OPPO A78 Review: Is it worth buying?

September 07, 2023, 12:08 PM
by Shahriar Rabab

UNB News
Publish- September 07, 2023, 12:08 PM
Shahriar Rabab
Update- September 07, 2023, 12:28 PM

OPPO is one of the significant leaders when it comes to stylish smartphones. Though the brand started its journey as “camera phones” with a core focus on photography, recently OPPO smartphones offer a bunch of latest features. The ‘A’ series of OPPO brings entry-level to mid-range smartphones. OPPO’s latest device A78 is now officially available in the country. Let’s take a look at the Key specs, pros, cons and price of OPPO A78 in Bangladesh.

Key Specifications of OPPO A78

Design and Build Quality

The A78 brings a generic tried and tested design without many bells or whistles. The design is an overhaul from the last gen A77 but it is nothing completely new. It’s an all-plastic device with a glass front and refractive back finish. The dual camera system is neatly tucked into a vertical alignment on the back. It might give the impression that the device boasts very large sensors, but it's just clever positioning, nothing else.

The device comes in at 160 by 73.2 by 7.9 mm with 180 gm weight. The low weight and even component distribution provide good comfort while holding the device for a long time. There is a large chin at the bottom of the display. The sizable bezel in the front brings the device to an 85.2% screen-to-body ratio. However, one positive design choice is that the water drop notch has been replaced with a corner punch-hole display.

Moving to ports and buttons, users would be happy to note that the 3.5 mm headphone jack is still present on the device. There’s a dual nano sim slot along with dedicated micro SDXC support. Another thing that stood out was the dual stereo speaker on the device. Typically devices in this price range usually go for the mono stereo so seeing dual stereo support was certainly a pleasant surprise. OPPO has also included an in-display fingerprint scanner for an added layer of security.

Overall, the A78 brings a bit of everything to create a perfect day-to-day utility phone. There’s even an IP54 rating which will bring certain peace of mind for the users.

The Display

The display on the OPPO A78 is an AMOLED panel with a 90 Hz refresh rate. The display is a point of contention with many budget-friendly smartphones as they often cut prices by going with an IPS LCD panel. But that’s not the case with the A78.

The 6.43-inches display packs in an FHD+ resolution with 1080 x 2400 pixels. That brings the total pixel count to 409 ppi in a 20:9 aspect ratio. The higher density combined with crisp sharpness makes it one of the top displays in its price category.

Outdoor visibility might be an issue for most users as the HBM maxes out at 430 nits. It's one of the only cut corners that catches the attention. Other than that, the smooth animations and better touch sampling make it an excellent panel to interact with. And not to mention the Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection which does a great job of deterring minor scratches.

The camera

There’s a dual camera setup on the A78 with the primary sensor being a 50 MP wide-angle shooter and the secondary one being a 2 MP depth sensor. The main camera with HDR, LED flash and the PDAF does what it can in its limited capability.

OPPO A78 Camera

It's essentially a single-camera device as the depth sensor doesn’t do much on its own. Even then the camera system performed significantly well. In brightly lit outdoors, the camera performed consistently with great edge detection and subject clarity. The exposure was also accurate with a decent amount of dynamic range in the frame.

Pictures in artificial light were a hit or miss at times. Photos without the night mode or flash appeared to be soft and had considerable grains. However, the exposure in the low light was fairly consistent.

The front camera on the A78 is an 8 MP generic shooter good enough for casual selfies.

The videography on the A78 is limited to 1080P at 30 fps. The video output can be considered as passable at best as there’s no external OIS or EIS support.

Processor and Performance

The processor on the OPPO A78 is a Snapdragon 680 4G based on the 6 Nm architecture. The octa-core processor has a 4 2.4 GHz Kryo 265 Gold and 4 1.9 GHz Kryo 265 Silver chip design. The processor is complemented by an Adreno 610 GPU.

The 600 series from Snapdragon has become the perfect entry-level processor of choice thanks to its balanced performance. It doesn’t go over the top with intense performance which in turn increases the battery efficiency of the processor.

In this device, users can play 3D titles like Genshin Impact, Asphalt 9, COD, and PUBG albeit at their lowest settings. Being a plastic device, it doesn’t do a great job at heat dissipation. As a result, 30-odd minutes of gaming gets the device considerably heated.

Users would be getting Android 13 out of the box with Oppo’s proprietary ColorOS 13.1 onboard. There are a few bloatware on the OS but the smooth animations and the 90 Hz refresh rate help to cover up the lacking. In short, the processor brings a balanced approach to performance and efficiency. The device won't provide lightning-fast performance. But what it provides is more than enough for the majority of the A78’s target demographic.

OPPO A78 sports 8GB RAM with 256 GB of internal storage capacity. However, the UFS 2.2 data transfer technology might disappoint the users.

Battery and Charge Time

OPPO A78 comes with a 5000 mAh battery onboard. There’s an included 67W SuperVOOC fast charging on the device which can take it from 0 to 76% in just 30 minutes. The fast charging combined with the efficient processor and display makes for a great battery experience. A regular user should easily get around 8 hours of SoT from a single charge.

Pros and Cons of OPPO A78

Pros:

- Great battery life
- IP rating and Gorilla Glass protection
- Attractive back panel
- Good day-to-day performance
- Decent display.

Cons:

- Sub-par camera
- Outdated data transfer technology
- Outdated front bezel.

Official Price of OPPO A78 in Bangladesh

The official price of OPPO A78 in Bangladesh is BDT 27,990. However, the price is subject to change.

Verdict

The OPPO A78 took the existing design and features and refined them into an upgraded premium version. The refractive back, performance, display, memory, battery life and charging are all of its strong suits. For most users, these are what constitutes a basic necessity in a smartphone.

The camera department falls a bit short compared to the other competitors. Even the Walton Xanon X20 offers better camera specs at a much lower price tag. The data transfer technology is also backdated. And, those who are looking for a competent gaming phone can check out the other options available on the market.

On the whole, the OPPO A78 is a standard smartphone under BDT 30,000 for reliable day to day performances.