A large pool of smartphone users simply need a good screen, decent cameras and all-day battery life to get work done. These slabs have reached a point when it has become the only computer billions around the world use and it’s difficult to imagine life without carrying one of these around. So how much money should you splash at the moment on a new phone? Either you go all the way and get the latest and greatest or stick to a budget option — like Oppo F19s — until 5G technology gets announced and makes its way to your neighbourhood.

The large degree of familiarity with the F19s makes it a good option for the festive season in case you are planning to gift it to a loved one whose life doesn’t revolve around a lot of gaming. This is a phone that’s brilliant for content consumption over long hours, thanks to the 6.4-inch AMOLED panel that can get bright enough and comes with good viewing angles. Though a budget panel, colours pop and are accurate enough to see you through any OTT platform show. Agreed that 60Hz refresh rate is not the most desirable options but while purchasing the phone, remind yourself what the usage pattern would be like. In case you are looking for a lot of gaming, then other options from Oppo work better. The AMOLED panel offers an pretty enjoyable viewing experience.

On the camera front, you get a triple snapper set-up on the rear — 48MP besides 2MP each of macro and depth. Daylight photography is not an issue on F19s, be it in terms of colour reproduction or HDR capabilities, besides autofocus is reasonably good while shutter speeds don’t disappoint. Night photograph too is quite acceptable unless you are under very uneven lighting when noise shows up in the photos. The only disappointment is the lack of an ultra-wide snapper, which should have been considered over macro. As for the selfie camera, it puts in a good performance, reproducing good skin tones.

Powering the phone is Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 chipset, which is known to be an able performer in the budget segment. Day-to-day usage wasn’t an issue over a week, with most apps running smoothly, thanks to 6GB of RAM, which can be further expanded by 5GB via virtual RAM. Though you can play most tap-tap games, the big bang-bang titles work at best in medium graphics setting but with a sustained performance. Like I had said earlier, Oppo didn’t want to make this a gaming device.

ColorOS is what you get on the phone but remember to delete all the bloatware that comes on the device, which is something all smartphone manufacturers should stop peddling. Oppo hasn’t cringed when it comes to battery, packing in a 5,000mAh option on a thin chassis, enough to last a day. Plus, you get 33W of fast-charging.

Everything may sound familiar about the phone but that’s exactly what most people are looking for in these uncertain times. Oppo F19s is the everyday phone that checks all the boxes for most smartphone users. It makes for a good festive season gift for someone who likes to consume a lot of content on the smartphone.

At a glance

The primary camera on Oppo F19s is sharp and the colours are accurate The Telegraph

Device: Oppo F19s

Price: Rs 19,990

High notes

• Great display

• 33W fast-charging

• Snapdragon 662 should take care of everyday tasks

Muffled notes

• No wide-angle camera

• Bloatware