We use our phones pretty much every single day and carry them around wherever and whenever we go. The majority of people use a case and screen protector for extra protection, but for a while, brands have been trying to make their phones sturdier and less prone to physical damage. Oppo's new F31 Pro+ is one such smartphone.
Priced at Rs 32,999, the phone offers an Armour Body, multiple ingress protection ratings and Dragontrail glass on top. Let's check how it actually performs in real usage:
This is a tall phone by any measure, with its 6.8-inch display. The phone comes in Himalayan White, Festive Pink, and Gemstone Blue colour options that show changing colours depending on the angle at which the light hits it.
The Gemstone Blue version I tried weighs 195g, and the polycarbonate frame feels decent to hold. The back has the familiar wheel-like setup for the camera near the top and the Oppo logo near the bottom. It is an IP66/68/69 dust and water-resistant device and can withstand harsher conditions better than an average smartphone, according to the company.
The 6.8-inch full HD+ (2800x1280) AMOLED display is bright and usable outdoors, plus it's vivid in terms of colour reproduction, which we have come to expect from Oppo. It keeps details intact for high-resolution videos and images with good colour depth.
Coming to the performance, the phone is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset (up to 2.63GHz octa-core processor and Adreno 7 series GPU) along with 8GB (or 12GB) LPDDR4X RAM and either 128GB or 256GB UFS 3.1 internal storage. The phone runs on ColorOS 1.5 based on Android 15 with the September security patch in place. Day-to-day performance of the phone is pretty good; you wouldn't notice any stuttering or major lag when switching between apps, scrolling through social media apps or watching videos on YouTube.
What isn't good, though, is the number of pre-installed apps, of which there are quite a few and which send you push notifications if not disabled or uninstalled. It would take around 10 minutes to get rid of most of these, but it's not certain how many people would make the effort in the first place unless they are eventually bothered by it.
When it comes to gaming, you can expect to play CoD at medium settings, but at the highest settings for BGMI, the phone might get a bit warm. Oppo's ColorOS 15 has some nice AI features, such as AI eraser and Reflection Removal, which work well, but there isn't anything brand new under the AI umbrella here. The company promises two years of OS updates and three years of security patches.
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Coming to the camera, you get a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera and a 2MP (f/2.4) monochrome camera. The overall camera quality is a bit hit-and-miss. At times, it would produce well-composed shots with good details and colours, but at other times, you would miss your subject's focus when moving a little. The front-facing 32MP (f/2.4) camera is capable of taking good selfies with decent sharpness and can hold its own in low light, too.
The device is powered by a 7,000mAh battery, which is certainly its USP. With dual SIM cards in place, it lasted over 1.5 days and at times two days with heavy to moderate use, which is very good. You can charge it using the bundled 80-watt Super charger from 1% to full in around an hour.
The phone's WiFi and GPS performance is satisfactory, while the 5G network reception is also quite good outdoors, with a hotspot in use for working on the go.
In brief, the Oppo F31 Pro+ does well with its tough build and looks, but while the chipset isn't the best for the price tag, it does offer a smooth day-to-day experience. Also, you get great battery life and display, but the bloatware out of the box is still a point to consider.
