Hello there, sexy! Unboxing, Hands-On and Initial Impression of the OPPO F9!

Here's our initial thoughts on OPPO's latest mid-ranger: the OPPO F9.

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About to be available soon, Ungeek was lucky enough to be able to tinker with the latest mid-range hero product of OPPO, the OPPO F9.

A surprise follow-up to the F7, the F9 will debut in less than 6 months after the OPPO F7 stormed the Philippine market last April. We thought it might be too soon for OPPO to release a follow-up to a still widely sought-after phone series but the little upgrades to the F9 gave it a world of differences.

Specs

  • Helio P60 Processor
  • ARM Mali-G72 Mp3 800MHz GPU
  • 6 GB RAM
  • 64 GB Internal Memory (supports microSD card up to 256 GB)
  • 3” FHD Display 19.5:9 Aspect Ration Waterdrop Screen
  • Triple SIM Slot (Two 4G VoLTE slot and 1 slot for MicroSD)
  • 16MP F1.8 + 2MP 2F2.4 rear camera
  • 25MP F2.0 Selfie Camera
  • ColorOS 5.2, Android 8.1
  • 3500 mAh battery with VOOC Flash Charge
  • Micro USB connection

We got our hands on the Sunrise Red color variant of the OPPO F9 and we have to say that this is probably one of the most beautiful phones we’ve had from OPPO. From the stunning red hue that we saw with the F7 to the subtle shift of astral purple towards the bottom part of the of the colored panel, the phone screams luxury. And if that’s not enough, the diamond pattern seen on the OPPO F7 Diamond Black Edition can be found across all OPPO F9 variant – including the one that we got.

The OPPO F9 comes in the typical cardboard box for easy carry and identification. As a mid-ranger, we’re fine without having to deal with more luxe covers (and, you’ll throw the box away or hide it in a corner of your room, anyway). The phone comes with a USB cable, the VOOC charger, earphones and, a standard now among smartphone offers, a free clear case.

The phone actually has the same diamond-like patterns, taking a photo of it poses quite a challenge, though.

As previously mentioned during the launch event, the OPPO F9’s 2 main features are its unique waterdrop notch bezel and the return of the VOOC Flash Charge for superbly quick charging of your 3500 mAH battery.

We went ahead and tested out the famed 5-minute charge to 2 hours call time (or roughly anywhere near 10% charge) in this quick video:

While it didn’t hit 10% it did come pretty close. VOOC Fast Charge was available for the OPPO F3 Plus, a phone that we have used in numerous occasions during our coverage of various events both here and abroad. Most notably it’s what we used to record this entire segment of us trying out Coffee Coke for the very first time.

Charging of the entire 3500mah of the OPPO F9 clocked under an hour at most! That’s pretty awesome especially when you couple it with OPPO’s improved power-management system thanks to the optimization of the Helio P60 and the new Color OS (which we had to update for 2 Gigs upon receiving the unit). The new update integrated google lens right on the camera app itself – an insanely cleaver integration as it can detect, translate, and pull data as long as you’re connected to the internet all by snapping a photo.

The database, I feel, still needs some major tweaking. While google lens can determine more or less what the image is, it has a hard time drilling down to specifics. For translation, it’s fairly quick as the transition the app redirects you to google translate but for everything else…uh….

It couldn’t quite determine what the actual model is — despite having many images online.

Yeah, not really the app for hypebeast boys and girls, though. Hehe.

Still, overall, the added feature is a welcome addition of useful features and not just cool features that no one will use. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Then there’s the waterdrop notch, a design feature that sets the F9 apart from every other smartphone in the market. As far as the major brands are concerned, the OPPO F9 is the first to adapt a single drop notch separating themselves (even visually) with the rest of notched-laden phones out there. This also frees up a little bit more screen area which is a plus on any book.

We’ll definitely do more thorough testing with the OPPO F9 but for now we’ll leave you guys with this: “Fortune favors the bold!” and with what we saw with the OPPO F9 we can definitely say that OPPO made quite a bold statement in offering something new and fresh to an already saturated market. Here’s hoping it pays off well – just as it did with its F7 release.

You may still pre-order your OPPO F9 until August 29 and take advantage of amazing freebies like Game Holder, Ring Phone Holder and Bluetooth Headset all worth Php 1,500. The OPPO F9 will be made available to the public on August 30, 2018 and retails for Php 17,990.