Oppo A52 Review

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Over the course of a year, Oppo launches a lot of phones. Even with the state of matters in 2020, the brand has been relentless. As such, we have a new budget phone christened Oppo A52. It is a stylish cuboid which prides of its display and battery mileage. Specifically, there is an FHD+ punch hole panel and a 5000mAh cell with 18W fast charging support.

But, these are some conventional hardware found on almost every other phone in this price range. “So, what else does it bring to the table, and more importantly, is it worth my money?” you may ask. Well, we are about to find out just that.

This is the Smartprix review of Oppo A52 and here’s everything covered henceforth.

Oppo A52 Specs and Price in India

PhoneOPPO A52
Display1080P Neo-Display| 6.5 inches; 90.5% Screen-to-body ratio | 2400 × 1080 Pixels screen with 405 PPI pixel density
Battery5000 mAh, 18W Fast Charge
ProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 665
Memory6GB LPDDR4x RAM + 128GB UFS 2.1 storage; 4+128GB and 8+128GB models incoming
Rear Camera12MP main camera + 8 MP Ultra Wide-Angle Lens + 2 MP Mono Lens + 2 MP Portrait Lens
Front Camera16MP within a punch hole
Weight and Thickness192g; 8.9mm
SoftwareColorOS 7.1 based on Android 10
Card SlotDual SIM and Micro-SD card slot (up to 256 GB)
ColorTwilight Black and Stream White
Price₹16,990

Oppo A52 Unboxing

The screen comes with a pre-applied screen protector.

Here are the box contents:

  • 1 Handset
  • 1 Charger
  • 1 Earphone
  • 1 USB data cable
  • 1 SIM ejector tool
  • 1 Protective Case
  • Support and safety papers

Oppo A52 Review: Design and Display

Our review unit sports a glossy Twilight Black color with a “Constellation” design. Wiping the smudge and dirt aside, you would notice how light rays shimmer on its surface. It seems as if light beams are either converging or radiating from within the camera island. I must say, Oppo knows how to design its phones and this one’s a looker.

The back houses the phone’s quad-camera setup inside a vertical rectangle field, similar to several other 2020 phones. As for the front, you’ve got a punch-hole camera, again something that’s trendy. I personally prefer the hole to be centered as its visually harmonious. But, for each their own. Now, in case you’re wondering, the front camera does facilitate face unlock, which works reliably well in good lighting conditions.

The frontier stretches to 6.5 inches diagonally and ousts FHD+ resolution with 405 PPI pixel density. Thanks to pretty petite bezels all three sides (except the bottom), you get a 90.5% screen to body ratio. This is a decent LCD screen for the price conferring pleasing colors, nice viewing angles, with the only exception being outdoor legibility.

Rest, the phone has a decently functioning and easily reachable capacitive fingerprint reader cum power button, volume rockers and USB-C socket, dual speakers, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

So, using the face or finger, you enter the phone and further, here’s how it goes —

Oppo A52 Review: Software and Performance

Oppo A52 brings Android 10 based ColorOS 7.1 software onto the table. It has come a long way from its previous generation and is way more usable. But still, there are things that are rough around the edges.

The good things constitute everything from the enhanced screenshot feature to Dark mode. There is plenty of clever privacy props buried within the settings menu. In the meantime, there are things like the 15+ junkware (some of which are removable) and the squarish quick settings icons too, which leave a sour taste. So, it’s a mixed bag.

Moving deeper, you have the Snapdragon 665 engining the processes aided by 6 gigs of LPDDR4x RAM. The chip is dated and you can’t turn a blind eye to the fact that it is running alongside better runners from Snapdragon 700 series. Having said that, from an offline perspective, the chipset is among the better available options.

As for real-world usage, it runs almost everything albeit with some expected drag and (frame) drops. Speaking of which, the AAA mobile titles like PUBG (30 FPS in Smooth|High settings and 25 FPS in Balanced|Medium settings), PES (60 FPS in low settings and 40 FPS in high settings), and Asphalt 9 run fine.

