From time to time I like to talk about interesting tech here, especially if it’s stylish & enriches my life in some way. And today I’d like to introduce you to the latest phone I’ve been playing around with, the new OPPO F1 Selfie Expert camera phone.
The Launch
A little while ago I was invited to the grand launch of the OPPO F1 Selfie Expert here in Mumbai. The event saw a huge audience of media & bloggers, from the spheres of both technology & fashion. Sky Li, OPPO Global VP, MD of International Mobile Business and President of OPPO India unveiled the F1 to a very excited crowd; OPPO also took the opportunity to announce it’s global partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The Brand: OPPO
I’ll admit to not being very familiar with the brand OPPO before attending the launch event but while there I got to learn much more about them, their history, growth & operations. OPPO is an electronics manufacturer based in China. It was founded in 2004 with their first product being an MP3 player, although they still manufacture other electronics, they have become globally recognized for their android phones.
As of late 2015, the OPPO brand has been registered in 140 countries and is operating in over 20 markets worldwide. In 2015, OPPO sold around 50 million smartphones globally, up 67% year on year, with over 3,000 researchers involved in developing innovative technologies as well as high quality and iconic products.
Why ‘Selfie Expert?’
In recent years, smartphones have changed the way we interact with tech. With phone cameras advancing in leaps & bounds, the point & shoot camera has become all but redundant. Chase Jarvis famously said ‘The Best Camera is the One that’s With You‘. We carry our smartphones everywhere & this has led to democratisation of photography. Yes, everyone with a smartphone doesn’t become a photographer but a smartphone certainly enables us to document (& if we desire, share) our lives much more easily.
Along with the rise of phone photography, we’ve seen astronomical rise in the word selfie in recent times. Self portraits have been around since the dawn of photography in the 19th century but with phones cameras improving the selfie too has been on the rise. In November 2013, Oxford Dictionary declared Selfie as the Word of the Year & it’s only been increasing in popularity since then. Everyone from actors to models, astronauts to world leaders take them & while some may argue that they are narcissistic & vapid, I think selfies can be a great way to document your day to day life, travels & big moments; overall very life affirming,
I’ve talked about selfies before, & how getting a good one not a given – you need to know basic lighting, angles & of course filters to highlight your best features.
For the OPPO F1 to be called the “Selfie Expert”, it really needs to have an excellent camera & the F1 features a standout 8 MP front-facing camera with a wide f/2.0 aperture lens and a 1/4-inch sensor, a sophisticated Pure Image 2.0+ photography platform offering OPPO’s Beautify 3.0 feature, OPPO’s patented Screen Flash to make snapping selfies in low-light conditions, and can shoot selfies using hand gestures and spoken commands, ensuring stunning selfies in all conditions. It is also 4G enabled to support the best data connections & has a fast processor with 3GB RAM.
The Exterior
They say never judge a book by it’s cover but when I’m looking for a phone, the internal specifications are paramount, but the looks aren’t far behind. I want the phone to have an excellent camera, run all my favorite apps & be quick as hell but I also want it to look good, be a stylish accessory just like my jewellery, bags, watches & shoes – one that I’d be proud to flaunt when I take it out in public to snap a selfie, food pic or #OOTD (Outfit of the Day!) for instagram.
The OPPO F1 features a Premium Metal Body that feels almost velvety to touch. The body of the F1 is made of an exquisite metal alloy, treated with zircon sand surface coating applied in a low-pressure, low-speed spraying process. The result is a lustrous eye catching finish that’s looks & feels lovely. It’s available in two finishes, gold & rose gold (mine is the gold one). The beautiful line band edges definitely add to the look & feel and at just 134gms it feels light but not cheap in your hand.
While my primary phone, being a phablet can feel somewhat uncomfortable to hold with one hand sometimes, the dimensions of the OPPO F1 make it lovely to operate, I feel that it fits perfectly in the palm of my hand!
Being touted as the Selfie Expert, the OPPO F1 comes with beautify 3.0 that brigtens your skin & seamlessly removes blemishes. When I take selfies, I usually have to run it through an filter apps because I love filters that give phone photos a subtle & classy analog-photo type look. And although I talk about body positivity & self love, I have used apps to remove that one nasty zit that just pops up sometimes, I feel that is no different from using makeup, where’s the harm if it makes you feel better about yourself?
I tried taking a selfie with the OPPO F1 & I was stunned at how nice it looked straight out of the camera, with no post processing or edits whatsoever! (you can see it on the left) It had smoothed over some of the lines from my face & made some of the acne less obvious, while making it look like my skin was glowing from within! Beautiful & still quite natural looking in my opinion.
My favorite trick with selfies is to take them in natural light as much as I can (there’s no filter like the sun!) & to always face the light. So I tried standing against the sun, with the light to my back & the lighting, colors & my skin still looked great. When OPPO calls their phone ‘selfie expert’, they aren’t kidding around!
Well, you can’t take all selfies in the daytime & sometimes I like to do them at night when the lighting doesn’t co-operate. Night light is dim, & often at very unflattering angles. And whether I’m using my dslr or a phone camera, I tend to hate flashes as they often create a worse image emphasizing oiliness or just washing out your face completely – which is why I loved the patented screen flash on the OPPO F1. Instead of a tiny little LED flash, when you leave the screen flash setting on it just leaves the whole screen on. The larger surface area of the screen (compared to a flash) & the fact that it isn’t too bright works in your favor. It bathes you in a very natural looking light, ensuring you get the perfect selfies even at night or in low light situations – WIN!
The regular back camera has a 13MP resolution that captures everything in stunning detail with true to life colors – check out the depth of field in this image on the left, also completely unedited.
Conclusion
The OPPO F1 Selfie Expert is a great camera phone with a special focus on taking selfies. Using the Selfie Expert is a foolproof way to get bright & beautiful selfies no matter what the lighting & environmental conditions are!
At the cost of ₹15,999 – if you’re into photography & taking selfies it’s an excellent buy! You can find out more about it on the product page.
The OPPO #F1HotSale begins on the 4th of Feb!
