Oppo F5 long-term review

Design, build quality, handling

Looks are always a subjective assessment, but we do think the Oppo F5 is rather pretty. The company has turned creating eye-catching mid-range devices into a habit, and that's probably a big contributing factor to its success. The double glass sandwich trend that's taken the flagship world by storm hasn't yet made it to more affordably priced handsets, and that's just fine.

Less so is the fact that while the F5 goes out of its way to convince you it's got a metal unibody construction, it's actually made from plastic designed to look like metal. That's a baffling decision in a world where most, if not all of the handset's direct competitors do actually come with aluminum builds. The F5 even has fake (and shiny) antenna bands to further cement the metal illusion in your mind (or those of the people who see you're rocking this smartphone).

More shiny bits are the edges of the fingerprint scanner and the camera, as well as the part where the sides meet the front glass. That's the location of another shiny line that nicely integrates into the whole design language. Speaking of that, it's a very consistent look, and its main attribute is how premium it makes the F5 seem. From afar, at least, because upon closer inspection you might realize the deception Oppo was going for.

The F5 does some things better than its competitors when it comes to handling. The way its frame sharply curves on the sides massively aids in creating a sturdy feeling in the hand and alleviates any slipperiness. This is a phone that won't instill you with the fear of dropping it every single time you pick it up.

The phone's build quality is top notch. It feels very solid and is a joy to handle. It appears slimmer than it is because of the design of its sides. The front seems to be resting on top of the metal-imitating plastic, which 'ends' around one mm or so before you'd expect it to. The front fascia is also shorter and less wide than the polycarbonate part, and that contributes to the overall perception of thinness.

Oppo F5 in official shots

The buttons are easy to identify and operate, especially since the power and volume keys are on different sides of the device and not crowding up one of them. All in all, we think you'll be happy with the F5's design, if you can get past the fact that it's desperately trying to pose as something it isn't.

Display

The Oppo F5 comes with a 6-inch tall 18:9 LCD panel of 2,160x1,080 pixel resolution. That's fine for the price point and in day to day use it never feels like it's lacking in sharpness. Its corners are rounded and that is just one of the many aspects of the phone that make it feel more expensive than it actually is. We're not here to debate how useful literally cutting the corners is, but a lot of premium devices have this look and the F5 wants to appear as if it's a part of that club.

We found the screen to be mostly good, but it does have some weak points. First and foremost, sunlight legibility isn't great, even if you amp the brightness all the way up. This is probably one of the ways in which Oppo managed to build the F5 at that price, but it's something to keep in mind if you live in a place that gets loads of sun all the time.

It's not impossible to read what's on the screen when you're out and about in bright sunlight, but it's not fun either. Also note that when held in portrait orientation, you won't see anything on the display if you're wearing polarized sunglasses. If you don't want to take them off, you'll need to use the F5 in landscape mode.

The colors are vibrant enough and while the temperature is set in such a way that whites are too bluish, it's not as extreme an effect as we've seen on other phones, especially mid-rangers from the competition. People seem to prefer whites that are more bluish than they should be anyway, so it's unlikely you'll have a problem with this unless you can't stand a screen that isn't properly calibrated.

The bezels are slim, but not too slim so holding the phone while watching a video feels okay. On the color versions with a white front, Oppo is employing the old trick. The bezels seem ever so slightly smaller than they actually are when the screen is off. If you look closely when it's on, you'll notice that the white bezels are complemented by some additional black bezel space all-round.

This tricks your eyes into believing that they're actually a mm or so trimmer than they really are. It would probably have been a controversial move on a flagship smartphone, but since the F5 isn't that we'll just file it in the 'odd quirks' category.

The screen does, however, quickly become a fingerprint-coated mess. We assume this means there's either no oleophobic coating whatsoever, or if it's there it's weaker than what we're used to in this day and age. Long story short: be prepared to wipe the F5's display much more often than you would other devices. Unless, that is, you're into the oily fingerprinty look, in which case you'll be very happy.

Camera

A lot of Oppo's marketing for its devices is about the cameras, so we were anxious to see the kind of shots the F5 would deliver when used day in and day out. It's clearly not up there with the best of the bunch, but we weren't expecting it to be anyway. In the end this is a reasonably priced smartphone and as such it doesn't have access to the best camera hardware available.

That's not a problem, though, because not everyone looks at images produced by a phone with a critical eye. Some people just want to capture decent enough shots that they can confidently share on social media, or look at a few years in the future when they're feeling nostalgic.

We're happy to report that the Oppo F5 delivers on this front. Again, its cameras' output won't win any awards, but they do generally produce pleasing images. What's more, the camera app is faster than what we've seen on some competing offerings - it starts up fast and captures images fast. No complaints there.

As for the quality of pictures it produces, take a look at our newly shot assortment of samples. Everything looks decent in broad daylight of course, with reasonable noise levels and rather accurate colors. There's some good detail in there, but if you pixel peep you will notice some corner softness.

Oppo F5 daytime photos

At night, noise levels go up, detail levels go down, and depending on how much light there is around your subject you may get passable shots, quite unusable ones, and everything in between. Focusing becomes a struggle sometimes when you're in low-light situations, and you might get some overexposed pictures as well.

Oppo F5 night-time photos

Selfies come out OK, but nothing more. You can use the built-in beautification mode if you're feeling especially pimply and it will make your face smoother, though less natural-looking.

Oppo F5 selfies in varying light conditions