OPPO A72 Review - good budget smartphone

Review: OPPO A72

Gradually, the OPPO product portfolio is also growing in the local markets. OPPO smartphones are now represented in all price ranges. In addition to the high-end models of the Find series, the mid-range Reno series, the Budget A series, which also includes the OPPO A72, is growing.

Design and workmanship

 A starry sky in your hand  - With this concise sentence, OPPO describes the design of the OPPO A72. The smartphone is available in exactly two colors. The subtle Twilight Black, which appears elegant above all, and the cool Aurora Purple, which is guaranteed to attract attention. The back of the case is made of plastic, which you can also feel. It doesn't feel quite as smooth as a smartphone with a glass back. However, since we are in the budget price range, this lesser evil is bearable.

We are looking in vain for a fingerprint scanner on the back. OPPO has conveniently integrated this directly into the power button. This not only makes it easy to reach, but also ensures a cleaner look. The rear camera unit, which protrudes in a rectangular shape and which encloses the four camera sensors and the LED flash, is striking. The OPPO logo is located at the bottom right.

The transition from the back to the housing frame, which is also made of plastic, is pleasantly round. If we take a closer look at the frame of the 162 x 75.5 x 8.9 mm large and 192g heavy OPPO A72, the action mainly takes place within the lower case section. There is a USB-C socket in the middle, which is also surrounded by a 3.5 mm jack for headphones, a microphone and a loudspeaker. The volume rocker is located in the upper third of the left side of the frame, the power button on the right. This arrangement is common and makes it easier to unlock the smartphone with the right hand. The OPPO A72 has a triple SIM slot above the volume rocker, which can be equipped with two nano SIM cards and a microSD memory card.

A look at the front doesn't reveal the OPPO A72 as a budget smartphone. The black edges that surround the 6.5-inch IPS display are comparatively narrow for a budget smartphone. The display extends almost to the edge at the top and sides. The “punch-hole” front camera is discreetly hidden within the display. The elongated receiver above the display is also barely visible. However, you won't find a notification LED. 

The processing quality corresponds to the price of the device. There were no abnormalities or processing defects in our test copy. So far, the OPPO A72 cuts a good figure!

Display

Let's take a closer look at the display, which has a 6.5 inch diagonal with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels. The IPS display type is not quite as colorful and rich in contrast as an AMOLED display, but especially when it comes to the OPPO A72, it impresses with a crisp, sharp display with decent viewing angle stability and high display brightness. As expected, there is no refresh rate beyond 60 Hz. The touchscreen reacts precisely to inputs.

display measurement

The measured luminance of 440 cd/m² on average corresponds roughly to the information provided by OPPO (480 cd/m²). With reference to the black value, which levels off at 0.4 cd/m², this results in a static contrast ratio of 1080:1 - "not great, not terrible". 

OPPO A72 display settings

The luminance deviation distributed across the display is a maximum of 30 cd/m². Depending on the color temperature mode, the color representation varies with an average DeltaE of 4.29 - 7.30. The sRGB color space is completely covered or slightly exceeded. The color temperature is rather cool in standard mode. This is due to the increased blue content.

Display settings

The setting options around the display are clear, but meet normal requirements. There is an automatic brightness mode, which smoothly adjusts the display brightness to the ambient light, a dark mode, which can be activated on a schedule, an eye comfort mode, which filters the blue component to protect the eyes and the already mentioned color temperature mode, which is described in "Colder - Standard - Warmer" The color temperature can be adjusted using a slider.

Performance

Inside the OPPO A72 is the Snapdragon 665 System-on-Chip from 2019. The ARMv8-based SoC has eight cores, which in turn are divided into two clusters. The high-performance cluster is made up of four Kryo 260 Gold cores (Cortex-A73) that clock at up to 2 GHz. The energy-saving cluster, which consists of four Kryo 260 Silver cores (Cortex-A53) with a maximum clock rate of 1.8 GHz, sets itself economical tasks. Especially interesting for gamers is the Adreno 610 GPU, which, in contrast to the Adreno 512 of the predecessor chip (Snapdragon 660), promises another performance boost in mobile games and graphical calculations.

