Oppo F3 Plus review: Double take

Telephony

The phone app is simple but functional. The dialer supports smart dial, or you can go into the Contacts tab for a more extensive search. You can block numbers from calling you, a handy way to screen unwanted calls. However, you need to head to the Settings menu for more options.

Dialer and contacts app

You can't switch between the dialer and contacts tabs by swiping left and right. You have to tab the icons on the bottom.

Messaging

The phone comes with a simple Messaging app for SMS and MMS. It supports threaded customization, but that's about it - no themes, and nothing other than the phone number-based blocking that the dialer app uses.

The Messaging app • Writing to TAZ• Attaching multimedia

You can attach multimedia for MMS messages - photos, videos, location, calendar events and so on. Google's Hangouts is pre-installed, if you want something more advanced (like instant messaging). The app can be tasked with your SMS and MMS communications as well.

TouchPal keyboard in portrait and landscape

The default keyboard is "TouchPal for Oppo," which does support themes (there are even two styles of emoji). You can also customize its size (both vertically and horizontally) and change the size of the suggested words. The number row is easy to enable too. Emoji prediction is available if you need help selecting the miniature picture that best describes your thoughts.

TouchPal options

Its a powerful keyboard, but, of course, if it's not to your liking, you can always install a different one.

Loudspeaker

The Oppo F3 Plus has a single bottom-facing loudspeaker to work with. Despite the handset's formidable size and ample room, the speaker doesn't really impress. It only scored an Average rating in our tests.

Pre-installed apps

The Oppo F3 Plus has the complete Google package, but it brings its own alternatives to many of them. We already saw several - the Theme Store, Phone and Messages, time to meet the others.

Security Center, powered by Avast, offers Virus scans, Permission management as well as memory cleanup. Just hit the Quick scan button to see if the app thinks your phone needs a tune-up.

The Security Center • Cleaning up the storage • Encrypting apps • Scanning for viruses

The Calendar looks ripped straight from iOS. It defaults to a nice split-screen interface that shows the days of the month on top and the agenda for the selected day on bottom and is generally fast and functional.

The Calendar app is a carbon copy of the iOS calenda

The Weather app seems similarly Apple-inspired. It pulls data from AccuWeather and manages to fit plenty of information on a single screen. You shouldn't be surprised that the Calculator is as iPhone as can be too.

The Weather app is powered by AccuWeather

Oppo pre-installed the free version of WPS Office. It can create Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files and it offers a nice selection of templates to give you a flying start. Note that some templates are paid, and you'll occasionally see banners for the premium version of the app.

Free WPS Office reminds you there's a paid version • Spreadsheet • Font options• Presentatio

One thing the Oppo F3 Plus has that the iPhone doesn't is a file manager. It organizes files into categories and natively supports ZIPs. The File safe option allows you to lock certain files with a fingerprint/pattern for safe keeping.

There's an option to move files without a cable - the phone creates a Wi-Fi hotspot, and you connect to it over FTP. That's a techy solution that can be cool, but not the easiest to work with - cloud storage integration would have been simpler.

File manager • Encrypting files • All files • Sharing files over FTP

The Backup and Restore app has an extra feature that's not found in its name - it can clone phones, simplifying the transfer from your old device. For backups, it will make a copy of System data, Applications, and Personal data.

The Backup and Restore app can also move your data to a new phone