Oppo A7

The successor of Oppo A5, Oppo A7 has been released quite fast with some noticeable improvements. It has a killer battery and an improved front camera for clicking great selfies. On top of that, it has brought in some software upgrades by integrating ColorOS 5.2 making it much more fluid and easy-to-use. However, it comes with an entry-level processor and even then, it is marked at a steep price of Rs. 16,990, which is not a very reasonable pricing decision.

On the basis of competitiveness, it falls behind most of the flagship models. It does not provide low-light photography features nor the resolution to match up with its competitors. However, it makes it up with a water-drop notch and sleek designs that make it come at par with the other competing flagship products.  

Oppo A7 has arrived with an eye-catching modification – a water-drop notch. This feature, along with the super-thin bezels, allows you to have more screen space to work with. Even top-end flagships like Huawei had failed to do away with the notch making this a designing excellence.

The rear panel has the same glossy finish with vertical panels underneath, a feature Oppo calls is 3D artistic texture, and it looks pretty good on the phone. However, it’s plastic and will catch finger smudges easily. We recommend using the clear case provided in the box from the first day.

The Oppo A7 comes with  a 6.2 inch screen with IPS LCD having a resolution of 720 x 1520 at 271 ppi. The screen resolution at just 720p HD does not fall in line with the progress made by competing flagships. It does provide good legibility under the sun, and has vibrant colours, but is still out of place with the poor resolution.

The major letdown has to be the use of entry-level Snapdragon 450 processor. Oppo has just upgraded the RAM to 4GB but retaining the old Snapdragon will make your gaming experience go down. You have to settle for low graphics setting to prevent excess lags. It’ll work well with regular apps and is good at multitasking but does not match with the powerful battery and falls far behind competing flagship phones.

Trying to retain the label of being the Selfie Expert, Oppo has upgraded their front camera to a 16MP shooter with f2.0 aperture and wide-angle lens, a significant improvement over the 8MP of A5. You can capture clear selfies with the camera drawing enough visual information to make you look good. Plus, you get above average images in Portrait Mode and a good amount of bokeh. However, the edge detection does not match the current competition with other flagship models.

On the other hand, Oppo has retained the 3MP + 2MP dual camera. While daylight images bring in some clear pictures, you can notice visual noise in low-light images. On top of that, the video recording is capped at just 1080p which is a definite letdown in the current market. The image stabilization, however, makes your videos more fluent and vivid.

Oppo A7 comes with a killer 4,230 mAh battery that gives a fair fight to its competitors. This giant of a battery will last for a day and a half, even if you are into a bit of heavy gaming. After moderate use, you can even keep it away from the charger for a day. If that’s not enough, Oppo offers smart AI battery management that freezes inactive apps saving more power. It is also equipped with the Qualcomm’s octa-core processor which allows multitasking without the scary phone freeze.

Oppo A7 brings some noticeable modifications especially with a killer battery and the water-drop notch that gives it a premium look. Trying to keep its ‘Selfie Expert’ tag intact, it has improved the front camera, but it lacks in the low-light photography department. Retaining an older processor while amping up the RAM is an error that’s easy to spot while playing games, even though the software makes the phone function fluidly. At a steep price of Rs. 16,990, it is not a phone that is recommended for users. Realme Pro 2 offers better processing, improved camera and the dewdrop notch at a lower price making it a much better choice.