A few months after the launch of the OPPO F7, the company has now released the OPPO F9 which features upgrades from the predecessor and of course, this smartphone still has a focus on selfies and also its VOOC fast charging which can give 2 hours of talk time with 5-minute charging. Want to know more about it? Check out our review of the OPPO F9 below.

Design and construction

If you’re an OPPO user, you would immediately feel that the OPPO F9 is unmistakably an OPPO smartphone because of its same feel of the OPPO F7 when you hold it. But don’t worry, it isn’t a bad thing as the smartphone does feel light and it fits fine in my hand.

We can still see the rounded sides of the OPPO F9 along with the plastic back that looks like glass from a distance. Well, it isn’t the best material that can be used for a mid-range smartphone but it does feel fine when I’m using it.

The one that we got for review is the sunrise red color and it does look really catchy to the eye. There’s a diamond-patterned back too which can be seen depending on the angle that you’re holding the smartphone but in case you’ll be getting the other colors, there’s a different pattern for the other colors.

The OPPO F9 still comes with a Micro USB port which is a little bit disappointing as most smartphones these days even at mid-range are now utilizing USB Type-C. But again, the smartphone does support VOOC Flash Charge which lets you charge the smartphone really fast.

The speaker of the smartphone is just what I expected it to be, it’s just fine and the quality of the speaker is just average and thankfully, we still have a headphone jack on this smartphone. I hope OPPO will never remove that in their F series smartphones. There’s a triple card tray too in case the 64GB storage isn’t enough for you and you want to use two sim card slots.

Display

If a smartphone would have a notch, I think OPPO has the best-notched display on a mid-range smartphone that is available in the market. They call it the waterdrop display which only covers a tiny part on the top of the display and yet, it manages to have a camera and also an earpiece at the top of the smartphone.

There’s a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display on the OPPO F9 and it has a 90.8% screen-to-body ratio with 19.5:9 aspect ratio. That’s really great especially for a mid-range smartphone. In my usage, I never really had problems with the notch of the smartphone as it only blocks a really tiny part of it compared to other notches on smartphones.

When it comes to display, the OPPO F9 does a great job and if I’ve been using this smartphone even at direct sunlight and the colors were really fine on this smartphone. The viewing angles are pretty good too and I really don’t have any problems with it.

Battery Life

Aside from the VOOC flash charge of the smartphone, there are a pretty large 3500mAH battery inside. However, if you want to utilize the VOOC flash charge of the smartphone then you better use the included cable and charger of the smartphone since other fast charging tech doesn’t work on the OPPO F9. And the VOOC Flash charge? it really works as the smartphone can charge really fast.

In PC Mark, we got a score of 8 hours and 13 minutes which is pretty good for its hardware and battery. In my usage, the smartphone would last up to a day most of the time however if you’re a heavy gamer then you better bring a power bank with you most of the time.

Software and performance

The OPPO F9 uses ColorOS 5.2 based on Android 8.1. The software is smooth and it is better than ever. The small changes including smoother and better transitions add to the eye candy of the smartphone. In case you’re worried about the security of the smartphone, the OPPO F9 still comes with a fingerprint scanner at the back which is pretty fast and also face unlock that works well and fast.

The smartphone comes with Oroaming too which gives you the best rates for roaming but I have to try that one yet when I’m outside the country. There’s an application called Game Space which basically optimizes the games by allocating resources and also improving the game performance. The best part? Your games will not be interrupted when someone is calling in selected applications

When it comes to benchmarks, it has almost similar scores to the previous generation. Check out the scores that we got using the OPPO F9.

On the gaming side, the OPPO F9 can pretty much handle most games. Check out the GameBench scores that we got using the smartphone.

PUBG Mobile – HD/High Framerate/Enable AA

 It’s clearly seen in this one that the smartphone was only able to run the game at 30fps as it was limited by the game only to high framerate settings. Nonetheless, the FPS stability of the smartphone is at 97%. Expect framedrops at heavy scenes

Real Racing 3

In Real Racing 3, the game was able to have a media FPS of 57fps which is just fine and the FPS stability is at 96%

Asphalt 9

Playing Asphalt 9 on the OPPO F9 is noticeably unstable. The FPS stability is only at 59% and you can easily notice the frame drops but you can still play the game with its median of 22fps.

You can check out the GameBench Benchmarking app at (https://www.gamebench.net)

You can also download the app at the Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gamebench.metricscollector)

Camera

Some of you might say that the hardware of the smartphone didn’t have too many changes well, the camera of the OPPO F9 has definitely improve over the previous generation. It’s a big relief that the OPPO F9 now sports a dual lens rear camera which is a first in the F series. It really helps in bringing out the depth of the photo on portrait mode.

Most of the shots that we took using the smartphone were pretty cool. Pretty good dynamic range and the colors were fine on the smartphone. Take a look at our sample shots using the smartphone:

Verdict

The OPPO F9 is definitely an upgrade from the previous generation but it’s not a big leap unlike before. The processing power inside the smartphone is still powerful despite being used in the OPPO F7. The camera on both the rear and the selfie of the smartphone has definitely improved.

It’s an upgrade from the OPPO F7 and if you want to have a selfie smartphone then the OPPO F9 is definitely a smartphone brand that you should take a look at.

The OPPO F9 is now available for Php17,990.