Oppo A79 5G review – The epitome and symphony of midrange

Getting a new smartphone is easy. There are some obvious hits from Samsung and Apple, but if you look a little deeper, you’ll find a number of Asian brands vying for your attention. Oppo is one such brand and you may have seen its Reno series at least once. thing The office a while ago. However, not all of them cost him more than R20,000. In some cases, they step into the ‘mid-range’ realm and produce great products for R12,000 (or less), like the Oppo A79 5G.

Is this an iPhone?

Oh, no. The A79 may have the typical looks of a Genius Bar, but it’s not really a Genius Bar. One look at the A79’s box of accessories is enough to tell you that. When was the last time Apple bundled a phone case with a charger?

And of course, these “traditional looks” have something to do with the A79’s slightly bulky body shape, which Apple is very fond of. We don’t care about that. We’re not criticizing the slimming down of phones, but if the materials are right, these bulky features can make a R9,000 piece of kit feel like it’s twice its price.

Our review model was in the “Mystery Black” shade, so the marketing team probably got stuck dreaming about it for weeks. There’s a rectangular “innovative AI camera” nub in the top right corner of the back, but fortunately it doesn’t take up too much space. The back is coated entirely in treated plastic, making you wonder, “Did Oppo really not cover this with glass?”

The phone’s iPhone-like metal frame and rounded corners are all the usual port suspects. USB-C is located in the center, connected to the speaker vents and his 3.5 mm earphone jack, which you don’t see very often anymore. The right side has a volume rocker and a power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader, while the left side has the SIM tray.

Easy on the eyes

It may have an iPhone body, but that’s where the similarities end. You can tell by looking at the A79’s 6.72-inch FHD+ LCD display. It wasn’t a big deal. The A79’s display can reach 680 nits of brightness and handled everything we threw at it, mainly watching YouTube, replying to emails, and passing WS. marvel snap. The 90Hz specification is the most important.

This made scrolling much faster, but it was difficult to get the A79’s gaming capabilities up to scratch. Even starting it was difficult. marvel snapa card game with the same flow as hearthstone Please note, I couldn’t get the frame higher than 30fps.Now imagine it PUBG Mobile.

It would be easy to blame the 90Hz refresh rate for not meeting expectations, but that’s not the case. Our problem lies in the processor choice: MediaTek Dimensity 6020, 8GB RAM, Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. Again, when it comes to handling day-to-day things, it’s great. Just…don’t expect anything more.

Even more troubling, especially in the early days, is Oppo’s reskin of Android, which it calls ColorOS. If you haven’t cleaned out a lot of bloatware, you’ll be asked to register with Oppo-this or Oppo-that. Once Facebook, Booking.com, and the rest of the garbage was cleared out, ColorOS settled into the background as a regular old Android clone and was almost completely forgotten.

He said almost. It’s not a big deal, and it’s not a deal breaker, but Oppo’s presence is most felt when you connect something via Bluetooth. When you turn on the Bluetooth switch, your A79 will automatically try to connect to the last device you used. Wait approximately 30 seconds before giving up and accepting a new connection. People who have a lot of devices in rotation are warned.

I have something to say (loudly)

One of the A79’s best features is its dual stereo speakers and what Oppo calls “Ultra Volume Mode,” the ability to spike numbers up to 300%. Oppo wasn’t kidding. A79 gets noisy. It’s really noisy. However, on the way to 300%, much of the clarity is lost until you finally reach a level of distortion that is downright unpleasant.

While the A79’s speakers didn’t pass the test of reviewers (seriously, when do you need 300% volume?), the A79’s speakers turned out to be surprisingly decent. did. There’s not much you can say about a smartphone you don’t pay for. The audio was clear and detailed, and my YouTube and Netflix sessions were much improved.

But what turned out to be the A79’s biggest feature was its built-in 5,000mAh battery. This is comparable to Samsung’s S24 Ultra, but it still loses the top spot thanks to the still respectable 33W charger included in the box. It managed to conquer the entire day without breaking a sweat and almost survived long enough to be a full 48 hours. I wasn’t able to fully accomplish this feat, but it’s easily accomplished if you lock it into power-saving mode and minimize gaming.

Let’s use it more intensively — some videos from bomber guy When used at maximum brightness, the seams start to tear a little. This means calling for a charger after 9 hours, which is still pretty impressive considering the price Oppo is asking.

Where the A79’s decent feature set completely fails is in its fingerprint and facial unlock capabilities, with the former embedded directly in the power button. Under-screen sensors are the future, and the A79 is a perfect example of why. Unlocking the device required at least three attempts, each with a failed facial scanner and fingerprint sensor combination. Constant vibration due to sensor failure in my pocket didn’t help matters one bit.

Megapixels aren’t everything

You’ve probably heard that megapixels aren’t everything, or read a subhead that says it’s one of two things. In Oppo’s case, that couldn’t be more true. The rear features a robust 50MP main sensor, along with a less enthusiastic 2MP depth sensor, and a simple 8MP sensor on the front. There aren’t any triple-digit specs to speak of, but that didn’t stop the A79 from pulling some decent photos out of the bag.

The 50MP sensor was clearly the star of the show. It was able to produce a large number of great-looking images under varying lighting conditions with little loss of detail. The 2MP and 8MP sensors aren’t too serious about their jobs, but they do everything you ask them to do, and they do it without a hitch. But don’t expect much more than that.

To get the results we’re talking about, you’ll need to flick on the camera’s AI enhancer, which Oppo leaves out by default. There will be a slight negative impact on color reproduction, but this can be fixed with a little editing.

Oppo A79 5G verdict

Oppo’s A79 5G has everything you want in a mid-range phone: a large display, great battery life, great camera skills, and an attractive price. If you ignore the RRP of 12,000, you’ll find much more respectable listings around R9,000. It’s not without its drawbacks, from processor failures that can slow down games to loud speakers that drown out any quality. Thankfully, those are few and far between, making the A79 a good option for those looking to get out of Samsung’s clutches without spending a fortune.