The OPPO A3 may be a budget phone but it’s positioned to be a tough one. The phone continues the company’s tradition of combining durability with style. Built with military-grade shock resistance and multiple liquid-resistant features, this smartphone is designed to withstand everyday wear and tear. During our testing, we lined it up with a series of billiard ball impacts, and it held up without any issues.
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| Starlight White |
It is available in three striking color options: Starlight White, Starry Purple, and Sparkle Black. Our unit comes in white, and we like that it easily negates fingerprints. It is also clean and minimalist - but could easily stand out when seen in the wild.
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| Starry Purple |
The OPPO A3 places the power button, which also functions as a fingerprint scanner, and the volume rocker on the right side. At the bottom, you’ll find the speaker grille, USB-C port, primary microphone, and 3.5mm audio jack.
Display
The OPPO A3’s 6.67-inch HD+ IPS LCD display provides a solid viewing experience, especially for its price. With a screen-to-body ratio of 89.9% and up to 1000-nit brightness, the phone offers an immersive feel that’s perfect for watching videos or gaming. While the pixel density of about 264 ppi isn’t the sharpest out there, it’s more than adequate for everyday tasks like streaming and browsing. The display reduces blue light emissions, which is great if you’re spending long hours on your phone.
However, the 720 x 1604 pixel resolution and 90Hz refresh rate do leave a little room for improvement. While the 90Hz refresh rate ensures smoother scrolling and animations compared to standard 60Hz, it’s a bit of a letdown that the OPPO A3 doesn’t offer the 120Hz refresh rate available on some cheaper models.
The punch-hole design for the front camera does give the display a modern look; but overall, it’s a display that gets the job done, just without the extras you'd find on higher-end phones.
Hardware + Gaming + Multimedia
The OPPO A3 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6s 4G Gen1 mobile platform, featuring an octa-core processor with four Cortex-A73 cores at 2.1GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores at 2.0GHz, backed by an Adreno 610 GPU. With 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage - expandable up to 1TB via a microSD card - this phone handles everyday tasks and casual gaming well.
For casual gamers, the OPPO A3 offers a decent experience. Games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) and Honor of Kings are playable. However, it delivers sub par performance when running games with higher graphics requirements.
After playing some matches in MLBB, I noticed no lag or issues. However, if you want to play more demanding titles like Genshin Impact, you might need to lower the graphics settings. Expect some frame drops and stutters during intense gameplay, which is common for budget smartphones.
On the other hand, the OPPO A3 features 8GB of RAM plus 16GB of virtual RAM. It is okay most of the time, but I did encounter noticeable hiccups when multitasking which could be a deal breaker to most users looking for fluid experience. Given its entry-level chipset, this isn't too surprising. However, I think the phone needs a better chipset for its price.
Meanwhile, the phone is great in content consumption with its large display and audio quality. The OPPO A3 comes with a cool feature called Ultra Volume Mode that really boosts the sound. This lets you turn up the phone’s loudspeaker volume by up to 300% without any distortion, so you get clear high-frequency sounds.
In short, the OPPO A3 is a good option for anyone seeking a reliable smartphone for content consumption. Not so much with gaming though, but it could still run some popular apps.
Camera
The OPPO A3 is a great choice if you’re looking for a smartphone with capable camera features without breaking the bank. It has a dual-camera setup on the back, featuring a 50MP main camera with an f/1.8 aperture and autofocus. There's also a 5MP front camera with an f/2.2 aperture for selfies.
During our tests, we were impressed with how well the camera performed, especially for a budget phone. In good lighting, the photos are detailed, colorful, and true to life. The bokeh effect for portrait shots looks nice and smooth, adding a professional touch. While the contrast in the images is good, the dynamic range could use some work. In scenes with strong light and shadows, you might lose some details in the brightest and darkest areas.
The camera app comes with some useful AI features, like AI Portrait Retouching, which works on both the front and back cameras. This is particularly helpful for group selfies, as it adjusts the retouching for everyone in the shot. However, there isn't a specific Portrait mode in the app, which is something to keep in mind.
For video, the OPPO A3 can record in 1080p at 30 frames per second with both the rear and front cameras. It’s not top-of-the-line, but it’s good enough for casual videos and social media posts. A fun feature is the Dual-View Video mode, which lets you record from both cameras at the same time. This creates a picture-in-picture effect, making it great for vloggers and content creators.
The 2x digital zoom works well for most situations, but if you zoom in too much, the photos can get grainy. The secondary lens helps with depth and macro shots, and overall, it does a decent job without making things too blurry.
The 5MP front camera is good for selfies, offering good quality captures for social media. Plus, there’s a beauty mode if you want to enhance your selfies a bit.
Overall, the OPPO A3 delivers acceptable camera performance for its price. Whether you're snapping everyday photos or recording videos for social media, this phone has you covered without costing a fortune.
Software and Battery
The OPPO A3 runs with ColorOS 14.0 that’s based on Android 14. The interface is quite sluggish considering we are into sub Php 9K category. But there are some jewels to take away here, especially the clean and simple interface delivered by the ColorOS.
When it comes to the battery life, the OPPO A3 has an impressive showing. It has a juicy 5100 mAh battery which is quite bigger than most of its peers. In our real time use, our fully charged OPPO A3 runs out of battery for roughly 16 hours. This is based on fair to moderate use; thus users would not need to worry about having to charge midday.
There’s also 45W SuperVOOC fast charging support which could charge the device up to 50 percent in just half an hour. In our charging test, charging the phone from 0 to 100% took us about one hour and thirty minutes. There is also a bunch of software support that makes use of AI algorithms to study the users' charging patterns and implement charging care to your device based on these data.
Verdict: Should You Buy the OPPO A3?
The OPPO A3 is a highly competitive smartphone below the Php 9K segment. Though there are some aspects that need improvements - I think the overall feel of both the software and the user interface is quite sluggish. However, I still think that it’s a unique phone that offers military-grade water and dust protection. Some things that I also like about the phone include the long battery life, large high-quality display, and good camera performance.
Speaking of the camera, the main sensor stands out with great contrast and color accuracy. Bokeh effects are also good enough for social media use. Some aspects like the dynamic range need some improvements.
The OPPO A3 is still a good phone. However if you’re looking for an all-rounder at the price of Php 8,999 (6GB + 128GB), this could be a hard sell. However, if you need a super tough device with long battery life as your everyday companion device, the OPPO A3 could be enough.
