Oppo A78 5G review: Only 5G is enough for a device, or not?

Oppo A78 5G Pro review summary

Editor’s rating: 3.5/5

5G has been the flavor of the season. We have seen multiple 5G devices launch within the first half of January 2023. Oppo too has also launched a 5G phone this January called – the Oppo A78 5G, which supports six 5G bands priced at Rs 18,999. The latest Oppo offering will be in direct competition with other devices in the market, like Redmi Note 12 5G.

The A78 5G retail box has several features listed on top including SuperVOOC charging support, a long-lasting battery, a high-resolution camera, and dual stereo speakers. I had the device for around 10 days and used it, and tested it in different aspects. Based on that experience, here’s our OPPO A78 5G review.

Oppo A78 5G review: Unboxing

The Oppo A78 5G comes in a neon blue colored box with the device’s name written at the bottom and the Oppo A series branding at the top. At the back, the details like features highlight, RAM variant, color variant, and others have been mentioned. The retail box of the device consists of the following:

• Oppo A78 5G
• 33W SuperVOOC charger
• USB Type-C cable
• SIM ejector tool
• Smartphone case
• Quick Guide
• Safety Guide

Oppo A78 5G review: Design

Whenever you purchase a smartphone and unbox it, the first thing that you experience or get to see is the design. The Oppo A78 has flat edges, which make it pretty handy and comfortable to carry. The smartphone has a thickness of 7.99mm and weighs around 188 grams.

Starting with the rear panel, the smartphone has Oppo branding at the bottom left corner, and it does not have a dedicated camera island. Instead, it has two circular bumps at the top left corner for the placement of the sensors. One of the bumps consists of the larger sensor and the other one consists of the smaller sensor and the flash.

Our Glowing Blue variant of Oppo A78 5g has fostered glass look which is not common to what we have seen in other Oppo phones. The polycarbonate back is shiny, has a sunbeam pattern, and is smooth to the touch.

As for the front, the handset has nothing new to offer. You can see a water drop notch for the placement of the front camera. The display has a 2.5D glass on top along with slim surrounding bezels but a seriously thick chin. The power button doubled up with the fingerprint scanner is available on the left spine. On the right spine, you can spot the SIM tray and the volume rockers. At the bottom, the device has a speaker grille, a 3.5mm port, and a USB Type-C port.

Oppo A78 5G review: Display and Sound

The Oppo A78 5G comes with a 6.5-inch LCD display coupled with a 90Hz refresh rate. Now, as disappointing as it may sound, Oppo could have done much better in this department. Imagine buying a mid-ranger at a price of around Rs 20,000 in 2023 and not even getting FHD+ resolution. The display was not so impressive in terms of brightness, and when used in direct sunlight, the content was hardly visible.

The smartphone only supports up to HD+ resolution videos which is again not the best-in-class a consumer can get in this price segment. While the display is good for streaming content you will miss out on sharpness of an FHD+ screen. However, the dual stereo speakers of the handset make up for the display as they offer high-quality audio output. Whether you are listening to songs on Spotify or streaming videos on OTT or YouTube, the speakers sync in and deliver decent results.

Oppo A78 5G review: Performance

In terms of performance, the Oppo A78 5G has decent scope for improvement. The phone is powered by a Dimensity 700 SoC chipset which is fabricated using 7nm node process. The octa-core chipset has two Arm Cortex-A76 cores clocked up to 2.2GHz and six Arm Cortex-A55 cores ticking up to 2GHz. In addition, the A78 has 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage and up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM.

The silicone is rather dated now, and most smartphones in the category actually come with more compelling hardware. However, your typical processing requirements is handled satisfactory. The CPU won’t be taxed by tasks like toggling between the Chrome browser and your social media apps or even casually browsing YouTube. You will enjoy the gaming on offerings from other OEMs more, though.

Talking about the OS, the Oppo A78 ships with ColorOS 13, based on the Android 13 operating system. Compared to other Chinese OEM skins, OPPO A78’s ColorOS 13 is more sophisticated. Having said that, the A78 software has a lot of bloatware, which is a well-known problem.

Oppo A78 5G review: Camera

The phone has two cameras: a 50MP main camera and a 2MP depth camera. Overall, it is obvious that the phone doesn’t come equipped with the most adaptable image-capturing technology. Photos taken in broad daylight are fairly detailed and rapidly come into focus. Additionally, the exposure is timed, and the dynamic range is respectable. The subject highlights, though, should be better, and I think the final shot’s color profile is somewhat drab. Images taken in low light do not perform well either; the majority of the time, the detail levels appear soft. In this regard, the dedicated night mode is of limited assistance.

Talking about the 8MP selfie sensor of the Oppo A78 5G, it offers high-quality selfie shots in different lighting conditions. However, a major issue with the front camera is that it has a delay in capturing the response. For example, if you are making a face or smiling, then it will be delayed on the device by a fraction of a second, which is quite visible at times and can also annoy you when you are clicking a group photograph.

Oppo A78 5G review: Battery

The Oppo A78 5G draws power from a 5000mAh battery that supports 33W SuperVOOC fast charging support. At the time of testing, the battery of the device drains at a speed of 7% to 10% per hour at the time of streaming. Apart from that, the device’s battery drains at a speed of 9% to 13% per hour at the time of gaming.

At the time of testing, the handset’s battery lasted for around 20 hours which included gaming for a couple of hours, dozen of calls, constant WiFi connectivity, streaming videos for a few hours, and a lot more. As for the charging speed, the device got fully fueled up from zero to 100% in around 2 hours and a few minutes.

Oppo A78 5G review: Should you buy it or not?

The OPPO A78 isn’t doing itself any favors when its specifications are compared to its cost. The phone’s display and camera are not the greatest that you get to see in this price segment. Still, if you can look past that and prioritize OPPO as a brand, its design language, 5G connection, and long battery life, you can see some value in the OPPO A78.