The light at the end of the tunnel continues to evade us. So work from home will continue while travel only if you must. With fewer opportunities to flaunt a new phone, why does one need to buy the most expensive number available? That also doesn’t mean one should buy the first phone that pops up on any e-commerce platform. People are looking for value, which needs to come in way of performance, camera and battery. It helps if the phone is stylish. All this and more can be reason enough to give OPPO F19 a thought, if only a new phone is the need of the hour.

Capable main snapper

We reviewed the F19 Pro+ 5G about a month ago and the camera department impressed us greatly. Of course, the phone came in at Rs 25,990. What about something more pocket-friendly but without making too many compromises?

Without trying to venture into crowds, we took the F19 for a spin early morning when most are on snooze mode. Pictures taken using the 48MP main camera are mostly free of problems. There is zero lag while the colours appear just right for social media. There is enough dynamic range, ensuring you can upload snaps without editing. It’s best to keep the beauty mode off because colours can, at times, be too rich for comfort. In poor lighting conditions, the main camera tends to struggle but there is a night mode which handles the situation quite well. Night shots are very much Instagram-worthy.

But OPPO’s choice of cameras appears weird because there is no ultra-wide mode. Instead of throwing in a macro camera, the focus could have been on ultra-wide. The portrait shooter is decent and the separation between foreground and background isn’t bad at all. Overall, even without an ultra, the main snapper turns in a very capable performance.

Sample shots taken on OPPO F19 show good contrast and colour reproduction

Enough for everyday use

When it comes to performance, the 6.43-inch full HD+ AMOLED display delivers rich visuals. The deep blacks are there and so is crispness in every frame. If you are a streaming enthusiast, there is nothing to complain about, except that this is a 60Hz display.

I also didn’t have a problem with the Snapdragon 662 chipset paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage (expandable with a microSD card) since I am more into tap-tap games that doesn’t need much processor muscles. Applications can be accessed without any hassle but if you are looking for a phone exclusively some heavy gaming then do explore the market.

The processor makes a good companion for the 5,000mAh battery, which easily lasts a day and a half. Helping the phone is the 33W fast-charger in the box, which can go from zero to 55 per cent in around 30 minutes.

Should you buy it?

In case you are looking for a sub Rs 20,000 smartphone, OPPO F19 can be a contender. Good main snapper, an equally good display and battery life will keep you happy. Also available are some worthy options from Samsung and Xiaomi but usually choosing a phone from a particular brand is about familiarity with the operating system, which in this case is Android 11-based ColorOS 11 out of the box. OPPO F19 is a stylish phone that gets the work done.

OPPO F19

Price: Rs 18,990 (6B/128GB)

High notes

• Great display and battery performance

• 33W fast-charging

• Stylish

Muffled notes

• Wide-angle lens is missing

• Maco camera is redundant