OPPO has recently launched a new mid-range smartphone called OPPO F17 Pro, the successor of last year’s OPPO F15 in India. Compared to the previous smartphones, OPPO has made significant changes, especially in the design. F17 Pro is the slimmest phone in its price segment and also comes with an impressive spec sheet including a Quad camera, Dual front camera, Full HD+ AMOLED display, and also a striking design.
There is already some stiff competition in the ₹20,000 to ₹25,000 price segment and the F17 Pro directly competes with Realme 7 Series and OnePlus Nord, the cheapest 5G phone in India. I have been using the OPPO F17 Pro for the past 20 days and here is my detailed review.
OPPO F17 Pro Quick Specs
- Display – 6.43-inch Super AMOLED, 1080×2400 Pixels, 60Hz
- Processor – MediaTek Helio P95, Octa-core
- RAM – 8GB, LPDDR4X
- Storage – 128GB, UFS 2.1, Dedicated microSD Slot
- Rear Camera – 48MP f/1.8, 8MP f/2.2 Wide, 2MP Depth, 2MP Macro
- Front Camera – 16MP f/2.4 + 2MP f/2.4 Depth
- Battery – 4,015mAh, 30W Fast Charging
- OS – Android 10 with ColorOS 7.2
- Security – In-display Fingerprint Reader
- Connectivity – 4G LTE, 5GHz WIFI, Bluetooth 5.0, VoLTE
OPPO F17 Pro: In the Box
OPPO F17 Pro comes in a secured package, just like most of the other F-series smartphones, and includes the Device with a pre-applied screen protector, 30W VOOC 4.0 Power Adapter, VOOC USB Type-C Cable, SIM tray remover, Earphones (White), Transparent plastic case, and also a couple of user manuals. Nowadays most of the OEM’s don’t include earphones to reduce the overall cost of the smartphone. But with OPPO F17 Pro, you’ll get a standard earphone with an in-line controller. Even the quality of the screen protector and the case is very good.
OPPO F17 Pro: Design & Display
One of the most highlighting parts of the F17 Pro is its design. There are three colors to choose from – Matte Black, Magic Blue, and Metallic White. The device I received for review is Magic Blue and to be honest, it looks stunningly beautiful. The Magic Blue variant has an eye-catchy design and feels very premium. The frame & back panels both are made out of plastic but this phone still feels premium.
The rear part has a shiny dual strip design and wrapped using different shades of blue with a purple accent on either side. You can clearly see the different shades of blue when you look at the phone from different angles. The rear finish is slightly rough (kind of matte finish) and doesn’t attract many fingerprints. It has a thickness of 7.48mm, which is about 0.22mm smaller than the Reno4 Pro making it the slimmest phone in its price segment.
OPPO has also done a very good job in the weight distribution too. The device weighs about 164 grams and is very comfortable to hold even when you use it for a very long period of time. I watched the entire SCAM 1922 Session 1 on the OPPO F17 Pro and I really enjoyed watching it. The lightweight design of F17 Pro will give you more comfort especially while watching movies, long-duration gaming, and video calls.
A 3.5mm audio jack, primary microphone, a USB Type-C Port, and a speaker is placed on the bottom while the secondary microphone is placed at the top. There is a triple-slot tray placed on the left that takes two Nano-SIM cards and a MicroSD slot. As it’s not a Hybrid tray, you can use two SIM cards and a microSD card (up to 256GB) at the same time.
A volume rocker placed just below the SIM tray on the left and the power button is placed on the right. Both volume and power buttons are placed ergonomically and easily reachable during one-handed operation. Overall, the phone has a sturdy design and doesn’t make any kind of squeaky noise when pressed.
Coming to the display, the F17 Pro sports a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080×2400 pixels and has a screen refresh rate of 60Hz. It has a screen-to-body ratio of 90.07% and an aspect ratio of 20:9. The display is rich, has good contrast, and also produces good colors. The viewing angles are excellent and the display produces sufficient brightness which is good enough to read outside especially under the bright sunlight.
