The recently-launched Moto X4 is definitely one of the best-looking smartphones that Motorola has ever outed. From a premium glass back to a dual-camera setup, the X4 offers a lot at a very competitive price. And among the smartphone’s many competitors is Oppo’s F5, which was also launched recently and is priced almost-similarly to Moto X4. The newest entrant in Oppo’s ever-growing line-up of so-called ‘Selfie Expert’ smartphones, the F5, among other things, offers an 18:9 aspect ratio display, keeping up with the newest trend in the smartphone design.
We have already compared how the cameras on Moto X4 and Oppo F5 are (read here). This time, we’ve pitted the two smartphones against each other to see how they fare when it comes to gaming and general day-to-day performance. So if you are plannning on buying a new mid-range smartphone and can’t decide between the Moto X4 and the Oppo F5, keep reading.
Core Hardware Specifications
| MOTO X4 | OPPO F5 | |
| OS | Android 7.1 (upgradable to 8.0) | Android 7.1 |
| RAM/ROM | 4GB/64GB | 4GB/32GB |
| SoC | 2.2GHz octa-core Snapdragon 630 | 2.5GHz octa-core Helio P23 |
| GPU | Adreno 508 | Mali-G71 MP2 |
| BATTERY | 3,000mAh | 3,200mAh |
As is clear from the above table, Moto X4 and Oppo F5 pack different processors. There are a few key differences between the smartphones’ CPUs that we’ve mentioned below:
- Big.LITTLE architecture: Moto X4’s CPU is based on Big.LITTLE architecture, while Oppo F5’s CPU isn’t. For those unaware, this basically involves a CPU having both higher-clocked and lower-clocked cores, and the ability to switch between them for improved performance or battery life. For instance, when the user is playing a graphics-rich game (which is a resource-intensive task) on their smartphone, the high-performance cores get to work. On the other hand, if the user is just browsing the web or chatting on an app like WhatsApp, the low-power cores are responsible for the tasks to conserve battery power.
- Clock Speeds: A higher-clocked CPU is generally a little better for multi-tasking and gaming purposes. So if we go just by that number, the Helio P23 is slightly better than the Snapdragon 630.
Benchmark Scores
We always use two benchmarking apps – 3D Mark and Geekbench 4. However, this didn’t really work that well in this case. Geekbench didn’t work on Oppo F5, while 3D Mark gave the phone a score of just 69, which can’t be accurate at all.
So this time around, we used two other benchmarking apps – PC Mark and GFXBench. As far as the results are concerned, Moto X4 scored almost double than Oppo F5. of what Oppo F5 scored on GFXBench.
In case of PC Mark, Moto X4 scored 1200 more than Oppo F5, which managed to get a score of around 3600. Check out the screenshots below:
Gaming Performance
While benchmark scores definitely illustrate vast difference in performance of the two smartphones, actual gaming performance turned out to be a different story. During our test run, we played six heavy gaming titles – Gangster Vegas 4, Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat, Spider-Man, Shadow Fight 3 and NFS: No Limits – on both smartphones for more than 30 minutes.
All games ran fine on the X4 and we didn’t notice any lag or stutter. However, heating issues started popping up after 15 minutes of continuous gaming. After 30 minutes of gaming, the temperature of Moto X4 rose from 28 degrees to 43.3 degrees.
Graphics rendering on the X4 was just about average during our test run, but it’s unlikely to bother users who don’t play resource-intensive games on their smartphones. We didn’t encounter any frame drops and the Snapdragon 630’s GPU handled graphics without issues. Power consumption was also low, as the handset consumed about 12% battery for around 30 minutes of gaming.
Coming to the F5, it handled all the games nicely as well. No stutter or lag were observed. However, we found graphics rendering to be a little disappointing. It’s not that bad, but certainly not that good as that on Moto X4. This is probably the reason for Oppo F5 scoring low on 3D Mark. If you play heavy games on the smartphone, you might encounter some frame drops.
Oppo F5 also started heating within 15 minutes of gaming but fortunately, the heating problem was lesser than that on Moto X4. The smartphone’s temperature rose from 27.3 degrees to 40.5 degrees after 30 minutes of gaming. As for the battery consumption, half an hour of gameplay caused an 18% drop in the F5’s battery level.
In summation, Moto X4 is definitely better than Oppo F5 when it comes to heavy gaming.
Multitasking Performance
Multitasking on both smartphones was great during our testing. The handsets didn’t really exhibit any lag, until we switched to the above-discussed heavy gaming titles. When switching between Gangster Vegas 4, Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat, Spider-Man, Shadow Fight 3 and NFS: No Limits, alongwith social apps like Facebook and WhatsApp running, both smartphones started struggling, This was especially in case of Oppo F5, whose display went blank for a second or two when switching between apps.
Also, RAM management isn’t that great on both smartphones. This is probably why switching between heavy games causes a little lag, although it’s not that visible on Moto X4 as it is on Oppo F5.
Overall, both smartphones performed average during our testing when it comes to multitasking.
Conclusion
Summing things up, we can say that neither Moto X4 nor Oppo F5 is meant for heavy gamers.
Oppo’s smartphones are heavily focused on camera-centric features and generally have low to mid-range processors. The F5 will serve you good if you’re not a pro user and don’t really care about gaming on your phone. It doesn’t handle graphics that well and there are ocassional frame drops, even though games run smoothly. Battery consumption is also on the higher side. If you use the smartphone to play a lot of games, you might need to charge the smartphone more often.
On the other hand, Moto X4 has solid overall performance. It handles graphic-rich apps without major problems. Normal multitasking is fine, though the smartphone lags a little if there’s intensive multitasking going on.
Among the two, our vote definitely goes to the Moto X4.