Want more stats, here have a look —

  • Geekbench Single-core: 308
  • Geekbench Multi-core: 1160
  • PCMark Work 2.0 Performance Score: 6140
  • 3DMark Slingshot Extreme OpenGL: 1104
  • 3DMark Slingshot Extreme Vulkan: 1112
  • Antutu: 152697
  • Androbench Sequential R/W: 483.76/182.89 MB/s
  • Androbench Random R/W: 121.6/126.61 MB/s

This model has 128GB UFS 2.1 onboard storage which can be further expanded up to 256GB using a micro-SD card slot (hybrid). Also, note that two more variants of Oppo A52 are slated to launch down the line with 4 and 8 gigs of RAM.

So that’s that. Anyway, let’s move on…

Oppo A52 Review: Cameras

The rear stack comprises a 12MP main shooter, accompanied by an 8 MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 2MP mono lens, and a 2MP portrait lens. Now, don’t mistake these last two sensors for bringing anything worthwhile like depth effect. Rather, they merely superpose monochrome and vintage filters. Anyway, flipping to the front, you will see the phone’s 16MP sensor (within a punch hole) that handles the selfies.

Let’s now glance at the clicks themselves —

In proper daylight, I like the clicks I got out of the A52. If you turn on the Dazzle mode, the photos will gain some saturation and life. But it compromises the details and highlights a bit.

You can slide between ultrawide (119°) and digital zoom up to 5x. The broad-angle shots do look more vibrant at the cost of missing details. In some shots, you would notice the fish-eye bent too. Despite all that, I do like the wide perspective they beckon. The same can’t be said about digitally cropped outputs though. So, you will have to go closer instead.

Some shots came underexposed because it was an overcast day. Still, the dynamic range isn’t particularly good here.

The human subjects are sufficiently detailed and the edge detection works for the most part. Well, it isn’t accurate in the selfie (above, right). The overall color composition and skin tones differ from the rear snap. Also, the AI beauty tweaks are on by default. So, in case you don’t want ’em, you may turn them off.

The dedicated night mode does even out most of the noise and brightens up the after-dark frames. And it takes about 7 seconds to complete this capture. But, don’t expect any magic.

You can shoot up to 4K resolution from the rear camera and FHD from the front shooter, both at 30 frames per second. The results are passable. As for the rest of the camera features is concerned, you get macro functionality when the primary lens is brought closer to an object. Lastly, the rest of the camera tricks are bundled separately.

Oppo A52 Review: Audio, Battery, and Connectivity

Oppo A52 packs a 5000mAh battery that can easily last more than a day. This has been the case in our benchmark testing (involving work profile tasks) too, as the phone clocked 18 h 2 min. To refill it back, you could use the 18W fast charger, which is satisfyingly fast (flat to full in about 2 hours).

The audio out of the dual speaker is stereo but isn’t as loud I wished it to be. Gladly, you have the 3.5mm jack and Bluetooth 5.0 for better sound over wired or wireless earphones. Speaking of which, it ticks all the boxes in a usual connectivity checklist such as WiFi, USB-C, GPS, etc.

So, finally, let’s get to the…

Oppo A52 Review Verdict: Should you buy it?

Oppo A52 is made in India

If taken in isolation, Oppo A52 would seem like a decent phone for a regular user. Design-wise, it’s a beauty. And inside, it bears some conventional nuts and bolts such as the feature-rich ColorOS based off Android 10, a huge 5000mAh battery backed by a fairly fast charger, and all the little things a buyer would appreciate viz. the 3.5mm jack, earphones, protective case, and an on-screen film. These advantages make it a decent option for less demanding users who prefer purchasing from offline retail stores.

But then, it also hauls the not-so-powerful Snapdragon 665 which can at max run modest to moderate performance – which is why we can’t recommend it to power users. The camera isn’t very confidence-inspiring or truly versatile, but that’s to be expected for almost all phones under 20K.

Pros 

  • Stylish design
  • Satisfactory battery life
  • Feature-filled software

Cons 

  • So-so camera
  • Moderate chipset
Vasan G.S.Vasan G.S.
An inquisitive mind who spends a big chunk of the day keenly tracking every emerging detail and is responsible for quickly passing on important developments to Smartprix followers. He loves to stay in his bubble scripting his destiny involving amazing technology and people with good character, passion, and brilliance.

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