Oppo’s dual selfie camera feature now comes to the sub-Rs. 20,000 price segment with the Oppo F3. We reviewed the F3 Plus (Review) back in March, which apart from being a good smartphone, had a practical use case for the secondary front camera, a feature we really appreciated.
The company has now brought that same camera setup to a more affordable price segment, and in essence, this model replaces the ageing Oppo F1s (Review). In order to achieve price point, Oppo has made a few compromises in the materials used for the chassis, the rear camera, and the processor under the hood. Let’s see if the new Oppo F3 can still deliver good value despite these reductions.
We found the brightness of the display on the Oppo F3 to be sufficient for outdoor use, and colours don’t get jarring like they did on the F3 Plus. The display is fairly sharp thanks to the full-HD resolution, and can resist damage thanks to the use of Corning Gorilla Glass 5. We didn’t have any issues with touch response either. The audio socket, Micro-USB port, and speaker grille are all on the bottom.
Overall, the Oppo F3 doesn’t disappoint in terms of build quality and aesthetics. It looks and feels very much like the Oppo F1s, which can be a good thing if you liked that design. In the box, you get a 10W power adapter, a data cable, a headset, a silicone case, a SIM ejector tool, and the instruction manuals.
Oppo F3 specifications and features
We understand that Oppo had to cut corners in order to bring down the price of this phone, but the choice of SoC is slightly disappointing. The F3 is stuck with an octa-core MediaTek MT6750T SoC, which is a mild refresh of the MT6750 seen on the Oppo F1s. From what we can tell, it only has a higher GPU clock speed. In benchmarks, the F3 produces decent numbers. We got 53,023 points in AnTutu but GFXbench resulted in just 17fps during a run of the T-Rex test.
We understand that Oppo had to cut corners in order to bring down the price of this phone, but the choice of SoC is slightly disappointing. The F3 is stuck with an octa-core MediaTek MT6750T SoC, which is a mild refresh of the MT6750 seen on the Oppo F1s. From what we can tell, it only has a higher GPU clock speed. In benchmarks, the F3 produces decent numbers. We got 53,023 points in AnTutu but GFXbench resulted in just 17fps during a run of the T-Rex test.
The phone also has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, which is plenty for today's apps and games. Other specifications include Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, USB-OTG, GPS, a proximity sensor, a compass, and a gyroscope. There’s also support for 4G with VoLTE, but this phone lacks FM radio.
The Oppo F3 still uses ColorOS 3.0, based on Android 6 Marshmallow. The interface has a strong likeness to iOS, which is noticeable in some of the icons for system apps. Pulling down the notification shade only shows you quick settings toggle switches, and you have to swipe right to get to your notifications, which can be annoying. The fingerprint sensor works well and you can lock apps and files with it. Certain apps like WhatsApp can be cloned so you can have a second instance running for your second SIM card.
There are some on-screen and screen-off gestures to aid in single-handed use and let you open apps when the phone is in standby. Oppo also has its lockscreen magazine, which when enabled, cycles through different wallpapers. O-Cloud is for backing up your contacts and messages, and there's a custom app store for curated apps. Other preloaded apps include Google’s suite, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, and WPS Office.
Oppo F3 performance, camera, and battery life
Despite the slightly dated SoC, there isn’t any noticeable lag in the interface. The Oppo F3 handles multitasking pretty well too. The phones gets a bit warm while gaming or watching videos for an extended period of time, but not to the extent that usage is hampered. Button feedback and placement is good and we didn’t have any issues with call quality either. There is a notification LED, placed next to the front cameras, but it’s only triggered for missed calls and messages, not WhatsApp or other apps. The volume level for alerts is good but the placement of the speaker isn’t ideal, and your palms tend to block it when gaming or watching videos in landscape mode.
Despite the slightly dated SoC, there isn’t any noticeable lag in the interface. The Oppo F3 handles multitasking pretty well too. The phones gets a bit warm while gaming or watching videos for an extended period of time, but not to the extent that usage is hampered. Button feedback and placement is good and we didn’t have any issues with call quality either. There is a notification LED, placed next to the front cameras, but it’s only triggered for missed calls and messages, not WhatsApp or other apps. The volume level for alerts is good but the placement of the speaker isn’t ideal, and your palms tend to block it when gaming or watching videos in landscape mode.
Full-HD videos play just fine and we didn’t have any trouble with our high-bitrate files. There is a sound enhancement feature built into the OS called Real Sound Technology, which is jointly developed by Oppo and Dirac Research. The effect isn’t very significant when using the bundled headset, but can be felt better with more capable headphones.
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