Oppo A78 Review
Oppo A78 review in two minutes
The Oppo A78 doesn't exactly make a good first impression: take it out of the box, tap the back, scroll through the menus, and you'll find what looks like your typical budget phone. But use this phone for a while and you will find the price very impressive.
At £219 / AU$359 (around $280), the phone falls into the "budget phone" category, a smartphone sector that's competitive but lacking new ideas. And Oppo doesn't get credit for trying something new and strange, but it does so solidly in some areas where it ranks above and beyond...
…and two areas that suffered a resounding failure. We'll talk about that later.
The Oppo A78 is one of Oppo's A-series budget phones, which belongs to the mid-range Reno and the high-end Find. The A series is usually less advantageous than the Reno and Find series. But like a forgotten third child, A series phones can often surprise you; that's what happened here.
While the A78 has some features that immediately give away its budget status, like its flat-edge design and screen-breaking teardrop notch, it feels much more premium than many of its competitors. There's no cheap, plasticky case, but you'll find a glossy textured back and a fingerprint scanner that's one of the best on the market.
The Oppo A78 is also very good at gaming. Although it has a low-end chipset and only 4GB of RAM, during testing there were rarely any issues or errors when playing high-end titles. If you're a gamer on a budget, this phone is worth considering.
The stereo speakers are also quite impressive, as the sound is more balanced than what you are used to hearing on cheap smartphones. It's a pleasure to play games or watch shows on the Oppo, which is hard to say for many of its competitors.
But let's praise them: we also promised them some criticism. Firstly, there is the situation with pre-installed applications (also known as bloatware, to call it by a less unnecessary name). Unfortunately, this is common on budget phones, but the A78 offers a ridiculous amount, including 18 different games.
The phone's camera is also quite poor, with test results much more pixelated and dull than they should be; in fact, it was the closest thing a camera could create to an impressionist painting. Go to the "Camera Previews" section if you want to have nightmares tonight.
So it's easy to recommend the Oppo A78 as a budget phone if you're not a big photographer and like to take the time to uninstall lots of random apps that are either on the phone or installed automatically.
While "You'll love it if you ignore part of it" may seem like an overblown compliment, it's generally true of all budget and mid-range phones, and more than most of its competitors, Oppo really shines. for most use cases.
Oppo A78 review: Price and availability
Starts in early 2023
Hard to find in the UK, not sold in the US.
It costs £219 / AU$359 (around $280)
The Oppo A78 is due to launch in early 2023, although it may be difficult to locate in the UK as it doesn't appear that many retailers will have it in stock.
The phone costs £219 in the UK and $359 in Australia, which is much easier to buy. In the United States, it costs around $280, but Oppo does not offer the phone in the country.
You can guess this price from the name, as Oppo's A series is its family of budget phones, with the A78 being one of the first in the AX8 family, which replaces the AX7 line.
Some of the phone's biggest competitors in this price range are its Oppo A sibling, as well as the Moto G53 and G73, the Redmi Note 12 and the Nokia G42, to name a few, all budget phones at the same price. Relatively comparable specifications and experience.
Oppo A78 Review: Specifications
The Oppo A78 more or less matches the mid-range smartphone in its specifications:
Oppo A78 review: Design
It feels surprisingly premium in the hand.
Reliable fingerprint scanner
3.5mm headphone jack and USB-C port
The Oppo A78 doesn't differ much from the standard budget phone design template used for most similar phones in recent years: it's a "brown bar" style phone with flat, angular edges.
It's not a small phone, measuring 163.8 x 75.1 x 8mm, so it can be difficult to hold comfortably if you have smaller hands, but at 188g it's not too heavy.
The glossy back feels very premium compared to the cheap plastic used on many budget phones. TechRadar's review unit comes in black, but depending on your region, you can also get a bright purple model that lights up. This version also has a shiny back, separated by a strip on the side that houses two thin camera bumps, as well as the words "innovative AI camera."
On the edges of the chassis you will benefit from the standard phone: the base has a USB-C port and a 3.5mm jack, the left side of the volume rocker, the top and the right side of the 'Diet' button. With integrated fingerprint scanner. This sensor is incredibly responsive, it's amazing how wild this type of technology can be on a phone.
Another important thing to improve is the phone's IP54 rating, which means the Oppo is protected against splashes of water or dust, but it won't survive if it's submerged in liquid or hit by very fine particles.
Oppo A78 Review: Display
With a 6.56-inch LCD screen, the Oppo A78's display can easily be described as "large", although larger screens are used for high-end phones and even some budget phones. Despite this, the size is useful for gaming or streaming.
