets
Overall, we really have to hand it to Oppo and the F1 Plus. Upon first inspection, it seems like the Chinese OEM has addressed every single issue we had with the Oppo F1 in our review. Better display - check, more RAM and storage - check, VOOC - definitely check. Not to toot our own horn or anything, the bottom line is the F1 Plus had an agenda and went with it to improve the predecessor in every aspect possible.
Oppo F1 Plus in official photos
As for the refined exterior, it is by all means a decent effort by Oppo, yet the Oppo F1 Plus's visual appeal might not be universal, so follow along for a closer look we're taking in the next chapter.
Unboxing the Oppo F1 Plus
Oppo isn't cutting any corners when it comes to presentation. The F1 Plus comes in a pretty solid two piece cardboard box, with an extra sleeve on top. Inside the box, we find a plastic tray for the unit and underneath it, a sturdy cardboard box, containing some leaflets and a bonus transparent soft plastic handset case.
Package contains a VOOC charger
Underneath it, a piece of plastic is designed to hold a pair of nice-looking Oppo earbuds. You get all you need to take advantage of the company's awesome fast charging solution as well: a micro VOOC A/C adapter and a sturdy USB cable. The cable is specifically designed for the VOOC charger, and features seven pins as opposed to five pins on most other microUSB cables, and it is also marked with a green color. The cable remains fully compatible with the microUSB standard and can work with any other device. You can also use any other cable with the phone but you'll have to make do without the VOOC charging.
Oppo F1 Plus 360-degree spin
The Oppo F1 Plus measures 151.8 x 74.3 x 6.6mm, keeping its metal shell surprisingly thin. It tips the scales at 145g, which is a tad more than the original F1, but definitely an acceptable increase relative to the extra screen size. Oppo has also made pretty good use of the available space with the 5.5" display stretching almost edge to edge.
Design and build quality
If there is one thing that instantly stands out when looking at the Oppo F1 Plus, it is undoubtedly the stunning display. With a total side bezel width of only 1.66mm (mind you, that includes the inner black patches as well) and the 2.5D glass on top, the F1 Plus is about as close as you are going to get to an edge to edge experience without shelling out for something like a curved high-end device.
Materials and build quality are also immaculate.
Controls
The front side really looks gorgeous with no manufacturer text or logos, a total of three visible hardware modules above the screen and only a nicely-rounded home button underneath. It should also be fairly sturdy, thanks to a Gorilla Glass 4 finish, but Oppo also went ahead and shipped the phone with a pre-applied screen protector, just in case, although it could have been aligned a bit better.
Minimalist front
The Home button is also the fingerprint scanner. The F1 Plus packs one of the fastest fingerprint sensors we have seen. Clicking the button near instantaneously lands you on the homescreen, which feels more like the backlight just turned on than what really happens, where the phone scans your print and then unlocks the phone.
Oppo has also cleverly eliminated any homescreen animation so the icons don't waste any time and the homescreen just appears instantly as soon as you press the home button. And the sensor is not just fast but also accurate, with next to no failed attempts despite the lightning fast scanning rate. Like the iPhone, you do have to press the button for it to scan your finger and can't just place it on the button. Along with unlocking the phone, Oppo also uses the fingerprint sensor to secure apps and folders in your storage.
The back is also very well looking. It is made out of a single piece of metal, which wraps around the sides of the F1 Plus as well - broken down by the plastic antenna strips top and bottom. Oppo says the material in question has a 98.02% metallic ratio and has undergone a 68-round polishing process to be as non-slippery and comfortable as possible. We can definitely agree on the latter, as the phone feels really great to the touch, but the rounded sides don't really provide enough grip. Overall, a brilliant looking slim handset but one you have to try hard to not let slip off your hand.
In the hand
Looking at it from the back side reveals an equally clean and uncluttered composition. Unlike the original F1, with its dual-color design, the F1 Plus comes with an almost uniform finish, disturbed only by the pair of antenna lines. The top one is curved around the rear camera and sits between it and the single LED flash, providing a subtle color accent.
Pollished rear
Even on the back Oppo impresses with minimal Oppo branding that doesn't take too much visual space on the roomy metal back, leaving you to appreciate some of the finer detailing, such as the polished ring around the camera lens that is ever so slightly raised but not enough to cause the phone to wobble on a flat surface.
The back gently curves upwards and then turns flat along the sides, ending in a mirror-finish chamfer. But the sides don't quite blend into the display; instead the display is slightly raised, which gives the glass a slight edge that can be felt easily.
