Oppo F1

Labelled as a "selfie expert", the Oppo F1 is a dual SIM (Micro-SIM and Nano-SIM) phone that comes packed in an allumium body. Running Oppo's very own ColorOS 2.1, which is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop, this phone is slim at just 7.25mm. On the front, you will find a 5-inch HD IPS display that offers a resolution of 720-by-1280 pixels and a pixel density of 294ppi.

The display on the device is protected by a 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4 coating. Since the F1 is being marketted as a camera-phone, it comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera with f/2.2 aperture and single LED flash. The phone also comes with an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with wider f/2.0 aperture (1/ 4-inch sensor).

In terms of software, the phone comes with camera modes such as Beautify 3.0, eight live colour filters, and more. The display also doubles as the flash in low-light environments. We really liked the Slow Shutter mode - we placed the F1 on a tripod and we were able to click some cool photos.

The Ultra HD mode was also one of our favourites. What this does, is it combines several images to come up with a single 50-megapixel photo. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 SoC, Adreno 405 GPU, and 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM. In terms of storage space, the Oppo F1 offers 16GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded by using a microSD card.

The Oppo F1 also comes with a proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, accelerometer, and digital compass. The smartphone comed packed with a 2500mAh Li-Po battery, which lasted a little more than a day in our tests, before it needed a recharge. In terms of connectivity, the Oppo F1 supports 4G LTE networks, along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and Micro-USB connectivity.

We ran the AnTuTu benchmark on the Oppo F1 and were able to clock 35164 points. The Oppo F1 is a smartphone that offers some decent performance. In a market where you are expected to spend through your nose for a "premium" phone, the Oppo F1 comes in as a breath of fresh air. It is available for only AED 899. If you are on the market for a good camera phone, the Oppo F1 should definitely be on your shortlist.