What do you do when you need to buy a smartphone and only a budget of MYR 1,599? It may not seem like an issue to a lot of us, but it is a valid question still. Smartphones are simply too expensive.

To drive that point home even more, a about 10 years ago, MYR 2,000 will get you a brand-new Samsung Galaxy Note2. The Samsung Galaxy Note2 is a very highly rated flagship in its day, one of the most powerful devices you can get. A brand-new iPhone 3GS as well at the time will set you back less than MYR 2,500. Heck, the first Samsung Galaxy S smartphone will only set you back MYR 1,000, and that was expensive.

Today, spending MYR 3,000 on a smartphone is normal. This is especially true with flagship level devices. A mid-range device today will set you back less than MYR 3,000 but more than MYR 2,000. Anything below that is usually entry-level.

Entry-level devices are not stellar, but you can find some good ones in the segment. While it is not as competitive as the mid-range market, it is still a highly competitive segment. After all, the entry-level device segment could be your first smartphone experience.

Meet the OPPO A96. It sets you back less than MYR 1,500, which should mean that you might not enjoy the smartphone very much. We find that a little untrue though as you read on. But is it worth MYR 1,299? Or should you look elsewhere when you want a budget smartphone?

Design

The best way to describe the OPPO A96’s form is that it is rather ordinary. There is nothing too special or outstanding about the device. It is a regular candy bar smartphone. The most interesting thing about it is probably its unique back styling they call the OPPO Glow design.

The crystalised design on the back of the device looks rather good in camera. It may not strike everyone the same in its physical form though. Some might like it, some might not.

Out the back of the device, the camera array is like a hark to OPPO’s Reno series. Of course, it could just be OPPO’s design language. It is a bump though, which means you might want to use the case that comes in the box or buy a different case that would sit flush with the camera bump.

Despite the matte and rather plastic feel of the back, OPPO says that it is, in fact, glass. That is not necessarily a bad thing though. While it does not feel too premium, it does help with preventing fingerprint stains. The bad side of that is that it is slippery to the touch. If you use a case, it will not matter anyway.

You have a USB Type-C port at the bottom with some ports for the speaker, a small microphone hole, and a bigger 3.5mm combo jack. There is also a small microphone hole on top of the device too.

We like the fact that the power button is also the fingerprint sensor, a design made popular by Sony. The front facing camera sits in a corner instead of the middle of the display like we are used to on most devices. That is about it for the design of the device. Everything that you expect from a modern smartphone is on the device. It does not feel like a budget product, which is a good thing. But it does not feel or look all that premium either.

Hardware

Underneath the glass and aluminium mix of a shell lies a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 System on a Chip (SoC). It is not even a 5G chip, just regular 4G LTE support, which is plenty enough still. There is also 8GB of RAM and 256GB in memory.

Specifications

Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 Octa-core 4x Kryo 265 Gold @ 2.4GHz 4x Kryo 265 Silver @ 1.9GHz
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)	Adreno 610
RAM (Native)	8GB
Memory (as tested)	256GB
Display(s)	6.59-inch IPS LCD 1,080 x 2,412 pixels ~401ppi 90Hz (up to) 480 nits (typical)
Operating System	ColorOS 11.1 based on Android 11
Battery	Non-Removable Li-Po 5,000mAh Fast Charging 33W Revers Charging
Connectivity	Dual SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP AptX HD Bluetooth 5.0 OTG Support USB Type-C 2.0
Camera (s)	REAR: 50-Megapixel (f/1.8, 27mm wide angle) 2-Megapixel (f/2.4, depth sensor) 1080p video recording (30fps) LED flash FRONT: 16-Megapixel (f/2.0, 26mm wide angle) 1080p video recording (30fps)
Sensors	Accelerometer Proximity Side Mounted Fingerprint Ambient Light Gyroscope Face Unlock Compass

User Interface – Color OS 11

OPPO’s ColorOS is now something unique on its own. In older OPPO devices you get an interface that can be likened to the iOS. The modern ColorOS has some Android flair in an optional app tray you can turn on in the settings page.

