TekITnGo: OPPO F11 Pro Review

The OPPO F11 Pro is one of the latest phones from the major Chinese smartphone manufacturer and it was released around May this year. It is squarely aimed to conquer that upper midrange segment of the smartphone market where it promises some unique features.

In this TekITnGo video, Martin Githinji reviews the OPPO F11 Pro reviews the smartphone where he takes a dive on what the smartphone offers to a potential buyer.

He mentions such things as the unique, almost bezel free display, the cool pop up camera that is now shipping in phones like this, performance of the primary 48MP camera, the  striking design of the phone, the software on top of Android that it ships with and the sort of battery life you should expect with the smartphone.

As a small recap, the OPPO F11 Pro offers quite a lot of phone for the price. There is a 6.53 inch full HD+ (2340 x 1080p) display, has 6 GB of RAM, either 64 GB or 128GB of internal storage, it is powered by the octacore Mediatek P70 processor, has a 16MP pop up selfie camera, a dual 48MP + 5MP primary camera system and a massive 4000mAh battery to power the thing. It also has the crazy fast VOOC fast charging technology which we have seen in a number of OPPO phones.

Is the OPPO F11 Pro the phone of choice for you? Well sure check out the TekITnGo review of the OPPO F11 and comment whether it is your dream phone or it fits your style.

Written Review 

Here is the written review by Kenn Abuya

OPPO is a household name in the Kenyan market right now. The smartphone manufacturer started selling its devices locally a couple of years ago, and over time, it has grown its turf, especially for customers who need devices that punch above their selling price with extra features such as solid industrial design and excellent camera performance. OPPO’s F series has always excelled in these areas, and has upped the game further with the recently launched F11 Pro that costs KES 40,000.

Right out of the box, the F11 Pro will wow any kind of a user: its display is a looker and uninterrupted by screen cutouts or punch-hole selfie cameras as is the case with a million other phones in the market, it is beautifully built with appealing colours (our unit is painted Aurora Green) and has more subtle design choices that you can only appreciate over time, such as well-positioned buttons and a polished software experience.

It, however, fails in one aspect: it still has a microUSB port for charging and data transfer in a market where USB-C is the norm. Fortunately, this is a setback that is eclipsed by the fact that many people still use micro-USB, and OPPO’s implementation pairs it with a proprietary cable and large power brick that juices up the device really fast.

To this end, this review examines four features that make the F11 Pro a go-to smartphone for OPPO fans, and anyone who has KES 40,000 for a pocket computer, but cannot decide which device to pick: the display, camera performance, battery (supported by VOOC 3.0 charging) and software under the ColorOS 6 skin and Android 9 Pie.

Excellent all-screen display

Currently, there is no phone in the local market with a full, uninterrupted display besides the F11 Pro. The likes of the Galaxy S10 have a punch-hole selfie camera, and OPPO avoided this route by motorizing the front snapper in a popup mechanism. This makes the experience as immersive as they come, save for a thin chin that could have been smaller. Either way, the experience is unmatched, and exhibits what a futuristic phone should look like. We are big fans of this approach, and kudos to the OPPO team for making this a reality for the midrange segment.

With near 91 percent of screen to body ratio, we can also add that display does a fantastic job shedding off the bezels. The display itself measures a large 6.53 inches with a resolution of 2340 by 1080 (FullHD+). While AMOLED screens are superior in terms of punchiness and colour reproduction, the LCD panel on the F11 Pro gets the job done: it is large and shows excellent qualities overall with appealing colours, good viewing angles and great brightness when used in brightly lit surroundings.

You can tune colours to your tastes in the settings too. Generally speaking, this is a fantastic display for multimedia consumption and gains additional bragging rights because there isn’t any like in the local market.

Cameras: A pixel-packed 48 MP sensor + 5MP depth lens, 16MP pop-up selfie snapper

You cannot deny the OPPO F11 Pro is special device thanks to its cameras. The system is unique in its class owing to some eye-catching features, and sheer number of megapixel count for one of its rear sensors at 48 MP that is augmented by a 5 MP depth sensor.

We have extensively talked about the 16 MP f/2.0 selfie camera in previous posts. It is as futuristic as they come because it resides inside the body of the phone. This way, OPPO managed to make the display as clean as possible. And the way it rolls out of the slot is exciting, to say the least.

