Oppo A54 5G review: An affordable Galaxy A52 5G alternative?

Oppo A54 5G in a nutshell

With a beneficial retail worth of €269 - round $320 -, the Oppo A54 5G just isn’t the most cost effective 5G smartphone obtainable available on the market. Nonetheless, it’s priced far beneath the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G, though they each share the identical processor beneath the hood. Though the identical processor powers each units, the disadvantages of the Oppo A54 5G grew to become clear within the evaluate.

The LCD show with a refresh fee of 90 Hertz lacks brilliance, the digicam produces good photos solely throughout the day, and charging takes ceaselessly (comparatively talking, in fact). As a way to obtain a full battery cost, I needed to look forward to barely greater than two hours for the Oppo to hit that determine in a battery take a look at. These are values which might be now not acceptable in 2021.

The shortage of safety towards water, a reasonably weak vibration motor, and a below-average mono speaker tarnish the prime quality look that the smartphone really exudes. That is as a result of the shape issue jogged my memory of the iPhone XS Max due to its 6.5-inch show and rounded corners, which proved to be reasonably charming alongside its colourful again panel.

Efficiency-wise, nonetheless, the Oppo A54 5G is simply simply behind the way more costly Samsung smartphone based on benchmarks outcomes. Nonetheless, the low quantity of RAM slowed down the efficiency of the preinstalled ColorOS 11. Menus and system capabilities had been too sluggish in consequence.

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Design and show: Simple grip with a cool rear look

The Oppo A54 5G measures 162.9 x 74.7 x 8.4 millimeters and ideas the scales at 190 grams.
Armed with a 6.5-inch show, it’s roughly harking back to the shape issue discovered within the iPhone XS Max. This smartphone doesn’t characteristic IP certification towards mud and water, which isn’t unusual when producers embody a headphone port.

What I favored:

• Suits effectively within the hand.
• Excessive-quality workmanship regardless of a plastic again.
• Cool coloration gradient on the again.

What I disliked:

• No IP certification towards mud and water.
• Bezels are reasonably thick.

Just like Samsung, Oppo serves the mid-range phase with its A collection of handsets. We must always due to this fact not count on the inclusion of high-end supplies similar to glass or steel. The truth that the Oppo A54 5G sports activities each polycarbonate again and edges is due to this fact not an enormous deal.

However, workmanship high quality stays excessive and the smartphone seems to be prefer it was constituted of an unibody chassis. What I discovered fascinating is how Oppo rounded the corners of the units with a purpose to present a pleasant really feel when holding it. As well as, I favored the place of the Energy button which has been built-in with the fingerprint sensor. Once you maintain the handset in a pure method, it should unlock mechanically this manner with biometric safety turned on.

Nonetheless, a reasonably unspectacular show is a significant unfavorable level in my e book for the Oppo A54 5G. The 6.5-inch LCD panel does provide a refresh fee of 90 Hertz, however the brightness is just too low in comparison with its rivals, particularly if you find yourself underneath direct daylight. The decision is respectable at 1,080 x 2,400 pixels, though it’s reasonably noticeable to see the halo impact across the punch-hole selfie digicam in entrance.

By way of the smartphone’s construct and design, my major criticism could be the dearth of IP certification. Oppo additionally did not spell out any type of unofficial safety rankings towards mud and water. Therefore, you need to be cautious if you wish to make calls with the A54 5G within the rain. Nonetheless, the three.5-millimeter jack is positioned on the backside, so it will not be instantly impacted when it pours, and also you’re caught within the rain.

TL;DR: The Oppo A54 5G is your typical mid-range smartphone, being made largely out of plastic and tries to look a bit of bit extra “hip” and “cool” with a coloured again. Nonetheless, it is the rounded corners that find yourself making the smartphone provide an amazing grip. The show fails to shine on this division although, which is a foul factor.

