OPPO has been toying around with the idea of a capable mid-ranger for quite some time now. The company released several smartphones to accommodate this segment. The company launched the new OPPO A9 smartphone. The company is betting on simplicity and overall appeal to gather a significant portion of market share. But does this smartphone has what it takes, well let’s find out!
Design & Display
The design of the A9 possesses a waterdrop screen that includes a camera tucked right inside this contour. The body too follows the company lineage of super flamboyant colour gradients which come in captivating Marble Green and Fluorite Purple finish. The device offers smooth and well-rounded corners within a balanced form factor which makes handling simply effortless.
Complementing this marvellous design is a marvellous screen. The 6.53-inch LCD Full HD+ display with 90.7% screen-to-body ratio makes for a great viewing experience. Be it binge-watching, occasional gaming, or scouring through tonnes of images on Instagram, the A9 screen looks stunning for an LCD. The colours are accurate and lively enough to create a wholesome experience. It also packs the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to aid protection on the front and a fingerprint sensor on the back.
Performance
The Oppo A9 comes with a MediaTek Helio P70 chipset that powers some affordable smartphones. The chipset along with Mali-G72 MP3 graphics delivers solid performance for its class. The device delivers a smooth and lag-free experience across the range of intensive apps we ran it through. It handled all the usual chores without many hassles and the device also managed to run heavy tiles like PUBG and Asphalt 9 without much trouble. The dedicated gaming mode offers a bit of help in boosting the frame rate and keeping the thermals in check. The A9 in a single storage option of 4GB RAM and 128GB storage.
The Oppo A9 includes the latest ColorOS 6 UI along with the Android Pie operating system with promised timely updates. This combination provides buttery smooth transitions and great visuals through the entire UI. Sadly, Oppo also includes a lot of bloatware which slows down the processor significantly.
Camera
The smartphone includes a 16MP AI dual-lens camera which is more than adequate to take some quality images. The software can intelligently recognize between 22 different scene types and 416 different scene combination which aids in better image optimization. This setup provides stunning shots, be it portraits, food shots, landscapes, or object imagery.
The daylight images were stunning with clear and crisp details, and the HDR mode helped a lot under dense cloud cover. It managed to keep the exposure levels in check while keeping the brightness from overpowering the shots. However, the night shots suffered from grain and noise which made the images feel lacklustre. On the flip side, the smartphone also includes some neat little features like Artistic Portrait mode, Dazzle Color Mode and Ultra Night 2.0 to aid photography. This mode does help the smartphone fix some significant issues but doesn’t keep up with the required level of clarity.
There is also a 16-megapixel front-facing camera for capturing selfies. It manages to produce exceptional portraits under low light. The dynamic range was decent and edge detection was within the acceptable level.
Battery
The Oppo A9 packs a massive 4,020mAh battery which gave over 2 days’ worth of average usage and over 8 hours of extensive gaming and social media usage. Additionally, the power-saving mode does kick in to save some battery and extend your day altogether. Charging, on the other hand, takes some considerable amount of time with the available in box adapter.
Gizmo Verdict
The Oppo A9 is crafted to excellence, its design emits a sense of exuberance and sparks your inner being. However, the processor and underrated specs let it down by a significant margin. It does make it up through its gracious display and capable camera quality.
