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OPPO A3s Review

The OPPO A3s has been a hot topic for our readers as it is a promising device to be on anyone’s radar for the budget segment. We already checked how it fared initially in our in-depth hands-on but it’s high time that we give it a full spin. Let’s start!

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

Before we proceed, watch our unboxing and hands-on video here:

Design and Construction

Like we said before, the A3s really feels like the F7 based on its design and construction. The frame is made up of plastic with a glossy finish, and the red color really gives it a premium look. At first, we thought that it’s made up of glass but, after tapping on it, we were sure that it’s just plastic. Personally, I dislike a smartphone that is prone to fingerprint marks and smudges, so the free jelly case in the retail package really helps a lot.

For an entry-level device, the A3s carries a large 6.2-inch screen size with a 19:9 aspect ratio which is a good indicator that it values users’ viewing experience. The front panel is quite nice as it only has minimal bezels on the top and the sides. The notch is located at the top that houses the 8MP front camera, call speaker, and sensors. One thing that we didn’t like is it doesn’t have any LED notification light which is very useful when charging or just simply getting notifications.

The right side contains the lone power button while on the left are the volume rocker and the triple SIM tray (dual-nano SIM and a dedicated microSD card slot that is expandable up to 256GB). The buttons are clicky and tactile which is good.

A standard combination of 3.5mm audio port, microphone, micro USB port, and loudspeaker are placed down at the bottom.

Flip it on its back and you’ll see the dual 13MP and 2MP cameras along with the LED flash on the side and OPPO’s logo below. No fingerprint scanner can be seen in the A3s which is a bummer just like with the A83.

In the hands, the A3s is surprisingly lighter and slimmer than we expected as it carries a large 4,230mAh battery. We didn’t have any problems with gripping the device and putting it in our pockets which is a plus. For a budget entry-level smartphone, its overall looks and feel are actually impressive as it omits a mid-range smartphone vibe to it.

Display and Multimedia

The A3s is equipped with an IPS display with HD+ (1520 x 720) resolution which produces vibrant and color accurate displays. It is bright enough to be used under direct sunlight which is good. This device is, without a doubt, a smartphone that suffices the needs of anyone’s viewing experience but with its resolution, it just doesn’t feel complete since we’re already used to a 1080p resolution.

We tested out the sound quality by listening to this music video here while maxing out the volume. The audio is loud enough to be heard in a closed room and it also gives decent highs and mids but the lows are almost non-existent. We also noticed that the sounds produced at max volume tend to be blown-out.

Camera

Moving on to the camera department, the A3s comes with a dual 13MP + 2MP rear shooters while a single 8MP lens sits in front. Let’s talk about the rear cameras first. The camera UI is pretty straightforward as all features can already be seen upon opening it. It has flash, HDR, Timer, and Fullscreen mode together with the 2x zoom and beautify mode. There are five camera modes for the rear shooter, namely, Time-Lapse, Video, Photo, Portrait, and Panorama.

We’ve taken photos and from what we’ve seen, the images produced have good details and color accuracy in decent lighting, however, we were quite disappointed on how it performed under low-light conditions. Highlights are overblown, moving objects are blurry even with just a slight movement, and the shutter speed really lags at times. Images also tend to get muddy with visible noise.

As for the front camera, the features are almost identical except for the added artificial bokeh effect. The portrait mode and 2x zoom are also removed when changing lenses.

Just like with the rear camera, decent results are produced with enough lighting but shooting selfies against the light will have a blown-out effect to your photos. In low-light conditions, the front camera does not perform as bad as the rear and the images can be used in social media posting.

Videos can be recorded up to 1080p 30fps on both rear and front cameras. We noticed that it doesn’t have any stabilization as it tends to get shaky with just the slightest of movement. Check out our sample videos below.

OS, UI, and Apps

The OPPO A3s runs on ColorOS 5.1 based on Android 8.1 Oreo which is a plus. The UI is simple, organized, and straightforward. Swiping from top to bottom will show the shortcuts menu. The device has a Night Mode feature which enables blue-light filtering and built-in Screen recording.

