Oppo created its F-series of phones with an emphasis on making impressive front-facing cameras. That trend looks to continue with the latest addition to the family, the F1s.
Oppo boldly claims the F1s is a “selfie expert,” with the phone rocking a beefy 16-megapixel wide-angle camera up front with f/2.0 aperture for those darker environments. The phone does try to make selfies look better by illuminating the screen when in such environments, which partially makes up for the lack of front-facing LED flash. Furthermore, Beautify 4.0 turns those unsightly pimples into smooth skin by including everything from skin tone modes to various beautify levels.
The main camera is not too shabby, either, with the F1s packing a 13MP rear shooter with f/2.2 aperture and LED flash. Oppo vaguely claims the main camera works alongside “an industry-leading imaging chip,” though we mainly chalk that up to PR talk that translates to something that will help the F1s take decent images during the day and at night.
Elsewhere, the F1s features a 5.5-inch, 1,280 x 720p resolution IPS display protected by Gorilla Glass 4, with a home button below it that doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Oppo takes advantage of the sensor by allowing users to quickly jump into a specific application, depending on what finger they use to unlock the F1s. The fingerprint sensor also becomes more sensitive and accurate the more you use it, something Google similarly claims with the Nexus 5X and 6P.
Under the hood, an octa-core MediaTek MT6750 chipset and 3GB RAM power the F1s, with a non-removable 3,075mAh battery keeping the lights on. You do get 32GB of built-in storage out of the box, which is great, and it can be expanded by up to 128GB through the MicroSD card slot, which is even better. Not so great is the software, with the F1s running Oppo’s ColorOS 3.0 above the aging Android 5.1 Lollipop.
Overall, at least on paper, the F1s is a decent mid-range Android phone that selfie lovers will enjoy. Unfortunately, they better live somewhere in Asia because the phone was only announced for India so far. The F1s will likely make it to other regions, given its attractive $270 price tag, but it is doubtful the phone will be directly sold in the U.S.