The sides of the Oppo F1 Plus are quite clutter-free. There is nothing on top, beside a small secondary noise-canceling microphone.
Nothing but a secondary mic on top
The bottom is a bit busier and houses, in order of appearance: a round-design single speaker, a microUSB port flanked by a pair of screws, then the main microphone and 3.5mm audio jack.
Both the microUSB and the headphone jack are on the bottom, and so are the mic and loudspeaker
The left side only features a pair of volume buttons, near the very top of the frame. The buttons are conveniently located while holding the phone in hand but accessing them while the phone is lying flat on a table is a bit difficult due to their shape and location.
Discrete volume buttons on the left
On the opposite side, we find the power button, positioned within perfect reach of your index finger or thumb. The only other thing present is the hybrid Dual-SIM plus microSD card tray. It sits perfectly flush with the surrounding surface.
5.5-inch FullHD AMOLED
We already raved quite a bit about the display on the Oppo F1 Plus and with good reason. It is one of the areas in which the handset definitely shines compared to the basic F1. Not only has the panel become bigger, now at 5.5 inches, but the plain LCD has been swapped for an AMOLED panel. With that comes a due change in the subpixel arrangement to diamond pentile, as our microscope shot reveals.
Our usual tests revealed a maximum brightness of 351 nits, a bit low in absolute terms, but about average for an AMOLED unit. Then again, the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) can produce substantially higher brightness (some 50% more), if need be. Being an AMOLED, the display doesn't light up pixels at all, if they're meant to show black, hence the infinite contrast.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
| 0.00 | 351 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 365 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 425 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 536 | ∞ | |
| 0.30 | 399 | 1334 | |
| 0.00 | 346 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 321 | ∞ | |
| 0.30 | 455 | 1542 | |
| 0.43 | 532 | 1238 | |
| 0.41 | 620 | 1520 | |
| 0.52 | 705 | 1361 | |
AMOLEDs were long criticized of inaccurate color reproduction, but that's mostly a thing of the past. While the Oppo F1 Plus does give colors a bit of extra punch, its average DeltaE of 5.6 is an okay value. You can't call it properly calibrated (average DeltaE of 3 or less is a good indicator), but it produces truer colors than a Galaxy S7 edge in default mode. In the Samsung flagship's defense, it has multiple color modes, one capable of achieving an average DeltaE of 0.8. Sadly, there are no such modes on the F1 Plus. The IPS panel on the LG G5 posted a DeltaE of 5.6 too, so in a way you could call the F1 Plus' display flagship-grade in color accuracy.
Out in direct sunlight, however, AMOLEDs rule, and the Oppo F1 Plus is no exception. It's clearly legible in bright daylight, but even so Oppo's own R7s does that little bit better in this test.
Sunlight contrast ratio
Oppo F1 Plus battery life
The Oppo F1 Plus is powered by a 2850mAh battery. The capacity is in no way exceptional, but it is a perfectly reasonable fit within a 6.6 mm body. This is only a bit more than the 2500mAh inside the original Oppo F1, but the one true trick that the F1 Plus has learned during the upgrade is the splendid VOOC fast charging feature.
If you are familiar with it, the patented Oppo technology employs a sort of divide and conquer approach to charging. The battery pack itself is sort of split into two, with each part getting its own charging board and power channel. This speeds up charging immensely and as we have found time and time again, VOOC is the most efficient fast charging solution out there (at the cost of requiring a proprietary cable).
A test we don't typically carry out, but figured we might just try on the F1 Plus, charging from completely flat 0% to full 100% took just under an hour (50-60 minutes). While the speed in itself is impressive, what's also good about VOOC is that not once did the phone get warm, as opposed to rival technologies such as Qualcomm's Quick Charge that cause the phone to heat up significantly.
Speaking of actual battery life, the Oppo F1 Plus does pretty well, notably better than the original F1. The F1 Plus can go on playing videos just upwards of 12 hours, perhaps the best aspect of its performance. A bit underwhelming is the mileage when browsing over Wi-Fi - the smartphone dies in a little over 8 hours, some 20 minutes longer than the F1. 21 hours on a 3G voice call is a good number too.
The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Connectivity
The Oppo F1 Plus employs the powerful modem bundled with the MediaTek Helio P10 SoC, which offers support for a total of 8 LTE bands. While our review unit lacks Europe's most common FDD LTE band 20 800MHz, the version meant for sale in the EU will actually support that one too, for a total of 9 bands. There is also quad-band GSM support, as well as quad-band 3G with HSDPA.
