Oppo launched its budget-friendly smartphone A3s in India on July 15, 2018. Compared to the ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M1 and Realme 1, the smartphone has slightly underwhelming specifications.

Display

The affordable phone comes with a 6.2-inch display with an aspect ratio of 19:9 with a small cut out at the top for the earpiece and the front camera. The display has a resolution of 720p. If you care about the display resolution, you may feel disappointed. If you like displays that have higher resolutions or like Full HD content, you will notice the 720p display of the A3s. Putting the resolution aside, the display of the smartphone is very responsive. It is easy to use both indoors and outdoors. It adapts easily to ambient light, thus adjusting the brightness accordingly.

Despite its large screen, the phone doesn’t feel heavy and is easy to hold. In fact, it feels sturdy and can surely survive a fall or two. In short, the build quality of the phone is decent for its price range.

To the right and left sides of the display, there are minimum bezels. However, at the bottom, the bezel is quite thick. Some people don’t like the notch above the display. But you can’t hide it anyway.

Chip 

When it was first released, the smartphone runs ColorOS 5.1. It has the Snapdragon 459 SoC, which can usually be found in other smartphones in this price range. The smartphone comes with 2GB of RAM and storage of 16GB which can be expanded via microSD card. The ColorOS keeps things minimalistic and doesn’t bring much to the table. There is, however, a Hot Apps section which suggests users install some certain apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, MyJio, JioTV, etc. If you refresh this section, some more suggestions will pop up. This feels like an abundant addition in a neat platform.

There is a feature called Game Space with which the performance of the handset will be optimized for certain games. Users can adjust phone settings such as brightness, notification banners, power consumption, based on the gaming requirements. A feature for full-screen multitasking which let users open one app on the entire screen space while having another one in a small window. This is probably useful for messaging apps.

Although the smartphone doesn’t come with a fingerprint sensor, it does have a face unlock option. While it is very fast at recognizing the face of the user, it isn’t as secure.

In terms of performance, the phone can’t handle very well slightly demanding games and apps. There are some noticeable issues that players of Injustice 2 and PUBG might experience. Things don’t work as fluidly as you would want it to be. In this price range, there are other smartphones that have more memory and better processors, the A3s lags behind considerably in this category.

Battery

The smartphone has a beefy 4,230mAh battery. With this capacity, the smartphone can last more than a day even with heavy usage. In fact, in a test, the smartphone even lasted 19 hours before the battery ran out. This means you can take the smartphone out for a road trip without having to worry about the charger.

The smartphone doesn’t support Oppo’s fast charging tech called VOOC. So if your smartphone’s battery is depleted, you will have to sit around and wait for it to be charged.

RAM – Internal Storage

The 2GB of RAM choice isn’t an ideal one. The moment you open heavier applications or multitasking, you will notice this. The phone starts to slow down. But it can still handle Asphalt 9 without any issues.

The 16GB of storage is tiny. You will need to use a microSD card for this phone. Good news is it does come with a microSD card slot. You can expand the storage to up to 256GB.

The phone has three variants. One with 2GB of RAM and 16GB internal storage, which is undoubtedly insufficient. The second one has 3GB of RAM and 32GB internal storage. And the last one has 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage.  

Camera

On the back of the phone is a dual-camera setup with a 13MP primary sensor and a 2MP secondary sensor along with an LED flash unit. And at the front, there is an 8MP sensor for video calling and taking selfies. Even though Oppo is known for its camera performance, the Oppo A3s has some glaring issues. Both the front and rear cameras have some exposure issues while taking photos.

During day time, photos delivered by the main camera have an average amount of details. However, the colors aren’t quite accurate. The photos often look overexposed or oversaturated. The speed of the shutter is pretty fast, which is helpful as it will ensure there aren’t a lot of blurred shots. Autofocus, on the other hand, requires a few seconds to lock to a subject. And this happens more indoors. This also means that recording videos is a tricky task.

Regarding the default camera app, there is an option for portrait mode offering depth effect. The pictures come out really good. The portrait mode is also available when you take photos using the front camera. Time-lapse, pano modes, HDR mode are also available. There is an AI-powered beauty feature allowing users to enhance the photos of themselves.

Just like the rear cameras, the front camera is also a hit-and-miss. Depending on the conditions, the photos may come out good or bad, which is a major drawback for the smartphone.

The smartphone does a decent job of blurring the background and focusing on the subject for portrait mode. In broad daylight, the quality of the selfies is acceptable. But when moving indoors or in low-light conditions, the quality is disappointing. The photos look noisy, soft, and lack detail.