You do not get 120Hz out of the display. Instead, you make do with 90Hz, which is still a fast display considering its price. That also gives you a smooth and refined feel of ColorOS. Unless you have very sharp eyes and is observant enough, ColorOS 11 on the device feels as smooth as the flagship devices. zx

The app tray is not turned on by default. We kind of think that while OPPO does want to retain their original look that is free of an app tray, having the app tray is a great thing for ColorOS and it should be made a default option when you first set up the device. The fact that OPPO includes it as an option though, unlike plenty of manufacturers that came out of China, is a welcome though.

+5GB RAM

When you need more RAM in your PC, you add a RAM stick or replace it with something bigger. On your smartphone though, that is hardly possible. Space is a premium in your smartphone, so manufacturers can only fit one large RAM module that is usually attached to the SoC in favour of space. To get more RAM space then, some creativity gets involved

While OPPO is not the only one who does this, it is good to note that you can opt to use it or not. You can expand your RAM by up to 5GB just using the native UFS storage on the device itself. It does help with some multitasking performance, but hardly too noticeable because 8GB is rather plenty these days.

To opt out of it or to switch how much of your storage is being used as RAM is not quite as easy as OPPO wants you to believe though. You must do a little bit of digging within the settings of the device.  We only found it by using the search bar on the page. By default, OPPO sets aside 3GB of your storage as a temporary RAM. You can put it down to 2GB and up to 5GB or turn it completely off if you think it is not necessary.

Performance

The SoC is not a high-end one. In this case, you get Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 680, which is not technically entry-level. It is sitting lower than the 700 series though. It also does not have 5G, so we do not get to test out Yes 4G’s “5G” network.

Benchmarks

Call Quality and Connectivity

Despite it not being a 5G device, you technically are not missing out on much. Malaysia’s 5G network is not out in full force yet too, which also means that you are not missing out on the OPPO A96’s regular 4G LTE network. The OPPO A96 also supports VoLTE, which means you are still getting crystal clear calls.

That is what you get with the OPPO A96, crystal clear phone conversations when you have enough signal strength. As with modern smartphones, making a call with the OPPO A96 is rather straightforward with a similar phone app layout as any other modern smartphones.

Still, VoLTE allows you to have clear conversations when there is enough signal strength. We find that anything between two bars to four bars is good enough and stable. Anything below two bars and you might find that calls get a little choppy. Data speeds tend to suffer too with lower signal strength, though this could just be the ISP’s fault.

Gaming

While it is not a flagship, gaming on a smartphone is a perfectly normal thing to do. If you are looking for a relatively budget friendly smartphone to game with, this could be it. You cannot expect a gaming performance that is likened to an OPPO Find X and its likes.

We played Pokémon Unite with the A96 mostly. We are happy to report that the game runs very smoothly on the device. While graphics performance might not match the flagships just to keep the framerates high, we do not mind that at all. We never faced any lags in the game which also meant that you should not have any issues when you are playing a ranked match. You still want to make sure that you have a solid internet connection though.

Game Space

Game Space is nothing new for OPPO devices. Its implementation is not unique either. It acts as a sort of one-click-overclocking tool that only activates when you play games. It also filters all your notifications just so that you do not get distracted in your gaming sessions.

Multitasking and Productivity

Smartphones like this is an indication that you do not really need a flagship to get a smartphone experience. Sure, you get the bleeding edge of whatever that is on offer on a flagship. The mid-range and entry-level devices eventually get it way later, but the most useful technologies do trickle down eventually. Ample RAM for example, makes it into budget friendly smartphones.

We usually have up to 15 tabs open within Google Chrome on the A96. We also tend to leave plenty of our apps working in the background. Apps like Instagram, Facebook, or Telegram are usually running in the background for us most of the time. At no point we felt that the device was sluggish to work with or experience any stutters when we are changing between screens in our daily use.

