Oppo A7 Review: Big battery life, but is the price justified?

Oppo A7 specifications: 6.2-inch HD+ display | Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor | 4GB RAM | 64GB internal storage | 13MP+2MP rear camera | 16MP front camera | 4,230mAh battery | Android Oreo 8.1

Oppo A7 price in India: Rs 16,990

Oppo A7 Review: What’s good?

The first thing that will appeal most users is the design of the Oppo A7, as it looks quite clean and chic. The waterdrop notch design display looks appealing and on-par with current smartphones and the back looks quite clean and not at all flashy. Oppo A7 did not feel as heavy as some might conclude due to its 4,230mAh battery. It is quite manageable and can be easily used with the help of one hand.

The display is decent and the viewing angles are also good. Thanks to its edge-to-edge display, I was able to enjoy video playback and playing games. However, considering the price an HD+ display seems to be quite a big let down, considering the fact that manufacturers provide at least a full HD display at similar prices.

Oppo A7 comes with a decent design and a good battery.

The cameras on the Oppo A7 was able to click decent shots under good lighting conditions and the images came out fairly good. Images taken under good lighting conditions came out sharp and the colours were accurate. When taking images in good lighting conditions, the shutter lag was minimal and the device was able to focus on the object easily. However, the case was totally different when it came to low light photography.

As for the front camera module, the Oppo A7’s 16MP selfie camera is able to capture decent shots in both good and low lighting situations. However, it is recommended that you stay away from its beautification mode given it tends to make one look very unnatural.

Oppo A7 was able to click decent shots under good lighting conditions.

The camera was able to capture good details in most of the well lit shots.

The case was totally different when it came to low light photography.

Oppo A7’s 16MP selfie camera is able to capture decent shots in both good and low lighting situations. However, stay away from its beautification mode.

When taking images in good lighting conditions, the shutter lag was minimal and the device was able to focus on the object easily.

The background blur effect was a bit off on most the images taken with the Oppo A7.

The 4,230mAh battery will easily last you for over a day worth of heavy usage. I personally used the device to play online multiplayer games, streaming videos and music, making calls, browsing social media and navigation.

Though the battery performs very well and doesn’t need to be plugged in-between the day, it should also be mentioned that the device does not support fast charging, and requires a whole two and a half hours to get fully charged from zero to 100 per cent.

Oppo A7’s display is decent and the viewing angles are also good.

The device comes runs Google’s Android version 8.1 Oreo along with the November security patch for the same. The company even issued an update fixing the frustrating notification manager, which prior to the update required users to swipe each notification to the left and press the delete button just to get rid of them.

Oppo A7 Review: What’s bad?

Oppo sports a plastic frame and back panel. In comparison to Nokia and Xiaomi, which are offering glass and metal respectively, the Oppo A7 seems overpriced.

The biggest letdown for us was the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor at this price point, which does not deliver the best performance. Oppo A7 starts showing lags and stutters if a user multi-tasks with more than 13 apps at a given point of time or if they have more than 15 tabs open at a time in the browser or if they are playing graphic intensive games at medium settings.

Oppo A7 sports a dual camera module on the back comprising a 13MP primary sensor paired with a 2MP secondary sensor.

The software needs a lot of work, the layout is still a bit confusing and still takes a time to get used to the ColorOS. The news flashes that pop up time to time are also extremely annoying and cannot be disabled.

Oppo A7 struggles a lot while taking images in low light situations. The device isn’t able to focus properly on the subjects and the images came out with low amounts of detail and were colour inaccurate.

Oppo A7: Verdict

Oppo A7 appears to be an expensive proposition, especially if one were to compare the specifications and performance with rivals in a similar price range. Then there is the Realme 2, which comes with similar specifications from Oppo’s own sub-brand, and is priced much lower at just Rs 8,990.

Oppo A7’s 4,230mAh battery will easily last you for over a day worth of heavy usage.

Oppo A7 falters in the performance front, which makes it a tough device to recommend, especially given the competition in this segment from devices like Nokia 6.1 Plus, Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro, Realme 2 Pro.