As already mentioned, the F1 Plus is a Dual-SIM device and can take two nano-SIM cards. The hybrid tray design, however, forces you to choose between the second SIM and a microSD card.
The rest of the wireless connectivity features include dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac support and Wi-Fi Direct. There is also support for Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and GLONASS. Other than that, there is a standard micro USB connector for data exchange, rather than the new USB Type-C standard.
There is also USB OTG functionality thrown in the mix. The phone comes without NFC and an IR blaster.
User interface
In typical Oppo fashion, the Oppo F1 Plus is running the company's deeply customized ColorOS. Like the majority of platforms out of China, ColorOS is based on Android (in this case 5.1 Lollipop), which allows it to take full advantage of Google's ever-growing ecosystem of apps and services. The international version of the phone also has Google Play services pre-loaded, along with the full set of the search giant's apps,.
Yet this is about where any similarities with AOSP end. ColorOS has always had its own approach to Android, which more often than not is the iOS approach to things. This is now probably truer than ever with the new ColorOS V3.0.0i, powering the Oppo F1 Plus. Its visuals are notably different than those of v2.1.0i, that the original Oppo F1 was running when we reviewed it.
The UI seems to have gotten even flatter, more vibrant and colorful. It's a playful look that we find fitting, but that certainly won't be to everyone's tastes.
The first thing that greats you when you pick up the Oppo F1 Plus is the stylish lock screen interface, which is never boring thanks to what Oppo calls Lockscreen magazine. It is enabled by default and basically cycles through various images every time you turn on the display. It sources the photos form an online database automatically and you can your favorite categories from a list.
Oppo Lockscreen magazine
Scrolling left or right on the lock screen cycles through your current image feed, so you can always find that one you dismissed a bit too quick. You can also pin images so they will stay there until further notice. Now if you want to actually unlock the phone you have to swipe up.
Lock screen
The fingerprint reader, integrated in the home button, provides an easy to use extra layer of security. It can be employed to limit access to certain apps or even files, but most people are typically going to use it for unlocking the phone. Sadly, the hardware in the Oppo F1 Plus is not always on, so you have to tap the button before you can use the reader. Other than that, it works impressively fast and is quite accurate.
Fingerprint reader
Moving on to the Launcher we see once again Oppo has skipped the app drawer. You get a home screen with digital date and time near the top and a variable number of other screens to the right of it. In an effort to get some form of organization going, there are at least folders available.
Default launcher with no app locker
And, if you fancy a new look, Oppo has included a powerful theming engine, that can tweak most any part of the interface for you with a number of styles already available through an online repository.
Themes
A swipe from the top shows the notification shade, which has two sideswipe-able tabs. The first showing the actual notifications, along a per-app notification management option, while the second is reserved for quick toggles.
Notification shade
There really isn't much else going on in the home interface and probably for the better. ColorOS V3.0.0i offers a hassle-free and very de-cluttered experience, which the majority of people will appreciate.
However, things get a bit weirder in the Settings menu. Perhaps, is an effort to over-simplify things, Oppo might have made them rather chaotic. The thing we are referring to in particular is a large section of the settings menu dedicated to the stock Oppo apps. While having access to these settings is a good thing, most of them arguably belong within the settings of their corresponding apps. It is not convenient at all to lack access to things like viewer grids or location tags from withing the camera app and have to go to the setting menu to change it.
Settings interface and rather chaotic app settings placement
As with many other Oppo devices, the F1 Plus is big on gestures. There is a vast array of things to choose from, including some industry standards, like taking screenshots, enabling one-handed mode or auto answer and flip to mute.
However, there is also a whole other section of gestures that work when the screen is off. Here you can even define your own, so you are only limited by your imagination. Oppo has found a way to keep gestures going while the phone is asleep, which makes the fact that the fingerprint reader got no such treatment even more disappointing.
Extensive gesture functionality
The final thing worth mentioning is a power saving feature in this version of ColorOS, which works somewhat similarly to Doze. Unfortunately, it is far too aggressive and tends to suspend apps in the background, including messaging apps, which means you often miss your messages. It's not uncommon to open Hangouts or WhatsApp and get all your messages at once. There is an option in the Settings to freeze individual apps in the background but even with it disabled the OS still heavily controls app activity in the background. This does help the phone in the battery life department but the tradeoff is not worth it.
Circling back to where we started, Oppo seems to have taken inspiration from iOS. It's not uncommon to see Chinese OEMs go down this route, but there's usually some originality whereas Oppo has chosen to copy quite slavishly and rather brazenly. The iOS influence can be seen everywhere in the UI, whether it is the iOS style homescreen layout, the default app icons, the multitasking app screen, the way you can swipe down on the homescreen to bring search (Google Search, in this case), the volume popups, the Settings app, the Camera app, the power off dialogue, and even the wallpapers.
