It took a while for Oppo to bring out their Oppo F11 successor which was launched last year and they begin 2020 with the F15 launch. There is no word yet on if Oppo F15 Pro will make a way out but with the launch of F15, Oppo has at least reiterated their focus on their F series. The Oppo F15 can be termed as a modest upgrade over its predecessor in terms of looks, camera and addition of in-display fingerprint sensor. In India, the Oppo F15 is priced at Rs 19,990 for the 8GB variant, the only variant right now available. In this Oppo F15 review, let’s find what Oppo has manged to squeeze in this upgrade.
What is in the Oppo F15 box:
- The F15 phone
- User manuals
- Sim ejector pin
- Soft back case
- VOOC 3.0 power adapter
- USB Type C cable
- Earphone
Oppo F15 Design – the highlight
When I unboxed the phone – I immediately liked the looks. If looks can sell, the Oppo F15 will sell tons. It comes in two colour variants – ‘Unicorn White’ colour and a ‘Lightning’ Black. Without a second thought the white variant if my choice and that is what I have for the review. Second thing, that I liked about the F15 is its form factor. The recent waves of Smartphones are heavier and thicker but measuring 7.9mm in thickness and weighing 172g, the Oppo F15 is lighter on hands. Thanks to its 20:9 aspect ratio, the tall boy design has a narrow waistline, making it again easy to hold.
While the industry trend is towards the glass, the Oppo F15 has a plastic back but flaunts a glass finish. The gradient finish of the unicorn white is a delight. The rear has the vertically arranged quad-camera flanked by an LED flash and oppo branding below. The sides are gently sloped towards the edges.
The bottom has the 3.5mm audio port, mic, USB Type-C port and the speaker.
The top like the bottom has a dimpled curve in the middle and houses a noise-cancelling mic.
The right side has the power button, while the left side has the volume buttons and the SIM tray. It houses a triple slot that can accommodate 2 SIMs and a dedicated memory card. The phone supports dual VoLTE with dual standby.
Oppo F15 Display
- 6.4 inches AMOLED display
- 1080 x 2400 pixels
- 85.5% screen-to-body ratio
- Corning Gorilla Glass 5
- 430 nits brightness
- 20:9 aspect ratio
The F15 has a beautiful AMOLED display, the colours are vivid and sharp. Even reading under direct sunlight is not a problem. The display settings have screen colour temperature modes to shift between cooler, default and warmer. Eye care mode is also available in the settings. You may have to wait till Color OS 7 releases probably to get the dark mode which is not available now. There is also a anti-flicker toggle. There is no always-on display option.
Oppo F15 – Color OS
Oppo has already announced the Color OS 7 and is being beta tested in some of the phone models. Out of the box though, the Oppo F15 comes with Color OS 6.2 based on Android 9.
Talking about the features, there is a one-hand mode toggle in the quick access settings, there are also kids space, driving mode, focus mode, and grayscale mode. Ya, the screen turns to grayscale when you toggle it on. The OS also provides gesture navigation and also to change the back and menu button positioning. There are quick access features like an assistive ball and smart sidebar to access certain apps or settings on the go quickly. For those who love gesture actions, there is screen-off gestures, double-tap to wake, music control gestures etc. Three-finger screenshots, raise to turn on the screen, smart call options complete the smart gesture and motion actions. Digital wellbeing and parental controls bring some order to the time spent on the phone.
There are many pre-installed apps and bloatware but fortunately, most of the third-party apps can be uninstalled if you like.
Oppo F15 Performance, Gaming
Oppo has for whatever reason decided to stick with the Mediatek Helio P70 that powered the last year’s F11. This is kind of baffling for me. While it is not a bad SoC and in fact, Mediatek came back to reckoning with this capable chipset along with its sibling P60, much water has flown down the bridge since then in the processor side. That the phone comes with only an 8GB variant with 128GB storage is a bit of solace. It uses UFS 2.1 standard storage.
The Oppo F15 is only available in one configuration, which is 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The latter uses the UFS 2.1 standard, which is good. It also stacks the bells and whistles standard sensors including gyroscope. For a phone targetted at the offline market, the lack of FM might be a dampener for some. There is OTG support, in case you want to transfer files via pen drives.
The in-display fingerprint sensor is very fast and accurate, the face recognition is quicker too when there is enough light. App lock and a private safe ensure your apps stay away from prying eyes.
Talking about the performance, as a normal daily driver there should be no reason to complain but considering the chipset, the industry is constantly upgrading with new SoC making way with powerful internals, the Helio P70 is now underwhelming for this price segment. You can play games, can play PUBG in mid-graphic settings but Oppo could have added more fire to the belly to the F15.
Oppo F15 Battery life
Equipped with a 4000 mAh battery and a VOOC 3.0 fast charging support, the Oppo F15 offers a good battery life. I could sail through a full day on good mixed-use. Charging is pretty fast too, with 30 mins pumping up 47 percent and hits around 88% in an hour. It takes about 1 hour 20 minutes for 0-100%.
Oppo F15 Camera
- 48 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, PDAF
- 8 MP, f/2.3, 13mm (ultrawide), 1/4.0″, 1.12µm
- 2 MP B/W, f/2.4, 1/5.0″, 1.75µm
- 2 MP, f/2.4, 1/5.0″, 1.75µm, depth sensor
- Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), 1/3.1″, 1.0µm
One of the bigger upgrades over the F11 is on the camera front. A quad-camera setup at the rear has a 48MP as the primary sensor, the front camera touts a 16MP. The primary camera shoots 12-megapixel pictures by default with pixel binding but strangely there is no option to choose the 48-megapixel resolution. The camera UI is similar to the other Oppo phones. There is a night mode, timelapse, slo-mo and pro mode.
On good lighting conditions, the pictures come very well. The soft bokeh effect comes out good. The colours are well-produced. The main camera brings out enough detailing in the images.
You can also toggle up the wide-angle camera and then go up close for macro photography.
Coming to the portrait mode, you can adjust the level of blur before taking a snap. The portrait mode worked decently well, the edge detection is pretty good too. In the comparison below, you would notice the non-portrait picture more colourful and brighter. The portrait mode tends to be slightly overexposed.
Again with selfie, I prefered the non-portrait one which was richer in colours. Overall the selfies come out pleasingly well.
You can shoot up to 1080p, there is no 4K video support. EIS works on primary camera but not on wide-angle camera videos. The front camera also supports 1080p video but without stabilization.
Oppo F15 Review Verdict – The Plus and Minus
Oppo F15 dazzles with its good looks, its a modest upgrade over the F11 in terms of looks and camera.
What works for Oppo F15:
- Beautiful back especially the unicorn white variant.
- Lightweight and ergonomic form factor
- Good AMOLED display
- Decent camera optics
What disappoints in Oppo F15:
- Underwhelming processor