Opening up the settings will show Notification & Status Bar where users can simply customize what they want to show in their status and notification bars. Aside from that, there are features like Smart & Convenient where the navigation keys can be customized and Security where users can use Find My Device, Payment Protection, Anti-harassment/Fraud, Pseudo Base Station Blocking, to name a few can be found in this device.

The OPPO A3s have built-in apps like Lazada, Music Party where users can connect to each other’s phones to play the same song for a louder audio performance, ORoaming, Game Space, Phone Manager, Compass, Clone Phone, Facebook, and the usual Google applications.

Out of 16GB internal storage, only 8.52GB can be used which is really disappointing since we like to install games, and store music and videos.

Performance and Benchmarks

The OPPO A3s is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chipset with Adreno 506 GPU and only 2GB RAM. For the usual activities such as browsing, watching videos, messaging, and social media posting, the device performs smoothly but the bottleneck of this smartphone lies in its RAM capacity. Out of 2GB, only ~800MB can be used for multi-tasking and gaming and that is not really enough. We encountered a lot of lagging and unresponsiveness whenever we try to open multiple applications. It doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner but it has a face unlock feature which is decent and quite responsive even in low-light conditions. It takes around 1-2 seconds to unlock the device which is okay for an entry-level device.

Here are the benchmark scores that we got:

SpecificationsOPPO A3s
AnTuTu74,409
PC Mark6,045 (Work 1.0)
Geekbench774 (Single-core)
3,448 (Multi-core)
3D Mark443 (Sling Shot Extreme - OpenGL ES 3.1)
392 (Sling Shot Extreme - Vulkan)
AndroBench294.5 MB/s (Sequential Read)
47.87 MB/s (Sequential Write)

Playing games such as PUBG on Balanced settings still provide a decent amount of frames which is playable for us. Longer playing time and heavy usage will cause the device to warm up but not to an alarming level.

Connectivity, Call Quality, and Battery Life

When it comes to connectivity, the OPPO A3s is equipped with a Dual-SIM, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS. This device also supports USB OTG which is what consumers are usually looking for. Calls are loud and clear, mobile data is fast, depending on the area, and navigations such as Waze, Google Maps, and Grab have accurate positioning.

The OPPO A3s carries a large 4,230mAh battery that can last for a long while. Using PC Mark’s Battery Test got us an impressive time of 19 hours and 9 minutes which surpasses most of the smartphones that are out in the market. In our video loop test (1080p movie, 50% brightness, 50% sound, with earphones, and airplane mode), the device lasted for 21 hours and 27 minutes. Charging time, however, takes 2 hours and 30 minutes to 3 hours from 0% to full but, that is understandable given its massive battery capacity.

Conclusion

The OPPO A3s definitely proved to be a good traveling companion and for having an above average viewing experience. OPPO did a great job with the device’s build, display, performance, and battery life but, the RAM and internal storage capacities are a big deal for us.

We could use an additional RAM and internal storage juice to make the performance even smoother but if that happens, the Php6,990 price wouldn’t do much justice anymore. An increase in the price would be a disadvantage since the OPPO A83 3GB variant just sits above this price point.

OPPO A3s specifications:

SpecsOppo A3S
Display6.2-inch 19:9 In-Cell IPS HD+ display @ 720 x 1520px
CPUQualcomm Snapdragon 450 1.8GHz octa-core
GPUAdreno 506 GPU
RAM2GB RAM
Storage16GB internal storage
Expandable Storageexpandable via microSD up to 256GB (dedicated)
Rear Camera13MP f/2.2 AF + 2MP f/2.4 dual rear cameras with LED Flash
Front Camera8MP f/2.2 front camera
Connectivity4G LTE
SIMDual SIM (nano), Dual Standby
Wi-FiWi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
BluetoothBluetooth 4.2
GPSGPS, A-GPS
USBUSB OTG
OSColorOS 5.1 (Android 8.1 Oreo)
Battery4,230mAh battery
Dimension156.2 x 75.6 x 8.2mm
Weight168g
ColorsDark Purple, Red

