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New Oppo F21 Pro Review: All you need to know

The oppo f21 pro’s price is great for many reasons. For one, most people can easily afford it.

This image shows the two Oppo F21 Pro's.

Pros & Cons

Pros
  • Good design
  • Awesome display
  • Good cameras
  • Good features
  • Overall, an excellent performer
Cons
  • The battery life is not too good
  • Average front camera

Oppo’s newest flagship, the F21 Pro, has been well-received since its release earlier this year, and it’s easy to see why — it’s got great specs, good cameras, and a massive 6.6-inch display without going overboard on the size (there are bigger phones out there). But does it live up to its $450 price tag? Or is there another phone you should be looking at? Let’s find out!

Price

One of the most important factors to consider when purchasing a new phone is price. Some phones are priced above $1,000, so how much are you willing to spend on your phone? For example, many online stores sell used phones for very cheap; however, there’s a good chance that those phones are not in good working condition and won’t last you long.

If you don’t want to spend more than $250 on your phone, it might be wise to stick with refurbished options or wait until Black Friday rolls around and see if any deals pop up. Many people are waiting for an oppo f21 pro-2022 release date before purchasing their next phone; if a decent deal pops up early enough in November, some people may purchase one as a gift for themselves.

One of my favorite things about the new oppo f21 pro is its price. It’s a very affordable option, so you don’t have to break your bank in order to own it. Its sticker price is less than $350, which means that most people will be able to afford it with their monthly paycheck.

Design

I have to say, the design of the new Oppo F21 Pro is one of its strongest features. While some other smartphones focus on adding in a lot of additional functionality, the focus here seems to be more on designing an attractive and functional product. 

This image shows the oppo f21 pro.

As such, it is relatively lightweight (150 grams) and still manages to include an impressive 4200 mAh battery as well as a dual-SIM card slot – both of which are things you wouldn’t expect in a phone of that weight. To learn more about what’s inside the new Oppo F21 Pro see below or head over to our full review.

One of my favorite things about it is how easy it is to use. While other smartphones can feel somewhat overwhelming and full of functionality, you won’t feel that way with the new Oppo F21 Pro. Instead, you’ll be impressed with how intuitive it feels and how quickly you will pick up on its functions and design elements. As such, there aren’t many instructions or manuals needed to help you get started.

Display

Clearly, one of my favorite features is that 6.2 display. It’s large and vibrant with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. There are plenty of other phones out there with better displays (and yes, they cost more), but for $529 it’s pretty impressive. 

I have to say, I like having a larger display for watching YouTube videos or playing games, but it’s not really necessary for everyday use – especially if you don’t watch video content regularly. If you only pick up your phone to send messages or check social media once in a while, then a smaller display might work just fine for you.

This mage shows the display of Oppo F21 Pro.

Overall, I think the display is one of the best features of this phone. Even though it’s not as high-quality as some others out there, it is quite good for a mid-range device. If you’re looking for a phone with a great display, I recommend checking out our list of Phones.

Cameras

The cameras are clearly one of your top priorities when buying a new phone, so how did they fare on our Oppo F21 Pro review? First of all, while it’s not sporting two lenses like its more expensive stablemate, there is still quite a bit to love about them. 

On paper they seem like pretty great shooters—64MP + 32MP dual cameras with an aperture rating of f/1.9 and f/2.4 respectively—but how do they perform in practice? There’s only one way to find out! Our official verdict is that although it doesn’t quite match up to some rivals (like Huawei), it certainly does much better than we thought it would from a phone at its price point!

This image shows the oppo f21 pro.

As we mentioned, there are two camera lenses on board and both take great photos. If you’re into bokeh effects then you’ll love how each lens allows for a blurred background effect thanks to its wide aperture rating.

If there’s one gripe we have with our Oppo F21 Pro review unit it’s that its cameras didn’t seem to cope as well in low light conditions, but even so, we found it was still much better than some of its rivals out there. We took it on a night-time adventure around Brooklyn and although some shots were certainly grainier than others, overall they weren’t too bad at all.

