Oppo’s latest mid-ranger to join its product portfolio is the Oppo A78 5G, coming at a price of Rs 18,999. In such a competitive space, the A78 5G has to go head-on against the likes of Realme 10 Pro 5G, iQOO Z6 5G, Redmi Note 12 5G and more. Is it a worthy competitor or does it fade away against the competition? Let’s find out in our review of the Oppo A78 5G.
Oppo A78 5G: Design & Display
The Oppo A78 5G builds upon Oppo’s traditional design language with a slight colour changing panel and two big camera cutouts. The device has a matte finish on the back, thanks to which it feels premium in the hand despite being plastic. The flat sides help in increasing the grip and the overall build quality seems decent.
The buttons are clicky enough which I like, and there’s also a 3.5mm Audio Jack at the bottom which is another good addition we rarely see these days. There’s a stereo speaker setup which seems to be present for the sake of it.
The sound can get loud but starts getting distorted at high volumes. It can also sound shrill at times with no sign of low frequencies. The vibration motor is a classic rattling one you get to see in budget phones.
The fingerprint sensor integrated with the power button works without any issues and is quick to recognise the print. Coming to the front, the display is a 6.5-inch HD+ panel with 1612 x 720 pixels resolution, 90 Hz refresh rate, and peak brightness of 600 nits.
There’s a huge chin at the bottom with a water-drop notch at the top that looks old now. As for the panel itself, it looks like an average one where some text seems to be blurred, thanks to 720p resolution. Fortunately, the 90Hz Refresh Rate definitely helps in a smoother experience. But again, it falls short when it comes to brightness in direct sunlight.
In comparison, the competition is offering much better choices, such as the 120Hz panel on Realme 10 Pro 5G and a 120Hz Super AMOLED panel on the Redmi Note 12 5G. These panels make them superior over Oppo’s.
Oppo A78 5G: Software & Performance
The Oppo A78 5G is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 700 chip with a clock speed of 2.2GHz. The phone comes with 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage which can be expanded via microSD card of up to 1TB. It runs on ColorOS 13 based on Android 13 out of the box with the December 2022 security patch.
The performance is surprisingly decent with no lags as such. Yes, the device stutters at times and can be slow to open some apps if you try to push it to its limits but then it handles day-to-day tasks well. The software experience is also decent as Oppo’ ColorOS works well on both flagships and budget devices. Features like smart sidebar, kid space, split screen, and much more are all available.
As for gaming, you can expect a decent amount of it to run smoothly, such as RL Sideswipe. But if you are planning on playing Call of Duty at high graphics, it won’t be possible due to hardware limitations. The device does get warm at times when demanding tasks are being executed but never uncomfortably hot. Connectivity performance including LTE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth also remained optimum.
As for the competition, Realme 10 Pro 5G comes with a Snapdragon 695 SoC with similar if not identical software. The Redmi Note 12 5G also has a better Processor which is the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1. Once again, the Oppo A78 5G proves to be inferior in front of other offerings.
Oppo A78 5G: Battery Life
The battery life on the Oppo A78 5G depends on a 5000mAh cell that supports 33W fast charging. The Realme 10 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 12 5G have the same battery specs meaning the A78 5G finally stands in line with what others are offering.
As expected, the A78 5G offers excellent battery backup with moderate to heavy usage. It can last you more than a day with more than 5 hours of screen-on time. In my case, it even touched close to 6 hours with light usage and lasted almost 1.5 days. The device took 1h 30m to charge from 0 to 100% with the 33W fast charger.
Oppo A78 5G: Cameras
The Oppo A78 5G gets a dual camera setup, including a 50-megapixel main shooter with an f/2.2 Aperture and a 2-megapixel depth sensor with an f/2.4 aperture. There is also an 8-megapixel selfie camera at the front, with an f/2.0 aperture.
The Oppo A78 5G’s main 50MP sensor shoots average shots with decent detailing. Dynamic range and sharpness of the photo could have been better but as for colours, these look surprisingly vivid.
Portrait shots also have above average details but EDGE detection goes for a toss. Bokeh effect is impressive but because of such poor edge detection, the whole beauty of the shot takes a hit.
Under low lighting conditions, the camera further struggles to keep up. The photo becomes blurry and the detailing & sharpness look considerably below average. The 8MP front facing sensor clicks clear selfies with average detailing. Colours look fine but again, edge detection in portraits and dynamic range are some things which could have been a lot more better.
As for photos under artificial lighting things do not improve as it gets noisy. Moreover, there’s visible blurriness which makes the photos look disappointing. Lastly, night shots are decent when Night mode is turned on as detailing level increases. Without night mode, you cannot expect a lot from the device.
