Despite the fact that the majority of the attention is focused on OPPO’s reno series smartphones, OPPO is a brand that nevertheless shows some love to the more budget-conscious market. Thanks to smartphones that provide good specs and a useful feature set at reasonable pricing.
One of its most recent releases is the OPPO A55, a phone that appears to be a respectable mid-ranger with some unusual features that you wouldn’t normally find on a phone in its price range. We put the device through its paces to see how it performed. Before anything else, check out the full specs below:
Display: 6.51-inch HD+ 1600 x 720, 270 ppi
CPU: 2.3GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio G35 octa-core processor
GPU: PowerVR GE8320
RAM: 4GB LPDDR4X
ROM: 64GB (expandable via microSD card slot up to 256GB)
Back Camera: 50MP f/1.8 w/ PDAF + 2MP f/2.4 macro + 2MP f/2.4 mono + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 16MP f/2.0 wide
Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 18W fast charging
OS: Android 11, ColorOS 11.1
Dimensions: 163.6 x 75.7 x 8.4 mm
Weight: 193 g
Price: PHP 9,999
Design
OPPO A55’s overall design is nothing out of the ordinary. It packs a 6.51-inch LCD screen with camera cutout located on the left side of the screen. The back panel has a matte texture with an interesting starry coating. The rear camera cutout is on the upper left side.
The sleep/Wake button that doubles a fingerprint sensor is on the right-side bezel, while volume rockers are located on the left side bezel. The phone still has a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is located beside the microphone at the bottom of the phone. The USB Type is sandwiched between the mic and the speakers.
Display
Zeroing into the display of the OPPO A55, you cannot expect too much from an LCD display with a low pixel density of 270. The display is relatively bright, which compensates for whatever it lacks.
Despite its shortcomings in terms of numbers, its display performance passed my standards. It’s vibrant and the colors do not appear too overblown or washed out. Texts are sharp as well, which is always a plus factor for smartphones with relatively underwhelming display specs.
Hardware and Performance
Last week, we posted on our Facebook the specs of the OPPO A55. This sub-10,000 peso smartphone is packed with a midrange chipset from Mediatek, the Helio G35. It has 64GB internal storage and 4GB RAM.
The storage is a little small by my standards but at least it has a Micro SD slot if you want to expand its space, so you can take and store more photos and videos.
That said, it should be noted based on my experience that its meager 4GB RAM can be an issue for applications and games that require bigger memory. I do not fully recommend this phone for playing games like the upcoming Diablo Immortal or Apex Legends Mobile, but it should be good enough for crowd favorites like Mobile Legends and Roblox.
In terms of performance, as expected, the Helio G35 chipset that powers the OPPO A55 is within our expectations.
Software
The phone is also running on the latest version of ColorOS on top of Android 11. ColorOS 11 enhances Android, which gives quality-of-life for end-users. In my experience, ColorOS is among the cleanest looking software and has additional apps that really optimizes the performance of Android and the phone.
You’ve got System Booster that helps the phone understand the power and storage requirement of the user, and tweaks the experience on the fly. People call apps like this ‘bloatware’, but you’ll appreciate it once you actually start using the phone. This isn’t the most powerful low midrange smartphone in the lot, but features like this make it useful and bring value to its PhP9,999 price.
Camera Performance
The highlight of its camera features is its 50MP AI rear camera and 16MP front camera. The rear main camera is complemented with two 2-megapixel lens for Bokeh and Macro purposes. Not a lot of smartphones feature this combination of cameras, and OPPO A55 is one of the few ones available that you can buy in the market. Take a look at the photos I took using this smartphone and let us know in the comments section below if they are up to your standards.
For me though, the photos look decent thanks to its 50MP AI Camera and the two additional lenses. This phone has pixel-binning technology similar to flagship smartphones by other brands. They are not perfect but they work pretty good especially in low light scenarios, except when you’re using Night Mode, which has some notable features. Portrait mode is fantastic provided you’ve got good lighting condition, and it might just be the feature you’ll use all the time.
Time and again, OPPO has been really good at selfie photography, and this is still the case on the OPPO A55 despite its affordable price. There is even a 360-degree Fill Light feature that would allow you take selfies even if it’s dark using the display. Here’s a photo with the Fill Light turned on, and another one without using the feature. You have to take note though that Fill Light does not work on Portrait Mode.
OPPO is throwing in a few extra features that are normally found on flagship smartphones. You’ve got AI Beautification, Dazzle Color and additional photo filters to fill in some drama or dazzle to your photos. The phone also features 180-degree panoramic shooting so you can take sceneries like the one you’re seeing now. Well, again – apologies for the lack of new scenes because I haven’t been really going out lately due to you-know-what.
Battery Performance
In my previous, I mentioned that this phone managed to stay up for 21 hours and 19 seconds with 20% remaining battery in my battery benchmark. I needed to consider battery burn-in so I had to retest it again, expecting it to perform better.
To my surprise, it performed lower than I expected – 19 hours and 45 seconds, which probably has something to do with the previous update that was pushed via OTA. Still, I wouldn’t argue that OPPO A55 is one of the smartphones I have tested with good battery performance.
Verdict
OPPO A55 is a weirdly priced smartphone because of several factors: it has a budget chipset, small RAM, and internal storage but has a surprisingly decked-out camera specification. While it managed to decently perform in the camera department, it can be quite expensive compared to other smartphones with similar specs. Yes, battery life is still one of the best based on my experience on a smartphone at this price, and it might be one of its best attributes. However, it takes an OPPO fan to consider the OPPO A55’s price truly worth it.
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