Efficiency: Snapdragon 480 is just too sluggish

Oppo makes use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 within the A54 5G.
This SoC helps the brand new 5G cell customary and can be utilized in Samsung’s Galaxy A52 5G, whereas armed with 64GB of inside cupboard space and 4GB of RAM.

What I favored:

• Expandable reminiscence.
• 5G compatibility.

What I disliked:

• Inner reminiscence is inadequate.
• Total efficiency is unsatisfactory, together with the working system.

We have seen lots of 5G smartphones that carry a sub-$300 price ticket this 12 months. Nonetheless, the brand new cell customary just isn’t widespread sufficient and most different nations for 5G compatibility to be a “must-have” characteristic in smartphones. Make no mistake about it, 5G is a normal of the long run and with the Oppo A54 5G, you’re theoretically geared up to fulfill the long run head on.

Nonetheless, additionally, you will pay a (reasonably pricey) worth for this future-proof system. As a way to hold prices down, Oppo has geared up the A54 5G with solely the naked necessities. By way of {hardware}, you find yourself with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of inside reminiscence, that are the naked minimal for smartphones in 2021, they usually additionally do not do a lot when it comes to delivering respectable efficiency.

Proper after powering it up for the primary time, I may actually really feel the results of having too little RAM and the gradual UFS 2.1 reminiscence. The whole lot gave the impression to be plodding alongside and run slowly, whereas shortening the animation length within the Android developer settings did nothing to cease this. The Oppo A54 5G can be not the quickest mid-range smartphone on the block as you’ll be able to see from the benchmarks:

The efficiency is barely decrease than the A52 5G that makes use of the identical processor. Nonetheless, for the reason that Oppo A54 5G is considerably cheaper, the benchmark outcomes aren’t all that unhealthy. Particularly having it in comparison with the Oppo A74, you need to see higher efficiency ranges, which is very noticeable in cell video games.

I put in Name of Obligation: Cellular as a part of the evaluate. The sport ran easily, even when it’s important to hold the graphics settings at a minimal. That is all proper and to be anticipated once you choose up a smartphone for this worth vary.

It is also good to see that you may make up for at the very least one flaw - which is assist for micro SD playing cards. Regardless that Oppo would not mean you can format micro SD playing cards as inside storage, on the very least, you will have room to retailer your photos and movies.

NFC and Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity are additionally included within the Oppo A54 5G alongside Wi-Fi 5. However the query stays: simply how good are these specs in a mid-range smartphone?

TL;DR: The efficiency of the Oppo A54 5G was respectable sufficient in benchmarks. Nonetheless, you’ll have to be affected person within the working system, though cell video games do run effectively with Oppo having considered together with a very powerful wi-fi requirements inside. However, there are higher candidates on the market for a sub-$300 smartphone, particularly in the event you can nonetheless make do with out 5G.

Digicam: Oppo cheats itself when it comes to megapixels

In the back of the Oppo A54 5G, you will see that a quad-camera setup with a most sensor decision of 48 megapixels.
Aside from the primary digicam, you’ll be able to change to the extremely wide-angle digicam, with the remaining two sensors being mere padded on {hardware} - a macro and depth digicam. It does appear that Oppo has oversold itself within the digicam division with the Oppo A54 5G.

What I favored:

• Detailed photographs which look good, particularly throughout the day.
• Good and clear portrait mode.

What I disliked:

• Pointless 108-megapixel interpolation mode.
• Evening photographs are poor.
• Selfie digicam blurs particulars by a margin.
• Switching between major and ultra-wide-angle digicam is exasperating.

Nicely, are you prepared for the Xth mid-range smartphone digicam armed with 4 sensors and two focal lengths? Let’s do it! For the primary sensor, Oppo depends on a 48-megapixel sensor, and it locations a extremely quick f/1.7 lens alongside it. As well as, there’s an 8-megapixel extremely wide-angle digicam, with 2-megapixel macro and depth cameras to spherical off all the setup.

