Oppo has finally launched its Oppo F3 Plus smartphone boasting a dual front camera setup at Rs 30,990. There is another device already available in the market having Dual front camera setup, the Vivo V5 Plus, priced at Rs 27,980, which can give a tough competition to this new entrant (Oppo F3 Plus) in terms of camera capabilities. With common parentage back home in China, let’s put these phones to a sibling rivalry to check who comes out ahead. The Vivo v5 plus could be considered the elder brother here, thanks to its earlier launch. But in tech, does age really help? Lets find out.
Let’s start with Camera capabilities of both the phones:
The Oppo F3 Plus sports a Dual front-facing camera setup which includes a 16-megapixel camera with 1/3 inch sensor, Aperture f/2.0 and an 8-megapixel 120-degree Wide-Angle lens with a 6P lens. The front camera also comes loaded with Beautify 4.0.
If that doesn’t impress you then check the Vivo V5 Plus with its Dual front-facing dual camera and a combination of a 20-megapixel sensor and an 8-megapixel sensor along with Moonlight Glow flash.
Both the phones come with an enhanced depth of field (DOF). DOF, also called focus range or effective focus range is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appears acceptably sharp in an image. Another feature which takes advantage of the dual-front facing camera is the BOKEH effect, it is the aesthetic quality of out-of-focus blur in a photograph. In other words, it helps in focusing on objects in the foreground, while blurring the background.
If we compare the dual front facing cameras for both the phones, Vivo V5 Plus offers 20-megapixel primary front camera, while Oppo F3 Plus offers primary front camera of lesser resolution which is 16-megapixel camera only. As far as secondary front camera is concerned, both offers 8-megapixel sensor, but Oppo has an advantage in terms of clicking 120-degree wide-angle selfies.
For the rear, both smartphones boast a 16-megapixel shooter with LED flash, but Oppo F3 Plus comes with dual PDAF focusing technology, which basically doubles the area of the sensor’s pixel range making it 40 per cent faster for focus speeds.
We have done a hands on review of the Vivo V5 Plus smartphone, so we are in better position to comment on the camera capabilities of this phone, and not the Oppo F3 Plus.
If we consider the overall performance of the dual front camera of Vivo V5 Plus, one can click pretty good selfies if clicked carefully. Moreover, Vivo V5 Plus also comes with Moonlight Glow flash on the front, while the Oppo F3 Plus lacks this feature. The rear camera unit of V5 Plus does perform very well in outdoors in good lighting conditions. However, when it comes to low light photography, it tends to struggle and a fair amount of noise and grain gets in resulting in images with a lot less detail and sharpness. The camera features include Face Beauty, Panorama, HDR, Night, Ultra HD, PPT, Anti-shake, Professional, Slow, Time laps, Fast, Voice Shutter, Touch Capture, Palm, and Timer.
Display
Oppo F3 Plus sports a 6-inch Full HD display with Corning Glass 5 protection and a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, where as V5 Plus features a compact 5.5-inch Full HD (1920×1080 pixels) 2.5d curved glass display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. Here Vivo V5 Plus holds a upper hand because of its compact 5.5-inch screen which make it easier for one hand operation, in comparison to a 6-incher smartphone. Moreover Vivo V5 offers Eye protection mode, which will adjust the screen colour to relieve the visual fatigue. But I must say if some one loves reading, watching movies, videos, playing games, its a more pleasing experience on a bigger screen. Both the phones come with a fingerprint scanner .
Processor, Storage, Memory, Operating system
The Oppo F3 Plus is powered by an 1.95 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 Processor along with Adreno 510, where as Vivo V5 Plus comes equipped with a 2.0GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor with Adreno 506 GPU. Here Oppo F3 Plus wins the case for having faster processor. However, based on our review findings with the Vivo V5 Plus, we didn’t find any flaws in it. The performance is smooth and can handle heavy tasks with ease. Further, we didn’t find have any problem playing heavy games like Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger 2 on the V5 Plus.
In terms of RAM and internal storage, both the phone stand level with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage. Moreover, the Oppo F3 Plus has an option to expand the storage up to 256GB, whereas V5 Plus doesn’t have a microSD card slot, which can be a deal breaker for those who carry loads of data such as music, movies etc. all on the microSD card.
Both the devices run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system. Both have their own customised skin UI, so depending on your preferences, you might like the Vivo Funtouch 3.0 OS with its Apple-inspired feel or Oppo’s ColorUI 3.0 which is an altogether different experience.
Battery and Connectivity
The Vivo V5 Plus gets its strength from a 3160 mAh Li-Polymer non-removable battery with Fast charging support. On the other hand, Oppo F5 Plus is backed up by a 4,000mAh non-removable battery along company’s in-house VOOC Flash Charge, which is around 26% more battery capacity than Vivo V5 Plus and can last much longer.
On the connectivity front, both the devices come with Dual SIM Slots (hybrid Dual-SIM in case of Oppo), 4G with VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.1, A-GPS, GLONASS, with Google Maps, Wifi-802.11 b/g/n, and Wi-Fi hotspot.
The Oppo F3 Plus measures 163.63 x 80.8 x 7.35mm and weighs about 185 grams, whereas V5 Plus 153.8 x 75.5 x 7.55 mm and weighs 156 grams an advantage one would have expected, going by its smaller screen and battery.
Wrapping up
Both the phones offer pretty good specifications for someone looking at a phone for around Rs 30,000. Both smartphones have individual weaknesses and strengths in terms of features and specifications. If we compare the camera specs sheet Vivo V5 has a primary front camera of higher resolution and also comes with Moonlight Glow flash on the front. Moreover, V5 Plus has a compact 5.5-inch screen which make it easier for one hand operation, but its a more pleasing experience watching movies, video, playing games on a bigger screen. On the other hand, Oppo F3 Plus has a better processor, option to expand the storage, and bigger 4,000mAh battery, dual PDAF focusing technology etc.
Although the Oppo F3 Plus is approx Rs 3K higher in price, purely on specs, I would prefer the Oppo F3 Plus due to its bigger battery, better processor, option to expand the storage, advantage in terms of clicking 120-degree wide-angle selfies etc. Of course, with a poor record on Android version updates, both these phones might cause some angst, if you are the type to obsess over the latest of everything.