Oppo A9 review: A decent mid-range phone with powerful battery, big display

Lately, Oppo has been quite aggressive in launching smartphones in the budget segment. It launched the Oppo A1k under Rs 10,000 around a couple of months ago and just recently it launched the Oppo K3 and the Oppo A9 with an aim to target the sub-Rs 20,000 segment. Today, we will be taking a look at the Oppo A9.

Launched at a price of Rs 15,490, the Oppo A9 packs a 4,020mAh battery. The smartphone is powered by a MediaTek Helio P70 processor which has been paired with 4GB of RAM. So should you buy this new offering from Oppo? Let us find out in our review:

Oppo A9 specifications: 6.53-inch full HD+ display | MediaTek Helio P70 processor | 4GB RAM+128GB storage | 16MP+2MP dual rear camera | 16MP front camera | 4,020 mAh battery | Android 9.0 Pie-based ColorOS 6

Oppo A9 price in India: Rs 15,490 for 4GB RAM/128GB internal storage variant

Oppo A9: Design and display

Oppo A9 looks similar to its predecessor the Oppo A7 which was launched last year and the recently launched Oppo A1k. The smartphone comes with a 6.53-inch HD+ display which has a waterdrop notch at the top. The display comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and includes a pre-installed plastic screen protector.

The display has adequate brightness for both indoors as well as outdoors. At the back, the smartphone has the dual-back cameras along with an LED flash and fingerprint scanner which is placed at the centre. The back panel is made of plastic, but the glossy glass-like finish tends to attract fingerprint marks and smudges. The device can be easily used with one hand.

At the bottom of the phone, there is a micro-USB port. A 3.5 mm headphone jack along with the speaker grille is also present.

Oppo A9: Performance, software and battery

Oppo A9 is capable of doing the day-to-day tasks with ease and there are no issues or lags whatsoever. I could run and use multiple apps simultaneously with ease. There were around 20-25 tabs open in Chrome which caused no problems, but at around 30 tabs, Oppo A9 starts feeling slow.

Watching video content on the Oppo A9 is enjoyable due to a crisp and bright display. The viewing angles of the smartphone are fairly good. The speaker placed which is at the bottom of the phone is loud enough.

The rear-mounted fingerprint scanner is quick to unlock the smartphone. The Face Unlock feature uses the selfie camera on the Oppo A9. It is easy to set up and is convenient for quickly unlocking the smartphone just by looking at it.

The device delivers a fairly decent performance for gaming. Games like Subway Surfer, Angry Birds work well with the device. Graphic intensive games like PUBG Mobile run smoothly on medium settings, which should keep most users happy.

The smartphone runs on the Android 9.0 Pie-based ColorOS 6. The Oppo A9 comes with 4,020 mAh battery, which can easily last for a day with gaming, photography and binge-watching on a single charge. It takes around two-and-half hours to charge the phone from zero to 100 per cent.

Oppo A9: Camera performance

The Oppo A9 has a 16MP+2MP dual-camera at the back with an LED flash and a 16MP front shooter for selfies and video calls. The camera also comes with features like Panorama, Time-lapse, Portrait, Expert, HDR, Slow-Mo and more.

The camera does pretty well and can click some very nice photos. Pictures clicked at night or low light are grainy, which is a challenge in most of the budget and mid-range smartphones. Images clicked from the front camera in low light were not too impressive and lacked detail.

Oppo A9: Verdict

Oppo A9 is stylish and works well for watching videos and gaming. It has a powerful battery as well. However, given the competition, it is likely to face a stiff battle with the likes of Redmi Note 7 Pro and Realme 3 Pro.