Oppo has delivered yet another slim and light smartphone, the F17 Pro. However, unlike the Reno 4 Pro, this model has a more affordable price tag. The Oppo F17 Pro is a new mid-range device from the company which banks high on design and a light body. The F17 Pro is easily one of the most comfortable and convenient devices we’ve handled in 2020. The budget segment isn't currently saturated with a million different offerings, which could give the F17 Pro a chance to try and make a name for itself here.

In the Oppo F17 Pro, the slim design and lightness are two of my favourite attributes so far. But what about the rest? Even though there isn't too much competition, there are some heavy-hitters such as the Redmi K20, and the more recent Realme 7 Pro, both of which directly compete with the F17 Pro.

The Oppo F17 Pro works for those who want an excellent screen, battery life and fast charging. Those who are dependent on camera and heavy games, look elsewhere.It's time to see if you should be putting your money on Oppo or saving it for the competition.

HIGHLIGHTS-
* It features a Super AMOLED display with a 60Hz refresh rate
* It’s powered by the MediaTek Helio P95 SoC
* It features a 4,015mAh battery with 30W fast charging

Design-
* 7.48mm thick
* 164 grams
* Polycarbonate body

The F series has always been youth-centric which means they come in eye-popping colour options, lightweight, with some appealing designs. The Oppo F17 Pro is no different. The device just weighs 164 grams, which is absolutely crazy in 2020. You need to feel it to believe it. With phones easily crossing the 200-gram mark, the Oppo F17 Pro is really a welcome change. Even phones such as the OnePlus Nord felt bulky and dated in comparison. The 7.48mm thickness is also legit and great to hold. You will appreciate these as soon as you pick the device up.

On the usability front, the device handles well in one hand, and I found it easy to get to all on-screen options. We got the Magic Blue variant for testing, which I felt looks the classiest of the three colour options. The back has a gradient finish reflecting two shades and the edges reflect a purple line while the colour at the back is blue that also appears green often, shifting colour with every angle change based on where the light falls. The 400mm coating on the back instead of the usual 200mm offers better grip and view. The polycarbonate body means that you can flaunt the device without a case with no fear of shattering the rear panel like glass-back phones.

The button placements are standard, with the power switch placed at the right and the volume rockers on the left. Both are easily accessible with one hand. Towards the bottom, you get a mono speaker grill, a Type-C port, a microphone, and 3.5mm headphone jack, which is good to see in this price segment and especially in a phone so slim. To the top, there is a secondary microphone. With Oppo F17 Pro, you are looking at a dual-punch hole camera for selfies which is one of the smallest cut-outs on a phone.

This phone is available in Three colours-Matte Black, Magic Blue, Metallic White.The colour options, especially Magic Blue, make you stand out from the crowd.

Display -
* 6.47-inch Super AMOLED screen
* 2,400 × 1,080 resolution
* 60Hz refresh rate

Oppo has gone with a 6.4-inch super AMOLED screen on the F17 Pro. You get Full HD+(2,400 x 1,080p) resolution. The bezels on top and sides are very slim and on the bottom, you have a decent amount of bezels which gives the device 90.07% screen to body ratio. The display is tall and pretty standard for a 2020 smartphone with 20:9 aspect ratio. And lastly, the display is also TUV Rheinland certified for low Blue light.

We live in an era where users won’t forgive you if a smartphone is priced above Rs 20,000 and not having a 90Hz refresh rate. And this is where the Oppo F17 Pro slips. You will have to settle for a standard 60Hz screen. It is also worth mentioning that the Oppo A53 which comes with a 90Hz panel.

The display is quite flat and you can feel the sharp edges often. The super AMOLED panel renders perfect colours most of the time, though they do feel oversaturated at some points, albeit in a good way. There is the 5000000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, which helps in getting those deep blacks.

