OPPO F5

The F5 is to OPPO what the iPhone X (review) is to Apple. Both the smartphones feature a radical shift in design which will undoubtedly pave the way for future offerings. Now, we’ve already seen countless iterations of bezel-less design on budget smartphones, but fancy marketing videos aside, the design of these smartphones isn’t always executed with the spit and polish you’d otherwise see on a high-end flagship. Unfortunately, the OPPO F5 falls under the same category. From a distance, the F5 appears to be clad in a unibody metal design, however, don’t let that fool you. The smartphone has been constructed out of plastic which gives a lot to be desired once you actually pick up the device. Now, with that said, there are some fringe benefits you get with the plasticky build of the F5. For starters, you won’t have to wipe the back of the smartphone to remove fingerprint stains. Secondly, despite its size, the F5 is feather light which is great for your pockets if you travel a lot since you won’t have to deal with another awkward bulge in your pants (if you know what I mean).

OPPO has been at the forefront of the selfie revolution ever since the brand stepped into the Indian market. From being one of the first brands to offer smartphones which come with a beautify feature to dual-cameras on the front for enhanced selfies, the company has tried its hand at almost everything. This time around, you won’t get two cameras on the front, but OPPO is backing the selfie shooter on the F5 with AI smarts. Now, before we dive into the hows and the whys, let me run some technical numbers by you. The OPPO F5 ships with a 20MP front camera which comes with an aperture of f/2.0. The sensor comes with a dedicated LED flash unit as well and since the smartphone is targeted at selfie-enthusiasts, you’ll get some additional features with the secondary camera which I’ll talk more about in a bit.

Powered by the MediaTek MT6763T octa-core processor which has been paired with 4GB of RAM, the F5 doesn’t take the cake for offering the most cutting-edge specifications available under Rs 20K. Now, let’s get the obvious out of the way first – yes, the smartphone does struggle with intensive titles, and games like Asphalt 8 will require you to tone the graphics settings down to get playable frame rates. However, if you are more of a laid-back gamer then you won’t come across any lag on the smartphone. Even with multiple applications open, the smartphone does not get sluggish and jumping in and out of applications is a smooth experience too. All in all, the OPPO F5 isn’t the fastest smartphone you can buy for under Rs 20K... but then, maybe it won't be wrong to say that you don’t buy an OPPO smartphone for raw performance in the first place.