For Oppo's sake, however, the user experience with the redesign is vastly improved over its previous versions of ColorOS and the new version is significantly cleaner and easier to use, so from a user's perspective things are looking good.
Performance
The Oppo F1 Plus chipset is a mid-range affair. The phone has a premium body and a price to match it at around € 400, but you can definitely get better performance for your money if you shop around with the competition. Still, The F1 Plus does offer a bit of pure performance improvements over its predecessor - the Oppo F1.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 SoC has been swapped for a more productive Mediatek MT6755 Helio P10. Both have a total of eight Cortex-A53 cores, so they are not worlds apart, but the higher clock rate of 2.0 GHz does suggest an increase in speed. A clear down side to the chipset choice is the Mali-T860MP2 GPU. It struggles severely when outputting to the 1080p display. On the flip side, memory is plentiful at 4GB and storage is also a lot less confining now at 64GB plus a microSD card slot.
We put the Oppo F1 Plus through our usual testing procedure and made sure to pit it against a few other devices that either have a similar chipset or cost about the same.
First, lets look at GeekBench 3 for a pure CPU performance test. The Oppo F1 Plus did alright, but nothing really spectacular. It ties the Huawei P8 at the top of the A53-powered handsets, but comes way short of competitors that offer better cores.
GeekBench 3 (multi-core)
Higher is better
AnTuTu provides a much more complex rating of the handset and its performance. Here, we can see the Oppo F1 Plus is around the same ball park as the Xiaomi Redmi 3 and pretty close to the Zenfone 2. However, it is still dwarfed by yesteryear's flagships like the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact, HTC One (M9) and LG G4.
AnTuTu 5
Higher is better
The BaseMark OS II 2.0 test, which gauges CPU, GPU, Memory, System, and Web performance, rates the Oppo F1 Plus higher, but not quite up there with the best.
Basemark OS 2.0
Higher is better
CPU performance was decent if unspectacular, but graphics are rather disappointing. The Mali-T860MP2 GPU just isn't enough to push pixels to the 1080p panel. You should probably avoid the Oppo F1 Plus if you are big on Android gaming. Still, most casual titles, that you would pick up to pass a few minutes run without any trouble.
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
Basemark X further reveals the disappointing reality of GPU performance from the Oppo F1 Plus. Even at medium settings, it offers far from a fluent experience and often lacks behind some of its cheaper competitors.
Basemark X
Higher is better
Basemark X (medium)
Higher is better
Now putting numbers aside and turning to real-life performance we can say we are satisfied. There are some dropped frames occasionally while navigating the UI or scrolling through apps but in general the phone behaves itself and is no problem to use. We even tried a couple of heavy games like Lara Croft Go and NOVA 3 and they played smoothly so if you stick to better optimized content it's not all lost.
Heating was also under control and although the phone does get a bit warm near the top it's not particularly uncomfortable to hold.
Contacts and telephony, messaging
The Oppo F1 Plus and ColorOS V3.0.0i offer a very straight-forward approach to telephony. You get a single app that incorporates the dialer and contacts directory on two separate pages.
The former is about as clean as they come. There is nothing really fancy to play around with and even the few options that are available for the interface are in their own sub-menu inside the phone settings. Still, we never found anything vital really missing from the app. There is even smart dial out of the box.
The contacts segment of the app follows the same minimalist ideology. Still, available fields and customization options per contact are plentiful and again, nothing is really missing, it just looks slick and clean.
Dialer and contacts
Pretty much the same goes for the Messages app.
Messaging
The loudspeaker of the Oppo F1 Plus doesn't impress with volume and falls in the "Bellow average" category in our test. Oppo has produced more powerful speakers and if you think size does it on the R7 Plus, the Good result of the R7s shows it can be done in a body the size of the F1 Plus'.
