At Rs 18,999, the OPPO A78 is a competitively priced handset against alternatives from Xiaomi and Realme. You get MediaTek's Dimensity 700 SoC, a 50MP dual-camera array, and a 5,000mAh battery with a 33W charging system. Even though the device's specifications appear to be standard on paper, a closer look is still warranted.
Verdict
The OPPO A78 doesn't really stand out as much as its rivals as a cheap phone. However, a user looking in this price range should find the overall experience to be pleasant. This includes having a sturdy construction, enough processing power to accomplish most of your everyday tasks, and a respectable battery backup.
THE LOWDOWN
With its rectangular, boxy design and polycarbonate structure, the OPPO A78 blends in with the sea of similarly styled smartphones that are available in this market. The phone includes two audio speakers, and at the bottom is a USB Type-C connection. Additionally, the right-side fingerprint sensor doubles as the power button. The twin camera system is completed by two circular rings that protrude from the blue matte-finish surface. The OPPO A78, on the other hand, is lightweight and solidly constructed, but there's nothing about it that inspires awe in me.
The OPPO A78 has a 6.5-inch HD+ LCD screen with a 90Hz refresh rate. The selfie camera is situated in an outdated waterdrop notch, and the display is flanked by a series of thick bezels, particularly on the bottom. It's disappointing to see a lower-resolution screen used on the A78 when viewing experiences on affordable phones have become so much better. To its credit, the display offers good viewing angles and can grow rather bright. While using the phone, the 90Hz refresh rate did not stutter. However, there are other smartphones under Rs 20,000 that can compete with the OPPO A78 in terms of viewing content.
The phone has two cameras: a 50MP main camera and a 2MP depth camera. Overall, it is obvious that the phone doesn't come equipped with the most adaptable image-capturing technology. Photos taken in broad daylight are fairly detailed and rapidly come into focus. Additionally, the exposure is timed, and the dynamic range is respectable.
The subject highlights, though, should be better, and I think the final shot's colour profile is somewhat drab. Low-light photographs are also not very good, with the majority of the time having soft detail levels. In this sense, the specialised night mode is of limited assistance. The 16MP selfie camera employs the typical facial overprocessing technologies seen in many handsets in this market class.
OPPO has used MediaTek's Dimensity 700 SoC in the A78 to meet the processing needs. Since other phones in the sector really feature more enticing hardware, the silicone is fairly outdated. However, your typical processing requirements can be readily satisfied without a problem. The CPU won't be taxed by tasks like toggling between the Chrome browser and your social media applications or even lazily browsing YouTube. You will like the gaming-related products from other OEMs more, though. In addition, the A78 has 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage and up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM.
Regarding further features, the device's two speakers sound decent and really have some depth to the audio. The quick fingerprint sensor on the side, with its simple identification, was another feature I loved. At least six bands, including the well-known n78, are supported by 5G on the gadget. I ran my testing on Jio's 4G network, which worked without any issues. The OPPO A78's Android 13-based ColorOS 13 UI strikes me as being highly sophisticated when compared to other Chinese OEM skins in terms of software experience. However, the gadget still suffers from the well-known problem of bloatware.
The A78's battery has a 5,000mAh cell and is powered by a 33W charging system. The OPPO A78 may survive for more than a day with moderate use and even two days. The gadget needs roughly 90 minutes to fully charge from zero to one hundred percent.
FINAL VERDICT
A cursory glance at its specs versus its price isn’t doing the OPPO A78 too many favours. Improvements are definitely needed with the phone’s overall display and camera capabilities, but looking past those, the device can be considered a reasonable buy. It does get a few of the basics right as far as the standard budget experience goes. This includes solid build quality, decent performance, and lasting battery life.
Pros
- Solid Build.
- Long battery life
Cons
- Cameras could be better
- Waterdrop notch feels dated
- Bloatware