OPPO A1

The Oppo A1 is slated for launch at the end of 2018-early 2019, with a few sources quoting the exact launch date to be 30th December. The phone is expected to ship at around INR 14000-15000, which makes it lie in the price range of a mid-range handset, although the features are closer to a lower mid-range device.

We don’t expect it to be a flagship killer of any sorts, but the device should be a useful one and should satisfy the needs and wants of most smartphone buyers out there.

Oppo has quite a reputation for making beautiful devices. The A1 is also a great device to look at, with the metal unibody reflecting light in a way that makes the eyes twinkle, yet doesn’t put much strain on them. The company’s design pattern has always been top notch, and the A1 isn’t far from their philosophy. Colour options include white, red and blue.

The only design flaw here is the absence of any kind of fingerprint sensor. We do not know what the company was thinking when it decided not to put in a fingerprint sensor on the device, but it is what it is.

A 5.7 inch bezel-less display, with an 18:9 aspect ratio is what the Oppo A1 houses. The HD+ resolution takes it a step above entry-level smartphones, which is naturally to be expected. A pixel density of 282 pixels per inch, and a great screen to body ratio of 76.45% make the display a joy to behold.

Visual elements are clear enough to be visible in daylight, and the brightness of the phone is also good. It is not the best display ever seen on a smartphone, but it certainly does the job for what it’s worth.

The device houses a MediaTek Helio P23 MT6763T SoC with an octa-core, 2.3 GHz processor, and an ARM Mali G71 MP2 graphics processing unit, clocking in at 770 MHz. The specifications, especially the processor clock speed, seem really good on paper. Couple that with a 4 GB RAM on board, and you have yourself a nice little powerhouse of a device capable of performing most tasks imaginable.

For storage purposes, there is 64 GB onboard memory available, which is expandable by a further 128 GB using a memory card. The OS is Android Nougat 7.1, which is a bit of a shame, considering most phones in this range retail with at least Android Oreo.

The phone houses only a single camera on the back and on the front, but the performance from both these shooters is good. The rear camera is of 13 MP and can capture images in 4K. LED flash, optical zoom, and other features enhance the camera performance, and it works great for a smartphone in the mid-range segment. You can also record videos in 1080p at 30fps with the camera.

The front camera, an 8 MP f/2.2 aperture, offers decent performance for what it’s worth. The cameras are by no means any match to the ones on the OnePlus 6T or the iPhone X, but they do offer a nice photo and video capturing experience.

The Oppo A1 sports a 3180 mAh nonremovable lithium polonium battery, which is enough to last the phone through a day on regular usage. Fast charging is a nice addition, and it doesn’t take more than 90-100 minutes to charge the phone from 0 to 100. The large capacity battery helps in powering the huge 5.7-inch display, and it does a good job of doing so.

The Oppo A1 was very quietly launched in China, no waves being made, and no markets or industries being disrupted. Perhaps this represents what the phone actually is- a no-nonsense, down to the business device, that gets the job done, and often slips under the radar. The only weak point with this phone is the absence of the fingerprint sensor, overlook that, and you have a great phone on your hands.