Oppo F3 Plus review: Double take

Conclusion

The Oppo F3 Plus is an interesting take on the ever-popular "upper midranger" formula. A cool one, in fact. A capable Snapdragon 653 chipset is backed by a generous helping of RAM and storage, at 4GB and 64GB respectively. Solid imaging experience is one of the highlights too, courtesy of a 16MP, OIS-enabled, Dual Pixel camera.

There are more than enough standout features for a mid-ranger, but Oppo decided to also spice things up a bit and justify the "Selfie Expert" tagline with a secondary selfie camera. Now the two front snappers lack autofocus, so we aren't quite sure it's as good as the claims from the vivo V5 Plus, but they aim to achieve different things anyway.

Yet, adding so much character has also pushed the price up a bit and the F3 Plus faces some serious competition. Does it do enough to justify a second look?

Oppo F3 Plus key test findings

• Premium materials and build quality, but design is a little played out and color options are limited. The finish feels good and doesn't gather fingerprints easily. The new antenna line design is a nice little accent.
• The standard navigation scheme with a trio of buttons still works well. The home key is not an actual button. We like that the fingerprint sensor is of the Always on type but it's not quite as fast as previous Oppo handsets.
• The 6-inch display has isn't exceptionally bright, nor does it offer impressive contrast. It does okay on both accounts though and sunlight legibility is fine too.
• The F3 Plus 4,000 mAh battery delivers 79 hours of endurance, which is decent, considering the large LCD panel and 28nm chipset. VOOC fast charging delivers stellar charging speeds and all the VOOC hardware is included in the box.
• The UI is heavily inspired by Apple's iOS, especially noticeable in some Oppo apps (calendar, gallery, etc.); plenty of duplicate apps preinstalled; ColorOS 3.0 is still based on Android Marshmallow, which is nearly two years old now.
• The Snapdragon 653 delivers good performance. Combined with 4GB of RAM, there is ample headroom for multitasking. The Adreno 510 is a bit lacking in raw graphical performance, but is still perfectly suited for most loads.
• The single bottom-facing loudspeaker only scored an Average mark in our loudness test.
• Audio quality is loud and clear with an external amplifier and decent when using headphones.
• The still camera is quite impressive; great panorama, OIS is a nice addition. Dual Pixel technology makes for really snappy and accurate autofocus.
• Camera app lacks polish and is generally poorly organized. There are no settings for photo resolution and no to disable EIS.
• Selfies are rich in detail. The dual camera implementation is simple and straight-forward. Results are pretty consistent between the two snappers. There are no added features, like selective focus. Steer clear of Beauty mode and its filters.
• 2160p videos are good if you ignore the compression artifacts; The 1080p videos have a noticeably narrower FoV and rather mediocre detail level.

Value seems to be the questionable piece of this equation. Even in Oppo's own ranks, there is the R9s, which costs about as much as the F3 Plus, while potentially offering a more universally appealing feature set. For one, there is an AMOLED panel adorning the otherwise similar body. You get the same 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, alongside an excellent 16MP main camera.

Gone is the fancy dual selfie setup and the Snapdragon 653 gives way for a slower, yet highly power-efficient 14nm Snapdragon 625. Good news is, despite the downgrade the R9s is still capable of capturing video in 4K@30fps.

Oppo F3 Plus • Oppo R9s Plus

And if size is a major priority and the 5.5-inch diagonal of the R9s just doesn't cut it, there is the R9 Plus. With its 6-inch AMOLED panel, equally big 4,000 mAh battery and identical Snapdragon 653 chipset. It lacks a second selfie cam, so you have to decide what is more important to you before picking between those two.

A different take on the dual selfie camera, the vivo V5 Plus brings selective focus (and autofocus in general), but no wide-angle selfies. It comes with a smaller 5.5-inch panel and Snapdragon 625 chipset, though.

vivo V5 Plus

If selfies matter, but you don't necessarily want two front cameras, you can also consider the Sony Xperia XA Ultra. Its 16MP, f/2.0, 1/2.6", OIS front camera, complete with autofocus and an LED flash can really take your selfie game to the next level. The newer XA1 Ultra as well. It offers an even better overall hardware package, but that is also reflected in the price tag.

Sony Xperia XA Ultra • Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra

You could also easily source a phablet with a decent selfie from Samsung, if you are willing to stretch your budget a little. The Galaxy A7 (2017) is a prime candidate with a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED panel, Exynos 7880 Octa chipset, 16 MP, f/1.9 main camera and even an IP68 rating on the metal unibody.

Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)

There's no shortage of alternatives out there, but none of them can beat the Oppo F3 Plus across the board. The imposing Oppo flagship has plenty going for it, and while we'd certainly appreciate if the Selfie expert tag was backed by autofocus, we still think it's a purchase many will be perfectly happy with.