The internal hardware is rounded off by a 4GB LPDDR4X main memory and a 128GB UFS2.1 data memory. If that is not enough for you, you have the option of expanding the data memory with a microSD memory card.

Benchmark

The smartphone places itself in the lower mid-range range in the various benchmarks that the OPPO A72 ran through as part of our test. As expected, the Snapdragon 700 does not come close to the performance of the Snapdragon 665 series. Nevertheless, the results can be seen, as can be seen in the individual screenshots. The results are comparable to a Samsung Galaxy A51.

In the storage test, the read and write speeds are slightly below the average of a UFS2.1 data storage device. Several measurements showed an average of 485 MB / s for sequential reading (256KB) and 235 MB / s for sequential writing (256KB). The same applies to the LPDDR4X working memory, which falls short of expectations with measured 5.5 GB / s.

Everyday life

Much more important than the performance in the benchmark is the performance in everyday life. The OPPO A72 cuts a good figure here. The ColorOS user interface is mostly fluid and only with a critical eye is it noticeable that it is a budget smartphone. Certain apps can take a little longer to load and the user interface animations can jerk a little here and there. Despite the 4GB RAM, apps are kept in the memory for a pleasantly long time and are available on demand.

Gaming

The gaming performance of the OPPO A72 is sufficient to be able to play one or the other mobile game smoothly. The smartphone can cope with less demanding games. As soon as we get closer to more demanding titles, such as PUBG Mobile or Genshin, the graphics settings have to be tweaked. The smartphone doesn't get uncomfortably hot when gaming. Thermal throttling, i.e. the temperature-related downclocking of the SoC, does not occur either.

user interface

The OPPO A72 is shipped with Android 10. More precisely, it is ColorOS 7.1, a user interface that was developed by OPPO for in-house smartphones. The focus is on an innovative design that appears elegant and tidy. The user interface is easy to use and can be individually adapted to user requirements. As a feature-rich operating system, useful functions and apps are already integrated into the system. From a performance point of view, ColorOS 7.1 impresses with its high performance, well-functioning battery management and efficient memory management.

An update of the OPPO A72 to ColorOS 11 (Android 11) is to be rolled out in China as early as December. The western market is expected to follow in 2021.

Camera

On the back of the OPPA A72 there is a 48 + 8 + 2 + 2 megapixel quad camera setup. OPPO does not give the exact designation of the individual sensors. Nevertheless, the manufacturer provides information on the sensor and pixel size, as well as the aperture. The following cameras and sensors are included in the quad camera:

•  48 megapixel main camera (1/2.8"/1.25um; aperture f/1.7)
•  8 megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with 119° wide angle (1/4"/1.12um; aperture f/2.2)
•  2 megapixel monochrome camera (1/5"/1.75um; aperture f/2.4)
•  2 megapixel portrait camera (1/5"/1.75um; aperture f/2.4)

The front camera has a resolution of 16 megapixels (1/3.1''/1um; aperture f/2.0).

Practical test of the main camera

48 MP main camera

The main camera of the OPPO A72 is on a good mid-range level. In good lighting conditions, usable images are created that are convincing in terms of image sharpness and level of detail. Images are pleasantly sharp right up to the edges. Image noise is not noticeable, at least in good lighting conditions. In terms of dynamic range, both light and dark parts of the image come into their own. Colors are depicted realistically and with a pleasantly warm note. Even with bright colors, the OPPO A72 does not tend to exaggerate. The autofocus reacts quickly and only in rare cases does it have to be refocused manually.

 You can find these and other test recordings in full resolution under this Link. 

Zoom

The OPPO A72 can zoom with a maximum of 10x magnification. The enlargement is purely digital, which is why the recording quality also decreases very quickly. With 2x magnification, the recordings are still usable and the level of detail only decreases slightly. Loss of detail and image noise increase up to a maximum of 10x magnification.

