Oppo F29 5G series launched in India a couple of weeks back with a vanilla and Pro model. Out of the two, the Oppo F29 5G starts at Rs 23,999 and even gets some advantages over the Pro model, such as the bigger battery. But is it worth its price tag? We’ll find that out in our review of the Oppo F29 5G.
Design & Display
The Oppo F29 5G design will remind you of the recent Find N5 with a similar looking camera module on the back. The feel of the device though, is decently premium even though it gets a flat plastic frame. There’s fiberglass on the back that feels good in the hand.
The device has heft to it and is comfortable to hold. The buttons feel tactile when clicked. I am not a fan of the Deep Purple shade as it gives the phone a dull appearance but durability is where the Oppo F29 5G is meant to stand out, and it sure does.
The device is IP66 + IP68 + IP69 rated and gets Gorilla Glass 7i protection. Oppo claims the device can withstand 18 everyday liquids such as coffee, milk, tea, soda, water, and more. It is also claimed to have a 360-degree armour body.
In our drop tests and liquid spill tests, the device performed exceptionally well. While the back did get some scratches, there were no major dents or cracks. Even after taking it out of the water, the device performed normally.
Haptics on the other hand are quite poor where the device used the age old vibration motor that rattles more than it vibrates. The stereo speakers on the Oppo F29 5G sounded loud and clear. They do sound a little hollow at higher volumes but the overall quality is acceptable.
Overall, the design of the device looks good except for the Deep Purple shade in our opinion. Durability is the USP of the device and it doesn’t disappoint there.
Coming to the display, the F29 5G sports a 6.7-inch FHD+ (2412 x 1080 pixels) AMOLED panel with up to 120Hz refresh rate, up to 240Hz touch sampling rate, 1200 nits peak brightness, under-display optical fingerprint sensor, and a 394 ppi.
The display looks good in daily use in terms of viewing angles as well as smoothness. The colours look vibrant and it feels responsive to the touch in most scenarios. The bezels are impressively thin and there’s nothing major to complain about in this area except for brightness which can look quite dim in outdoor conditions where the sunlight is harsh.
The optical fingerprint sensor works nicely and detected my fingerprint without any issues. It is also surprisingly quick for an optical sensor.
Software and Performance
The Oppo F29 5G is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 Chipset paired with 8GB LPDDR4x RAM and up to 256GB UFS 3.1 storage.
In daily use, the device performs decently and feels snappy, also likely because it doesn’t have proper App closing and opening animations as such where the apps just zoom into the screen when opened and zoom out and fade when closed.
RAM management is also nice where most apps stay in memory in regular use. The device isn’t meant for gaming and you can’t expect a lot from the device in that segment but casual games work fine without any major lags.
The device runs on ColorOS 15 based on Android 15 and will receive 2 years of OS updates along with 3 years of security patches. Other devices in this segment offer a better software policy such as the Nothing Phone (3a) that offers 3 major OS updates.
Speaking of software, the Oppo F29 5G has a good amount of features on offer but it comes with its own downsides, one of which is the animations I have already mentioned about. The second downside is the amount of bloatware including Hot Apps, Hot Games, about 11 games, etc.
On the positive side, ColorOS 15 does pack some great features such as various Always-on Display styles, Live Alerts pill, fingerprint animations, app lock, private space, app cloner, smart sidebar, Recording summaries, separate Quick Settings and notifications panels, and more.
AI features such as AI Unblur, AI Eraser, AI clarity enhancer, and AI Reflection Remover are included, though their effectiveness varies.
The device was running on February 2025 security patch out of the box. Aside from that, connectivity performance of the handset remained optimal.
Battery backup
The Oppo handset gets a 6500mAh battery with 45W fast wired charging support. This is one of the biggest batteries ever in an Oppo device and for obvious reasons, it performs exceptionally well in regular use. With moderate use, the device can easily last 2 to 3 days.
In my use, including WhatsApp chatting, YouTube streaming, some calling, listening to music, and browsing social media apps and Chrome, the device lasted me around 2 days with about 7 hours of screen-on time. Even with heavy use I couldn’t kill the device in a day. In some usage cycles, the device was touching close to 9 hours of screen-on time which is outstanding.
Charging speeds are capped at 45W and that already isn’t fast enough compared to some other devices in this price range. On top of that, because it’s a huge battery, the device takes more than 1.5 hours to charge from 0 to 100% which isn’t the best speed.
Cameras
The Oppo handset has a 50-megapixel f/1.8 Samsung JN5 primary sensor, plus a 2MP f/2.4 Monochrome sensor on the back. There’s a 16MP f/2.4 front-facing sensor.
Like most other phones, the Oppo F29 5G shoots decent photos in outdoor conditions where there’s plenty of sunlight. While the dynamic range could be better, the colours look quite decent and maintain their natural tone. The shots are well-detailed and have a decent amount of sharpness.
For portraits, you can expect a good output, both in terms of EDGE detection as well as the detailing in the shot. The bokeh effect could look a little unnatural at times but it isn’t a major issue.
Then for selfies, these look soft even in outdoor conditions. The skin tones, however, are handled better than I expected. The background, if too bright, can over-expose at times which could ruin the shot. Edge detection for selfie portraits is also not the best.
As soon as the amount of ambient lighting dips, so does the quality of photos, even in artificial lighting. The photos start to become soft and lose out on detailing. They also begin to show some noise.
In low lighting conditions, the situation becomes worse where the device struggles to focus on the subject and the whole shot looks like an oil painting rather than a photo. When Night mode kicks in, the photo does brighten up and some amount of detail is retained but the shot still doesn’t look appealing by any means.
The device can shoot videos underwater which is a great feature for divers but for those with photography as priority, the Oppo F29 5G may not stand up to your expectations.