Dialer and contacts
Messaging
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing | Overall score | |
| 66.2 | 64.8 | 66.8 | Below Average | |
| 66.3 | 66.2 | 65.9 | Below Average | |
| 67.3 | 65.7 | 66.5 | Below Average | |
| 65.5 | 72.2 | 65.2 | Average | |
| 67.7 | 66.6 | 68.7 | Average | |
| 66.5 | 66.6 | 75.8 | Good | |
| 69.8 | 66.6 | 75.7 | Good | |
| 73.8 | 66.6 | 71.9 | Good | |
| 66.9 | 71.8 | 74.7 | Good | |
| 74.7 | 77.8 | 72.1 | Very Good | |
| 73.7 | 72.8 | 79.9 | Very Good | |
| 74.8 | 73.5 | 80.2 | Excellent | |
| 75.7 | 73.5 | 79.5 | Excellent | |
| 75.7 | 73.5 | 80.7 | Excellent |
App package
As for pre-loaded apps, we already mentioned that the Oppo F1 Plus comes with all Google apps already on board. The company also brings you a few notable Oppo apps as well. You get a fully-featured file browser, including FTP. There is also a calculator, a sound recorder and a compass, all done with the same minimalistic approach.
File manager • Calculator • Sound recorder • Compass
The Calendar, Clock and Weather apps all stick to the "less is more" philosophy as well.
Calendar • Clock • Weather
WPS office is also pre-loaded to handle all your document needs.
WPS office
For browsing the web, there is a default browser courtesy of Oppo. It bears a striking visual and functional resemblance to Opera for Android and might actually be a customized version of this. It even offers bandwidth saving for those on a slow connection.
Oppo browser could be Opera in disguise
And, of course, there are default apps for handling video and audio playback as well, but more on that in the multimedia section.
File manager • Calculator • Sound recorder • Compass
Calendar • Clock • Weather
WPS office
Oppo browser could be Opera in disguise
The gallery
The default Gallery on the Oppo F1 Plus is also straight-forward to the extreme. You get a total of two interfaces, the first being a photo stream and the other - a split up view, organized in convenient image sets.
Gallery app
There is a bit more functionality, hidden under the hood. The edit option, for one, offers a pretty decent number of tools. You can quickly crop an image, or doodle on it. There are also filters available.
Quick image editing
Gallery app
Quick image editing
Music player
The default music player is just that - a music player, nothing more, nothing less. You get all the basics, like categorized browsing (track, artist, album) and a very clean playback interface with some default animations as well as album art support.
Interestingly enough, you also get playlists and even favorites. You can also apply an equalizer by enabling Dirac Sound option which is buried in the settings menu.
Music Player
Music Player
Video player
The video player is yet another rather basic app, which offers clean looks but almost nothing in terms of advanced features. There is one notable exception - you can play clips in a hover window. The video player supports playback of DTS audio codec but not AC3 audio codec.
Video Player
Video Player
Audio output starts off great, quickly degrades
The Oppo F1 Plus went off to a great start in our audio quality test. When connected to an active external amplifier, it delivered very loud with excellent clarity scores top to bottom – an impressive showing by any standard.
Plug in a pair of headphones though and things quickly go south. Volume drops to average, stereo crosstalk increases notably, some intermodulation distortion creeps in and frequency response gets slightly shake. None of those is particularly bad on its own, but add them together and you get a performance that’s certainly not worth writing home about.
Anyway, here go the results so you can make your own comparisons.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| Oppo F1 Plus | +0.05, -0.04 | -93.3 | 93.5 | 0.0015 | 0.0071 | -94.1 |
| Oppo F1 Plus (headphones) | +0.51, -0.16 | -89.2 | 88.4 | 0.015 | 0.378 | -56.8 |
| Xiaomi Mi 4s | +0.01, -0.03 | -94.9 | 90.8 | 0.0025 | 0.0090 | -82.6 |
| Xiaomi Mi 4s (headphones) | +0.09, -0.02 | -94.1 | 90.5 | 0.017 | 0.103 | -34.6 |
| Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) | +0.02, -0.07 | -94.3 | 92.2 | 0.0065 | 0.010 | -95.0 |
| Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) (headphones) | +0.42, -0.01 | -93.4 | 87.1 | 0.029 | 0.254 | -53.0 |
| Huawei G8 | +0.02, -0.08 | -93.4 | 90.1 | 0.0028 | 0.012 | -93.4 |
| Huawei G8 (headphones) | +0.10, -0.03 | -92.9 | 89.8 | 0.0048 | 0.071 | -78.2 |
You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.
The Selfie Expert has a 13MP rear camera
The tagline for the Oppo F1 Plus reads "Selfie Expert" and that claim is certainly supported by the numbers. What we'd normally call the primary camera on the back uses a 13MP sensor as opposed to the 16MP of the front-facing cam. The rear camera also gets a slower lens - f/2.2 versus f/2.0 on the front.