It is an HD+ screen, with a resolution of 720 x 1612; Some competing phones at this price have FHD+ displays. You can also find 120Hz refresh rates on some similar phones, although 90Hz beats out many other competitors here, and won't be a problem for people who don't notice the smooth motion that screens with higher refresh rates provide.
If you're not used to other displays on modern phones, the Oppo A78's display won't bother you: it's big and eye-catching (but not as bright as you'd like, maxing out at 600 nits).
Oppo A78 Review: Software
The Oppo A78 doesn't come with the latest version of Android, which may bother software enthusiasts, but it doesn't have much functional impact on the phone. It comes with Android 12, which has now been replaced by Android 13.
Above is Oppo's ColorOS, a largely cosmetic fork that replaces stock Android with a colorful and attractive user interface. There aren't many unique features here, but the quick settings drop-down menu is more interesting than most.
This phone has a surprising number of pre-installed apps, more than any other budget phone. In addition to the useful first-party apps, there are numerous third-party apps that you can choose to remove, such as Netflix, Spotify, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Facebook, but the biggest problem is the large number of games on the site. phone. lack.
This includes big names like Candy Crush Saga and Lords Mobile, but there are plenty of other shady names - in the image above you can count 18 of them that are either included by default on mobile or downloaded automatically without the user clicking " Install". menu. App Store. Not a good intuition at all, unless you like feeling isolated from your phone.
Oppo A78 review: Camera
50MP main camera and 2MP depth sensor camera
Photos are grainy and lack dynamic range.
8MP selfie camera performs better
Is an Android phone cheap if it doesn't have a 50MP camera? Oppo chose to use the same type of camera as most of the A78's competitors. That's not necessarily a bad thing, however, as the 50MP camera phone revolution has brought benefits to low-cost phone photography.
Still, the A78 takes worse photos than other phones that use this type of primary sensor. Shots look grainy and blurry, as if the entire world was made of Lego. Additionally, there is poor dynamic range and lack of sharpness. It's not even a question of resolution, since the default image is 12.5 MP thanks to pixel binning, although at first glance you might think that the photo is 1.25 MP.
Of course, you can't expect high-quality photos from a budget device, but the Oppo A78 is not that far behind the Oppo Find's camera. Let's not talk about AI optimization, which often saves cheap phones, because apparently the A78 designers didn't do that either.
The phone offers the ability to take 108MP photos in Extra HD mode; Although its usefulness is highly questionable given the resolution issues mentioned above, it worked as it should in testing, capturing high-resolution photos that can be enlarged. For some users, this can make up for the lack of a dedicated zoom camera, allowing them to get closer to the image without losing quality like with a standard digital zoom.
The main camera has a 2MP depth sensor for portrait photography, which may have some benefits for artificial bokeh blur. But for photography lovers, this camera is not as useful as, for example, ultra-wide-angle, telephoto or macro cameras.
This phone has an 8MP front camera. The selfies aren't particularly detailed or sharp, but thanks to AI processing (which slows down the screen!), they are sharp and vibrant. But portrait mode offers fairly questionable bokeh, with a tendency to blur the subject's hair or face too much. Oppo would do well to use a better camera, and right now the A78 isn't ideal for those who want Instagram-worthy photos.
There are a few default photography modes on the phone, such as Night or Panorama, with Night giving you a bit more detail for low-light photos, and most other modes work exactly as expected. There's no macro mode, and Oppo abandons it without a macro or ultra-wide lens to work with, but there is a Pro mode.
Maximum video recording at 1080p on both the front and rear cameras (not simultaneously). While there are fast and slow modes, they offer little control over resolution and frame rate.
Oppo A78 Camera Sample
Oppo A78: performance and sound
The Dimensity 700 is relatively powerful
Expandable memory of 128 GB and 4 GB of RAM
Quite balanced stereo speakers, plus 3.5 mm jack and Bluetooth 5.3
Now, from the Oppo A78's surprising weaknesses to its surprising strengths: This phone is a wolf in sheep's clothing when it comes to performance.
The phone features a MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset, a piece of hardware that has proven effective in turning budget phones into worthy computing champions (well, compared to similarly priced rivals, don't expect iPhone power here).
In gaming tests, the Oppo fared much better than its similarly priced competitors: it rarely stuttered in Call of Duty Mobile and ran smoothly in PUBG Mobile. As a precaution, no random pre-installed apps were included in the test, but when it came to big-name titles, the A78 really impressed.