Both the side and the front bezels are very thin and will give you a superb experience while watching videos. The bottom bezel is slightly thicker compared to the other three sides. The F17 Pro has a dual punch-hole camera design and is positioned on the top left. The size of the front camera is also small compared to the one you find in the OnePlus Nord.
One of the biggest disadvantages of F17 Pro is the lack of a 90Hz panel. Even OPPO’s entry-level OPPO A53 and OPPO A33 have 90Hz panels but I don’t know why OPPO has not used it on the F17 Pro. Even its direct competitors such as OnePlus Nord, Realme 7 Series, etc. comes with a 90Hz display. Furthermore, the display also misses out on the HDR certification but comes with Widevine L1 support so that you can stream high-resolution content on Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.
Even though the F17 Pro lacks a 90Hz screen, it does support Always-on-display which looks very elegant and you do not have to unlock the device to check the time or date. The display also shows the app icons for pending notifications alongside how much battery is left. There are 9 Digital clock styles and 6 Analog clock styles and these can be configured using Settings. There is also an option to schedule the Always-on-display.
OPPO F17 Pro: Performance
The F17 Pro is powered by MediaTek’s Helio P95 octa-core chipset and available only in one configuration – 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 Storage. Helio P90 is an average processor and not the best in its segment but powerful enough to handle day to day activities. I have used F17 Pro as my primary phone and the performance is decent. The phone handles daily activities such as Video calls, Voice calls, Watching videos, WhatsApp, E-mails, etc without any issues.
Coming to gaming, I was able to run average-graphics games like Clash of Clans, Temple Run, Candy Crush Saga, etc. without any issues. Even the phone was able to handle resource-intensive games such as Call of Duty, and Asphalt 8. The gameplay was smooth and did not find any issues. Although the device was able to handle long gaming sessions, started warming up within 10 to 15 minutes of gameplay and there were minor frame drops too.
The phone handles multitasking very well and not experienced any lag or hiccups while switching between the apps. Overall, the processor does its job well and should be more than enough if you are a regular user or an entry-level gamer. The phone also heats up a bit (but not overheat) while shooting 4K videos for more than 15 minutes.
OPPO F17 Pro: Battery
The OPPO F17 is backed by a 4,015mAh battery that supports 30W fast charging (OPPO calls it Super VOOC 4.0). OPPO is also bundling a 30W fast charger inside the box. During my testing, F17 Pro took about 54 minutes to go from 0 to 100%. Check out the below table for more timing breakdown.
| Charging | Time |
|---|---|
| 1 to 10% | 3 Minutes |
| 20% | 7 Minutes |
| 30% | 11 Minutes |
| 40% | 15 Minutes |
| 50% | 20 Minutes |
| 60% | 25 Minutes |
| 70% | 30 Minutes |
| 80% | 35 Minutes |
| 90% | 43 Minutes |
| 100% | 54 Minutes |
Apart from the Power Saving mode and Super power saving mode, the F17 Pro also supports a couple of useful battery optimization features. Sleep standby optimization that runs the phone on low power mode when you’re sleeping and Optimised night charging reduces the battery aging and prevents overcharging by controlling the battery charging speed at night. Both features can be enabled using Settings ->Battery.
Furthermore, the device also supports High performance mode that increases the overall speed of the operations such as gaming, browsing, and video streaming. This mode improves the overall device performance but drains your battery fast and may cause overheating too. It can be enabled using Settings-> Battery -> Turn on High Performance mode.
OPPO has done a fantastic job in software optimization that syncs properly with the battery. A fully charged battery will give you about 1.5 days of battery life with medium usage. During my testing, I got around 7 hours of screen on time with about 16% battery left. I have used the device almost 16 hours a day with activities including WhatsApp, Gmail, Slack, Duo, Facebook, Twitter, and regular voice & video calls.
Another thing I observed is the standby battery consumption. There was about 2% battery life consumed when I kept the phone standby for about 6 hours and this is something you usually don’t get in any smartphones with AMOLED displays. Overall, the battery backup is impressive and it is also one of the key reasons to consider the OPPO F17 Pro.
