Elegant yet affordable Oppo F1 is a ‘selfie expert’

Imagine never having to take bad selfies again, courtesy of your very own styling team which you can take with you wherever you go.

This is the promise of Oppo’s F1, the global electronics and technology service provider’s latest camera phone which had its Philippine launch last Wednesday at Trinoma mall in Quezon City.

“We pride ourselves as being innovative. We offer quality in terms of our phones,” Garrick Hung, Oppo operations manager, told Inquirer.net.

“We called [Oppo F1] the ‘selfie expert’ primarily (because) we offer an 8-megapixel camera, which could not be found in other brands, and we gave it a very good price, which is very affordable for the consumer,” he said.

F1 has been dubbed the “selfie expert,” boasting 8 megapixels, an 84 degree-wide angle camera lens with f/2.0 aperture, and a ¼-inch sensor that allows 40 percent more light to enter the camera than an f/2.4 aperture lens. That’s just for the front camera.

Endorsed by popular singer-actress Sarah Geronimo, it also comes with the feature Beauty 3.0+ and eight various filters that brighten the skin and remove blemishes, and a display that can double as a flash in low-light environments.

The rear camera, for its part, has a 13-megapixel sensor, f/2.2 aperture lens, Pure Image 2.0+, and other features to fit the user’s photo needs.

Apart from its robust camera features, F1 runs on octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 SoC processor with four cores at 1.7 GHz and four cores at 1.2 GHz, Adreno 204 GPU, and 3 GB RAM that carries Oppo’s ColorOS 2.1 based on Android 5.1.

The first in Oppo’s new camera-focused F series, the F1 is designed with the elegant aesthetic and quality that has become the brand’s staple, according to a statement released by the company.

“Both the camera’s hardware and software work together as if the Oppo F1 has a built-in styling team that will glam the user up in no time,” the Oppo statement said.

Oppo F1 comes in two colors, gold and rose gold, offering not only style but also durability as its “zircon and sand blasting create a back cover that has a velvet-like softness despite being made of metal,” while its 5-inch HD screen is protected by a 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass coating and aluminum housing.

It has a height of 143.5 mm, width of 71 mm, thickness of 7.25 mm, and weighs only 134 grams.

With a 16 GB storage that is expandable to 128 GB, battery capacity of 2,500 mAh, IPS TFT display, and HD resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, the dual SIM card (micro and nano) Oppo F1 retails at P11,990 in concept stores and authorized dealers nationwide.

“We offer very good quality and a premium product for the consumer,” said Hung.

Brand partnerships

As a brand, Oppo has teamed up with various organizations in the country, such as the Philippine Basketball Association, which has proudly announced the company’s title sponsorship of this year’s Commissioner’s Cup.

“It’s important to partner with a company that goes with the ideals of PBA as well as of sports,” Chot Reyes, former Gilas Pilipinas coach and current head of TV5’s Digital5, said during the launch.

Oppo has also again partnered with global consumer-finance provider Home Credit. From Feb. 19 to March 31, buyers without credit cards can purchase the F1 for as low as P1,299 every month for six months at 0 percent interest rate. The promo is available in 245 partner stores nationwide.

F1 will also be available under Smart Communications’ All-in Plan 1200, which is consumable and customizable with FlexiBundles. For prepaid users, each unit comes with a SIM that for six months will offer 50 MB worth of data every month and P150 credit for every P250 accumulated top up per month.

Oppo’s Neo 5s, meanwhile, will be available under Sun Cellular’s Best Value Plan 450, which includes unlimited Sun calls and texts, 250 MB of data and 250 texts to other networks.

“A lot of people are not using their phones in the old conventional way, which is texting and phone calls. Nowadays a lot of users go to the data network, connect to the Internet, (and) use social media platforms. Their way of connecting to people is through pictures, either a selfie, a groupie, or an ordinary shot of what they’re having for dinner, and their day-to-day experiences,” said Hung.

“Given that, it’s important for us to be able to offer a product that can help capture those memories because those (take just) a second. If they have a good camera phone they can get the best shot, they can upload it, they can (easily) share the best memories they have with people.”