Oppo F1 Plus review

The Oppo F1 Plus doesn't look out of place next to the latest high-end releases, but it is a great deal cheaper at £300. It has a big battery, a solid display, and plenty of storage and RAM.

It also boasts a great selfie cam and it even has a speedy fingerprint sensor. The physical design is undeniably derivative, but it's also slick, stylish, and expensive-looking.

The big question is whether you're willing to make concessions on the processor and the operating system. But we're not talking about major concessions here. Overall, this is a very nice phone for the money.

We liked

That curvy, slim, metallic body is nice to handle and it looks great. There are no issues with the build quality here, despite the low price and weight. Oppo clearly knows what it's doing on the design front.

I'm not a big selfie fan, but that 16MP front-facing camera is sure to tempt some people. The main camera is also pretty respectable and I was pleased with some of the shots it captured with the default settings.

Everything has to be framed by the price tag. If money was no object I'd say buy a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, because it's a much better phone, but the Oppo F1 Plus has a lot to offer for £300. It may not excel in any area, but it's a good all-rounder.

We disliked

It's always better to have the latest version of Android, especially if you want the latest convenient features and security updates, but I can live with 5.1 Lollipop. The real problem is Oppo's UI. Color OS 3.0 may be an improvement on previous iterations, but it still feels immature and unintuitive to me.

At the end of the day it's a phone. Calls are arguably becoming less and less important, but I still want to be able to make them without any problems. For call quality, the Oppo F1 Plus was a disappointment.

The processor in here is not cutting edge. You may argue that Oppo has to cut costs somewhere, but the Xiaomi Mi5 is also £300 (around US$450, AU$515) and it has the superior Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 inside.

Verdict

If you're willing to stray off the beaten track, you can get a little more for your money with the Oppo F1 Plus. Anyone who covets an iPhone 6S Plus, but doesn't want to spend that kind of money should seriously consider this.

It's probably the most premium-looking phone in this price bracket, though you can certainly find more powerful handsets without spending more.

The Oppo F1 Plus isn't going to set the world alight, but it's a decent phone for the money. The question is: are you willing to sacrifice a little substance for your style?

First reviewed: June 2016