OPPO F17 Pro: Security
OPPO F17 Pro comes with an upgraded in-display fingerprint reader to provide quick, easy, and secured access to the phone. The reader is fast, accurate and I haven’t experienced any issues during my review. Setting up the fingerprint is also easy and quick. The phone detected my fingers without any extra effort almost all the time. The reader was able to detect my fingerprint when mildly wet and failed when fingers are completely wet. You can add up to five fingers.
One of the most useful features of the fingerprint reader is the Breathing Light. The reader starts breathing every time you lift the phone. This is very useful when you are in a dark room. The breathing light helps you quickly identify the location of the fingerprint reader to unlock the phone. The fingerprint reader comes with 8 different unlock animations and you can easily switch these from Settings -> Fingerprint, face & password -> Fingerprint -> Animation Style.
Just like most of the OPPO smartphones, the F17 Pro also supports Face Unlock, and it’s blazing fast. There’s no need to press any buttons to activate the face unlock. Simply lift the phone and bring it in front of your face and the screen unlock automatically. Even though it’s not as secure as the fingerprint reader, OPPO has added a couple of enhancements to the face unlock tech to improve the security.
For better low-light performance, you can also enable the Auto brighten screen for face unlock option that automatically brightens the screen to detect the face, especially under low-lighting conditions. There is an option to unlock the phone only if your eyes are open.
OPPO F17 Pro: Software
No matter how best the hardware a phone has, Software optimization is the key reason for the overall performance of the device and OPPO has done almost everything right in the F17 Pro. The device runs on ColorOS 7.2 based on Android 10 and comes with various device-specific enhancements to improve the user experience. Out of the box, you’ll get about 115GB of internal storage and the rest of the storage space is occupied by the operating system and pre-installed apps. Apart from a very few popular pre-loaded apps, F17 Pro is almost free from Bloatware.
Update: OPPO has started rolling ColorOS11 based on Android 11 to OPPO F17 Pro devices. Find more info here.
The device comes preloaded with Google Apps including Google Pay, Google One, Podcast, and Google News alongside a few 3rd party apps such as Facebook, Netflix, Amazon Shopping, and WPS Office. Except for Netflix, you can delete all 3rd party apps including a few from Google to save some internal storage.
OPPO has even replaced its own dialler, messages, and contacts app with Google’s Phone and Contacts, Messages app. The contact app is linked to your Google account and you can access your phones’ contacts on your PC by simply logging into your Google account. Additionally, the Google Dialler supports the recently announced Verified Calls feature on the F17 Pro.
Air Answer is one of the key features added to F17 Pro which was limited to Reno4 Pro initially. It uses data from the proximity sensor & front camera and allows you to answer calls without touching the phone. Whenever you get a call from someone, you need to hold your hand 20-40 cm away from the phone screen. Immediately, a hand icon will appear on the phone screen. then, simply wave your hand upward to answer the call.
Make a note that Air Answer implementation is not accurate and it’s useful only when the phone is placed on flat surfaces like bed, table, floor etc. It’s a bit of a lengthy process compared to the existing swipe up to receive the call. But you can make the best use of it when your hands are occupied or dirty or wet. You can turn on Air Answer using Settings -> Convenience Tools -> Gesture & Motions -> Air Gestures -> Turn on Air Answer.
OPPO F17 Pro Key Features
- WIFI Assistant – Automatically connect to the WIFI network that has best connection quality
- Dual channel acceleration – Use WIFI & mobile data simultaneously for smoother experience
- System-wide dark mode with schedule option
- Eye comfort mode with adjustable color temperature – Filters out blue light from screen to reduce eye fatigue
- Low-brightness flicker-free eye comfort – Reduces visual fatigue caused by screen flicker at low screen brightness level
- OSIE visual effect – an AI feature that will track eye movement with precision for improved visual experience
- Changeable themes, fonts and icon styles
- Multiple home screen modes – App, drawer and simple
- Real sound technology – Smart, movie, game, music
- Navigation modes – Swipe gesture, virtual buttons, swipe up gestures
- Smart sidebar – Quick access to useful tools
- Gesture & motion – Screen-off gesture, gesture screenshot, raise to wake, Auto ear pick up calls, Auto switch to ear receiver, flip to mute incoming calls
- Customizable screenshot and screen recording
- App cloner – Run a single app with two different accounts like Facebook, WhatsApp etc.
