OPPO A96 Hands-on

OPPO recently launched in the Philippines its latest smartphone packed with a 6.59-inch display with 90Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 680 chipset, 50MP dual-rear cameras, and a large 5,000mAh battery, the OPPO A96. We got our hands on one so check out our initial thoughts below.

Let’s start on the front. We have a 6.59-inch IPS screen with Full HD+ resolution. It looks immersive as the bezels are thin but with a slightly thicker chin. Placed on the upper right is the 16MP selfie camera, then placed above it in the bezel is the earpiece.

On the left, we have the volume buttons and the card tray for two nano-sized SIM cards and a dedicated slot for the microSD card.

On the right is the power/lock button which also doubles as the fingerprint scanner.

Up top, we have the secondary microphone, then down below is the 3.5mm audio jack, main microphone, USB-C port, and loudspeaker.

Flip it on its back and you will see the protruding camera module that houses the 50MP main camera and the 2MP depth.

From this angle, you will see the eye-catching design of the OPPO A96. It comes in two colors: Starry Black and Pearl Pink, and what we have is the latter.

The device is mostly plastic, but the frame has a nice rose gold metallic paint job. The back panel is also plastic but has a frosted glass finish that offers a nice texture and repels fingerprints and smudges well. The sparkly effect is really nice to look at and gives off an effect that it is sprinkled with tiny snowflakes. We got to say, it’s really pretty.

It’s also comfortable to hold despite the tall frame. The device feels thinner than it actually is. The button placements are also perfect as they’re situated in the middle of the frame for easy reach. Quality-wise, it’s well-made and doesn’t feel cheap.

Powering the OPPO A96 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chipset with an octa-core CPU clocked at a maximum of 2.4GHz, an Adreno 610 GPU, 8GB of RAM with RAM expansion feature, 256GB UFS 2.2 storage, ColorOS 11.1 based on Android 11, and a 5,000mA battery with support for 33W SuperVOOC charging. We’ll know more about its performance in our full review, so stay tuned.

The OPPO A96 is priced at PHP 15,999 and is now available in OPPO’s official Lazada store.

OPPO A96 specs:
6.59-inch FHD+ (2412 x 1080) LTPS IPS display, 401ppi
90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate
Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 SoC
Adreno 610 GPU
8GB LPDDR4X RAM (+5GB RAM Expansion)
256GB UFS 2.2 storage
w/ microSD card support
Dual-rear cameras:
• 50MP F1.8 main
• 2MP F2.4 depth
16MP F2.0 front camera
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 5.0
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, QZSS
USB-C
3.5mm audio jack
Fingerprint scanner (side)
ColorOS 11.1
5,000mAh battery w/ 33W SuperVOOC charging
164.4 x 75.7 x 8.4 mm
191 g
Starry Black, Pearl Pink