OPPO has a new smartphone, the OPPO F5. The new device follows in the footsteps of the F3 and F1s that came before it. The latter entered the local market this time last year while the former is just half a year old in the country.
Launched in India just a week ago and in the Philippines two weeks ago, the OPPO F5 will be going on sale in two weeks time in Kenya. Starting November 20th, to be precise.
Marketed as “the selfie expert” just like its predecessors, the OPPO F5 hopes to woo the masses with its almost borderless form factor and superior selfie camera, a 20-megapixel shooter that its makers say will let users add bokeh effects to their self-portraits without needing the help of an additional camera sensor on the front.
Taking the cue from a company that has “inspired” its phone designs for so long, OPPO is introducing a facial recognition technology meant to mimick the iPhone X’s standout feature on the mid-range smartphone. OPPO says that it will work even in low-light conditions.
It is not just the iPhone X that inspires the F5. Other additions to notable 2017 smartphones like the 18:9 displays on Samsung and LG flagship devices and the much-hyped Artificial Intelligence on Huawei’s Mate 10 have also made their way to the device.
Surprisingly, the F5 does not go with the industry trend of throwing dual cameras. The back is adorned by a single 16-megapixel shooter. Neither does the device have a USB Type-C port, the connector that is increasingly becoming a common standard.
Features of the device like the storage, memory and battery remain unchanged from what we saw in the F3 earlier on. The size of the device is almost the same as that on the F3 even though the F5 packs a larger 6-inch display.
Other specifications of the device are as listed here.
There’s a premium version of the F5 with 6GB RAM and a more pocket-friendly variant dubbed “F5 Youth” but we’re unlikely to see those being made available in Kenya.
OPPO Kenya is staying mum on the pricing details but we’ll be shocked if the F5 costs more than Kshs 30,000.
