OPPO devices are one of the well-crafted smartphones I can easily recommend for people looking to buy a good phone for themselves. Some few months ago we reviewed the OPPO Reno 3 Pro which is a fantastic phone by all standards though it came with a not too affordable price tag.
So after the OPPO Reno 3 Series that was launched in Nigeria, there is a new OPPO phone in the market codenamed the OPPO A92. The OPPO A92 is the latest addition to the OPPO A-series midrange line of phones that focuses on delivering as many features without hitting hard on the customers’ pocket.
The OPPO A92 is a well-refined smartphone which we have had here at Phonecorridor for some weeks now. It comes with a clean punch hole in the display that houses the front camera, a very good LTPS screen, a larger battery with an 18W fast charging, efficient quad-camera layout, a side-mounted fingerprint reader which also doubles as the power button and, something of interest which we hardly see on mid-range devices is the inclusion of a stereo speakers.
Below we will be sharing what we feel about the OPPO A92 after using it for more than two weeks.
Design
Inspired by the shining stars, the OPPO A92 is available in two fashionable colours of Twilight Black and Aurora Purple which is the unit we have with us. The device is constructed using a 3D curved pattern at the back that reflects light beautifully when there is a light source. The 3D curved design makes it easier to hold and comfortable in the hands.
Also at the back, is a neatly arranged quad-camera module that houses a 48MP f/1.7 main lens, 119 degree 8MP ultrawide camera, 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth sensor with an LED flash. Just below it is the OPPO branding.
Holding the OPPO A92 in the hands gives the feeling that you are holding a premium phone and you will immediately notice this when you pick up the phone. The phone measures 162 x 75.5 x 8.9mm in dimension and weighs about 192g.
Unlike the OPPO Reno 3 series, the OPPO A92 uses a side-mounted fingerprint scanner which doubles as a power button. I like the fact that the button is quite tactile and works well to unlock the phone. In fact, we prefer the side-mounted fingerprint reader as it’s easier to access and unlock the phone rather than having it at the back or on the screen.
Moving to the left-handed side of the phone, you will find the volume rocker and the card compartment which can take two nano-sized SIM cards and a microSD card. OPPO says the MicroSD can take up to 256GB of storage.
At the bottom, is the 3.5mm audio jack, the microphone, USB Type-C port, and a loudspeaker grille.
Display
Up front, the OPPO A92 boasts a vibrant 6.5-inch LTPS 1080P Neo-Display, with a resolution of 2400 x 1080p which translates into a 405 PPI pixel density, exceeding the recognition limit of human eyes. It is a very good screen and this is evident when watching or playing games on the device.
The display comes with a 20:9 aspect ratio achieving up to a 90.5% ultra-high screen-to-body ratio. While there are still bezels at the bottom, they are quite small giving room for a more immersive viewing experience.
At the top left corner of the screen is a punch hole cut-out that houses the 16MP front camera while at top of the display is a stereo speaker that dishes out clear sound for your listening pleasure.
During our everyday use with device, we found the display to be excellent for consuming content. It produces vibrant colors, decent viewing angles, great contrast for reading as it achieves a comfortable maximum brightness of 480 nits under direct sunlight. You can also adjust the screen temperature under the settings to suit your need.
Worthy of mention also is the eye care that filters out the blue light effects and reduces the intensity of screen brightness. It comes handy when reading content on the screen, helping to protect the eyes and you can as well activate the dark mode to enhance text and icons visibility.
Software and Hardware
From the software side of thing, the OPPO A92 runs on Android 10 out of the box layered with OPPO’s ColorOS 7.1. The ColorOS 7.1 has been revamped with intuitive icons, enhanced graphic and audio effect to improve user experience. The OS has different type of customizable themes to choose from, and one can easily change wallpapers and fonts by going to the theme store.
If you are using an OPPO phone for the first time, you will discover that the home screen layer has no app drawer out of the box which is more like what is obtained on the Apple iOS. However, if you will love to navigate your way using an app drawer, OPPO has made this possible as well. You can do this by going to the home screen setting and switch to the drawer mode. There is also a simple mode with no app drawer. What this does is that it enlarges the icons and texts making them visually pleasing especially for the older folks.
The navigation button comes in two modes-swipe gestures and virtual button. The three-layer buttons can easily be adjusted the way you want them to be arranged. We love what OPPO has done with its ColorOS on Android and the new ColorOS 7.1 comes with many useful features to make life easier for the users.
App Cloner-This makes it possible to use two apps at the same time on your phone. For example, you can have two Facebook and WhatsApp accounts on the phone. You don’t have to carry two phones around anymore.
Game Space- This makes it easier to access all the games download on the phone. You can add all the games downloaded on your devices here for quick access. For gamers, this feature helps to improves gaming performance by intelligently allocating system resources for a smoother gaming experience. You can also block incoming calls, block banner notifications, block calls, and banner notifications, and show incoming calls and notifications.
OPPO Relax- This is a feature that lets you enjoy soothing and soulful sounds as you relax on your bed. It has various sections to select the sound that suits your mood.
Driving mode- This comes handy when driving to prevent distractions and disturbing notifications. All incoming calls can easily be answered using your car Bluetooth car kit.
The entirety of the new ColorOS 7.1 can be customized to suit one’s need. There are different gestures-based tricks one can perform even when the screen is off like picking up the phone to wake the screen, place the phone near your ears to pick calls and flip to mute incoming calls.