Fundamental digicam has good outcomes throughout the day

Let’s start with what stunned me positively concerning the Oppo A54 5G! The principle digicam within the smartphone supplied very nice outcomes throughout the day. Sunny Berlin was not pictured in a gaudy method based mostly on my preferences. At the very least, this occurs once you hold your arms off the AI scene optimization perform.

The sharpness of the 12-megapixel photographs can be convincing once you crop the pictures afterwards. As you will discover, Oppo makes use of so-called pixel binning expertise by combining 4 pixels of the primary sensor right into a single pixel.

However I used to be notably stunned by the pure look in the picture above. And that is even if I had the HDR mode set to computerized. So let’s take one other have a look at the HDR characteristic, ideally on a picture that’s fairly difficult for picture sensors to seize

When capturing in HDR, the smartphone tries to attain a very massive dynamic vary. Sometimes, the smartphone will compute a number of photos collectively and balances info from areas which might be too darkish and areas which might be too brilliant. Oppo’s software program, which just about gained me over on the Oppo Discover X3 Professional, does a great job on this division.

Nonetheless, even the A54 5G is not utterly resistant to the unnatural issue with regards to HDR. Take a look at the intense border across the branches on the precise fringe of the display screen. However I’ve one final instance for you:

Above is an instance that I really actually like from the publicity. Nonetheless, true to the motto that “foreground makes an image look good”, I positioned leaves in entrance of the smartphone. These ended up as precisely what the Oppo A54 5G most likely needed to attract out of focus, leading to a bizarre impact. Which is shocking, because the portrait mode carried out so effectively.

Selfies and portrait mode

As a result of Era Y, of whom I belong to at 28 years of age, prefers to take photos of a specific topic: themselves! To realize that, the front-facing digicam needs to be excellent, and the portrait mode can be a valued buddy amongst many youthful smartphone customers.

Apart from promoting my smile as a bit of boy, these photos look surprisingly good. In every case, I believe the blurred background is nice sufficient with the correct quantity of sharpness. Solely the pores and skin tones do differ fairly a bit, the place you’ll be able to see on the left, my pores and skin coloration has blurred an excessive amount of and considerably merged with my t-shirt.

Extremely-wide-angle digicam is poorly tuned

I even have some beef with the tuning of one other digicam on the Oppo A54 5G - the extremely wide-angle lens. When switching from the primary digicam to the ultra-wide digicam, the colours modified utterly from a bluish hue to the greenish one which we have already seen above.

Zooming works on a purely digital foundation with the Oppo A54 5G since there is no such thing as a telephoto lens. That is not a foul factor, and the standard is reasonably shocking. You don’t lose an excessive amount of element when zooming, which was probably due to the extra megapixels that might in any other case have been misplaced to pixel binning.

Evening photographs usually are not convincing in any respect

All the photos taken to date had been captured in daylight and the outcomes had been at all times acceptable at the very least. All of this modified when it will get darkish. The night time mode does a great job of brightening up photos, however you lose nearly every little thing else when it comes to element. The outcome? A blurred picture that you just will not need to hold as a reminiscence.

Moreover, I had issues with the autofocus at night time with the A54 5G. If I held the smartphone and pointed it at darkish areas, the topic ended utterly out of focus. A faucet on the show for a readjustment needed to be repeated a number of occasions earlier than a half-decent outcome emerged. It is a pity that Oppo’s night time mode solely works with a contrasting picture throughout the autofocus.

…that factor about 108-megapixels

Earlier than the digicam part of this evaluate will get manner too lengthy, I would prefer to level out one explicit downside concerning the Oppo A54 5G. Within the digicam app, you will discover an Extremely HD mode that produces 108-megapixel photographs. That is even if the A54 5G solely affords a 48-megapixel sensor.

The result’s a 25 MB that does not use the total decision of the sensor, which is usually the benefit of an Extremely HD modes, however reasonably an extrapolation of the picture. It stands to motive that Oppo would need to put 108-megapixels on its product web page, since that characteristic is included in units such because the Redmi Word 10 Professional. In relation to us prospects, nonetheless, that is pure deceitfulness on Oppo’s half.

