OPPO A5 review - a glamorous smartphone with a large battery and a portrait camera

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The new budget employee from OPPO can live two days without recharging, shoot portraits like a DSLR and shimmer beautifully in the light.

Specifications

Frame	Plastic
Display	6.2 inches, HD + (1,520 × 720), IPS
Platform	Qualcomm Snapdragon 450, Adreno 506 graphics chip
RAM	4 GB
Built-in memory	32 GB
Cameras	Main - 13 Mp + 2 Mp; frontal - 8 Mp
Connection	GSM: 850/900/1 800/1 900 MHz; WCDMA: 850/900/2 100 MHz; FDD-LTE: Bands 1/3/5/7/8/20/28; TD-LTE: Bands 38/39/41 (2,535-2,655 MHz)
Wireless interfaces	Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n, A-GPS
Expansion slots	microUSB, 3.5mm audio jack, microSD (up to 256GB)
Sensors	Electronic compass, light sensors, distance and position sensors, accelerometer
Operating system	ColorOS 5 based on Android 8.1 Oreo
Battery	4 230 mAh (non-removable)
Dimensions (edit)	156, 1 × 75, 6 × 8, 2 mm
Weight	170 g

Design

Appearance is the brightest feature of OPPO A5. When unpacking a smartphone for less than 20,000 rubles, you would not expect to see a mirrored body and a pattern that changes depending on the lighting. This is impressive, the device looks more expensive than its money.

Unfortunately, all this beauty is smudged once or twice, easily scratched. You can hide your smartphone in a silicone case, which is in the box, but then the gadget will become ordinary.

There is nothing special in front - a solid display and a "bang" behind which the speaker, front camera and sensors are hidden.

OPPO A5 is completely plastic, and this is more of a plus: the smartphone is lightweight and lies confidently in the hand. On the right edge there is a power button, on the left there are volume buttons and a three-section tray for two SIM cards and a USB flash drive. At the bottom there is a speaker, a microUSB port and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

Display

OPPO A5 has a 6, 2-inch IPS-matrix with a resolution of 1,520 × 720 pixels, a pixel pitch of 294 PPI. Someone will say that the permit for that kind of money is not great, but by eye it is sufficient. In addition, let's not forget that the FHD matrix would consume more energy, and the smartphone was meant to be long-playing.

The quality of the matrix itself raises no questions. The color rendition is natural, the level of contrast is high, and the information is read well in the bright sun. But in order to process a photo for Instagram, it's better to go into the shadows.

Performance

OPPO A5 is built on the budget Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chipset. It consists of eight Cortex-A53 cores with a maximum frequency of 1.8 GHz and an Adreno 506 graphics chip with Vulkan and DirectX 12 support. The amount of RAM is 4 GB.

For an ordinary user who does not load a smartphone with games and demanding tasks, such a base is enough. The smartphone works quickly and smoothly, applications start quickly, there are no lags or freezes.

If you still want to play, then the resources of Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 are enough even for PUBG Mobile. True, at low graphics settings. And the FPS will sometimes drop below 30.

In AnTuTu testing, the OPPO A5 smartphone scores 76,512 points, in PCMark - 5,002. By the way, about the same figures were shown by a cheaper model - OPPO A83 on MediaTek MT6763 with 3 GB of RAM.

Cameras

At first glance, the specs of the OPPO A5's cameras are common. Front - 8 megapixels, rear - 13 megapixels plus an additional 2 megapixels to blur the background. Apertures - f / 2.0 and f / 2.2, respectively. The functionality of the camera app is simple: there are not even manual settings.

In fact, the OPPO A5's dual camera copes well with everyday photography. Automation correctly exposes, autofocus is fast and accurate, but the dynamic range is not wide enough: in high-contrast scenes, you can get flashes. However, this is not a problem for this price segment.

When it comes to night shots, our engineering test sample got too carried away with noise suppression - there is a problem in the processing algorithms. OPPO promised to fix it.