As far as performance is concerned under practical usage, the OPPO A92 ran smoothly well. We found it pleasantly easier opening multiple browser tabs without significant lag and the phone was able to navigate different apps without issues all thanks to the generous 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage with support for UFS 2.1 storage standard.
The device is powered by the Snapdragon 665 processor which is a fast mid-range octa-core ARM-based chipset. It has four cores with up to 2 GHz (Kryo 260 Gold – Cortex-A73 derivate) and a power-saving efficiency cluster with up to 1.8 GHz (Kryo 260 Silver – Cortex A53 derivate). Both clusters can also be used together. The processor is aided by the Adreno 610 GPU for improved graphics and gaming.
We played a couple of games like GT Racing 2 and PES 2020 on the phone and they all ran pretty well. However, for a graphics-intensive game like PUBG, it is only playable at medium setting.
We ran couple of benchmarking tools on the phone, below are the results.
- AnTuTu – 186,003
- Geekbench – 308 (Single-Core), 1,167 (Multi-Core)
- 3D Mark SSE – 1,120 (OpenGL ES 3.1)
- PC Mark – 6,278
- GFX Bench 275.9 frames
Sound quality and multi-media experience
The OPPO A92 offers plenty of upgrades in the area of sound and multimedia compared to the A9 2020 we reviewed some months ago. The device comes with dual speakers located at the top and bottom of the phone which makes listening to music and play games such an enjoyable experience. The speakers deliver loud and quality sound output with rich base even when at maximum volume. It also supports Dirac 2.0 Sound Effect for a much improved all-round sound experience when using a headset.
According to DRM check, the device supports Widevine L1 Certification which means videos can be watched in HD mode on a platform like Netflix. We are impressed that the phone supports Ultra HD contents on Netflix which is a plus for the OPPO A92
OPPO A92 Camera
When it comes to the camera department, the OPPO A92 is not a slouch. At the back, the device features a quad-camera system which is comprised of a 48MP f/1.7 Ultra HD Main Camera, an 8MP 119.1° Ultra Wide Angle Lens, a 2-megapixel macro sensor, and a 2-megapixel depth camera.
At the front, it is equipped with a 16MP f/2.0 large-aperture selfie shooter and supports beautification effects.
The OPPO A92 camera app is quite simple to use. When you launch the camera, you will see all the basic features such as the Night mode, Video, Photo, Portrait, Pro mode, SLO-MO, Time-Lapse, Stickers and Google lens.
From the viewfinder, you can easily navigate between the ultra-wide, 1X, 2X and 5X mode. As regards the macro feature, the photo automatically detects when you are about taking a close-up image and switch on the macro lens.
Macro images shot on the OPPO A92
There is also the Dazzle colour feature which adds an extra boost in colour and brightness to your photo. If you want your images to pop, this feature comes in handy.
By default, you are going to be capturing 12-megapixel images from the main camera. However, if you want extra detail, you can switch to the 48-megapixel mode.
12MP vs 48MP images from the OPPO A92
The default 12-megapixel images have 4000 x 3000 resolution while the 48-megapixel mode produces images in 8000×4000 resolution. Looking at the two images there are no noticeable differences until you zoom them. The
As far as photo quality is concerned, the device produces crisp, detailed photos especially in a well-lit environment.
Outdoor images: Normal Vs Portrait
Portrait mode is another good feature available on the phone that let you blur the background of your object. There is the option to adjust the blur intensity as you want before taking the picture as well. It works well mostly on objects but it is not perfect on humans as you can see it still blurs my shoes from the pictures below. However, they are still great portrait images.
Auto vs 2x zoom vs 5x zoom
Night mode is one of the features that works really well on the phone and is very useful in situations with less-than-ideal lighting.
Images shot with night mode on produces less noise and details as compared to when you just shoot with Auto mode. However, you will need to steady your hands as it uses a longer exposure time to capture better night shots.
Auto Mode Vs Ultra Wide
The ultra-wide lens takes decent images but since it sports an 8MP sensor as against the 12MP on the main camera, images are not as detailed and true life as compared to the main camera.
When it comes to taking quality selfies on a smartphone, OPPO is known for being one of the pioneers. The OPPO A92’s 16MP selfie camera takes beautiful and natural selfies. If you are the type that loves taking lot of selfies, the OPPO A92 is a kind of phone you will love to have.
As for video recording, the OPPO A92 can record up to 4K at 30 frames per second and doesn’t support up to 60fps. When you shoot in 4K, you don’t get any form of stabilization. You are better off in 1080p resolution which has stabilization to prevent shakiness.
Battery Life
The device is powered by a non-removable 5000mAh battery with supports for an 18W fast charging. From our test, the battery can be refilled from 0-100% in about 2 hours. We were quite happy with the battery life on the OPPO A92. When fully charged, the phone was able to last a full of heavy use.
Final Thoughts
The OPPO A92 is no doubt a solid device considering its great display, loud speakers, excellent battery life and decent camera. For gaming however, it does performance itn’t that strong but you will be OK with playing basic games that don’t demand lot of graphics to run.
The A92 is available for ( 8GB /128GB)-N109,900 at accredited dealership and e-commerce platforms nationwide. Visit https://www.oppo.com/ng/ for more information.
