When you say OPPO, people would definitely think of its great selfie camera performance, and as it already established its own stage, the brand still continues to bring new offerings to consumers. With this, the selfie-centric brand recently unleashed its affordable addition to its A.I. Beauty and Full Screen technology smartphones – the A83.
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| OPPO A83 Review; The Affordable Beast |
On that note, our team spent a long time to play around with the said device. With two thumbs up from us, let’s take a deeper dig here to know why!
PHYSICAL:
OPPO A83 Unboxing and Hands-on
If you’re familiar with the company’s OPPO F5 smartphone line, then, you’d notice that the A83 almost shares the same look and design with other F5 members. Although it has a smaller screen, you will still find it hard to notice its uniqueness. Compared to the F5 and F5 Youth, the A83 is more compact and handy. In fact, one-hand usage isn’t only possible, but we’re also comfortable doing it.
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| 5.7-inch 18:9 Display |
Its front is dominated by its 5.7-inch screen that has 1440 x 720 resolution, which translates to 282ppi, and obviously an 18:9 aspect ratio. It features slim top and bottom bezels, as well, to deliver the brand’s Full Screen display.
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| Front Camera, Earpiece Grill, and Sensors |
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| On-Screen Navigation Keys |
Its 8-megapixel front shooter, sensor, and earpiece are located above the panel, while its bottom part is left unoccupied as the handset sports on-screen navigation keys. We just felt like it’s better if the brand decided to utilize the space by simply extending its screen than making it a blank space. Don't get us wrong, we appreciate its Full Display, in fact, we really like it.
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| Volume Keys |
The volume rockers are sited on the left side, while its right side houses the power/lock key and its SIM tray. Speaking of the latter, it can accommodate two Nano-sized SIM cards and has another slot for your MicroSD card. Kudos to OPPO for the dedicated storage expansion slot!
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| 3.5mm Audio Jack, Microphone, Micro USB Port, Speaker Grill |
The bottom part of the device welcomes the loudspeaker, MicroUSB port, microphone, and the 3.5mm audio port.
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| Main Camera, LED Flash, OPPO Logo |
Flip the handset on its back to reveal its rear camera along with its LED flash, and the brand’s logo. We just noticed that it can easily attract fingerprints. Good thing, it comes with a free clear case to protect your device.
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| 5-Point Touch |
Going back to its display, it boasts 5.7-inch 18:9 screen with 1440 x 720 resolution. It can give users a great viewing experience, as it offers natural and vibrant colors. It has decent brightness level, too, even when exposed under direct sunlight. Meanwhile, it only scored 5 on the multi-touch test.
SOFTWARE:
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| Software |
The OPPO A83 runs on ColorOS 3.2 based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat. Just like other OPPO smartphones, the device offers an iOS-like feeling. It comes with pre-installed apps, including Facebook and some Google apps.
Meanwhile, navigating the device is good, but might be confusing at first. The A83 has no app drawer, hence, all apps are placed on its multiple home screens. Similar to iOS devices, swiping from the top would show your notifications, while swiping from the bottom reveals your control panel.
PERFORMANCE:
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| Benchmark Results |
The A83 is powered by a 64-bit Helio P23 octa-core processor clocked at 2.5GHz. Powerful enough to play the latest games in the market, it is paired with Mali-G71MP2 graphics, and is coupled with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, which is again can be further expanded through the phone's dedicated MicroSD card slot.
Knowing these things, we raised our expectation on its performance. However, we still ran it on various benchmark apps to give us a preview.
Here are the benchmark results:
- AnTuTu – 80328
- 3DMark – 8957 (Ice Storm Unlimited)
- 3DMark – 6191 (Ice Storm Extreme)
- 3DMark – 74 (Sling Shot)
- 3DMark – 71 (Sling Shot Extreme)
- PCMark – 3889 (Work 2.0 Performance)
The A83 has a smooth performance. It was able to multitask and could handle heavy usage. During our tests, it didn’t freeze when we switch to multiple apps. We also tried different mobile games and it didn’t heat up, except when it is running out of battery.
CAMERA:
The A83 is equipped with 13-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel front shooter. As a selfie-centric smartphone, the device boasts the brand’s A.I. Beauty Technology that can detect more than 200 facial recognition spots for more natural-looking photos.
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| Camera UI |
The device sports camera features, too, including HDR, filters, Time-Lapse, Beauty, Panorama, and Expert.
Sample Photos:
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| Outdoor with HDR |
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| Outdoor without HDR |
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| Outdoor (Auto) |
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| Foodie (Burger) |
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| Selfie with Beautification |
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| Selfie Using Expert Mode |
It has great camera performance, although we won’t contest that flagship smartphones still have better outputs. Its cameras, both rear and front, can produce images with rich and clear photos. However, the noises became visible in places with dim lighting.
On the other hand, its selfie shooter didn’t frustrate us. Unlike other smartphones, it can produce natural-looking self-photos even if we used its beautification feature.
CONNECTIVITY:
The OPPO A83 is a dual-SIM device that supports usual connectivity features, including 4G LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. All of these features worked well, as we have good signal reception and encountered no issue at all during our test period. Moreover, non-wireless connection, namely Micro USB 2.0 Port and 3.5mm audio jack worked fine too.
See Also: OPPO F5 Review; Selfie Expert Gets Smarter
BATTERY:
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| PC Mark Battery Life Score |
Packed with 3180mAh juice, the device offers long battery life. Used as our main smartphone, it lasted for almost two days. This includes basic communication, and moderate browsing of social media. On the other hand, as a basic phone, we only used it for answering messages and taking calls. With this, it lasted for four days. However, the real deal was when we used it heavily. Worked as our main smartphone that includes continuous gaming and other multimedia activities, it lasted for almost eight hours.
We also did our traditional video loop test to see how far its battery could go. During the test, its Wi-Fi connection was opened, while its brightness and volume were at their highest level. In the end, it lasted for 9 hours and 13 minutes.
Moreover, we also ran the device on PCMark Battery Test where it scored 11 hours and 55 minutes.
CONCLUSION:
Considering its price, the OPPO A83 is geared with features that won’t make you feel less. It packs good offerings that won’t compensate other key specs. True enough, it offers a lot for its price tag.
Having a 18:9 Full Display, the device enables users to elevate the viewing experience. Moreover, it features the same A.I. Beautification Technology that the brand’s flagship smartphone boasts. So, if you’re after with great selfie-centric smartphone, the A83 is definitely a smart choice. It is powerful inside, too, as it can play heavy videos and games with heavy graphics. It can accommodate multitasking, as well.
With a price tag of Php9,990, the OPPO A83 is really an affordable beast!
OPPO A83 Specs:
- Dual Nano SIM, dual standby, supports LTE connectivity
- 5.7-inch 18:9 IPS capacitive HD+ (1440x720) touchscreen display
- Dimensions: 150.5mm x 73.1mm x 7.7mm
- Weight: 143 grams
- Android 7.1 Nougat with ColorOS 3.2
- 64-bit 2.5GHz octa core Cortex-A53 CPU, ARM Mali-G72 GPU, MediaTek Helio P23 chipset
- 3GB of RAM
- 32GB of internal storage, expandable up to 128GB via microSD card
- 13MP AF main camera with LED flash
- 8MP front camera w/ A.I. Beauty Recognition Technology and screen flash
- Multimedia player
- 3.5mm audio jack
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
- Bluetooth v4.2
- Micro USB 2.0 with OTG support
- GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
- Sensors: accelerometer, light, proximity, compass, gyroscope
- Battery: 3180mAh, non-removable
- Colors: black, champagne gold
- Price: Php9,990