JOIN USOppo F21 Pro review: Stylish mid-range phone
Last month, Oppo released the two new phones-- F21 Pro LTE and F21 Pro 5G for Rs 22,999 and Rs 26,999, respectively in India. There are minor differences between the two in terms of chipset and front camera. The rest of the features are similar.
DH has received the 4G model of the F21 Pro series and here are our thoughts on Oppo's new mid-range phone.
Design, build quality, and display
Oppo F21 Pro's sunset orange model is an instant eye turner. It is one of the best good-looking phones in its class. It features a faux leather shell on the back and have to say, it is of superior quality. Also, it does a fabulous job of repelling the fingerprint smudges and also offers a great grip for fingers to hold on to the device.
Even the rail around the edges is really sturdy and the flat edge design adds value to the ergonomic design.
Furthermore, the company offers a soft translucent shell cover with the retail box and the screen, which comes incorporated with Corning's Gorilla Glass 5 shield, it is protected by an additional layer of transparent plastic fiber.
With such measures, Oppo has ensured the device will serve the customer longer. It is well protected against the vagaries of day-to-day life such as scratches from a pen or keys kept in the pocket or even protection against major physical damage caused by accidental fall (from a short distance of three-four feet) on a flat surface.
Also, Oppo has taken a leaf out of the Reno7 Pro design book and has added orbit light around the macro lens of the camera on the back. It produces a breathing light effect whenever you get any new notification or when the device is charging.
This comes in handy, if the phone is kept with a display facing down on the table and you receive a mail or message, the second camera lens lights up to signal you to read the message.
Also, the device comes with three dedicated slots two for nano SIMs and another for the microSD card.
On the front, it features a 6.43-inch full HD+ (1080 x 2400p) AMOLED display with a pixel density of 409 ppi (pixels per inch). It has a screen-to-body ratio of 85.3 percent and supports a 90Hz refresh rate, and offers a peak brightness of the 800 nits.
I had a good time watching documentaries on the phone in the morning while commuting on the bus. I need not face any issues such as lack of brightness to read messages or even while browsing the internet, and doom scrolling news feed on social media platforms. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the display quality.
Also, the in-screen fingerprint sensor works fine with less false rejection rate (FRR).
Performance
It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor, which can clock CPU speed up to 2.4Ghz. It is backed by Adreno 610 GPU, Android 12-based ColorOS 12.1, 8GB RAM and 128GB storage (expandable via microSD card).
Furthermore, it supports the RAM expansion feature. With this, the user can bump up the physical memory by another 5GB, meaning the device, which comes with 8GB RAM, can be extended to 13GB. However, the user has to ensure there is enough space in the storage.
This will significantly improve the response time of the device in terms of opening apps, switching apps, and operating the camera and other stuff. During the review period, the F21 Pro was able to perform smoothly without any signs of lag-ness, even while playing games.
Also, Oppo has assured that the F21 Pro will get two years of Android OS updates ( Android 13 and 14 up to 2024) and an additional two years of security software support (up to 2026).
As far as the battery life is concerned, it easily lasts a full day under normal usage. It comes with 4,500mAh and 33W charger along with a retail box. It takes around one hour to fully charge the device from zero to reach 100 per cent capacity.
Photography
It features a triple-camera module--main 64 MP (f/1.7, 26mm (wide), 1/2.0-inch sensor, 0.7µm pixel size, PDAF: Phase Detection Auto Focus) backed by 2MP (f/3.3) 30X microscopic sensor and 2 MP (f/2.4) depth sensor with LED flash.
It takes good pictures in the normal sunny morning and afternoon. I am pretty impressed with colour processing, particularly RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) range. The flowers in the photo have near-accurate colours.
Even in the twilight conditions, the images come off decent. However, in the night mode, the pictures seem to have a lot of noise. But, the normal photos with LED flash on, are nice on par with rival brands in its class.
There is no ultra-wide angle, the normal wide-angle mode photos cover a lot of area in a single frame. Also, the optical zoom works fine too.
On the front, it features a 32 MP sensor (f/2.4, 24mm (wide), 1/2.74-inch sensor, 0.8µm pixel size). It takes pretty nice selfies and there are no complaints at all. It also offers a plethora of superficial filters and tools to enhance facial features such as skin complexion, smoothness, adjust jaw bone, eyes, and even nose too.
The portrait mode on both the front and back camera comes off really great. The images come with a clear demarcation between the subject and the background.
Again, both the front and back camera can also record videos up to 1080p (full HD) at 30 fps, and thanks to gyro-EIS (Electronic Image Stabilisation), the recorded videos were pretty stable even with shaky hands.
Final thoughts
The most impressive thing about the new Oppo phone is the premium fiber-leather cover on the back. It not only offers a premium hand-feel but also does an excellent job of repelling fingerprint smudges.
As performance is concerned, it works smoothly and has no pressing issues to complain about. The camera hardware of the F21 Pro is pretty decent for its asking price.
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