Portrait mode works great. OPPO A5 manages to blur the background without harming the main character of the shooting: the contour of the head is neat.

The front-facing chip is in the AI Beauty 2.0 selfie enhancement technology. It is impossible to customize the "enhancer". You can only turn it off, choose the degree of correction, or trust artificial intelligence.

The latter, in our opinion, is the best option: AI Beauty 2.0 algorithms create a face map at 200 points and then process the image very carefully, so that in the end you get a really beautiful self-portrait without the notorious blurry gloss effect. AI Beauty 2.0 works in real time, so you can see what will be fixed without taking a picture.

In addition to AI Beauty 2.0, there is also augmented reality - ears, horns, cheeks and other cuties. There are a lot of stickers that can be added to the photo.

Connection

It would seem that you should not expect any special chips from a smartphone based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 450. Single Band Wi-Fi, LTE Cat. 4 at speeds up to 150 Mbps, Bluetooth 4.2, two SIM cards.

But if you use wireless headphones or plan to switch to them, then know: OPPO A5 has support for aptX, aptX HD and LDAC codecs. It is these codecs that allow you to transmit audio via Bluetooth in Hi-Res 48 kHz / 24 bit and 96 kHz / 24 bit quality.

So OPPO A5 can be safely paired with expensive Bluetooth headphones and listen to music in lossless formats on it. By the way, the same OPPO A83 supports only one basic Bluetooth SBC codec.

There is no NFC.

Working hours

The coolest thing about the OPPO A5 is its autonomy. The smartphone received a 4,230 mAh battery, and this battery lasts for two days in severe mixed mode. For example, a 25-minute skating rink in PUBG Mobile eats up only 4% of the charge.

The PCMark Work Battery Life test, which runs the smartphone with the screen on until 20% of the charge remains, and simulates the execution of various tasks (from surfing the Internet to rendering FHD video), gave as much as 17 hours of battery life! We managed to stretch the remaining 20% in a sparing mode for half a day.

While the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 supports Quick Charge 3.0, the smartphone ships with a regular power adapter and charges on the sly at just 25% per hour. But with such autonomy, it doesn't matter.

Software

On its latest smartphones, OPPO is installing a proprietary ColorOS 5 shell based on Android Oreo. The interface is very simple. However, there are also chips.

Holding your finger on the application icon will open the quick functions menu. Freeze on the camera icon, and you can immediately take a beautiful selfie or record a video.

In split screen mode, you can open two applications at once, for example YouTube and Chrome.

If you don't like Android's touch-sensitive navigation keys, you can enable gesture control.

Security

OPPO A5 supports two types of biometric authentication - fingerprint and face. Both work quickly and accurately. The lock can be installed not only on the entire smartphone, but also on individual applications, as well as on the so-called file safe.

Summary

Pros of OPPO A5

1. Design. The smartphone is very effective, even glamorous. The mirror pattern is fire!
2. Selfie camera. You can talk as much as you like about the resolution of the matrix and the aperture, but the main thing is the result. OPPO A5 can take beautiful selfies, AI Beauty 2.0 really works as expected.
3. Portrait mode. Thanks to the second camera and competent algorithms, the smartphone effectively blurs the background.
4. Working hours. Two days of intensive use without recharging and 17 hours of the screen on is cool.
5. Sound. The aptX, aptX HD and LDAC codecs for high-resolution audio over the air are awesome.

Cons of OPPO A5

1. Budget chipset. Unfortunately, the Snapdragon 450 is not for you if you are into high-speed graphics and high FPS in games like PUBG Mobile. Also, this chipset cannot boast of a reserve for the future: in two years the smartphone will start to slow down.
2. No NFC. OPPO will not bring NFC into its smartphones in any way - it is not even in the expensive flagship OPPO Find X. Yes, you can live without Google Pay, but somehow it's sad.

So, OPPO A5 is worth paying attention to those who want a beautiful smartphone with good battery life and good cameras. The gadget can be bought in the official or in "" at a price of 16,990 rubles.