Oppo F9 Gets Price Drop in Nepal: Worth Buying in 2019?

Look who’s back. Oppo F9 was launched in August 2018 in Nepal. It was one of the best midrange phones of 2018 in my opinion. The form factor of the phone was just great, the performance was equally good. Oppo released two more phones after the F9 – Oppo A7 and Oppo R17 Pro – to steal F9’s thunder but both have been overpriced pieces of tech that couldn’t ever compete with the F9.

But is the F9 still worth buying in 2019? Well, with this discounted price, it just might be. The 4GB model of the F9 cost Rs. 41,590 at launch but nowit has been reduced to Rs. 37990. You might get it at an even cheaper price in physical stores.For this price, I feel this is a phone that deserves your money in 2019. But the competition has released some great phones since last August and your money may be well spent on newer handsets like the Honor 8X. Also, newer smartphones in this price category are coming in 2019. So, it would be wiser to wait.

Inside the Oppo F9, there’s a MediaTek Helio P60 processor that can handle most of your task in a jiffy and can even game a little. The 4GB RAM means smooth multitasking without any worries. And the 64GB internal storage is more than enough for all the games and photos you may want to click.The major marketing material for the F9 has been VOOC flash charging capability which, Oppo says, gives the phone 2 hrs of talk time when charged for 5 min. To our knowledge, this is similar to OnePlus’ dash charge. That means that the phone has one of the fastest charging capability in the smartphone world.

Oppo F9 Key Specifications

• Launch Date: August 2018
• Display: 6.3-inch LTPS IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio (~409 ppi density)
• Chipset: MediaTek MT6771 Helio P60
• CPU: Octa-core (4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A53)
• GPU: Mali-G72 MP3
• OS: Android 8.1 (Oreo) skinned with ColorOS 5.2
• Memory: 4GB RAM, 64GB internal storage (expandable up to 256GB using micro SD card)
• Primary Camera: dual 16 MP, f/1.9, PDAF + 2 MP, depth sensor
• Secondary Camera: 25 MP f/2.0
• Battery: Non-removable Li-Po 3500 mAh battery

OPPO F9 Price in Nepal: Rs. 37,990 (4GB)

Obviously, Oppo being Oppo, the cameras are one of the headlining features. There is a 25 MP selfie camera behind that tiny notch which takes sharp and detailed selfies. There are dual rear cameras on the back that have features like artistic portrait mode which lets you apply several filters like film light and tonal light to give distinctive effects to your photos. Another cool feature is that google lens is built into the camera software.

For a phone under 50K, Oppo F9 has compelling and attractive features that sets it apart from other competitors. Though it isn’t on par with the performance of the Nova 3, it gets pretty close to give you similar features for 18K less. And even with its age, it is an attractive buy.