The phone comes with 128GB of storage, although there is a microSD slot that allows you to expand this amount if you need more space. The RAM is 4 GB, a fairly low figure for a modern phone. Of course, this is not a problem considering performance. Also useful are RAM extenders, which temporarily use your phone's storage as RAM.
In terms of sound, the Oppo A78 features stereo speakers, but unlike most budget phones, which have powerful bottom outputs but poor top-mounted speakers, these two speakers are practically the same. This makes playing and watching the streaming service a much more enjoyable experience than some of its competitors.
There's also a 3.5mm headphone jack for those who prefer wired headphones or an auxiliary cable, and Bluetooth 5.3 for those who live a wireless life. The latter is actually a relatively new standard, and many of the A78's similarly priced or even more expensive competitors still use the 5.1 standard. The benefits of 5.3 come in the form of power savings, better encryption, and better switching between low and heavy duty cycles. .
Oppo A78 review: Battery life
Reliable battery all day
A nice 5,000 mAh power brick
33W charging power to reach full capacity in just over an hour
Like a 50MP camera, a 5000mAh battery is practically synonymous with budget smartphones these days, and the Oppo A78 doesn't change that. It packs the same robust power package and its performance lives up to expectations.
This means that the phone can easily be used throughout the day, without needing to charge it halfway. Intensive tasks like gaming or photography sessions will take their toll (although you'll somehow want to do more), but in testing it managed to last up to a day.
Don't expect two days of battery life, however, unless you're very thrifty - a single day of battery life is reliable.
Charging is done at 33W, which is a bit slow as 67W and higher are starting to be used on low-cost phones. This means you'll need over an hour to charge to go from an empty tank to a full one, although Oppo claims you can charge half in half an hour.
Should you buy an Oppo A78?
Buy it as...
You are a mobile gamer on a budget
There are few phones at this price that are fun to play with, but the Oppo's big screen, decent speakers and processing power are a perfect combination.
Do you like the side-mounted fingerprint scanner?
Different phone enthusiasts prefer their fingerprint scanners in different positions, but if you like the edges of your phone that house the sensors, you'll love the A78 because it's very responsive.
You are not busy with the software.
Some phone enthusiasts care a lot about the latest version of Android, but the A78 probably won't see an update anytime soon. This is for those who don't even know what their phone's current operating system is.
Don't buy it if...
You are passionate about photography.
Unless you want to take photos that look like Minecraft screenshots, avoid the A78 camera.
You want a phone that works out of the box
Given the abundance of bloatware apps, you'll have to take the time to remove these extras, which is not a good thing considering how clean some competitors are.
you have small hands
With a large screen and a larger body, the Oppo A78 will not be comfortable for those with smaller hands as they have to stretch to reach the screen or fingerprint scanner.
Oppo A78 review: Also consider
There are many good and cheap Android phones. If you want to see what the Oppo A78 has in store, here's a selection of its closest competitors:
Xiaomi Redmi Note 12
At the same price as the Oppo, this Redmi phone has a much better screen and a not bad camera, but it has a weaker chipset and a larger body.
Nokia G42
This Nokia is slightly cheaper than the A78 and has very similar specifications in terms of screen, battery and camera. Lower cost means weaker chips and slower charging.
How I tested the Oppo A78
Review trial period = 2 weeks
Testing included = Daily use including web browsing, social media, photography, video calling, gaming, video streaming and music playback.
Tools used = Geekbench 5, Geekbench 6, Geekbench ML, GFXBench, Android native stats
The Oppo A78 model I tested was the black model, with a single configuration of 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, although I spent much of the testing period with a RAM upgrade to an effective 8GB to get RAM.
After receiving the Oppo A78, I turned it on to stabilize the battery (and to set up the apps I wanted) and it stayed on for about a week while I set it up. This time is not included in the trial period mentioned above.
A lot of time was spent using the phone solely as an everyday phone, for social media, music streaming, and Google Maps. And I'm currently busy with Call of Duty Mobile, so that requires a lot of gaming time as well. There were a few camera test sessions, but it's a bit sad to waste time preparing the perfect shot to end up with a pixel art masterpiece.
I've been a writer and editor on TechRadar's phone team for several years. I have a lot of experience testing phones like this, especially in the budget market. I used budget devices from almost all the major brands and also focused a lot of my efforts on Chinese phones like those from Oppo. I always review phones for TechRadar, mostly budget devices, so I tested some of Oppo's contemporary rivals.
Learn more about how we test
First review in August 2023