Battery Life

Most smartphones at this range excels in this area and for good reason. Smartphones at this range usually comes with rather large batteries, larger than ones you can find on flagship devices. Combine that with lower power consumption from the SoC and you get a smartphone that can last days.

On standby, the OPPO can last up to 5 days without a single charge in between. Of course, with some hotspot, gaming, photo taking, calling, and messaging, the battery life does go down by quite a bit.

Our typical use of the OPPO A96 in a day involves plenty of Telegram messaging, some photos, a little bit of gaming, a few minutes of call, and some social media scrolls. In this case we could get the OPPO to last us nearly three days on a single charge. Three days from your smartphone is a lot of battery life, even for modern smartphones. When the battery drains, you only need about two hours for a full charge. We hardly charge the device overnight because we never needed to in our test period.

Display and Audio

You get a nice 1080p Full HD+ display on the A96. It refreshes at 90Hz, which is more than what you can expect for most devices at this price range. Then again, everything that comes out in 2021 and later comes with 90Hz display.

What you do not get with devices at this price is an NTSC accuracy rating like this one does. The OPPO A96’s 6.59-inch IPS panel comes with a 96% NTSC colour gamut coverage. The colours produced on the OPPO A96 is comparable even to modern flagship devices.

While some of the flagship displays do come with 120Hz and higher resolutions at 2K or even 4K sometimes, you never really need them. Most of the time 90Hz is more than enough for most gaming situations. To make your UI look silky smooth, anything beyond 75Hz is enough. In terms of resolution, you most likely will not notice any difference between a 2K display and a 1080P display no thanks to how small the display is.

In this case, the display of the OPPO A96, we believe, is on par with most of the flagships you get today. Sure, it does not support HDR10 like most flagships do, but it is still a brilliant enough display that you can enjoy movies on Netflix and YouTube videos equally.

Cameras

Here is where things do come down to earth a little. Instead of the usual three or four camera array we are used to seeing in modern smartphones. This one noticeable only has 2 out the back of the device. One is the main 50-Megapixel shooter that you are going to be driving most of the time. The other is an oddly oversized 2-Megapixel depth sensor.

The OPPO A96 shoots at 12-Megapixel mode if you leave the settings alone. If you want the full 50-Megapixel goodness, you must tweak the settings a little bit. There is no way for you to set it permanently to 50-Megapixel, which also means that you must toggle it to 50-Megapixel every time to you turn on the camera.

Photos do look impressive in 50-Megapixel mode. Details are sharp enough for you to zoom in a little, crop your photos to get a better frame of your subjects, so you can technically take photos in slightly wider frame and can get away with it. You do not get the same level of detail at 12-Megapixel mode, but at least your photos still look good with vivid and somewhat accurate colours. There is a little bit of a natural warmth to your shots though.

The 2-Megapixel depth sensor never really comes into play until you are taking photos of a person or when you put it into portrait mode. You can technically use it with small objects and get a natural looking depth effect with it. You are still shooting with your main shooter though, so your portrait can look rather great with plenty of details too if you shoot with the 50-Megapixel mode.

Gallery

The OPPO A96 – It Just Works

At MYR 1,299, the OPPO A96 is not very expensive. On Paper, it may seem like quite a bargain. It has everything you need in a smartphone, nothing more. It also packs a large battery, a battery that would last for days at a time.

Sure, it does not pack Qualcomm’s most powerful. It packs a good ol’ Snapdragon 680 that does not even come with 5G as standard. At the same time, you only get one good camera to work with.

The MYR 1,299 OPPO A96 is a real treat, a bargain. It works just as you need to, as it is intended to. It does nothing more, but nothing less either, which is a good thing. It is a smooth operator, just as good as any flagship devices can offer you. You do not get any extraordinary features on the device, it just works.

If you are looking for a flagship experience with all the latest features and technologies, this will not be the device for you. It is a device that just works, it has everything you need in a smartphone, the essentials. The whole point of this device is reliability and simplicity. If that is what you are looking for, for your main driver or even your secondary device, this device is really made for you.