With really great battery life the OPPO A5 5G is a good option for those who want a smarter dumb phone.
- Long battery life
- Well priced
- Big screen
- One camera
- Bloatware
- Large bezels and low resolution
There's an incredible range of devices in the market at all times these days. From top-end flagship handsets folks are using to shoot films, to high-performance gaming handsets and even eccentric handsets that try to push the envelope with Magic Eight Balls built in.
Somewhere in all that chaos, there's the need for just a phone that gets stuff done. Many are drawn to "dumb phones" for this purpose, but even then, you often have to lose some basic functions we do still require in these busy times we live in.
That's where budget models like the OPPO A5 5G come in. It's not a processor powerhouse, it's not retro-cool, but it will make calls and work with all the apps you need for a fair price.
Display and design
The OPPO A5 comes in two colourways Aurora Green or Mist White. Aurora Green is a nice deep green, while Mist White is more of a grey. It's on the large size with a big 6.67-inch display, although with some fairly thick bezels. Annoyingly, there's a lack of symmetry with the bezel at the bottom being thicker than that at the top, but that's a nitpick.
In terms of brightness, the display on the OPPO A5 holds up well enough in bright sunlight, and it has a 120Hz refresh rate. The downside is that it has 720p resolution, which you'll almost certainly notice if you're moving from anything with 1080p.
Overall, it doesn't feel too cheap for a sub $300 phone with a plastic frame. The OPPO A5 is rated with IP65 water and dust resistance, which is rare for this price point. Note that IP65 isn’t fully water-resistant. The phone is protected from “water jets”, so strong rain for example, but not submersion. OPPO says it’s also rated for military-grade shock resistance.
Performance and battery life
The battery life on the OPPO A5 is by far the best thing about it. Packing a 6,000 mAh battery, the OPPO A5 5G is built to stay powered on all day. You're looking at easily over eight hours of screen time, which translates to about a day and a half for most people. Maybe two.
Playing games on your morning commute won’t put a dent in the battery life. My experience with far more premium phones is that your battery can take a sizeable hit before you even make it into the office. You can also charge the device fairly quickly, but you'll need OPPO's own 45W SuperVOOC charger (available for $45 RRP). There's no charger provided with the OPPO A5, which is a sign of OPPO catching up to the new standard set by other manufacturers a few years ago.
That's probably where mentions of power and speed dry up, however, when it comes to processing speed, it's not the fastest phone in the market, but it's not too bad for day-to-day tasks. It struggles more with mobile games like Genshin Impact and Marvel Snap, both in loading up and then in actual gameplay. Games like the former will run at higher graphics settings but not well with lots of stuttering and delays.
On the subject of games, the OPPO A5 5G comes with an unhealthy dose of bloatware in the form of a decent handful of mobile games. Then there's also the duplicate system apps like OPPO's take on like Mail and Calandar which you don't need on top of the Google versions.
It's not something that breaks the device but it does take up too much of your time if you want to clear everything off.
OPPO says the A5 5G will get three years of Android OS updates and six years of security updates, which is pretty generous for this price point.
Camera
At first, it looks like the OPPO A5 5G has a tri-camera setup on the back, but it's actually just the main lens, a depth lens that helps support portraiture, and the flashlight.
The main lens is 50MP. It's not too shabby most of the time, but tends to perform best with decent lighting. Even then, it struggles when there's any added motion. The less light, the worse it performs, including at night, where images have a lot of noise. It does take surprisingly nice macro shots, however.
OPPO A5 5G camera samples
Check out these camera samples taken on the OPPO A5 5G. Click or tap on any photo to see a larger version.
OPPO A5 5G – Final Thoughts
For its price, you're definitely getting what you pay for. But it really depends on what you need in a phone. If more battery life for a very low price is your jam, then the OPPO A5 5G is right on the money.
It's just worth remembering you'll compromise on processing power and cameras. If your mobile needs aren’t too demanding, this is a completely serviceable device. For some people, it might even be the perfect backup device to grab if your daily driver needs to be repaired.
If it is the sort of device you're after, note that the OPPO A5 Pro 5G has similar specs with two more years of operating system updates for just $100 more.
These are the most popular mobile phone plans on our website right now with at least 15GB of data, sourced from our database of 28 mobile providers:
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#1
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SpinTel
Editor's Pick
$23 Mobile Plan
$12.00/mth
Min. cost $12
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#2
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Boost Mobile
$39 Prepaid
$39.00
Per 28 Day Renewal
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#3
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Tangerine Telecom
30GB 5G Mobile SIM
$30.00/mth
Min. cost $15
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#4
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Pivotel
25GB Mobile Swift Plan
$11.45/mth
Min. cost $11.45
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#5
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Dodo
Medium Mobile Plan
$30.00/mth
Min. cost $15
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#6
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Swoop
30GB SIM Only 5G
$14.00/mth
Min. cost $14
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#7
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Optus
$60 Optus Choice Plus Plan
$39.00/mth
Min. cost $39
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#8
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TPG
30GB Small Plan
$15.00
Per 1 Month Renewal
Link not supplied
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#9
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felix mobile
felix 25GB Mobile Plan
$30.00
Per 1 Month Renewal
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#10
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Yomojo
Starter 29GB Plan
$24.90
Per 30 Day Renewal
Link not supplied
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Dylan Crismale
Digital Content Editor
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