The Oppo F1 is a dead-slim 7.3mm thick too: easy to handle. The one slight niggle, and a sign this is a cheaper phone, is that while it uses hardware soft keys down below the screen, they’re non-lit. You can’t seem to switch to using software keys like the Moto G either. The OnePlus X makes the same move, but does let you switch to on-screen ones.
You get no prizes for guessing what kind of screen the Oppo F1 has. Like so many phones around the price, it’s a 5in 720p LCD screen. Just like the Moto G, the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua and a whole bunch of others.
The little issue we come up against here is that we’re approaching the sort of money that’ll let you get a 1080p phone rather than a 720p one. OnePlus’s X gets you a Full HD screen and is only ?1000 more. Plus you no longer need to ‘queue up’ just to get an invite to buy one of those.
In real life the difference is that the Oppo F1’s screen doesn’t look quite as pristinely smooth and sharp. Text is a tiny, tiny bit fuzzy. But it’s not as though you could drive a Transit van between the pixels. You’d have to be pretty picky not to be happy living with it.
Still, telling you that you get more if you pay more is no great surprise, right? The Oppo F1 also comes with a factory-applied screen protector that, for once, doesn’t seem to degrade the feel or image quality. And, for the cynics out there, this isn’t because the glass underneath is rubbish. It’s Gorilla Glass 4.