What we liked:

  • Premium look
  • Large screen size and screen aspect ratio
  • Decent processor
  • Straightforward UI
  • Long battery life

What we didn’t:

  • Subpar camera performance under low-light conditions
  • Low RAM capacity
  • Low internal storage
  • HD+ resolution
  • No Fingerprint Scanner
  • No LED Notification Light

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Avatar for Vaughn Chua

Vaughn is your go-to person when it comes to comparing gadgets especially smartphones. He's also a gamer by heart and the "Hackerman" of the team.

49 Responses

  1. Avatar for Vaibhav singh Vaibhav singh says:

    Version problem

  2. Avatar for joshua macato joshua macato says:

    my oppo a3s was not to open, i try press power on and volume up but its not working
    i am disapointed for this smart pone i never buy oppo brand again

  3. Avatar for Jonalyn Jonalyn says:

    Hindi po ba pwedeng gamitin Ang globe sa pag iinternet sa oppo a3s??

  4. Avatar for chad chad says:

    di ako makapag top’up sa mL at goddess primal chaos nu ba problema,tsk ?

  5. Avatar for rosemarie estipona rosemarie estipona says:

    UNg oppo a3s ko na auto shutdown siya and it take too long a long hour bago mabuksan sabi nung sa store nabilhan ko normal lang daw to peropang second time ko na to and i think this is not normal kaya nga oppo binili ko kasi iniisip ko matibay at maganda pero prang nag kamali ako

  6. Avatar for Jawad Jawad says:

    my network very week new softwere A3a oppo

  7. Avatar for jobert_sucaldito jobert_sucaldito says:

    I’ve seen ads in facebook marketplace of fake oppo a3s they call it vietnam copy, yeesh. pati china brand phone may fake???

  8. Avatar for Andrei Guivencan Andrei Guivencan says:

    My only concern is bakit walang grid ang camera?Please I need immediate response.

  9. Avatar for Anshu Sharma Anshu Sharma says:

    i think just by adding a littler extra money, you get OPPo a3 which comes with a better ram and a better SOC.
    in OPPO A3 you get same specifications but better performance, because of the Mediatek Helio p60 in it. the Gpu is also nice on it! and 4gb ram helps in daily and heavy tasks,

  10. Avatar for Kiks Kiks says:

    Ako lang ba nakakaexp ng either bago o luma an memorycard. nacocorrupt xa.. nkakainis. mukang issue ng a3s tlg un. pati sa tita ko ganun din bago plng sknhlt….

    • Avatar for Rome Rome says:

      Yes ganon din na experience ko naka 3 times akong bumalik sa pinagbilhan ko pinapalitan ko in the end nag pachange item nalang kasi lagi nag cocorrupt sd card sayang photos and videos

  11. Avatar for Just answer my question Just answer my question says:

    Bakit Yung akin pag nag delete ako NG app Kasi mag dodownload ako NG isang app laging ” internal storage running out” tas pag nag delete ako NG app Yung data nun di na bumabalik kaya kulang storage NG phone ko nakakainis

  12. Avatar for Maritess Maritess says:

    Bad thing about oppo a3s is there’s no expandable sd card.. and yet the specs says there is when there’s none!!!

  13. Avatar for Steeven Mathias Manila Steeven Mathias Manila says:

    Is there a better phone for gaming near its price available in the Philippines?Email me at steevenmathiasma****@****.***

  14. Avatar for Remember mw Remember mw says:

    Totoo ba ung cnasabi nlng puno agad ung internal at hndi pa malipat ung storage sa Sd card?.?
    Pinaplano kong bilin to o ung Xiaomi redmi S2(Y2),worth it ba ung Pera sa oppo a3s

  15. Avatar for Emman Emman says:

    Ako lang ba o my oppo a3s when typing is unresponsive and laggy?

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