That aside, both cameras can shoot portrait shots, which should be appealing for folks who want their selfies to exude some flair and class. The portrait images are very good for the price, which is something you cannot say about pictures snapped by similarly priced phones.

Furthermore, the cameras are equipped a with scene-recognition mode that adjusts camera settings to take better images based on the subject or environment. The feature is commonly referred to as AI recognition, so your food, pets, sunsets and vegetation look better without toying with camera settings. People who know their way around camera settings should be happy too because OPPO has thrown in a Pro mode.

Both Sony and Samsung make 48 MP camera sensor with a f/1.79 lens are a trend in 2019. The sensor is even used in high-end devices such as the Honor View 20, and has trickled down to budget offerings such as the Redmi Note 7 Pro.

So how does it work? Well, OPPO’s camera software combines four adjacent pixels into one in what is referred to as pixel binning, resulting in 12 MP images that are very sharp and rich in colours and minimal noise. The other 5 MP sensor kicks in to supplement images with depth data when shooting pictures with blurred backgrounds.

How about the image quality of snapped images? Well, the 48 MP camera does a terrific job, and after the sensor and software do their thing, the resulting images are, as mentioned, in 12 MP resolution. Shots captured during the day or brightly-lit conditions are excellent, to say the least. They packed to the brim with detail, ooze high dynamic range with accurate colour reproduction and great processing.

Here are some samples we captured.

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Before I conclude this section, some of you may ask if they can capture true 48 MP images, and that is a valid question. The short answer is yes, but the end results are not drastically different from the 12 MP shots. Users can save 48 MP images, but the F11 Pro’s chipset is not powerful enough to handle the processing, so the saved images are just up-scaled 12 MP shots.

While other device manufacturers include a flash for the front camera for those bar selfies, the F11 Pro does not come with one due to space constraints. The 16 MP pop-up selfie camera does not have autofocus too, but the results are splendid as pictures have sufficient detail with great colours too.

Software

While OPPO is yet to update some of itsdevices from the past to the latest version of Android available, the F11 Pro ships with Android 9 Pie and ColorOS 6 skin. This is a good move because the Android 9 Pie has a lot of features that customers will find very useful. From the aesthetic point of view, OPPO’s software is good as they come. It may be different from what new users have become accustomed to, but there is no major learning curve for new users.

For the first time, ColorOS 6 has an app drawer, bringing it close to stock Android. It splashes a lot of colours across the interface, and icons are uniform for those who love consistency.

The software is also equipped with AI capabilities that freeze apps in background instead of killing them. Users can choose which apps can be frozen, and the software will intelligently learn user habits over time to improve their experience.

As usual, OPPO’s fingerprint sensors are fast and 100 percent accurate. Face unlock is equally fast, although the front camera takes a sec to pop out of its slot. Furthermore, and this is my personal favourite, users can lock their sensitive apps without looking for a third-party app.

Adventurous users can theme their experience too. Those who have different social media accounts can close social apps for their different catfishing or business profiles. Lastly, ColorOS 6 has a Game Space that allows game play without notifications streaming in for an uninterrupted experience.

Battery performance and VOOC 3.0

OPPO F11 Pro’s battery is massive at 4000 mAh. It is supported the company proprietary fast-charging technology known as VOOC 3.0. The custom solution requires a large 20W power brick and a thick custom microUSB cable, which can be limiting if a user loses the cable.

You can get 40% of battery from an empty tank in 30 minutes, which is quite impressive for such a big battery. Full charge is achieved in one and half hours.

Battery performance overall is excellent. Frugal users can easily squeeze two days out of it, a rarity in current times. This is a battery champ, and I would have loved to show you some statistics from the battery settings, but OPPO’s software does not show that metric for some reasons.

Summary and final thoughts

Without a doubt, OPPO F11 Pro is an excellent phone for the price. It might not pack the most high-end silicon like more expensive hones, but it makes up for the its stellar design, terrific camera and excellent battery life with super-fast charging. The edge-to-edge display is a winner, and so is the pop-up selfie camera. What’s more, the software has seen some growth, and it even ships with Android 9 Pie out of the box. If I were to be real about the cons, then I would say lack of 4K video recording and USB-C are missteps, but those are issues people can easily live with. In the end, the F11 Pro makes a good case for itself, and we can easily recommend it for purchase.