The OPPO F7 and Vivo V9 are the most asked-about phones in the last couple of weeks. There are many other phones competing with these two in the same price range and even lesser, but many eyes have been on the OPPO’s and Vivo’s latest offerings.
I’ve used both the devices for quite some time to understand which phone excels in which department, and this is one such case where the core specs don’t really matter and the end user experience is dependent on how you are able to use the phones and whether the device is able to take up all the load you throw at it. Here’s the comparison in the different segments.
To begin with about the price of the phones, there is not much of a difference. The Vivo V9 is priced at Rs. 22990 and the OPPO F7 is priced at Rs. 21999, about Rs. 1000 is what the difference in the price is and that is not much, so we won’t stress a lot on this factor and look at it as if they are almost the same with the pricing.
Familiar design on the front, thanks to the notch on the top of the display. The Vivo V9 and the OPPO F7 are similar there, with just a little difference in the screen size but otherwise, it would be even hard to guess which phone you are looking at unless you turn it to check the back of the devices. Both the phones again have the shift from metal back on their predecessor to a glossy back now, but the OPPO F7 has a glass back when compared to the plastic one over metal on the Vivo V9.
The F7 seems like a bar with equally levelled back while the V9 seems rather comfortable to hold with the curvy back, and that makes the corners and edges slimmer. The phones have the cameras placed at almost the same place and the fingerprint sensor as well is placed at identical location on the back. Talk about rigidity, the OPPO F7 is a little better but talk about the comfort, the Vivo V9 is a better one.
The performance is where we directly jump into. That’s because many have an eye on the Vivo V9 for that having a Snapdragon chipset when compared to the MediaTek one on the OPPO F7. Let’s be honest, the MediaTek Helio P60 on the F7 is a better performer, in every way. That doesn’t say anything against the Vivo V9 that has a well performing Snapdragon 626 in itself, but we are comparing the phones here and thus, it is clear after so much of usage, gaming, and the testing in every way that the OPPO F7 performs better.
The UI is well optimized in both the phones and the RAM management is quite well done, but if we are talking about how quickly the apps are loading, how better is the GPU performing while gaming, the OPPO F7 takes it away with ease.
The optics have seen a major change if you look at Vivo’s rear camera, while OPPO is confident about the rear camera on the back of F5 as the same is retained for the F7. The big difference here is with the number itself, with a dual-lens camera combination being offered on the V9 while the OPPO F7 has a single lens camera. Taking it deeper, the aperture offered here is an F/1.8 one on the OPPO phone with a 16MP camera, while the Vivo V9 offers an F/2.0 aperture on its 16MP primary camera, while there is a 5MP secondary camera for the depth sensing, helping in the bokeh captures.
The photos captured are actually better on the OPPO F7 in low light, where the Vivo V9 doesn’t even come close because along with having a bigger aperture to let more light in, the software seems to be reducing the noise well. In bright conditions, there is a tough fight with the V9 doing well with the color reproduction, and it is the portrait captures where the secondary camera takes in the depth information and also lets you set the aperture and amount of blur on the Vivo V9.
The video recording is limited to 1080p resolution but the Vivo V9, interestingly has the support for 4K video recording, both with the rear and front cameras. Both the devices lack stabilization, but the colors seem better on the Vivo V9.
The selfies have become a mainstream feature now and thus, there has to be a lot checked in terms of how you can control the settings and how natural the selfies come out finally. Both the companies have gone all-in with the selfie cameras, as the OPPO F7 comes with a 25MP camera on the front when compared to the 24MP camera on the front on Vivo V9. But, the end quality as well as the control offered is better on the F7. The exposure and focus control, the level of beautification, the bokeh offered all seem tad better on the F7.
The phones present themselves with a UI that seem similar but there are certain differences here. Fortunately, we get the latest Android OS version, i.e. 8.1.0 Oreo based on which the F7 comes with the ColorOS while the V9 has the FunTouch OS.
It seems after a considerable usage that the Vivo V9 has a UI that is easily likeable and little modernised, though the experience is not much apart. There are certain things that might annoy you on each of the phones, but the basics like dismissing notifications should have been better on the OPPO device.
The aspect ratio setting is better on the OPPO F7 making the usage experience better, as the phone offers the option to take advantage of the whole screen. The Vivo V9 on the other side doesn’t let you do that for all the apps and thus, the apps can do the best of 18:9 or stick to the standard 16:9 aspect ratio.
The OPPO F7 has a better battery life, thanks to how the UI is optimized alongside the advantage of having a higher battery capacity as well. There is a 3400 mAh battery here in the F7 when compared to the 3260 mAh battery on the Vivo V9.
Who’s better in what?
- The build quality seems better on OPPO F7
- The comfort for holding and using is better on Vivo V9
- Performance wise, OPPO F7 wins it
- The UI seems better and modernized on Vivo V9
- The rear camera colors and portraits are better on Vivo V9
- The OPPO F7 takes the lead with low-light photos
- Video recording is better on Vivo V9
- Selfies are better with the OPPO F7
- The battery life is better on OPPO F7
- The OPPO F7 supports the 19:9 aspect ratio better
It is a 6:4 win for the OPPO F7 over the Vivo V9, taking the 10 important factors into consideration. Now, if that makes sense, we can talk about that price difference here because the OPPO phone is affordable.