The display was quite enjoyable while viewing content from YouTube and other OTT apps. In addition, you also get support for HDR content and there is also Widevine L1 support for HD playback on Netflix and others. The peak brightness can go up to 800 nits, making it quite readable outdoors with sun out. The lowest brightness is also quite low and you can take advantage of eye comfort mode which allows you to play with colour temperature. And, finally, Oppo has also added Always on Display feature which is absent of OnePlus devices with AMOLED screens.

Overall, the Oppo F17 has one of the best super AMOLED screens in the segment. Watching content is pure joy and the viewing angles are also pretty great with the device. There’s also an in-display fingerprint scanner which works very well. You get both speed and accuracy with it. For even faster unlock, there is a 2D face unlock which is quite reliable as well.

Performance -
* MediaTek Helio P95
* 8+128GB storage
* MediaTek Hyper Engine

Oppo F17 Pro features a MediaTek Helio P95 processor which may not be the most powerful processor in the segment but is powerful enough to get the job done, and it comes in just one configuration, which is 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage. Our day-to-day tasks these days involved scrolling through social media feeds, attending webinars, playing some games and streaming content.

The octa-core SoC is fairly speedy but not as powerful as, say, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G or Snapdragon 730, according to benchmarks anyway. AnTuTu returned a score of 2,03,472 points, while the T-Rex graphics test in GFXBench returned around 45fps. These aren't bad numbers but they still trail what Qualcomm's equivalent chips can put out.

Performing basic tasks on the Oppo F17 Pro is easy-peasy. Games such as Oddmar, Pixel Gun 3D and Battle Prime all ran smoothly. The in-game graphics looked good, and gameplay was smooth. While playing the now-banned game PUBG for our Oppo F17 Pro, we did come across some lag once during our gameplay session. After the ban, we then switched to other games like Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt 8. To our surprise, there was no lag and we had a smooth gaming experience. However, if you are a gamer, consider reading our Realme X3 SuperZoom or Redmi K20 Pro. Both the smartphones feature Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 series chipsets that offer a much better gaming experience.Overheating wasn't an issue either, as other than the back of the phone getting slightly warm, it was very comfortable to hold even with extended gaming sessions.

With Color OS 7.2’s App Lock feature, apps too can be locked and stopped from freezing/ shutting down in the background. Not that we experienced something like that, as the 8GB RAM is more than enough buffer memory to keep apps open in the background. The Android 10-based skin from Oppo comes loaded with minimum yet some popular bloatware apps like Amazon, Facebook, etc. that are widely used by many.

Watching videos on the display was a good experience as colours were punchy and the brightness was more than adequate. There was a mild blue tinting issue when viewing white backgrounds slightly off axis, but I didn't find this to be a major hindrance. The speaker on the bottom got fairly loud but the ability to use the earpiece as a second speaker for stereo would have been better.

Audio quality -
When it comes to the audio experience, the mono speaker at the bottom edge is not the loudest and we would recommend using 3.5mm earphones or wireless earbuds for playing games. If you consume a lot of content on your smartphone and if the combination of an AMOLED display plus stereo speakers is your priority, consider reading our Realme 7 Pro. That smartphone also offers a faster 65W Super DART fast charging solution, which is based on Oppo’s SuperVOOC Flash charge tech.

Camera -
* 6 AI portrait cameras
* 48MP quad-rear camera
* Dual selfie cameras

The Oppo F17 Pro has a total of six cameras, which Oppo is marketing as “AI portrait cameras”. These include a 48-megapixel f/1.7 main camera, an 8-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera, a 2-megapixel monochrome camera, and a 2-megapixel depth camera. In the front, there is a 16-megapixel primary selfie camera and a 2-megapixel depth camera.

The Oppo F17 Pro does not have a macro camera and there's no macro mode in the camera app either. I wouldn't say this is a total loss, since most dedicated macro cameras on phones I've tested haven't exactly been great. In this case though, it would have been better to have one rather than the dedicated low-res monochrome camera, in my opinion. This only seems to be used if you select the ‘OP7' filter in Portrait mode, and nowhere else.