Ultra wide angle

The wide-angle camera is not one of the strengths of the OPPO A72. The dynamic range is reduced compared to the main camera. The level of detail is lower and image noise occurs even in good lighting conditions. Image errors in the form of chromatic aberration are noticeable here as noticeable color fringes.

Portrait mode

The portrait mode of the OPPO A72 works well. In most cases, the subject is clearly highlighted and the background is pleasantly blurred. It doesn't matter whether the subject is a person or an object.

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

HDR is a viable solution to artificially expand the dynamic range. In the case of the OPPO A72, the function was implemented well, as the following comparison shows.

Nachtaufnahmen

The main camera of the OPPO A72 does not get along quite as well in low light. However, this is not surprising, because even with expensive high-end smartphones, the recording quality suffers under poor lighting conditions. In the case of the OPPO A72, the amount of noise in the image increases and details are lost.

The night mode tries to counteract this to some extent by using different exposure times. More details are retained, especially in the area of ​​light sources. However, you shouldn't have too high expectations of the night mode. The OPPO A72 is still a long way from a Google Pixel night mode or the night mode of an iPhone!

video mode

The main camera of the OPPO A72 records videos in UHD (4K), 1080p and 720p. The maximum frame rate is limited to 30 frames per second for all resolutions. 120 images per second are only achieved in slow motion mode. Shaky images can be counteracted to a certain extent with Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS). However, this only appears in 1080p mode. The sound recorded with the video is slightly muffled, but understandable.

Practical test of the front camera

The 16 megapixel front camera is sufficient for one or two selfies. Problems arise with the dynamic range, which quickly reaches its limits in high-contrast scenes. Image sharpness and level of detail are not particularly high, but they do justice to an acceptable mid-range front camera. The portrait mode puts the subject in the foreground, at least in most cases. The front camera records videos in 1080p.

connectivity

Telephony

In terms of connectivity, the OPPO A72 scores. The X12 LTE modem of the Snapdragon 665 System-on-Chip communicates with the usual LTE frequencies and bands. Next-gen cellular technologies such as VoLTE (telephony via the LTE / 4G cellular network) and WiFi calling are supported. The triple SIM slot enables the simultaneous use of two nano SIM cards and a microSD memory card.

•  GSM: 850/900/1800 / 1900MHz
•  WCDMA:  Bands 1/2/4/5/6/8/19
•  FDD-LTE:  Bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/18/19/20/26/28/66
•  TD-LTE: Bands 38/39/40/41

The voice quality is good in both directions. The reception strength also leaves nothing to be desired.

WLAN, Bluetooth and NFC

Dual-AC WLAN, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC are available for establishing wireless connections. The transfer speeds in the WLAN are on a good mid-range level. The OPPO A72 does not show any abnormalities in the Bluetooth network either. One advantage worth mentioning is that it supports NFC. Mobile payment via Google Pay is now possible!

GPS and sensors

The OPPO A72 receives the exact position data via GPS, Beidou, Glonass and GALILEO. The location is determined quickly and without major deviations. The sensor equipment includes a geomagnetic sensor, a light sensor, a proximity sensor and an acceleration sensor.

Audio

The OPPO A72 is equipped with two speakers and is capable of producing stereo sound. The playback is pleasantly loud and differentiated. The action takes place mainly in the middle area. As expected, there is no draft and heights are limited. Unpleasant distortions do not occur at maximum volume. Sound improvers, such as "Dirac Mobile Audio", contribute to an overall better sound.

Battery

With the 5000 mAh battery, the OPPO A72 is well positioned. A screen-on-time (car brightness) of 16 hours was achieved in the test. Even with intensive use, it is difficult to bring the battery to its knees in just one day. On average, the battery has to be charged every 1 1/2 days.

The OPPO A72 can be charged with up to 18 watts. A suitable quick charger is included in the scope of delivery. A full charge from 0 to 100 percent takes approximately 150 minutes. One hour on the charger charges the battery to 60 percent. Qi wireless charging is not supported.