OPPO F17 PRO: Hot pick in the mid-range segment

Smooth, slick and super-fast— words that best describe the mobile devices from Oppo’s hugely popular F series. Before the pandemic, we had reviewed the F15 device that impressed us with its design and overall performance. Cut to present. The device maker has introduced F17 Pro, the latest addition to its F series. The new model is said to be one of the sleekest phones and comes with a host of new features on the camera side. Let us take a look at what’s new in the phone and how it performs.

Basically, we are looking at two devices in the F17 series: F17 Pro comes in 8+128GB configuration and is available in three colours (Magic Blue, Matte Black, and Metallic) for Rs 22,990. The other device is F17 that comes in two variants of 6GB+128GB and 8GB+128GB and is priced attractively at Rs 17,990 and Rs 19,990 respectively.

Our trial unit was the Magic Blue F17 Pro that packs an ultra-sleek body (7.48mm thickness) and weigh just 164g making it the sleekest phones around. Trust me, you’ll be amazed by the comfortable and smooth in-hand feel of the device, you can easily slide it into your jeans pocket or it can be tucked into the purse with ease without causing any bulge.

Oppo F17 Pro sports a 6.43-inch Full HD+, Super AMOLED screen with a large 90.7% screen-to-body ratio to offer a good viewing experience. The display uses Mini Dual-Punch Holes that boast the industry’s smallest camera diameter of only 3.7mm to ensure that the screen’s real estate is maximised to fully enjoy video games and intricate details in every shot. The screen also features In-Display Fingerprint Unlock 3.0, which can rapidly unlock a screen in 0.3 seconds.

Inside, we are looking at a powerful MediaTek Helio P95 AI chipset that boasts 8-cores with a CPU frequency as high as 2.2Ghz. It also comes with 2 ARM Cortex-A75 Prime Cores operating at upto 2.2GHz and 6 ARM Crotex-A55 Efficiency Cores that can operate at upto 2.0GHZ. The device also features an 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage, which can be further extended up to 256GB through a 3-Card Slot. The phone packs a large 4000mAh battery along with OPPO’s proprietary 30W VOOC Flash Charge 4.0 technology. With only a 5-minute charge, users can enjoy four hours of talk time with the F17 Pro. Users can also enjoy a 74% charge in just 30 minutes with the F17 Pro and full charge in just 53 minutes.

With a suite of six AI portrait cameras, the F17 Pro packs a camera powerhouse with easy-to-use portrait photography and video stabilisation features. The phone is designed to offer a powerful combination of AI cameras including a 48MP wide-angle quad-camera setup on the rear, and Dual Depth cameras in the front that together offers better clarity and quality to pictures.

The Dual Lens Bokeh leverages both the second 2MP depth camera and the 16MP main Front camera paired with software level image processing to create a more accurate and precise bokeh effect.

Powered by all-new AI algorithms, F17 Pro introduces AI Super Clear Portrait, a portrait photography feature that captures clearer facial details with AI facial reconstruction technology. It even empowers the users to take the best low-light portraits; the device features an AI Night Flare Portrait that combines bokeh effect and lowlight-HDR algorithms to capture artistic portraits even in low-light.

Plain-speak, we were impressed by the F17 Pro a lot. It certainly delivers in everything the company has promised. It has an ultra-sleek body, good camera performance, an envious display, great speaker audio quality, high-end processing power, and reasonably good battery life with crazy-fast charging. Certainly a hot pick in the mid-range segment.

SPECIFICATIONS
Display: 6.43-inch Full HD+, Super AMOLED screen
Processor: MediaTek Helio P95 AI chipset
Operating system: Android 10
Memory & storage: 8GB RAM, 128GB storage
Camera: 48MP + 8MP + 2MP + 2MP (rear), 16MP + 2MP front camera
Battery: 4000mAh, 30W VOOC Flash Charge 4.0
Estimated street price: Rs 22,990