The OPPO F11 and F11 Pro have for about a month now been two of the hottest mid-range Android smartphones on the market right now. The two smartphones launched a couple of weeks ago at a star-studded event.
We were able to get review units from the OPPO Mobile communication team (thanks!) and we are now pretty excited to pass on our thoughts about what the two smartphones have to offer.
But first, let me talk a bit about the differences between the two smartphones.
Apart from the motorized selfie camera unit on the F11 Pro and the design, the two smartphones share an almost identical technical profile. Therefore, the experience you get from the F11 Pro is at par with the one the F11 offers.
So, let’s get this started.
Inside the box you will find
- The OPPO F11/F11 Pro smartphone
- VOOC fast charger
- Micro-USB Cable
- A pair of earphones
- Silicone smartphone cover
- User Guides
First impressions
Before we get to the first impressions part, let’s talk about what most really care about, the rising camera. Yeah, that’s the feature that makes the F11 Pro a sensation.
The rising camera isn’t a gimmick, it works exactly as it is advertised. It takes less than a second to elevate and an equal amount of time to slide into its slot at that top. This was my first time using a smartphone with a motorized camera, and I’m glad that I liked the experience.
The thing that I liked about the camera is that it has a fine build quality. It’s not the kind that you feel might break after a week of using it but rather a solid component that was designed to be part of the smartphone.
The Pop-up camera is activated by two actions, switching on the selfie/video call function and when using Face ID. You’ll soon get used to using the pop-up camera for taking selfies but the Face ID function will impress you every time.
It’s really remarkable how OPPO was able to
1. Make the camera pop-up
2. Be able to accurately detect your face
3. Be able to do all this in under 2 seconds.
Talking about the accuracy, Face ID works really well and was able to detect my face with or without my glasses on.
The Achilles point of the feature is that due to the lack of a front-facing flash, the Face ID struggles to work in the dark. It’s however, more of a non-issue because not everyone likes having bright light beamed directly onto their faces while in the dark.
So, how does the camera perform in real life?
I’ve had the smartphone for just a couple of days and during that time the shots I have taken are pretty impressive. In fact, all the photos I took for this article were taken by either the F11 Pro or the F11.
The camera part aside, here are some of my thoughts about the OPPO F11 Pro.
The first thing that you will notice after unboxing the F11 Pro is the gorgeous design of the smartphone. OPPO Mobile did a great job with the design of the F11 Pro. The smartphone gives off a premium look and feel despite its midrange price tag.
The build quality of the smartphone is great. I have the Flourite Purple variant and the gradient design makes me smile. The OPPO F11 Pro is in fact one of those few mid-range Android smartphones you will feel proud that you own.
The OPPO F11 Pro is particularly spectacular in this regard due to the panoramic experience the display offers. This was my first time using a full screen/notch less device and its really awesome to have all that screen real estate to yourself.
The display is another great feature of the OPPO F11 Pro. It’s a 6.53 inches HD+ IPS display and the size is perfect for the general browsing of apps esp. Twitter as the size makes it easy to fit in a lot of content in one frame. The display is also great for watching video clips, reading text and most importantly gaming.
I tend to read lot of e-books using my smartphone and I therefore, particularly liked how the display is able to render white text on a dark background. This is only great for your eyes (esp. at night) but also helps to improve on the battery life.
The OPPO F11 Pro doesn’t play when it comes to gaming. I have used the smartphone for about three days now and i must say that I am impressed with the gaming experience that the smartphone offers. We will be throwing more graphic intensive games and application at the F11 Pro and you’ll read our comprehensive F11 Pro gaming experience in our full review.
The other noteworthy bit with the smartphone is the battery life. The OPPO F11 Pro battery performs really well and you can easily squeeze two days from the smartphone while on moderate usage.
That’s not all, the battery supports VOOC fast charging, i was able to charge the OPPO F11 Pro from 6% to 47% in between waking up, showering and heading out in the morning.
Now let’s talk a bit about what I don’t like about the OPPO F11 Pro. It was really hard to spot the pain points of the device, because when you compare what you pay for it and what it offers, the OPPO F11 Pro is worth the investment.
Nevertheless, there are two things that I really didn’t like with the F11 Pro.
The smartphone has a plastic construction. OPPO does a great job making the rear cover look metallic but soon after using it you realize that it is plastic. It’s not a deal breaker, but just disappointing.
It would have been really awesome if OPPO had gone all in and gave the OPPO F11 Pro a full metal and glass treatment.
The other pain point is rather weird and borderline petty. The software is excellent, it’s a point below what you can describe as being flawless. It works just like its suppose to. The software (colorOS) edges closer to iOS and looks less than Android.
The software therefore, isn’t a pain point per se. If you are looking for something stable with no lags/stutters/annoying ads spend your money on the OPPO F11 Pro.
However, if you are the ‘i like fixing what isn’t broken’ kind of person, the software running on the F11 Pro is a near perfect and it’s probable that you won’t find anything that needs fixing.
We will be doing a full review of the smartphone in about a week’s time. Drop your comments below if you have something that you want included in the review.
Kevin is a tech enthusiast and the lead writer at MobiTrends.co.ke. He has been writing about smartphones and tech related topics since October 2012. About Us | Contact Us
