Oppo F1 Plus review: Selfie-propelled

5.5-inch FullHD AMOLED

We already raved quite a bit about the display on the Oppo F1 Plus and with good reason. It is one of the areas in which the handset definitely shines compared to the basic F1. Not only has the panel become bigger, now at 5.5 inches, but the plain LCD has been swapped for an AMOLED panel. With that comes a due change in the subpixel arrangement to diamond pentile, as our microscope shot reveals.

Our usual tests revealed a maximum brightness of 351 nits, a bit low in absolute terms, but about average for an AMOLED unit. Then again, the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) can produce substantially higher brightness (some 50% more), if need be. Being an AMOLED, the display doesn't light up pixels at all, if they're meant to show black, hence the infinite contrast.

AMOLEDs were long criticized of inaccurate color reproduction, but that's mostly a thing of the past. While the Oppo F1 Plus does give colors a bit of extra punch, its average DeltaE of 5.6 is an okay value. You can't call it properly calibrated (average DeltaE of 3 or less is a good indicator), but it produces truer colors than a Galaxy S7 edge in default mode. In the Samsung flagship's defense, it has multiple color modes, one capable of achieving an average DeltaE of 0.8. Sadly, there are no such modes on the F1 Plus. The IPS panel on the LG G5 posted a DeltaE of 5.6 too, so in a way you could call the F1 Plus' display flagship-grade in color accuracy.

Out in direct sunlight, however, AMOLEDs rule, and the Oppo F1 Plus is no exception. It's clearly legible in bright daylight, but even so Oppo's own R7s does that little bit better in this test.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  4.615
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  4.439
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  4.376
• HTC One A9
  4.274
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  4.241
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  4.124
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  4.09
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  4.019
• OnePlus X
  3.983
• Oppo R7s
  3.964
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  3.918
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  3.895
• Samsung Galaxy J7 outdoor
  3.879
• Samsung Galaxy J2 outdoor
  3.873
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  3.859
• Apple iPhone 6
  3.838
• Microsoft Lumia 950XL
  3.837
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016)
  3.817
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  3.816
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
  3.789
• Apple iPhone 6s
  3.783
• Meizu Pro 5
  3.781
• Microsoft Lumia 650
  3.772
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3.709
• Vivo X5Pro
  3.706
• Apple iPhone SE
  3.681
• Samsung Galaxy A7
  3.679
• BlackBerry Priv
  3.645
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  3.53
• Acer Jade Primo
  3.521
• Microsoft Lumia 950
  3.512
• Oppo R7 Plus
  3.499
• Samsung Galaxy J7
  3.422
• Meizu MX5
  3.416
• Oppo R7
  3.32
• Samsung Galaxy J2
  3.235
• Motorola Moto X Play
  3.222
• Huawei P9
  3.195
• Lenovo Vibe Shot
  3.113
• LG Nexus 5X
  3.092
• Huawei Mate S
  3.073
• Microsoft Lumia 640 XL
  3.065
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  3.023
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.97
• Huawei Mate 8
  2.949
• LG G5
  2.905
• HTC One S
  2.901
• Sony Xperia Z5
  2.876
• Microsoft Lumia 550
  2.851
• Sony Xperia Z5 compact
  2.784
• LG V10
  2.744
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  2.735
• Sony Xperia M5
  2.69
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  2.641
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  2.574
• Microsoft Lumia 640
  2.563
• Oppo F1
  2.528
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  2.525
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  2.503
• Motorola Moto G
  2.477
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  2.473
• Huawei G8
  2.471
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Huawei Honor 7
  2.406
• ZUK Z1 by Lenovo
  2.382
• LG G4
  2.317
• HTC One E9+
  2.305
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  2.272
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  2.254
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  2.253
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
  2.249
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  2.235
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  2.233
• LG Nexus 5
  2.228
• Huawei P8
  2.196
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  2.166
• OnePlus Two
  2.165
• HTC One X
  2.158
• LG Aka
  2.145
• Archos 50 Diamond
  2.134
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2.119
• Huawei P8lite
  2.078
• Moto G 3rd gen max manual
  2.026
• Sony Xperia E4g
  1.972
• OnePlus One
  1.961
• Meizu m2 note
  1.892
• BlackBerry Leap
  1.892
• HTC Butterfly
  1.873
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  1.759
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• Asus Zenfone Selfie
  1.68
• Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen)
  1.675
• ZTE Nubia Z9
  1.659
• Motorola Moto E
  1.545
• Sony Xperia M
  1.473
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1.311
• Sony Xperia C
  1.283
• Meizu MX
  1.221

Oppo F1 Plus battery life

The Oppo F1 Plus is powered by a 2850mAh battery. The capacity is in no way exceptional, but it is a perfectly reasonable fit within a 6.6 mm body. This is only a bit more than the 2500mAh inside the original Oppo F1, but the one true trick that the F1 Plus has learned during the upgrade is the splendid VOOC fast charging feature.

If you are familiar with it, the patented Oppo technology employs a sort of divide and conquer approach to charging. The battery pack itself is sort of split into two, with each part getting its own charging board and power channel. This speeds up charging immensely and as we have found time and time again, VOOC is the most efficient fast charging solution out there (at the cost of requiring a proprietary cable).

A test we don't typically carry out, but figured we might just try on the F1 Plus, charging from completely flat 0% to full 100% took just under an hour (50-60 minutes). While the speed in itself is impressive, what's also good about VOOC is that not once did the phone get warm, as opposed to rival technologies such as Qualcomm's Quick Charge that cause the phone to heat up significantly.

Speaking of actual battery life, the Oppo F1 Plus does pretty well, notably better than the original F1. The F1 Plus can go on playing videos just upwards of 12 hours, perhaps the best aspect of its performance. A bit underwhelming is the mileage when browsing over Wi-Fi - the smartphone dies in a little over 8 hours, some 20 minutes longer than the F1. 21 hours on a 3G voice call is a good number too.

The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.

Connectivity

The Oppo F1 Plus employs the powerful modem bundled with the MediaTek Helio P10 SoC, which offers support for a total of 8 LTE bands. While our review unit lacks Europe's most common FDD LTE band 20 800MHz, the version meant for sale in the EU will actually support that one too, for a total of 9 bands. There is also quad-band GSM support, as well as quad-band 3G with HSDPA.

As already mentioned, the F1 Plus is a Dual-SIM device and can take two nano-SIM cards. The hybrid tray design, however, forces you to choose between the second SIM and a microSD card.

The rest of the wireless connectivity features include dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac support and Wi-Fi Direct. There is also support for Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and GLONASS. Other than that, there is a standard micro USB connector for data exchange, rather than the new USB Type-C standard.

There is also USB OTG functionality thrown in the mix. The phone comes without NFC and an IR blaster.