Oppo F11 Pro first impressions: The new 48MP camera phone looks good but is bulky

Oppo F11 has the trendy gradient back panel but is rather heavy to carry around. Read our first impressions of the latest smartphone with 48-megapixel camera.

Oppo F11 Pro comes with 6GB of RAM and 64GB storage. (HT Photo)

Oppo F11 Pro is a new mid-range smartphone with 48-megapixel rear camera. Priced at ₹24,990, the smartphone will go on sale in India on March 15.

Apart from a 48-megapixel camera, highlights of Oppo F11 Pro include a pop-up selfie snapper and premium design. It also comes with a 4,000mAh battery with Vooc ultra-fast charging capabilities.

The smartphone's design is also eye catching with its 'gradient colour' in two options of 'Thunder Black' and 'Aurora Green'. The smartphone adds another choice to users in the mid-range price segment. Here's our first impression of the new Oppo F11 Pro.

Display, design

Starting with the first attractive feature, Oppo has put in efforts on the design and look of the phone. Smartphone brands like Honor, Oppo and Vivo have extensively popularised the gradient colour effect. The F11 Pro is no different. We have the 'Aurora Green' variant of the F11 Pro and the smartphone does look beautiful. Its blue-green effect has a subtle tone to it and doesn't appear tacky.

The power button on the F11 Pro also has this thin green accent which looks pretty. A small detail but it adds to the overall design of the phone. Thanks to the pop-up camera, Oppo F11 Pro has a true edge-to-edge display with no notch or punch-hole camera. Watching videos on the F11 Pro will be a delightful experience with every inch of the screen used.

Oppo F11 Pro features a 6.5-inch display. (HT Photo)

Oppo F11 Pro features a 6.5-inch display. (HT Photo)

Unapologetically heavy

Oppo F11 Pro is pretty heavy. It's 2019 and glass bodies or big batteries can no longer be excuses for the extra weight, especially on a 25k smartphone. The F11 Pro isn't slim either. With phones aiming to be lighter and slimmer, it's surprising the F11 Pro turned out different.

Performance

Performance on the F11 Pro can only be determined after a review of the phone. In terms of specifications, the smartphone comes with MediaTek's Helio P70 chipset paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Oppo's usage of Helio P70 seems questionable considering the Realme 3 priced at ₹8,999 is available with the same chipset.

On the software front, Oppo F11 Pro runs on ColorOS 6.0 based on Android Pie. With the new custom OS, Oppo has finally introduced an app drawer. The animations seem similar to Xiaomi's MIUI 10 especially the brightness and volume bar. ColorOS is however still heavy with multiple pre-installed apps and custom apps too.

Camera

Camera is undoubtedly the highlight of the F11 Pro. Catching on the increasing trend, the F11 Pro also offers a 48-megapixel camera. It also comes with 'ultra night mode' called 'nightscape' for low light photography. I tried out the camera with nightscape turned on. This feature does add extra brightness to photos but it misses out on details.

Oppo F11 Pro features a pop-up selfie camera. (HT Photo)

Oppo F11 Pro features a pop-up selfie camera. (HT Photo)

The pop-up selfie camera is placed at the centre of the phone. Smartphones with this camera mechanism have the pop-up camera on the side. I fiddled with the selfie camera and tried out the portrait mode. It still doesn't get the job right as my hair ended up being blurred along with the background.

Summing up,

Oppo F11 Pro does come with attractive features like its design and the pop-up selfie camera. However phones cheaper than the F11 Pro also offer a 48-megapixel camera and Helio P70 chipset. We can arrive at a better judgement after reviewing the smartphone.