However, while a Type 1/3.1" sensor is pretty large as selfie cameras go, it's still smaller than the one that resides on the F1 Plus' back, so at least there's that. The rear cam also gets an LED flash (single diode) while the front resorts to lighting up the screen to show your smile. The 13MP shooter on the back also has phase detection autofocus, while fixed focus is all you get on the front.
The camera app is similar to the one on previous Oppo devices, only simplified. Side swiping on the viewfinder lets you switch between stills and video recording, as well as Time lapse, Panorama and Beauty modes. The flash and HDR buttons aren't toggles - instead, they pop open a menu to select the relevant option. We feel that cycling through the modes might be the more intuitive approach.
The button which resembles aperture blades gives you the option to select what acts as shutter release - Normal means only the virtual shutter button does the job, Touch takes a shot when you tap somewhere in the frame, while Voice will capture an image when you say "Cheese". It's a nice touch that the latter option automatically sets the delay to 3s, though you could then change it to any of the other options. Alternatively you can wave your hand at the camera to capture an image.
Camera app
Going into the shooting modes, you get Ultra HD, which produces 51MP images through some clever stitching, but it doesn't do a great job and you can achieve the same results by upscaling on your computer. Various Filters are the shooting mode for sharing on social media, Double exposure can create interesting effects with moving subjects, and there's also a dedicated GIF mode.
It's Expert mode that got our interest as it gives you proper manual control over shooting parameters. You get to choose between 7 white balance presets (no Kelvin light temperature slider though), exposure compensation can be set in the -3EV/+3EV interval in half-stop increments, and ISO can be manually set anywhere between 100 and 1600. Manual shutter speed can only be set from 1s to 16s, or Auto, so you don't get to pick fast shutter speeds. There's also the option to record RAW images or not.
Expert mode
Image quality is pretty good. The photos have plenty of detail, and are sharp across the frame. Colors are vivid, perhaps saturation is a bit too high, but that's how most people like their photos anyway.
Auto exposure is dependable, and the phone consistently exposes correctly. It helps that dynamic range is above average, though highlights do tend to get blown out in particularly high-contrast scenes.
Camera samples
The HDR mode on the Oppo F1 Plus does pretty much nothing. To the point where we had to reshoot our samples just to check if we had enabled it. We had.
HDR mode: off • on
The high resolution of the Oppo F1 Plus' panoramas may lead you to believe it's good at it. Actually, the images turn out soft and lacking in detail when you zoom in to pixel level. If you just view them to fit the screen, they do look nice with even exposure, vivid colors and no stitching issues. They just don't hold up well to pixel peeping so maybe Oppo should have gone for a lower resolution.
Panorama sample
You can take a look at how the Oppo F1 Plus stacks up against the competition in our Photo Compare Tool.
Oppo F1 Plus in our photo compare tool
Camera app
Expert mode
Camera samples
HDR mode: off • on
Panorama sample
Oppo F1 Plus in our photo compare tool
16 MP selfie camera isn't quite as good as the numbers suggest
We had our hopes very high up for the F1 Plus' front cam, and that's a recipe for disappointment. The images it produces are pretty soft, and certainly not what you'd expect from a 16MP camera. Instead, they look like they have been upscaled from a smaller image. In fit-to-screen scenarios and for sharing on social networks they look fine, but we do believe that high resolution should mean more detail, and it this case it doesn't.
Selfie samples
Selfie samples
Video recording
Video recording is nothing special on the Oppo F1 Plus - it tops out at 1080p/30fps, there's no 4K recording. The videos have a bit rate of 17Mbps, which is on the low side of average. Audio is recorded in stereo with a 128Kbps bit rate.
There's a very annoying issue when shooting videos with the Oppo F1 Plus - it's viewfinder doesn't show the actual frame coverage being recorded. And it's not like on other phones, where the viewfinder is the same for stills and video, and readjusts when you hit record. No, here you have a dedicated video mode and yet you're being misinformed as what is actually being recorded. This makes precise framing impossible, and that's unacceptable.
On top of that video quality is mediocre. The output is soft and detail is perhaps not even on the level of an okay 720p video. At least autofocus works as expected and isn't prone to hunting .
You can also download the 1080p video sample (10s, 20MB) taken straight from the Oppo F1 Plus.
Finally, you can check out our Video Compare Tool to see how the Oppo F1 Plus fares against the competition when it comes to video capturing.
Oppo F1 Plus in our video compare tool
Oppo F1 Plus in our video compare tool
Final words
In the Oppo F1 Plus, the Plus moniker stands for more than a casual upgrade. Improvements over what now seems like quite a modest original are plenty and, all things considered, the two are most likely meant to coexist, catering to different crowds.
