Oppo F29 Pro Review: Stylish, sturdy and pricey

Over the years, Oppo has used its F series to deliver durable and design-heavy smartphones, and the recently launched F29 Pro is no exception. But in an increasingly cluttered market with lots of options catering to different users, is Oppo's durability-first approach still a game changer? Well, I've been using the F29 Pro on and off for over a month - here's how it fared in the real world.

Unboxing and design:

Upon opening the F29 Pro's white and grey box, you are greeted with the device itself, a silicone case with a slight pattern, an 80W adapter, a USB Type A to Type C cable, some paperwork and a SIM ejector tool.

The F29 Pro certainly looks good, with the tried and tested circular camera module at the back, a fine gradient design and a matte finish that prevents fingerprint marks. And it is best when light shines on it. The back and frame are both made of plastic, and the phone itself is pretty easy to hold with its curved edges and ergonomic design, weighing just 180 grams and measuring 7.6 mm in thickness.

The front of the phone has a flat screen with a hole at the top for the camera. The volume rockers and power button are both on the right, while the dual SIM card slot is at the bottom.

Like most other phones in this price range, Oppo has given the F29 Pro IP68 + IP69 water resistance, which means that the phone can withstand being submerged in 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes, along with hot/cold water jets from any direction.

Display:

The F29 Pro features a 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 2,100 nits of peak brightness, with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection on top.

The screen itself doesn't leave much room for complaint, with the panel delivering punchy and vibrant colours, and the AMOLED panel providing deep blacks that come in handy during dark scenes. In bright sunlight, the phone performs reasonably well, with text readable but it's nothing to write home about.

The AMOLED panel is paired with a dual stereo speaker setup with support for 300% volume boost. The speakers get decently loud and are good for most everyday tasks such as listening to or even watching music, but turning on the software boost results in a slight loss of sound quality.

Software: Feature-rich yet bloated

The F29 Pro runs Oppo's ColorOS 15, based on Android 15, with two years of promised OS updates and three years of security patches.

If this is your first time with ColorOS, let me simplify things for you. The UI is very similar to the experience you get on the Realme UI or Oxygen OS, with a similarly feature-rich and functional interface. However, the interface on F29 Pro is also cluttered with lots of bloatwares (pre-installed third and first party apps), hot apps, hot games and ads loaded all over the UI.

If you can get past all that, there's a lot to like about ColorOS 15, starting with some of the same AI features we've already seen on the OnePlus 13 (Review) and even the Nord 4, such as AI Screen Translator, AI Voice Translator, AI Summary, AI Eraser, AI Reflection Remover and AI Clarity Enhancer. It's worth noting here that all of these AI features require an internet connection to work.

Processor:

Oppo F29 Pro runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 7,300 Energy processor, with options for 8/12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage. As I said in my Infinix Note 50x review, don't trust the suffix MediaTek puts on this series, this is exactly the same Dimensity 7300 processor we've seen in many phones in the past.

In terms of performance, the Dimensity 7300 Energy doesn't come close to the flagship chips found in many phones in this segment, such as the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 found in the Poco F6 (Review) and iQOO Neo 10R (Review). Even the standard Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 on the OnePlus Nord CE 4 (Review) outshines it in performance department.

That said, the 7300 Energy isn't a bad chip either. It's a capable SoC for everyday use and light gaming - just not meant for heavy lifting.

In terms of benchmarks, the phone scores 6,949,595 on Antutu. On Geekbench 6, it scored 1012 on single-core and 2955 on multi-core.

Camera:

The F29 Pro is equipped with a 50MP primary camera and a 2MP secondary shooter. Unfortunately, there is no ultra-wide-angle or telephoto lens. On the front, you are greeted by a 16MP shooter. The rear camera supports up to 4K at 30fps video recording, with some form of stabilisation available at 1080p 60fps. Meanwhile, the selfie shooter can record at a maximum resolution of 1080p at 30fps

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting much from the camera department of this phone, and I'm happy to report that I've been pleasantly surprised. The primary shooter takes eye pleasing shots in good lighting conditions with lots of detail, excellent dynamic range and accurate skin tones. Night-time portraits could be a hit or miss, with details sometimes being lost in extremely dark conditions. The sensor also tends to favour warmer colours when shooting portraits in artificial light, which can result in images that look good but are not very colour accurate.

As for the selfie shooter, it is on par for the price, with the ability to capture good looking shots in daylight conditions, but details sometimes go for a toss in low light. One thing to note here is that, like many other Oppo phones in the past, the F29 Pro tends to brighten the skin tones a bit (despite all effects being turned off), which is very noticeable in night selfies.

As always, don't just take my word for it. You can take a look at the camera's raw samples via the Google Drive link here and decide for yourself.

Verdict

Priced at ₹27,999 for the base variant (8GB RAM/128GB storage), the Oppo F29 Pro doesn’t seem designed for online-first buyers. Instead, it’s targeted at those who still prefer walking into a store, where prices tend to be slightly higher. The phone gets the basics right—a minimalistic yet appealing design, a flat AMOLED panel, a massive 6,000mAh battery, an IP rating for water resistance, and reliable cameras.

That said, its underwhelming processor for the price—along with the absence of telephoto and ultra-wide cameras, and an ad-heavy (though feature-rich) software experience—could be off-putting for some users.