TL;DR: The Oppo A54 5G surprisingly sports activities one of many higher cameras within the mid-range phase, particularly the pure look of the photographs in daylight. Nonetheless, the sharpness drops significantly at night time and the smartphone’s whole of 5 cameras are usually not coordinated effectively.

Battery life: 5,000 mAh with a gradual 10-watt charger

The Oppo A54 5G has a 5,000 mAh battery to maintain it going.
In line with the producer, the battery supplies 13 hours of video playback or 27 hours of speak time. and is charged through a 10-watt charger that plods alongside to completely cost the system in two hours.

What I favored:

• Lengthy battery life even with a 5G SoC.

What I disliked:

• “Quick charging” solely at 10 watts.
• No wi-fi charging assist.

The A54 5G proved to be a really enduring smartphone in my evaluate. The 5,000 mAh battery supplied battery runtimes of as much as two days. Oppo claimed to have improved the vitality administration and touts a most video playback time of 13 hours.

In fact, context issues with regards to every day use, the place my sample consists of totally different instantaneous messaging accounts, viewing YouTube movies, taking calls, testing Instagram and emails, leaving me with barely lower than 60 p.c of battery life left within the night. I guess most customers will not essentially have to fret about charging their Oppo A54 5G within the night.

Nonetheless, it is strongly recommended to cost the smartphone in a single day if obligatory in any case. As a result of with a charging energy of 10 watts, the included energy adapter is just not geared up for Quick Charging. This can be a particular oversight, as Oppo usually tends to carry out rather well within the Quick Charging division.

Ranging from 0 p.c, I achieved a battery degree of 15 p.c after 20 minutes. The battery was half full after an hour and a full cost took a prolonged 2.5 hours. These are values that leaves Oppo within the mud in comparison with its rivals.

TL;DR: The massive capability battery serves the Oppo A54 5G effectively with respectable battery life, however the lack of quick charging is absolutely annoying in on a regular basis life. Who has 2.5 hours to cost their smartphone in 2021?

Knowledge sheet and what else you need to know

There are some things that I needed to go away with you simply in case you are pondering of shopping for the Oppo A54 5G. To save lots of a little bit of area, you will discover them clearly specified by the bullet factors beneath:

• The Oppo A54 5G is offered in Incredible Purple and Fluid Black colours.
• ColorOS 11.1 (based mostly on Android 11) comes pre-installed.
• The Oppo A54 has additionally been launched in a non-5G model (as a part of the 2021 A-series).
• Oppo guarantees at the very least two new Android variations for its smartphones.

Last verdict

To summarize, Oppo has entered the fray a bit of bit too late with the A54 5G. Whereas the general bundle appears respectable sufficient, there are just too many facets which might be too outdated in 2021 even at this worth level.

At the beginning, the dearth of Quick Charging irritated me fairly a bit once I regarded on the specs. With simply 4 GB of RAM, the working system carried out sluggishly, by no means thoughts that the SoC delivers 5G compatibility.

What stunned me positively within the evaluate was the digicam. In case you prefer to take photos throughout the day and in good lighting circumstances, the Oppo A54 5G’s major digicam comes extremely beneficial. Nonetheless, all the setup is compromised by its poor night time mode efficiency and the poorly tuned extremely wide-angle digicam.

As a ultimate level of criticism, I want to as soon as once more level out how the show was merely not brilliant sufficient. Whereas producers like Samsung and Xiaomi already use actually cool AMOLED shows for units in the identical worth vary, the A54 5G merely lags behind on this facet, so the fancy-looking again doesn’t assist its case.

However do not hold your head in disappointment: There are sub-$300 smartphones which might be glorious selections that you may try when mulling over a brand new buy. In case you do not need to learn our checklist of finest smartphones for lower than $300, you’ll find a couple of options right here: