Geek Lifestyle Review: OPPO F7 | One of OPPO's Bests!

When we first got our hands on the OPPO F7, we already knew that we were handed something special. These sleek rounded-edged units with polished acrylic and an amazing screen felt the most premium the brand ever went with their Philippine release line. While sitting at a mid-ranger, the OPPO F7 never fails to feel like a mid-range phone. In fact, if ever, it conveniently feels like it can sit with the rest of its Flagship brethren.

And that’s just what the phone felt and looked like. As what we said during our first impressions, this feels like OPPO’s best shooter to date – and after taking more than 1000 photos and a couple of videos, we could definitely say that it is.

Geek-sthetic – 10/10

The OPPO F7 looks absolutely amazing! Of all the phones they’ve outed here in the Philippines, the F7 is the most premium looking to date. I mean, just look at it! Every angle screams elegance and while, sure, OPPO could have used a glass backing on the rear like other smartphone brands, the polished acrylic works magnificently well especially with how the unit feels on your hands. Having a polished acrylic allows the bezels to be almost leveed with the back of the phone. No awkward handling comes into play and the shiny, lustrous rear panel is such a joy to touch. If there is one complaint, though, it would be that you’ll need to carry along with you a microfiber cloth because of how much a finger-print magnet the phone can get. But aside from that, everything looks perfectly sharp, and undeniably elegant – especially the red variant.

Geek Photoshoot Capabilities – 8/10

Let’s go to the meat of the unit – its optics. OPPO has consistently wowed us with their front facing camera and for the OPPO F7, they’ve outed yet again another stand-out front-facing shooter. Equipped with a 25-megapixel camera with an f/ 2.0 opening so you can have deeper depth of fields and create a more beautiful focal point when taking selfies. The phone is also equipped with OPPO’s latest Ai Beautification that allows your phone to detect multiple faces and calibrate the correct level of beautification per face so that you can capture the best version of yourself –or to play with the company slogan, to #CaptureTheRealYou. 😀

: Who let the dogs out?

But more than the selfie camera with the wonderful stickers and pre-set emojis on the vanilla camera app, it’s actual the rear shooter that shocked us when we first tried it out. While OPPO is known for its selfie camera, the rear camera was somewhat to be desired…until the F7, that is.

I have never took so many photos in so little time and I had a blast with the F7 because each shot felt like they had the potential to be part of travel postcards. As mentioned during our initial review, I took the OPPO F7 to Boracay and took some shots of my sister-in-law’s wedding. I actually won an action cam in one of the couple’s wedding activities where they pick the best photo that their guest took during any part of the ceremony.

Here’s the set of winning photos taken with zero filters from the F7.

The Ai Beautification is also apparently present on the rear cam as well – so are the emoji’s and stickers allowing me to enhance candid moments like these:

: Ai Beautification

: Live Stickers

: Who let the dogs out?

: Korean Drama Candid Shot

And quite recently, I discovered that the OPPO F7 has the capability to launch the camera zoom and use it with one hand similar with how Nokia’s old Lumia Camera works.

Brilliant!

My only complaint with the OPPO F7 is its decision to just have a single camera for the front and rear when most companies are equipping two or more. Plus, I really missed the extreme wide-angle lens on the OPPO F3 that helps take better (read: more slim-looking) photos especially when you have short(er) arms.

Video OIS also isn’t as good as I’d want it to be so if you’re set on having a unit that does well with video recording, then the OPPO F7 might disappoint you slightly. For photos, however, this shooter is muy excellente!

Binge-watching Factor – 9/10

Whether it’s watching on Netflix, streaming an HD movie, watching your favorite YouTuber or binging on mounds of animes, the bigger real estate offers a totally new experience on the OPPO F7. The color playback is crazy clear as well – photos do not do it justice – and compared to the previous generations, the F7’s screen is comparable to a lot of higher mid-range to lower-flagship phones in the market. Meaning it’s good. REAL good.

If you’re not feeling the notch, you can opt not to pull the video to fit the entire screen. But to be fair, it’s not as obtrusive as I thought it would be. I was able to watch a bunch of YouTube vids and streamed the whole Doctor Strange on HD with the zoomed-to-fill on and did not get bothered by the supposedly annoying notch. Cool.

As the OPPO F7 rocks a Full HD IPS display, colors are rich and vibrant and you get consistent color tone and clarity regardless of whatever your viewing angle is.

Speakers are decent as well. Not necessarily blaring loud but good enough for one person to hear. Although, personally, I do wish they’d added a little bit more tech there. Sound lacks a bit of character and that’s such a shame considering you have an amazing screen to go by.

Gaming Prowess – 9/10

This wouldn’t be an Ungeek Lifestyle Review if we didn’t test the unit out for gaming. For a mid-ranger, the phone works phenomenally on almost every game we throw at it. Final Fantasy XV held up with nicely with almost zero animation lag. PUBG Mobile played efficiently and I’ve been going crazy with Street Fighter’s Puzzle Fighter for Mobile (nostalgiaaaa!). So far the Media Tek Helio P60 is holding out really well with mobile gaming and with the really wide display real-estate, playing mobile games is more convenient than ever.

Everyday Reliability – 10/10

With how versatile the OPPO F7 is and with a fairly large battery of 3300maH, we can safely say that the unit can last the day before you charge it up again with moderate to slightly heavy usage. Suffice to say if you binge-game it’s going to drain your battery faster, but at least you can clock in an hour or two of continuous gameplay and you should still have more than half of your battery at your disposal.

Despite the screen size, the phone really is just about 5.5” and with a very slim frame, it can fit in your pockets fine. And because the unit isn’t sandwiched between two glass panels, nor is it made of full aluminum, the phone is able to weigh less than its counterparts.

Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict – 9/10

OPPO F7 comes with high recommendations! It’s Flagship-like features and aesthetic is something to truly marvel at and while it has a few flaws and needs a bit of polish here and there, the differences are negligible considering the amazing price point that the phone has. Running just under 18 thousand pesos at PHP 17,990, the OPPO F7 is one of the most competitive releases in the series of smartphones that are launching this season. It’s Ai-capable shooter, 6.23” crystal clear display and strong enough chipset powering through all your daily tasks sets the OPPO F7 as a strong contender for one of the best releases of 2018.