In daylight, the primary Samsung GM1 sensor captures sharp and well-detailed 12-megapixel binned images. Exposure and colours were also handled very well, without any unwanted boost in saturation. Autofocus was reliable, which made capturing close-ups quite easy. I did find myself having to tap the screen to force the phone to correctly expose a subject at times, but this wasn't too often. The ultra wide-angle camera captured shots with equally good exposures, even though details were a bit soft.

Portrait mode worked well, correctly blurring out the correct areas behind me in most instances. The level of background blur can be adjusted before taking a shot.

Low-light images were not bad but details were visibly weaker once I magnified them. Dark patches like the sky also had a bit of grain. Night mode helps fix the noise and exposure, but detail doesn't improve too much. However, I did have better luck with close-ups, which displayed slightly better details with Night mode compared to without it.

The main front camera captured decent-looking selfies under good light. Facial details were good and skin tones generally looked natural. Portrait mode for selfies doesn't deliver the most pleasing results but it's there if you need to use it. Selfies don't look great in low light but you can get usable shots if there's enough artificial light around you.

Apart from this, the camera also comes with stickers, Google Lens integration, Pro mode, text scanner, pano, and time-lapse modes.

Video performance -
You can shoot videos at up to 4K on the Oppo F17 Pro, but sadly, without stabilisation. I also found colours to be quite off when shooting at this resolution. Videos are stabilised at 1080p, but the quality is a bit weaker. You can shoot video using the ultra wide-angle camera too, but only at 1080p, and you need to switch cameras before you begin shooting. The quality is below average and there's no stabilisation. Image quality in low light is not great either, even if you're using the primary camera.

Battery
* 4,000mAh
* 30W Vooc flash charge 4.0
* Intelligent power saving

When it comes to battery life, Oppo F17 Pro’s 4,000 mAh battery can easily last a day. The company has bundled a 30W fast charger that charges the device completely within an hour. Oppo has included a bunch of battery charging safety features like overnight charging mode that optimizes its battery charging at night, so it can reach 100 percent of battery exactly in the morning at your wake time.It also performed decently in our HD video loop test, lasting for 16 hours and 48 minutes. With my medium to heavy usage, we regularly got around 7-hours screen-on-time.

There is also a dedicated Intelligent power saving mode with which you can enable and get more life out of it. With 5% battery left, we got around 20 minutes of gaming and Oppo claims you can get around 70minutes.

Good-
* Slim and light
* Good battery life
* AMOLED display
* Excellent Design
* Fast Charging

Bad-
* Average video recording performance
* Cameras struggle in low light
* Underpowered SoC for the price
* Misses out on high refresh rate
* Gaming performance

Verdict-
Coming to the main question - Should you buy Oppo F17 Pro?
With an elegant look, Oppo F17 Pro appears as the sleekest phone of 2020.The USP of Oppo F17 Pro is its thin and light form factor. So if you are on a lookout for such a phone, go ahead with the Oppo F17 Pro. The smartphone may not pack the best of specifications that others offer in its segment but is more than capable enough to get the job done without breaking a sweat.

At that price point, if you are looking for a phone which you can use for your gaming needs, you should be looking at something like the Poco X2. However, if you do not play games a lot and require a reliable smartphone that has a stylish look, marvelous display, expert image quality, swift navigation,good battery life and fast charging or media consumption is your priority, Oppo F17 Pro can be the right pick for those.

It's Super AMOLED display would make your movie moments breathtaking. With 6 AI Portrait cameras, it can deliver captivating photos for social media. Its clever software optimization delivers rapid performance. However, this phone might do better, if provided with the latest chipset, higher refresh rate, and glass-built back. For the gamers, Oppo F17 Pro is not recommended.

The Oppo F17 Pro is, by no means, a bad phone. It may not be the best of smartphones in its segment, but it is the only smartphone that offers a great in-hand experience with its light featherweight design.