OPPO released early this year the F11 Pro, which touts a true full-screen display thanks to its pop-up front camera design. This innovative design is something that you would normally see in flagship and high-end smartphone, but lo and behold, the OPPO F11 Pro is actually a midrange device with a sub-P20,000 price tag.
We put to test the OPPO F11 Pro to see what other features it has to offer beyond its fresh display and front camera configuration. Is it really the bang-for-buck smartphone we think it is? Read on to find out
Design & Construction
There’s no mistaking it: the OPPO F11 Pro looks so gorgeous and sexy with its slightly curved back, notch-free, bezel-less screen, and gradient, glossy finish. This handset comes in sophisticated Aurora Green and Thunder Black color; we got the Thunder Black for our review unit. Despite its plastic build, you can mistake the F11 Pro for a high-end flagship device mainly thanks to its attractive form factor. The metal frame adds to the premiumness of the handset.
The F11 Pro is huge phone compared to most: 161.3mm in height, 76.1mm in width, and 8.8mm thick. Despite that, it’s quite easy to hold with one hand; navigating on the screen though require both hands if you have small ones. Other than that the unit feels grippy in general, considering it has a glossy finish. It also feels solid, mainly thanks to its 190g weight. However, like most phones, the glossy back is prone to fingerprint smudges so you better make it a habit to wipe your device to keep it clean all the time. Or, perhaps, just slap on some hard or jelly case on it.
All you see in the front is the huge screen of the F11 Pro. At the back, you’ll find the rear cameras and LED flash as well as the oval-shaped finger print sensor, “designed by OPPO” markings, and the OPPO logo. All these elements are aligned vertically across the rear center.
The top part of the handset houses the front camera, noise-canceling microphone, and ambient light sensor. The motorized front camera only pops out when you activate the selfie mode in your preferred camera app. The 3.5mm audio jack, microUSB port, and loudspeaker sit on the bottom of the device. Meanwhile, the right side features the power button and the card slot. The card tray features two slot—one for a SIM while the other one can be used for either a second SIM or a microSD card for storage expansion. The volume rocker can be accessed on the left side. If it were up to us, we’d like to see all the buttons on one side. However, it’s not really a big issue in the long run as it simply requires familiarity with the device. A plus, all the buttons are clicks and quite responsive.
Display & Multimedia
One of the stars of the show is the 6.5-inch full screen display—no notch and very minimal bezel. This feat is largely thanks to the new front camera format that OPPO used in the F11 Pro (we’ll talk about this in the next section).
The TFT-LPS screen is a viewing wonder with its 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution and 397ppi pixel density. Watching your favorite movies and series on the F11 Pro is truly a delight. The colors are vivid and vibrant. It can come over saturated and contrasted to some, but it’s definitely a great display for enjoyable watching and playing games. The large screen estate with 90.95 screen-to-body ratio gives you bigger pictures, too. For games, the large screen means bigger space to play and easier control of the gameplay.
The texts are crisp and clear, and the icons have good graphic quality. Viewing angles are great as well even under direct harsh sunlight—just make sure that your brightness is turned all the way up.
Audio-wise, the F11 Pro produce loud clear sound through the speaker at the bottom of the device. There’s no Dolby support though for those who are looking.
Camera
The OPPO F11 Pro comes equipped with a dual rear camera system—a 48MP F1.79 main sensor and a 5MP F2.4 depth sensor—placed vertically on the top center area at the back. Powered by AI, the rear camera has a 12MP default setting. But you can adjust it to 48MP to give you that more detailed images.
The rear shooter also offers features such as Ultra-clear Engine, Ultra Night Mode, Dazzle Color Mode, and various image filters. We particularly liked the Dazzle Color Mode as it perfectly enhances the vibrancy of the photos once it’s turned on. The leaves are greener, the sky is bluer, and everything is more saturated without going over the top. The Ultra Night Mode works great as well. You can really see how the photos improved when it is turned and used in low light scenarios. Take note, however, that most of these modes and features are not available when you’re at the 48MP settings.
Of course, the other star feature on the F11 Pro is the hidden 16MP front camera with F2.0 aperture, which pops up only when needed and prompted. It comes out pretty quick, too. We’ve tried to push the camera back down manually (not by switching to rear shooting mode in the camera app), and it works and did not cause any problem after. However, don’t make this a habit as it can be damaging to the motor in the long run. The front camera boasts a Beautification mode that magically fixes any imperfections on your face upon taking a self-portrait. However, the Portrait mode of the front cam can look a little too processed and unnatural at times. This can be minimize by making sure that there is enough distance between your face, the camera, and the background.
In terms of video recording, the rear snappers can record up to 1080p, while the front clocks at 720p maximum. We’ve only tried the rear shooter for the video, but it impressed us with the result. The images are vivid and clear, and with proper handling the video did not come out shaky at all. An in-image stabilizer would be a welcome addition, still.
Sample Photos
Performance
Running on ColorOS 6, which is based on Android 9 Pie, the OPPO F11 Pro offers a clean interface and fast execution of tasks and apps. OPPO slaps in a lot of convenient features and apps to make user experience easier and more seamless.
Under the hood, the MediaTek processor, along with the 900MHz ARM Mali-G72 MP3 GPU and the huge 6GB RAM, powers this device effortlessly. Switching and launching programs are a breeze, while running graphics-intensive games and apps doesn’t show any lags or signs of slowing down. Below are the synthetic benchmark results:
Antutu -149190
Geekbench – 1561 (Single Core), 5891 (Multi-core)
3D Mark Slingshot Extreme Open GL ES 3.1 – 1287, (Vulcan) – 1267
PCMark Work 2.0 – 8011 Work 2.0 battery life – 6hr 33min
The 4000mAh battery capacity provides ample power all-day long and then some. If you’re relegated to just using basic apps for messaging, light browsing and social media, music, and camera, you can maximize the F11 Pro’s battery around 20-22 hours. Playing games and streaming content can make a huge dent to your battery power, but all in reasonable amount. One whole day of constant playing and watching videos lasted for 8 to 10 hours. We find OPPO’s Game Space feature helpful in managing the phone’s performance during the game. The F11 Pro also features the all new and improved VOOC Flash Charge 3.0, which only required a little over an hour to fully charge the device from 20%.
The F11 Pro comes with 64GB built-in storage, and generally, it’s more than enough to store your photos and files. There will still be enough space to install your favorite mobile apps and games. You can expand it up to 256GB still via microSD if that’s not enough for you.
For connectivity, this OPPO device supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, A-GPS-GLONASS, Beidou, and OTG. There’s no NFC connectivity, though. The F11 Pro comes with these sensors: E-Compass, Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, and G-Sensor (Acceleration sensor), among others. The fingerprint scanner is quick and accurate; the face unlock works pretty great most of the time.
Verdict
There are a lot of things we like about the OPPO F11 Pro. Up front it has a premium, beautiful looks largely thanks to its full screen display and gradient finish. The display gives quality images and huge real estate to move around. Its performance is smooth and generally lag-free, even in demanding apps and tasks. The battery lasts long with the added bonus of the fast-charging feature. The front camera has innovative design and takes great selfies all in all; the rear shooter produces high quality images thanks to its high-spec sensors and cool camera software features. Is it worth your P18,990? We’d say yes, especially if you’re particular with the looks of your phone.