- Game space with Game assistant
OPPO F17 Pro Tips, Tricks and Hidden Features with ColorOS 11: FlexDrop, Edge Lighting and more
OPPO F17 Pro: Audio & Connectivity
Coming to the Audio, the F17 Pro has a built-in 3.5mm Audio Jack and a single mono speaker at the bottom edge. The audio out is good and above average but you’ll miss the stereo output. Even the voice or conference calls play through the speakers well without any distortion. The F17 Pro supports FM Radio and you need to plug-in the earphones (acts as an Antenna) to scan radio channels.
The device comes with Dual SIM, Dual Standby, and 4G connectivity on both sim slots and includes Dual-band WIFI (2.4GHz/5GHz), Bluetooth v5.1, GPS with A-GPS, USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. It also supports USB OTG and VoLTE & VoWiFi on both SIM slots. During my review, I used F17 Pro in Dual SIM mode with Airtel on Primary and Jio SIM on the secondary slot. I did not observe any network stability issues or voice call drops including the calls over VoLTE and VoWiFi.
Oppo F17 Pro: Rear Camera
OPPO F17 Pro comes with six cameras – 4 on the rear and two on the front. The rear camera includes a 48-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera for wide-shots, a 2-megapixel mono camera, and also a 2-megapixel depth camera. For selfies and video calls, you will get a combination of 16MP primary and 2MP depth camera setup placed on the top left of the display. The device misses out on the macro camera so you’ll not be able to capture clear closeup shots.
The 48MP primary sensor uses pixel binning tech to take photos and there is also a dedicated 48MP mode that allows you to take up to 48-megapixels high-resolution photos. The rear camera performs very well outdoors under good light conditions and photos taken are rich in colors, bright with good dynamic range. Even the photos include a good amount of Highlights and Shadows.
To take snaps during night time or dark low-lighting conditions, OPPO F17 Pro features a dedicated Night Mode called Ultra Dark Mode that will help you expose the subject but meantime also increases the noise. In night mode, the device uses some special algorithms to optimize the image and will take about 3 to 5 seconds to output the image. The photos taken in Ultra Dark mode were more detailed with a good amount of added brightness.
The 8MP wide-angle camera also performs similar to the primary sensor and produces good output but the noise level is slightly higher than the primary sensor. You can even make use of AI scene enhancement that automatically identifies different scenes or objects such as Sunset, Animals, Foods etc. and adjusts the settings for improved image quality. Sometimes the photos are overexposed on primary camera while the photos taken with the wide-angle lens are a little noisy under low-light.
Rear camera features
- Dedicated Wide-angle mode
- Digital zoom – 2x, 5x
- AI Beautification with Manual control
- Night mode and Tripod mode
- Video recording – Ultra steady mode, Adjustable Bokeh, Video filters
- Video resolution – 4k, 1080p, 720p, Slow-motion 1080p & 720p, Time-lapse
- Video encoding – H.265 and H.264
- AI Ultra Clear mode, HDR, AI scene enhancement
- Photo filters, Pano, Sticker mode, Text scanner, 48MP mode
- Portrait mode – Dazzle color, Ai color portrait, Night flare portrait
- Expert mode with Extra HD (XHD) mode – Control ISO, Shutter priority White balance etc
- Enable or Disable shutter sound
- Integrated Google lens, Camera timer
- Ultra steady video, Adjustable bokeh video mode, video filters
OPPO F17 Pro: Rear Camera Samples
OPPO F17 Pro: Front Camera
For selfies and video calls, the F17 Pro uses a 16MP (Sony IMX 471) primary camera supported by a 2MP depth sensor. The front camera supports various AI modes including the manually controlled (slider with live view) beauty mode. The only thing I did not like is the skin smoothening which is turned on by default. So, you’ll have to turn it off to get a natural look. if you forgot to disable the Beauty mode, the AI makes the pictures a little brighter and the skin a little smoother.
