Achieve Your Selfie Goals With OPPO F5 Youth

The Oppo F5 Youth is Oppo’s new entry to the “bezelless” or “fullview” design that was all the rage in 2017. As the little brother of the Oppo F5, the F5 Youth has similar design and features in a more budget friendly package.

It’s fun to see how Oppo has evolved from back in the day from what it was starting to open doors to the Philippine market as well as the rest of Southeast Asia.

Hardware

The first thing that strikes anybody when you first use a smartphone is of course, the design. As one of Oppo’s first full screen phones, the F5 Youth is definitely a looker and a head turner. The full screen 6” Inch Full HD 1080p display is the first thing that grabs you.

At the 2160*1080 resolution, the 18:9 display can show more content than your traditional 16:9 display found in most phones. Of course as a midrange phone, it comes with its caveats. The IPS LCD screen is adequate, but by no means comparable to more expensive competitors or flagships.

It’s adequate for watching video, great for web browsing and for non-intensive games. The colors are I would say good but not great. It’s still an enjoyable display to watch your content on and more and more apps are supporting the 18:9 resolution which the Oppo F5 Youth has.

The rest of the unibody design is made out of plastic, but don’t get me wrong, it feels great in the hands. While it may not feel as “premium” as the metal or glass back phones that are the trend lately, the advantage of the material is that it doesn’t feel like it will break easily if it ever falls (knocks on wood).

On the front lies the 16 Mp “A.I Beauty” f/2.0 Front Camera which capture’s Oppo’s signature selfies. On the back of the F5 Youth lies the 13mp Rear Camera shooter which is supports many modes we will go more into detail below. On the back is also the Fingerprint scanner which is very fast, accurate and very easy to use.

Below is the micro USB port (no Type C here) and a headphone jack which will please people who want to charge and play music at the same time. The Volume and Power Buttons are found on the sides of the phone and are adequately clicky and easy to access. No surprises there.

Under the hood is a Mediatek MT6763T Octa-core Processor with 3 Gigabytes of ram, a 3200mah battery that lasts you the day and 32gb internal storage with an option to expand it with a microSD.

Software

The Oppo F5 Youth runs the latest version of Oppo’s Color OS 3.2 custom UI over Android 7.1. While Color OS has had its evolutions over the years, the first thing that strikes you when you use Color OS is how familiar it is. It definitely takes inspirations from Apple’s IOS with its simplified Home Screen Launcher, its included apps, Settings, Notifications and even the Control Center shortcuts which is a quick swipe up from the bottom of the screen. That said it’s a pro for those who are already familiar with Color OS and for those who are coming from Apple devices.

As this is an Oppo phone, the F5 Youth features many options for taking selfies with its “AI Beauty Front Camera”. The 16MP front camera is no slouch, using software algorithms to make your features stand out and with plenty of options such as its famed Beauty mode which makes you stand out more from the rest of the social media crowd. Another feature sure to be popular with F5 Youth buyers is the Bokeh portrait mode that blurs the background. While each phone company has their own implementation of this trendy portrait mode, Oppo’s implementation is adequate and will please most users of it.

The 13mp back camera features HDR for more vivid photos although for some shots it may tend to overdo it. Nonetheless it can take capable photos in proper lighting. It takes videos up to 1080p as well although your mileage may vary due to the lack of OIS for stabilization.

One thing that was very impressive with the phone are its security and unlock options which are implemented very well. The fingerprint scanner is fast and instant and is definitely something to be commended. Another option is a Face Unlock using the front camera. It’s also very fast, surprisingly so and sometimes a quick glance can accidentally unlock it. It works in darker conditions as well although not in pitch black conditions. What Oppo has done with the Face Unlock and the Fingerprint scanner are quite impressive.

Signature features of Color OS also return, including its gesture unlock options which allow you to write an “O” while the screen is locked to go straight to the camera, or a “V” for flashlight.

The phone also includes split-screen multiwindow from Android Nougat and it works well for compatible apps with a few caveats. Facebook for some reason doesn’t work in split screen when it normally does on other phones and pressing home, accidentally or not will reset the positions of the apps you have opened in splitscreen.

Another feature Color OS has is a “Game mode” which allows you to block notifications so that your gaming will not be disturbed by phone calls. However, I found that some games such as Rules of Survival were not detected by this feature but other games that were detected worked well. It’s a very helpful feature that gamers should definitely look into.

One thing I noticed however was that the Youtube app was not optimized well on the F5 Youth. The video was letterboxed meaning there were black borders on all 4 sides of the video with it playing in a small window in the middle. I couldn’t at the time of this writing, find a way to change this.

The software works well for what it is and is easy to learn. Hopefully the few annoyances will be addressed in upcoming updates for the phone.

Conclusions

When looking at phones on review, one must always question: Who is this made for? The F5 Youth is a capable mid-range phone with a sleek design and a focus on making you stand out on social media with your selfies. It’s a phone made for young adults, millennials, teens and those who want to upgrade their selfie game on a budget. And it does that well.

It has a sleek design that’s sure to attract people and pique interest and a capable performer that’s adequate for most people. #CaptureTheRealYou