Oppo F19 has been launched at a price of Rs 18,999.
The F19 comes with triple camera set-up at the back.
The phone also gets a 6.43-inch display.
Over the past few years, Oppo's been releasing some really nice phones. While the majority of the good work has been on display in the upper end of the mid-range segment, the company has also launched a few interesting devices at the entry level. The latest in the list of these devices is the Oppo F19.
Launched as the third device in the F19 series, this new phone from Oppo offers a big battery and support for some interesting features. There's decent hardware under the hood, and the whole package is being sold by the company at an aggressive price point. Much like its predecessors, the device also offers good build quality. While we've yet to test the device completely to give our definitive say on it, we can, however, give you our initial thoughts about it.
Oppo F19 first impressions: Design and display
So let's start off with the design of the device. The Oppo F19 is made of plastic and glass and that's the first thing you'd note about the device when you unpack and hold it in your palm. While it does feel like a well-designed phone and is also easy on the eye, the glossy-finish totting plastic on the back does not do it too many favours.
The back panel features a simple gradient finish, which only has the Oppo logo — tucked away at the phone's lower-left corner — and the vertically placed black camera island placed on it. The camera set-up protrudes a little, but it shouldn't be an issue for most people. While not upmarket in isolation, all these elements come together to give the phone a classy look. However, that's only till you look at the phone from a distance, the moment you hold it in your hand, the device starts feeling like just another lower mid-range device.
At the front, we have a 6.43-inch AMOLED display that supports up to Full HD+ resolutions but does not offer functionality to run at fast refresh rates. The display also houses a small punch-hole cut-out for housing the device's front camera. The punch-hole is tucked neatly towards the top-right corner of the phone which in my opinion is the best implementation for punch-holes on a panel. The display feels bright and vibrant, even if not the most colour accurate. But that's something we'd report back later in our full review of the device.
While the design — despite its shortcomings — is one of the strong points of the Oppo F19, what it hides under the hood definitely isn't. The phone houses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 662 SoC which has been paired to 6GB RAM and a total of 128GB of storage on our review unit. Although we're happy with the RAM and storage numbers, we can't with confidence say the same for the chipset of the device. The reason for that is the fact that the Snapdragon 662 is not the newest chipset on the block and more than that has previously been seen on much cheaper devices.
Oppo F19 initial impressions: Performance
For now, we've not seen the SoC limiting our interactions with the phone too much, with only occasional stutters stopping us in our way. However, we do expect the chipset to not impress much when it comes to benchmarks. But, we'll like to hold off on that argument for now and talk about the device's performance in depth during our full review of the phone.
As mentioned above, the phone also gets a triple camera set-up with a primary 48-megapixel sensor sat next to a 2-megapixel depth sensor and a 2-megapixel macro shooter. There's also a 16-megapixel selfie camera on the device for clicking selfies. In terms of performance, these lenses mostly perform well. day-time performance of the primary lens is decent with the device capturing detailed shots. The dynamic range of these shots is also acceptable and overall the images come out looking nice and crisp.
There's no wide-angle lens so that's something to make peace with if you like that convenience on your phone. But the depth and the macro sensors on the phone do a decent job, with the macro performance of the device at par with other competing phones. We did find the low light performance of the Oppo F19 to not be very good, with some images coming out noisy and grainy when not clicked under ideal light. The performance of the macro camera also took a hit when images were clicked in low light. The phone does come with a night mode, but it appears to only increase the exposure of the lenses and not actually involve complex AI algorithms much to improve overall detail and quality of low light shots.
Moving on, the battery pack is Oppo F19's biggest strength. The device comes with a 5000mAh battery which also brings support for 33W fast charging. Now that's not the fastest, but it's definitely right up there with the best. Oppo claims this charger can top-up the battery really fast and give the phone enough battery for 5.5 hours of calls in just 5 minutes of charge. We intend to put this claim to test during our detailed review of the device.
Conclusion
The Oppo F19 is the latest smartphone from the company which honestly brings enough to like about it. The design is definitely its strongest point with the display also looking promising at the first glance. We have decent cameras — if only in daylight — and a big battery to make this a compelling offering. The chipset may not be the fastest in the business, but it gets the work done if you're not planning on long gaming sessions. However, it looks like it's the price where Oppo's new proposition could fall apart. At Rs 18,999 it goes up against much more powerful phones that offer a lot more in terms of being a complete package. Will the Oppo F19 be able to take on their might? We'll try and answer that question in our full review of the device.
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Sushant Talwar
Sushant Talwar is a full-time foodie who reviews cool gadgets and binges on TV shows when he is tired of playing video games. He is also in love with football and thinks Manchester United is a religion View Full Profile