It's the Plus that you're more likely to actually want to own, thanks to its more refined design, and decidedly premium vibe. Well, that and perhaps the fact that it looks a lot like an iPhone 6s Plus with super-slim bezels. Or a larger iPhone 6s. So yes, while the F1 Plus is certainly not one of a kind, it's definitely a show-off.
Moving past the superficial, the device is surely capable. A 5.5-inch AMOLED display delivers pleasing colors and does very well in bright sunlight, even if its maximum brightness fails to impress. Good battery life and adequate performance mean that the F1 Plus isn't just for show either.
However, it's one of the main promises that the F1 Plus actually fails to keep to the fullest. The 16MP Type 1/3.1" f/2.0 front-facer of the self-proclaimed "selfie expert" just doesn't live up to the numbers. The rear 13MP shooter does well to make up for it, at least. That is, when shooting stills, video quality is rather disappointing either way.
In the Oppo F1 Plus, the Plus moniker stands for more than a casual upgrade. Improvements over what now seems like quite a modest original are plenty and, all things considered, the two are most likely meant to coexist, catering to different crowds.
It's the Plus that you're more likely to actually want to own, thanks to its more refined design, and decidedly premium vibe. Well, that and perhaps the fact that it looks a lot like an iPhone 6s Plus with super-slim bezels. Or a larger iPhone 6s. So yes, while the F1 Plus is certainly not one of a kind, it's definitely a show-off.
Moving past the superficial, the device is surely capable. A 5.5-inch AMOLED display delivers pleasing colors and does very well in bright sunlight, even if its maximum brightness fails to impress. Good battery life and adequate performance mean that the F1 Plus isn't just for show either.
However, it's one of the main promises that the F1 Plus actually fails to keep to the fullest. The 16MP Type 1/3.1" f/2.0 front-facer of the self-proclaimed "selfie expert" just doesn't live up to the numbers. The rear 13MP shooter does well to make up for it, at least. That is, when shooting stills, video quality is rather disappointing either way.
Key test findings
- Build quality is superb, fit and finish are exemplary, though the design isn't exactly original.
- The screen could've been brighter, but it's okay for an AMOLED, colors are a good compromise between punch and accuracy, sunlight legibility is excellent.
- Battery life is very good across the board, except in web browsing where the F1 Plus is only about average.
- The user interface is heavily influenced by iOS, bordering on plain copying. There's hardly any bloatware pre-installed though, which is always nice.
- Performance is good overall, excellent at CPU-intensive tasks, but the phone is underpowered in the GPU department.
- The loudspeaker falls in the Below average category in our test.
- The 13MP rear camera captures detailed images with punchy colors.
- The 16MP selfie camera doesn't live up to expectations, images are not as detailed as the resolution would suggest.
- 1080p video quality is subpar.
Fooled by the naming, we started off by comparing the F1 Plus to its little brother F1 but, in reality, the closer match in the company's lineup are the R7's (two of them). The R7s is more affordable, but omits a fingerprint scanner. Its front cam resolution is only half that of the F1 Plus, but they may very well produce equally detailed images, so that's not a real deal-breaker. At 32GB, the R7s has half the storage of the F1 Plus, but with a microSD for expansion, that's hardly a decider either. Pretty much all hangs on the fingerprint scanner and price then.
Alternatively, you could go all out and grab the 6-inch R7 Plus, and get the fingerprint sensor out of the equation - both Plus models have it and the R7's has arguably better positioning round the back. The R7 Plus has a longer battery life, but it's also quite larger and some 50g heavier, which may be too much for some.
Oppo R7s • Oppo R7 Plus
The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) is a tiny bit more expensive than the F1 Plus, and yet it has a gig less of RAM, and only a quarter of the storage of the Oppo phone. On the plus side, it has a much brighter display, better battery backup and a camera with a brighter lens and optical stabilization. Its fingerprint sensor lets you tap into Samsung Pay too, which is worth considering if the service is available where you are.
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
For about as much you could opt for the LG G4 - a proper flagship, albeit last season's. You'd be getting a higher-res display, a superior camera in both stills and video, Marshmallow and a removable battery, even if the actual mileage is notably shorter. No fingerprint scanning on that one, though.
LG G4
And once we're into past flagships, there's the Sony Xperia Z3+, which can even be had for less than the F1 Plus. There's a marginally smaller display on the Xperia, but IP68 certification is a boon. A lot more powerful chipset, a more capable camera and Marshmallow are also in the Z3+ favor.
