OPPO F11
Good Battery, Display at Sensible Price
WWith an aim to take on the mid-segment smartphones, Chinese phone maker Oppo has unveiled a new smartphone F11, alongside the F11 Pro back in March this year. Though the craze for the “Pro” version of the device was high among the millennial as it sports a pop-up selfie camera feature, the new F11 comes with a dewdrop notch. Priced at Rs 17,990, the device also features VOOC 3.0 flash charge and 48MP + 5MP dual rear camera setup. It is available in two colour variants — fluorite purple and marble green. We have got the 4GB+128GB variant of the device in fluorite purple colour for this review. Let’s find out whether the “F11” will too woo the audience or not.
To begin with, the Oppo F11 is encased in a glossy curved plastic shell that makes the device look sturdy but size wise, using the device with a single hand can be a little tricky. You will find the selfie camera on the dewdrop notch. A headphone jack, micro USB port and the speaker are placed at its base. The dual camera setup and a fingerprint sensor with bold gold edging along with the branding in matching the colour are placed on its back. The combination of purple and gold colour looks catchy and trendy. However, the back panel is so shiny that you may need to clean fingerprints and smudges from time to time. Although the case may help in keeping the device neat and smudge free, then again it will make the device look heavier. The power button is placed on the right edge whereas the hybrid dual SIM slot with volume keys on the left.
Display
The device sports a 6.53-inch LCD screen with 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The 2340 x 1080 screen resolution makes the display look beautiful. On our use, colours fared quite well. The screen is good for watching movies and playing games as well as web browsing, messaging etc. It has a bigger display than the screens on the Apple iphone XS Max and Huawei P30 Pro. And with this, it’s actually viable to use split-screen viewing for different apps. It has a dewdrop notch that is near to a full-screen design. The side bezels are narrow, while the bottom chin is thicker compared to the other sides. But, the surface of the screen also picks up fingerprints rather quickly. For navigation, the F11 supports full-screen gestures. You can remove the navigation bar from the bottom of the display and swipe up to go home, swipe up from the sides to take you one screen back.
Camera
The smartphone comes with 48MP + 5MP dual rear camera setup, similar to the one found on the F11 Pro. A secondary cam is only a depth-sensing unit whose only function is to create a more realistic background
blur when shooting in Portrait mode. The pictures clicked in the broad daylight were good with enough details. However, the picture clicked in the low light condition was okay. Also, the Night mode gave us decent shots. The 16MP front-facing camera seemed to be pretty cool as it offered beautiful selfies. It also shoots excellent video at up to 1080p. You will also find features to edit your pictures on the main camera application.
Performance
The device is powered by a Mediatek Helio P70 processor which functions up to 2.1 GHZ clock speed in optimum levels. This phone can run the latest games at medium to high graphics settings without stuttering often or even getting too hot to hold after extended periods of gameplay. We did not found any lag while watching videos on Youtube videos or playing games. We also played PUBG to test the smartphone’s performance and found it be smooth. On the storage front, the device with 4GB RAM and 128GB internal storage worked well for us. It comes with Coloros 6.0 based on Android 9.0 Pie. The face unlock as well the fingerprint sensor worked pretty well.
Battery
The smartphone with 4,020mah battery was quite impressive, as considering other specifications; it offers a good battery unit. The device lasted more than a day on rigorous use that included 3G connectivity, browsing social media, clicking pictures, video streaming and light games. The F11 supports the VOOC 3.0 standard and comes with a 20-watt fast charger that OPPO claims can fill the battery to 50 per cent capacity in just 30 minutes. Our testing found that to be the case, while a full charge around took an hour and a half.
Conclusion
The phone is a little bulky but it also has many pros too. In the mid segment range, Oppo F11 has tough competition from brands such as Realme, Xiaomi, Vivo etc. However, with good battery backup, camera and big touchscreen display, the device can be a good option for buyers as we think the price of the device is packaged wisely. ■