Oppo F35 Series Launches in India With 50MP Selfie Camera

Oppo just put an 8,000mAh battery and a 50-megapixel selfie camera in a phone that starts under Rs 39,000 — and sales opened in India on October 11.

What actually launched

The Oppo F35 and F35 Pro went on sale across India this week, and the spec sheet reads like Oppo picked the two things Indian buyers complain about most — battery anxiety and group-photo cropping — and built a phone around fixing them. Both models pack an 8,000mAh battery with 80W wired fast charging, which is a big jump from the 5,000-5,500mAh cells that have been standard on mid-range phones for years. Oppo says that's enough for roughly two days of regular use, though real-world numbers always vary with screen brightness and app usage.

The bigger talking point is the front camera: a 50MP sensor with a 100-degree field of view and autofocus, up from the usual 16-32MP punch-hole shooters on phones in this price band. An AI mode automatically widens the frame when it detects more people trying to squeeze into a selfie, so you don't have to awkwardly stretch your arm out for a group shot at a wedding or a college reunion. Both phones can also shoot 4K video from the front camera, not just the rear.

On pricing, the standard F35 starts at Rs 38,999 for the 6GB+128GB variant and goes up to Rs 42,999 for 8GB+128GB. The F35 Pro ranges from Rs 45,999 to Rs 54,999 depending on RAM and storage. The Pro gets a 6.78-inch 144Hz OLED display and MediaTek's Dimensity 7360 Max chip, while the standard F35 runs a 6.57-inch 120Hz panel on the Dimensity 6360 Max.

Why Oppo is betting on selfies, not raw power

Neither phone is chasing flagship-grade performance — MediaTek's 7360 Max and 6360 Max are solidly mid-range silicon, not the kind of chips that top benchmark charts. That's a deliberate choice. Oppo is betting that in India's crowded sub-Rs-50,000 segment, a camera feature you can show off in every group photo sells more units than a few extra points on a benchmark app most buyers never open.

The AI feature switches to the wider angle automatically when more people need to fit in the shot — the kind of problem solved for the way Indian phones actually get used, at festivals, weddings, and family gatherings, rather than for a spec sheet.

It's a sensible read of the market. India is the world's second-largest smartphone market, and a huge share of purchases happen in the Rs 15,000-50,000 range rather than at the Rs 80,000+ flagship tier where Apple and Samsung dominate headlines. Brands like Oppo, Vivo, and Realme compete hardest exactly here, and they've learned that Indian buyers reward features tied to real habits — big batteries for long commutes and patchy charging access, and selfie cameras for a culture that takes a lot of group photos — more than they reward raw horsepower.

The part that matters beyond the spec sheet

There's a quieter trend worth noting here too. A 50MP front sensor with autofocus and 4K recording used to be flagship-only territory; now it's standard on a phone costing less than Rs 40,000. That kind of trickle-down is good for consumers, but it also means camera specs alone are becoming a weaker way to differentiate a phone. Software — the AI framing trick, in this case — is where companies are now trying to stand out, which is the same shift that's already played out in rear-camera marketing over the past few years.

• 8,000mAh battery with 80W charging on both models
• 50MP front camera, 100-degree field of view, with AI-assisted group framing
• F35: Rs 38,999-42,999; F35 Pro: Rs 45,999-54,999
• Already on sale in India as of October 11

For Indian buyers in the market right now, the F35 series lands as a genuine alternative to the usual Redmi and Realme picks in this bracket, especially for anyone whose phone usage leans heavily on photos and video calls over gaming. Whether Oppo can hold that positioning depends on how quickly rivals copy the same trick — and in this segment, that usually takes only a few months, not years.