Oppo F1s review: A second take

Display

5.5-inches currently seems to be the sweet spot for a smartphone and Oppo has picked up on that. This is one aspect of the best-selling F1 Plus that has been preserved, however, size is only one part of the equation that makes for a good display. To keep costs down, the Chinese OEM has cut back on both technology and resolution.

The Oppo F1s ditches the superior AMOLED panel of the F1 Plus and relies on a much simpler LCD one, just like the original. While there is nothing wrong about that, the 720p resolution is stretched a little thin on the large area making for a noticeable decrease in quality compared to the original. There is still no pixelation or any noticeable fuzziness unless you look close, but there is a slight bump down in sharpness.

The panel used in the F1s also seems to be pretty close regarding performance to that in the original F1. It gets fairly bright at 420 nits, and the contrast is decent at 933:1. When showing an all black image, there is almost no light bleeding from the backlight either.

So overall, the screen may not be the best one we have seen, but it's still decent with the low resolution being our only serious grudge with it.

The same goes for sunlight legibility.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  4.615
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  4.439
• OnePlus 3
  4.424
• 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
• Vivo Xplay5 Elite
  3.983
• Oppo R7s
  3.964
• Huawei P9 Plus
  3.956
• 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
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016)
  3.817
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  3.816
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) outdoor mode
  3.802
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
  3.789
• Apple iPhone 6s
  3.783
• Meizu Pro 5
  3.781
• Microsoft Lumia 650
  3.772
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  3.756
• Oppo F1 Plus
  3.709
• Vivo X5Pro
  3.706
• Apple iPhone SE
  3.681
• Samsung Galaxy A7
  3.679
• Meizu PRO 6
  3.659
• BlackBerry Priv
  3.645
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  3.53
• Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016)
  3.523
• Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016) outdoor mode
  3.523
• 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
• Sony Xperia X Performance
  3.234
• Motorola Moto X Play
  3.222
• Huawei P9
  3.195
• Lenovo Vibe Shot
  3.113
• Motorola Moto X Force
  3.105
• LG Nexus 5X
  3.092
• Huawei Mate S
  3.073
• Microsoft Lumia 640 XL
  3.065
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  3.023
• Sony Xperia X
  2.989
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.97
• Huawei Mate 8
  2.949
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  2.906
• LG G5
  2.905
• HTC One S
  2.901
• Sony Xperia Z5
  2.876
• Microsoft Lumia 550
  2.851
• Xiaomi Redmi 3 Pro
  2.803
• Sony Xperia Z5 compact
  2.784
• LG V10
  2.744
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  2.735
• Sony Xperia M5
  2.69
• Huawei P9 Lite
  2.679
• Vivo V3Max
  2.659
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  2.641
• Sony Xperia XA
  2.609
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  2.574
• LeEco Le Max 2
  2.567
• Microsoft Lumia 640
  2.563
• Lenovo Moto G4
  2.544
• Oppo F1
  2.528
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  2.525
• Huawei Honor 7 Lite / Honor 5c
  2.506
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  2.503
• Oppo F1s
  2.481
• Motorola Moto G
  2.477
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  2.473
• Huawei G8
  2.471
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Lenovo Vibe K5
  2.459
• Huawei Honor 7
  2.406
• Sony Xperia E5
  2.386
• ZUK Z1 by Lenovo
  2.382
• HTC 10
  2.378
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  2.378
• HTC One E9+
  2.305
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  2.272
• 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
• Xiaomi Mi 4S
  2.095
• Acer Liquid X2
  2.084
• Huawei P8lite
  2.078
• Moto G 3rd gen max manual
  2.026
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  1.996
• Sony Xperia E4g
  1.972
• OnePlus One
  1.961
• Meizu m3 note
  1.923
• BlackBerry Leap
  1.892
• Meizu m2 note
  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
• Jolla Jolla
  1.605
• Motorola Moto E
  1.545
• Sony Xperia M
  1.473
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1.311
• Sony Xperia C
  1.283
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Sony Xperia E
  1.215

Color accuracy is also about average, nothing special or impressive. The average deltaE being around 6.9 with the maximum drifting all the way out to 14.8. Overall, the panel on the F1s is about what you would get out of the original F1, only half an inch bigger in diagonal.

Connectivity

As already mentioned, the Oppo F1s conveniently comes with either one or two separate nano SIM card slots, neither of which gets in the way of the microSD. As for speed, you get Cat. 6 LTE with a theoretical maximum of 300 Mbps downstream and HSPA+. Other Internet connectivity options include Wi-Fi a/b/g/n (150Mbps speed, there's no ac).

Local connectivity includes Bluetooth 4.0, sadly not 4.1. You don't get NFC either, but this seems to be the trend with Oppo's devices. This omission may not be a big deal for you but it means you can't use your phone with a contactless payment solution, so this may or may not be an issue depending where you are coming from.

The microUSB 2.0 port handles charging and data, but it also supports USB OTG so you can hook up external hardware to the phone. However, to use this feature, you need to switch its toggle, which is 'hidden' in the Settings menu.

You do get FM radio as well, as a more old-school source of music and entertainment. However, there is no added functionality here such as RDS, broadcast recording or track recognition.

Battery

If we had to point out one aspect in which the Oppo F1s feels like an upgrade over its predecessors it would have to be the battery capacity (oh and the front-facing camera of course, but more on that later).

The new smartphone offers a 3075 mAh battery (sealed in), which is higher than both what the F1 (2,500 mAh) or the F1 Plus (2,850 mAh) have. Also, if there is a silver lining to using a lower resolution screen and an underclocked processor, battery endurance has to be it.

The Oppo F1s managed a respectable 75-hour endurance rating in our battery test, which is marginally better than what the F1 Plus got. The individual call, web browsing and standby times have all been improved compared to the F1 Plus. Video playback, however, appears to be a bit more power-hungry this time around - likely an issue with optimization.

The F1s behaves better with two active SIM cards as well, so the marginally thicker profile needed to accommodate the bigger battery seems to be well worth it. However, we have to admit we expected the difference compared to the F1 Plus to be somewhat bigger.

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.