Sony Xperia Z3+
If you are after a competent 5.5-inch phablet, but in no mood to spend big buck, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is a must-see. The base 2GB/16GB model costs about a third of the F1 Plus, and you could get two pieces of the 3GB/32GB model and still have money to spare. And you won't be missing out on anything - fingerprint scanner, better performance, the Redmi 3 even has an aluminum body. The F1 Plus does have a better display, though and getting the Xiaomi might be tricky in many parts of the world.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek) • Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
Ultimately, the F1 Plus is yet another in a line of premium quality Oppo smartphones, which you have to battle with reason to actually buy. Priced around the flagships of 2015, this exquisitely-built device with a killer spec sheet is only a little above average in most of the tests. Though from a different angle, it's a more affordable alternative to the incumbent flagships whose build and finish it has no trouble matching. It's your money so it's up to you pick a vantage point.
- Build quality is superb, fit and finish are exemplary, though the design isn't exactly original.
- The screen could've been brighter, but it's okay for an AMOLED, colors are a good compromise between punch and accuracy, sunlight legibility is excellent.
- Battery life is very good across the board, except in web browsing where the F1 Plus is only about average.
- The user interface is heavily influenced by iOS, bordering on plain copying. There's hardly any bloatware pre-installed though, which is always nice.
- Performance is good overall, excellent at CPU-intensive tasks, but the phone is underpowered in the GPU department.
- The loudspeaker falls in the Below average category in our test.
- The 13MP rear camera captures detailed images with punchy colors.
- The 16MP selfie camera doesn't live up to expectations, images are not as detailed as the resolution would suggest.
- 1080p video quality is subpar.
Fooled by the naming, we started off by comparing the F1 Plus to its little brother F1 but, in reality, the closer match in the company's lineup are the R7's (two of them). The R7s is more affordable, but omits a fingerprint scanner. Its front cam resolution is only half that of the F1 Plus, but they may very well produce equally detailed images, so that's not a real deal-breaker. At 32GB, the R7s has half the storage of the F1 Plus, but with a microSD for expansion, that's hardly a decider either. Pretty much all hangs on the fingerprint scanner and price then.
Alternatively, you could go all out and grab the 6-inch R7 Plus, and get the fingerprint sensor out of the equation - both Plus models have it and the R7's has arguably better positioning round the back. The R7 Plus has a longer battery life, but it's also quite larger and some 50g heavier, which may be too much for some.
Oppo R7s • Oppo R7 Plus
The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) is a tiny bit more expensive than the F1 Plus, and yet it has a gig less of RAM, and only a quarter of the storage of the Oppo phone. On the plus side, it has a much brighter display, better battery backup and a camera with a brighter lens and optical stabilization. Its fingerprint sensor lets you tap into Samsung Pay too, which is worth considering if the service is available where you are.
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
For about as much you could opt for the LG G4 - a proper flagship, albeit last season's. You'd be getting a higher-res display, a superior camera in both stills and video, Marshmallow and a removable battery, even if the actual mileage is notably shorter. No fingerprint scanning on that one, though.
LG G4
And once we're into past flagships, there's the Sony Xperia Z3+, which can even be had for less than the F1 Plus. There's a marginally smaller display on the Xperia, but IP68 certification is a boon. A lot more powerful chipset, a more capable camera and Marshmallow are also in the Z3+ favor.
Sony Xperia Z3+
If you are after a competent 5.5-inch phablet, but in no mood to spend big buck, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is a must-see. The base 2GB/16GB model costs about a third of the F1 Plus, and you could get two pieces of the 3GB/32GB model and still have money to spare. And you won't be missing out on anything - fingerprint scanner, better performance, the Redmi 3 even has an aluminum body. The F1 Plus does have a better display, though and getting the Xiaomi might be tricky in many parts of the world.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek) • Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
Ultimately, the F1 Plus is yet another in a line of premium quality Oppo smartphones, which you have to battle with reason to actually buy. Priced around the flagships of 2015, this exquisitely-built device with a killer spec sheet is only a little above average in most of the tests. Though from a different angle, it's a more affordable alternative to the incumbent flagships whose build and finish it has no trouble matching. It's your money so it's up to you pick a vantage point.
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)14
- Samsung Galaxy S512
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)8.5
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 28.5
- Oppo F1 Plus7
- Oppo R7s5.9
- Motorola Moto X Play5.8
- Oppo F15.8
- Huawei Mate S5.4
- Huawei P85.4
- HTC One M924
- Sony Xperia Z3+ final21
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)14
- Samsung Galaxy S512
- Oppo F111
- LG G4 (final)9.
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