Great screen. Decent battery life. Good camera. It’s pretty much samey-samey when you look at phones with minor tweaks here and there. A few days ago Oppo sent in their review device, the A52. What makes it different are two elements — ColourOS 7.1 based on Android 10 and battery life. These, in fact, make it different enough to come across as a device that should cost a few thousand more than it actually does.

ColorOS 7.1 offers great experience

Instead of looks and design, let’s look at the experience, which matters as much as the spec sheet. Once the device has been activated, one quickly falls for the smoothness of the visuals and the interface doesn’t look confusing. There is more focus on what you are working on and the audio effects have been enhanced.

The first thing we did was turn on dark mode, which is not just easy on the eye but reduces overall power consumption. It feels fantastic. Second, we looked at the icons and decided to change the shape. Previously we had a problem with how the software looked. Much has been taken care of. In settings, you can go through a list of shapes, like square, rounded and so on or stick to default ColorOS options, Material Design and Pebble.

My work makes me take a lot of screenshots. Yes, you can do all that on Android but there are more features here. For example, feel free to delete the original screenshot after editing it, leaving you with one less thing to do while clearing out the gallery. Tapping on screenshot preview takes the user to an editor with several options. Click on Doodle to write or draw and then make more additions with the Edit option, under which you can crop, rotate, blur, add filter, adjust and do more such things.

And to another feature which makes life easy, especially when you have parents who need tech-related assistance. Turn on the screen recorder, which is also there on many phones. What is interesting here is that while you make a how-to video, the front camera and microphone can also be turned on to offer an explanation of what you are doing. Simple!

Hardware up to scratch

Coming to hardware, the phone has a good build but the back is a magnet for fingerprints. Oppo has managed to narrow down the bezels a lot and helping in the process is ColorOS. What we have in front is an easy-to-hold 6.5-inch screen with an embedded front camera. The FHD+ display has a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels and up to 405 PPI pixel density, which is good enough to stream films. With a maximum brightness of 480 nits, you can clearly read on the screen even under strong sunlight.

The fingerprint scanner has been embedded on the side power button, which actually works better for many people. At the same time, if you tend to rest your hands in the pocket most of the time, the thumb tends to rest on the power button/fingerprint unlock, which can be a problem.

On the photography front, there is a C-shaped rear camera layout on a rectangular module. The main camera is 12MP ultra HD, which captures pictures with enough sharpness. Keeping it company are 2MP mono lens, 8MP ultra-wide angle lens and a 2MP portrait lens. There is a dedicated night mode, which too works well, especially during food shots.

Powering the device is a Snapdragon 665, which is a mid-range chipset that tackles gaming smoothly but don’t expect this to be a hardcore gaming device.

Is it for you?

With a 5,000 mAh battery (18W Fast Charge) on the phone, things really can’t go wrong if you are a heavy user. And people who take a lot of selfies swear by the vividness of photographs taken on Oppo. It’s clearly meant for the social media. What Oppo has done is take software experience a notch higher to match its hardware capabilities and in the process has delivered a product for which one wouldn’t mind paying a few thousand extra. The A52 is a deal breaker.

Oppo A52 (rear) The Telegraph

At a glance

Device: Oppo A52

Screen: 1080P neo-display, 6.5 inches, 2400 × 1080 with 405 PPI

Processor: Qualcomm 665

Battery: 5,000mAh with 18W Fast Charge

RAM: 6GB

Storage: 128GB

Camera: Rear — 12MP main camera + 8MP ultra wide + 2MP mono lens + 2MP portrait lens;

front — 16MP

OS: ColorOS 7.1

based on

Android 10

Price:

Rs 16,990