The front camera supports multiple night modes to take improved pictures in the low-lighting condition. Selfies taken using the night mode are fairly decent. If there is too much dark, noise shows up in a photograph and severely drops the overall quality of the image. The front camera performs very well under good lighting conditions and the depth sensor also does its job well in the Portrait mode. Even the edge detection is good and gives a good amount of background blur.
One of the coolest features of the front camera is AI Color Portrait. It’s fun and works really well. It focuses on the subject in color while keeping the background black & white. When it comes to videography, you can shoot 4K videos using the rear primary lens and 1080p using the ultra-wide-angle lens. Video quality is average indoors but decent outdoors. 4K videos shot on F17 pro have no stability due to the absence of stabilization while the 1080p video output is better due to the Ultra Steady mode.
Front camera features
- AI Beautification with Manual control
- Night mode with face filters
- Video recording – Ultra steady mode, Adjustable Bokeh, Video filters
- Video resolution – 1080p, 720p, Slow-motion 1080p & 720p, Time-lapse
- Video encoding – H.265 and H.264
- AI Ultra Clear mode, HDR, Photo filters, Pano, Sticker
- Portrait mode – Filters, Ai color portrait
- Enable or Disable shutter sound
- Integrated Google lens, Camera timer
OPPO F17 Pro: Front Camera Samples
OPPO F17 Pro: Video Samples
Pros
- Stunning design
- Premium build
- AMOLED display
- Good day-light photos
- Good battery life
- 30W fast charging
- Impressive standby time
Cons
- No 90Hz Display
- Mono Speaker
- No Macro lens
- Average low-light performance
Verdict
Being a mid-range smartphone, the OPPO F17 Pro is one of the best-looking smartphones available in the Indian market right now. It has a very sleek, eye-catchy design with an incredible AMOLED display. There is also plenty of RAM and Storage which is enough even for pro users. The Processor is slightly on the lower side but does its job very well.
Most importantly, the battery life on the F17 Pro is brilliant. You get 30W fast charging support that charges the device from 0 to 50% in just 20 minutes. Additionally, you’ll get a couple of AI battery features to improve the battery life cycle. Similarly, the rear quad cameras and dual selfie cameras perform well in the good lighting conditions. Even the Ultra Night Mode performance is impressive.
The camera quality isn’t great but definitely good enough when it comes to daylight photos. The phone offers an intuitive, fast, and smooth user experience with ColorOS7 and is also upgradable to OPPO’s latest ColorOS 11. Lack of 90Hz panel, average low-light camera, and also the absence of the stereo speaker are the major drawbacks of the F17 Pro.
There is stiff competition in the ₹20,000 to ₹25,000 segments and it’s really hard to recommend a smartphone unless you have a specific requirement. The OPPO F17 Pro may not be the best smartphone if you compare the spec sheet with its competitors. But, when it comes to the design and form-factor, there is no other phone that matches the F17 Pro in its price segment.
OPPO F17 Pro Case
OPPO is also bundling a free plastic transparent case inside the box. The case is made out of good quality plastic and easily protects the device from sudden slips and drops. I don’t think you would need a 3rd party case unless you are looking for some designer cases. The supplied case is enough to protect the device from accidental drops and reduces the effect of accidental bumps. The case also covers the rear camera bump.
Where to Buy OPPO F17 Pro
OPPO F17 Pro comes in three colors – Matte Black, Magic Blue & Metallic White and priced at ₹22,990. It will be available to purchase via Amazon.in, Flipkart and also through offline retail stores across India. Recently, OPPO has introduced F17 Pro Diwali Edition in an all-new Matte Gold shade. Find out more details here.
