OPPO F3 review and selfie comparisons

OPPO has yet another self-proclaimed selfie expert, and we’re going to review it!

The newest OPPO release, the OPPO F3, is a capable selfie machine, and it comes at a size that’s a fraction of the earlier released OPPO F3 Plus which features a 6-inch display.

This is great news for people with small hands like me as selfie taking was quite cumbersome with the OPPO F3 Plus’ size — that humongous phone dwarfed my hand and, well, you can’t really selfie if you can’t hold the phone (with one hand). The 5.5-inch F3 is still bigger than the smartphones I’d buy or I’m used to, but the fact that I can grasp it with one hand is improvement enough.

Think of this as the OPPO F3 Plus’ smaller counterpart — all the amazing functions in a smaller package.

And since we’re talking about selfies, I decided to take some with the OPPO that I can finally, sort of, hold.

Still selfie-ing with two hands

Of course, in true OPPO fashion, the smartphone has a built-in Beauty Mode (that’s quite useful, to be honest; I may have used it one too many times).

The best function of this phone is the wide-angle mode. Perfect for showing off scenery or for group selfies!

It seems you could do no wrong with this phone designed precisely for optimum self portraits. Even in extreme lighting conditions, the photo still results in a good selfie. (This was taken against the light!)

That is until you try out the phone’s Bokeh Mode. Most dual-camera phones use their cameras to achieve the bokeh effect; OPPO does it via software (the dual-front cameras for the normal and wide-angle mode) and this results in a harsh unnatural look. One too many times, the Bokeh Mode blurred out details that shouldn’t be blurred out (like my hair, and at some point, my face).

Since I’m not particularly a fan of the Bokeh Mode, it seems like a fair trade off as I would much rather have the wide-angle camera option. Until software improves or OPPO decides to slap on another front-facing camera on their phones, we’ll have to make do with uneven background blur.

You can actually see where the bokeh starts happening

The rear camera is pretty decent; basic at 13 megapixels.

Is this your GadgetMatch?

Having reviewed the OPPO F3 Plus, I fell in love with the wide-angle photo feature but wished that the phone came in a smaller size — this was the phone I was waiting for. If you’re a selfie taker like me, I’d highly recommend this phone (just keep the Bokeh Mode off).