OPPO continues to release quality smartphones, offered at competitive market prices. The smartphones maker recently refreshed its existing A line of smartphones with Oppo A9 2020 and Oppo A5 2020 launches.
The Oppo A-Series is ideal for buyers who want great specs at affordable prices. The Oppo A5 2020 starting price is pegged at around N79,900 Naira in Nigeria; however, the Oppo A9 2020 comes with improved specs and more RAM for a price of N89,900.
The selling point of the Oppo A9 2020 is its quad-camera system at the rear — a setup that comprises a 48MP primary lens. This device is sold in two colour options, which are Marine Green & Space Purple.
For this Oppo A9 2020 review, we made use of the 8GB RAM variant with Space Purple colour for a while.
Let’s intimate you with our key findings on Oppo A9 2020
Design and Display
Oppo A9 2020 sports a plastic body design and a huge display. Because it feels lightweight, it’s well-suited for single-hand usage. We found the rear design of this smartphone attractive, featuring a gradient colour design at the rear with Space Purple colour on its edges.
This colour goes darker towards the centre, but the surface is reflective thanks to its glossy plastic build.
Apart from these, the A9 2020 instantly and smoothly registers fingerprint marks and is not smudge-free. Also, the back features a slippery design, which is vulnerable to accidental falls from hand, so we recommend handling the phone with care and always use the transparent cover that came with the phone
Turning the phone over to reveal the display, there is a 6.5” HD+ screen. This features an 89-per cent screen-to-body ratio, and the display has a waterdrop-style notch on the top as well as a layer of Gorilla Glass 3+ for protection.
The phone’s dimensions stand at 16.36 by 7.56 by 0.91cm and weighs 195g. Its front notch contains the 16MP selfie camera. The OPPO A9 2020 sports thinner bezels with round edges and the bezels at the bottom of the display are relatively thicker (around 1cm) especially when compared to the Reno 2F we review last week.
There‘s the power button to the right side of this smartphone, while the SIM card slot, in addition to volume rockers, are on the left edges.
We’d like to point out that this SIM tray is comprised of three card slots — two for SIM cards and the other for a separate micro SD card slot for storage expansion (up to 256GB).
We accessed these buttons without breaking a sweat while using the phone with a single hand. Checking towards the bottom of the smartphone, we found the speaker grille, accompanied by the USB Type-C charging port. The 3.5-millimetre headphone jack, as well as microphone placed below, also came into view.
In terms of design and display, the Oppo A9 2020 doesn’t fall below the mark.
Device Performance
The A9 2020’s powerhouse is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 octa-core processor, which works with Adreno 610 GPU support. The setup works in tandem with the Oppo A9 2020 8GB RAM and internal storage of 128GB.
We discovered the smartphone worked impressively, even while multitasking and its processor is adequately equipped to handle heavy games, such as Asphalt 9 or PUBG.
We also found a separate Game Boost 2.0 feature, which can be used to boost the gaming experience. For improved gaming performance, the Frame Boost and Touch Boost features are also there. The OPPO A9 2020 runs ColorOS 6.1, which is based on Android v9 (Pie).
Camera
Toeing the same path as other flagship brands, Oppo is among the popular smartphone brands to offer a quad-cam option in an affordable pricing segment.
The A9 2020 gets a 48-MP quad lens setup at the rear, comprising 8-MP ultra-wide-angle cam having F2.25 aperture, 2-MP monochrome shooter equipped with F2.4 aperture, and a 2-MP depth sensor for portraits with F2.4 aperture.
There’s a variety of camera features on this handset, including panorama mode, professional mode, portrait mode, time-lapse photography, night scene mode, slow motion, among others.
This smartphone produces stunning images in broad daylight and the zoom feature was also satisfactory.
It has a 16MP selfie camera at the front that delivers decent pictures.
We found the Bokeh effect mode satisfactory, although it wasn’t all that impressive.
While images clicked by the device were clear & sharp, there are traces of noise in the photos. However, the cam was able to retain the original natural colour in clicked photos.
The A9 2020 smartphone comes with a separate night mode for low light photography. In spite of this feature, we found the images clicked at night to be lacking in detail and easily detected tiny grains on zooming the image out.
Also, the device can capture videos with support for up to 4K@30fps, 1080P @30fps, and 720P@30fps. There is a stable mode for shooting videos, and we equally have some other features such as time-lapse, slow-motion video, and panorama.
Battery
The Oppo A9 2020 has a huge battery of 5000mAh, which according to OPPO —can deliver a 20-hour battery life with just a single charge. During our review, we were able to confirm that this phone can last for the said period.
However, this is only valid for people with average usage. If you are used to checking your phone continuously and using social media frequently, you may find the battery life lower.
The device has a 10W charger with a USB Type-C port and reverse-charging. This means you can use the phone to charge other devices. Though the addition of Type-C charger is a plus, it took the device about 2hours 35mins to charge to fill up the battery to 100-percent. This observation may also vary for users that skip full charge and prefer to charge the phone when its battery reduces to minimum levels.
Pros
- Powerful quad-camera setup
- It is affordable
- Great battery
- Great speakers
- Reverse charging
Cons
- No fast charging support
Wrapping up
Oppo A9 2020 comes with a variety of remarkable features at an affordable price. Its selling point is the 48MP quad primary lens setup, which delivers incredible photography.
The 5000mAh battery is also a big plus. Let’s watch out how the OPPO A9 2020 will fare in competition with the like of Redmi Note 8 Pro.
