OPPO A95
RM1,099
Pros | Cons |
+ Pretty design | - Single speaker |
+ Nice AMOLED display | - Old Snapdragon 662 chipset |
+ Expandable storage | - Cameras could perform better |
+ Decent battery life | |
+ IPX4 rating | |
Errr, I have mixed feelings.
The A95 is OPPO's latest entry-level smartphone, which comes in a 4G and a 5G variant. The one we have on hand is the former one. For a device within its price range, it has an IPX4 water resistance rating, a massive 5000 mAh battery, and a 6.43" AMOLED screen. Yet, I'm expecting something better than a Snapdragon 662 processor so, let's check out how this device fares!
Design
The OPPO A95 comes in Glowing Rainbow Silver and Glowing Starry Black. The unit that I received is the latter with a matte finish featuring OPPO's exclusive glow design, which gives the rear cover a subtle shimmering effect. It looks especially more obvious on this one as if there are stars shining in the deep back night.
Its smooth texture is also fingerprint-resistant so it doesn't pain me looking at it at the end of the day. The OPPO branding also stands out beautifully at the bottom on the back with gold colour letters. The rear camera setup sits on a bump at the top corner. I'm not particularly fond of the camera bump as it makes the phone unable to sit flat on surfaces, just like the HONOR 50 that we've recently reviewed.
On the right, you'll find the power button, while the volume rocker and SIM tray are located on the left. The 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB-C charging port, and mono speaker are aligned at the bottom. It's worth mentioning that despite its slim design, it can hold 2 SIM cards and a microSD card.
Overall, I like how it feels in my hand, weighing only 175 g. It's also comfortable to use even with just one hand. Most of all, I love how it looks outside and the golden OPPO logo certainly adds some extra points as a statement itself.
Display and Audio
The OPPO A95 boasts an AMOLED display with a 2400 x 2080 resolution. On the 6.43-inch screen, you'll see very slim bezels and a slightly thicker chin at the bottom. Satisfyingly, on this AMOLED panel, colours are vibrant and contrast is better, so watching movies on it can be just as enjoyable on a lazy weekend afternoon.
On the display, there's only a standard 60 Hz refresh rate so that means you can't expect content to be super fast and super smooth on this unit but it fared decently when you browse social media.
While watching videos on this phone can be pretty pleasant, the mono speaker makes it not so suitable for landscape use. The audio is decently loud and clear but since there's only a single speaker on one end, so you won't be able to enjoy balanced audio. Also, I realized that my thick fingers tend to cover the whole speaker grille when I'm gaming. So, if you want to experience better audio, and avoid simultaneous loud and soft audio when you're gaming (thanks to my fingers), I definitely recommend you use your earphones or earbuds or whatever you have, as it also supports Bluetooth 5.0.
The sensor for fingerprint unlock is located under the display right at the bottom edge of the screen. While I have no words for its sensitivity, I would have liked it to be placed slightly higher up on the display. If you're up for some fun with personalising the fingerprint unlock animation, go ahead with it in the settings.
Cameras
The punch hole on the front display is a 16 MP selfie camera with an AI Beautification feature. Of course, if you're super active on social media with tons of selfie postings (I'm exaggerating but you know what I mean), you'll like how it beautifies your pictures. There's also a Front Night mode, which lets you take clear and bright selfies even in dark areas.
Moving onto the back, we have a triple rear camera module, which consists of a 48 MP main camera, a 2 MP depth camera, and a 2 MP macro camera. Under bright conditions, the photos come out decently but lack some details. Still, it performed better than in low-light areas, so for night scenes, I'd definitely recommend the night mode as it makes the photos more pleasant-looking. And basically, I find the macro camera useless as it couldn't focus on objects well. The results aren't even better than the ones I took with the main camera.
Normal vs night mode
Performance
The OPPO A95 is still using the pretty old Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 chipset, so I'm not expecting any exceptional performance from this one. Backing up its performance is 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage.
I haven't experienced any visible lags when launching apps but if you prefer a smoother and more responsive experience, the RAM expansion feature allows you to use part of the storage space as virtual RAM from 2 GB up to 5 GB.
As expected, it struggles with games like Genshin Impact even at the lowest graphical settings as I've experienced multiple lags during the gameplay. I also tried LifeAfter at the lowest graphical settings and there were still some noticeable lags. Obviously, this one's not made for gaming so if you really want to kill some time, go ahead with casual games.
One handy feature that you can use when you're gaming is the Game Assistant, which basically is a quick menu that lets you adjust some simple settings. It can bring up messages on a floating window in-game so you don't have to exit and re-enter a game when you need to reply to some urgent messages.
Powering this unit is a 5000 mAh battery along with a 33 W charging brick. OPPO claims that it takes 15 minutes to charge up to 30% and 72 minutes to fully juice up the phone. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to try the charger since I only received the phone so I'll take OPPO's words for it. Anyway, on regular usage, including social media, messages, and video binging, it managed to last more than a day before I find myself hooked at the wall.
Buy or no buy
In essence, the OPPO A95 is a pretty solid device with a beautiful design, nice AMOLED display, expandable storage, and decent battery life. However, it does come with several shortcomings like the mono speaker and an outdated chipset. I also feel like the cameras could be improved. At RM1,099, I wouldn't say that it'll stand out among competitors within its price range. I'd definitely appreciate it if the Snapdragon 662 is replaced with a newer chipset otherwise, it's considered quite pricey.