OPPO F17 Spares and Pricing
Just like most of the brands, OPPO has also listed its price of the spare parts on its official website. So, now you don’t need to call customer support or service center to confirm the pricing before visiting the service center. Below mentioned are the prices of OPPO F17 Pro spare parts as on 16th October 2020 excluding the GST and service charges.
| Spare Part Name | Reference Price |
|---|---|
| Touch with LCD (Display) | ₹6,990 |
| Battery | ₹1,390 |
| Front Camera Main | ₹1,999 |
| Front Camera Secondary | ₹390 |
| Battery Cover (Rear Cover) | ₹1,290 |
| Main Board (Mother Board) | ₹11,990 |
| Earphone | ₹399 |
| Power Adapter | ₹1,190 |
| VOOC USB Type-C Cable | ₹490 |
OPPO F17 Pro Full Specifications
| GENERAL | |
|---|---|
| Brand | OPPO |
| Model Number | F17 Pro |
| Operation System | Android 10 |
| Custom UI | ColorOS 7.2 Upgradable to ColorOS 11 |
| SAR Value | Head: 1.16 W/kg Body: 0.81 W/kg |
| Colours | Matte Black Magic Blue Metallic White Matte Gold |
| In the Box | OPPO F17 Pro 30W Power Adapter USB Type-C Cable 3.5mm Jack Earphones SIM Ejector Pin User Manuals Transparent Plastic Case Screen Guard (Pre-applied) |
| DISPLAY | |
|---|---|
| Display Size | 6.43-inch |
| Display Type | Super AMOLED |
| Screen Resolution | 1080 x 2400 Pixels |
| Pixel Density | 409 PPI |
| Aspect Ratio | 20:9 |
| Screen-to-body Ratio | 90.7% |
| Refresh Rate | 60Hz |
| Display Features | 800nit Peak Brightness 180Hz Touch Sampling |
| Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processor Make | MediaTek |
| Processor Type | Helio P95 |
| Graphics (GPU) | IMG 9XM-HP8 |
| Clock Speed | 2.2GHz |
| No. of Cores | Octa-core |
| Architecture | 64-bit |
| SECURITY | |
|---|---|
| Fingerprint Reader | Yes |
| Reader Type | In-display |
| Face Unlock | Yes |
| MEMORY | |
|---|---|
| RAM Size | 8GB |
| RAM Type | LPDDR4X |
| Internal Storage | 128GB |
| Storage Type | UFS 2.1 |
| MicroSD Support | Up to 256 GB |
| FRONT CAMERA | |
|---|---|
| Camera 1 (Main) | 16MP, f/2.4 Sony IMX 471 |
| Camera 2 (Depth) | 2MP, f/2.4 |
| Video Recording | 1080p @ 30fps |
| REAR CAMERA | |
|---|---|
| No. of Camera | Four |
| Camera 1 (Main) | 48 MP Samsung GM1 |
| Camera 2 (Ultra-wide) | 8 MP f/2.2 |
| Camera 3 (Mono) | 2 MP f/2.4 |
| Camera 4 (Mano) | 2 MP f/2.4 |
| Camera Features | EIS, OIS, HDR |
| Flash | LED |
| Video Recording | 4K UHD @ 60fps 1080p @ 30/60fps 1080p @ 120fps |
| BATTERY | |
|---|---|
| Battery Capacity | 4,015mAh (Typical) 3,920mAh (Minimum) |
| Fast Charging | 30W VOOC 4.0 |
| Removable | No |
| Adapter Rating | In Box Adapter Model: VC56GAIN Input: 100-240V – 50/60Hz 1.2A Output: 5V/2A, 5V/6A Max |
| CONNECTIVITY | |
|---|---|
| WIFI | 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac |
| WIFI Bands | 2.4GHz / 5GHz |
| Bluetooth | v5.1 |
| VoLTE | Dual VoLTE |
| USB Port | Type-C 3.1 |
| Audio Port | 3.5mm Jack |
| Network | 2G 3G 4G LTE |
| GPS | GPS A-GPS Beidou Glonass GALILEO QZSS |
| NFC | Yes |
| No. of SIMs | Dual |
| SIM Type | Nano + Nano Dedicated MicroSD Slot |
| OTHERS | |
|---|---|
| FM Radio | Yes |
| USB OTG | Yes |
| Sensors | Geomagnetic Induction Light Induction Proximity Acceleration Gyroscope |
| Dimensions | |
|---|---|
| Height | 160 mm |
| Width | 73.77 mm |
| Thickness | 7.48 mm |
| Weight | 164g |