Battery life

You’ll get one of the best battery lives you can find in a phone today. Fast charging, which is included with your purchase and will only set you back $20, makes it possible to fully charge your device in just under an hour if you were to run out of power unexpectedly. Now that’s some serious convenience for a smartphone. Between its low price and wonderful battery life, I don’t see how you could lose with the new oppo f21 pro.

With a 4500 mAh battery, fast charging, and large battery life, it’s hard to complain about what comes with the new oppo f21 pro. I’ve found it to be long-lasting throughout most of my use, easily getting me through an entire day without needing to find a place to charge in between my morning coffee and bedtime.

However, while I can’t say I’ve had any issues with charging as of yet, it’s worth noting that the new oppo f21 pro comes with a 33V charger.

This image shows the Oppo F21 Pro with box.

Software And Performance

While all of that is pretty standard for a high-end Android device, what makes F21 Pro unique is its software experience. Instead of running either vanilla Android or Oxygen OS (and their multitude of custom features), OPPO opted to bake its own ColorOS 12.1 into F21 Pro. This is arguably one of OPPO’s weaker software offerings, but there are some nice elements to it that could make it worth using over something like stock Android. 

For example, you can customize everything from app icons to animations in your settings menu and you have access to a wide variety of additional colors if you want your phone to stand out.

That’s not to say that ColorOS is flawless, however. There are still plenty of opportunities for improvement in terms of software performance and additional features. 

In particular, while I appreciate all of OPPO’s added customization options, they often come at a cost to performance and battery life because they have to be baked into a custom ROM like ColorOS. This means you can sometimes run into situations where apps take longer to load than on stock Android or on other devices like OnePlus 6T or even Samsung Galaxy S9 (which runs near-stock Android) thanks to these added features.

This image shows the Oppo F21 Pro under the sunlight.

Aside from general animations, one of these features is OPPO’s Super Night Mode setting which aims to improve your phone’s display performance in darker environments. When enabled, your screen will automatically turn much darker at night when detected that you are in a dark environment and then brighter again once you have brightened up a bit. 

While Super Night Mode doesn’t always work perfectly (and it can sometimes be just as annoying as automatic brightness settings), it can come in handy if you find yourself having trouble reading content on your screen at night.

In terms of raw performance, there is a lot to like about OPPO’s new Android device. Despite its not-so-useful inclusion of ColorOS and an old version of Android Pie (8.1), it performs as smoothly as many other high-end Android phones. As with most modern smartphones, you’ll find that all apps run extremely well on F21 Pro, and loading times are essentially non-existent thanks to OPPO’s clean software loadout.

Verdict

Our verdict about Oppo F21 Pro is: Its excellent rear-facing cameras with impressive low-light capabilities certainly make it stand out in a sea of smartphones with mediocre or poor cameras. Its battery life is also excellent. On the downside, its camera app is lackluster and no Android version is available yet (though there are rumors that an update will be rolled out soon).

Also, it’s a very solid smartphone with decent cameras, excellent battery life, and a premium look. If you’re looking for a phone that combines durability and looks with impressive low-light camera capabilities and can withstand life’s wear and tear, then we would recommend OPPO F21 Pro. If you need something more powerful or your budget allows for other options, we’d encourage you to look elsewhere.

The reader should gain knowledge on why they should consider getting this product or compare similar products before they decide if they want to buy it. How much does oppo f21 pro cost? Oppo F21 Pro is available in China and some other Asian countries for a retail price of CNY 2,199 (~$315). In India, you can get it for INR 23,990 (~$350). 

If you live in Europe, then you’ll have to pay EUR 269 (~$300) if you purchase directly from OPPO’s website (we recommend purchasing from Amazon instead). If you live in North America, Canada, or Mexico and would like to purchase an unlocked model directly from OPPO’s website, then be prepared to pay USD 360.