The budget smartphone portfolio has always seemed so controversial in developing countries such as Kenya, consumers often lookout for a device that has a combination of both premium and pocket friendly price tags. And when looking at the latest offering from Oppo; the Oppo A9 2020, there’s so much to look out that often than not, will confuse many of us out there. It comes with a standout 48MP camera sensor that is just as controversial depending on the angle you are looking from. But as most say, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and most of us could easily fall in love with this device.
Our thoughts on the latest Oppo A9 2020
Display Panel
The first place I’d lookout for before purchasing a smartphone is always the screen, it’s the most used component on a smartphone and could easily determine whether or not you’d be pleased with it. I understand most of us will find the large 48MP camera sensor a bargain to skip this device, I say this because the display panel falls short of our benchmark. Its large enough at 6.5inches just as you’d expect from most devices in this category but the resolution is just disappointing at 720×1600 resulting in an overall 270 pixels density! The screen on the Oppo A9 2020 is not outrightly mediocre but it’ll be hard to entertain for those of us who are keen or have used panels with denser pixels. In our opinion, we expected Oppo to come out better than the Tecno Camon 12.
Primary and Selfie Cameras
If there’s one thing that stands out on this gadget, is the back-camera combination. Oppo decided to house four separate sensors at the back with a 48MP leading the way for 8MP ultrawide sensor, 2MP depth sensor and an additional 2MP sensor. We appreciate the effort, but then again, we understand there’s a lot of tweaks that goes into making those photos pop besides the number and size of sensors. That’s why the likes of Pixels, Apple and Samsung manage to take amazing shots despite having lesser sensors. At the front, there’s a modest 16MP camera that’ll take those selfies just fine.
Performance
In the android world, nothing contributes to performance more than system RAM does. 4GB has become the sweet spot and the Oppo A9 2020 delivers just that and beyond. You’ll have an option of 4GB with 128GB internal storage or double at 8GB with 128GB internal storage. For that amount of RAM, the Oppo A9 2020 should sweep through most applications without a hustle.
We love the fact that Oppo decided to use a Qualcomm chipset rather than Mediatek as we’ve seen in the recent Tecno offering. We expect the chipset to perform just fine as this combination has worked fine on other devices running android version 9 (pie). The internal storage should be enough for normal functionalities but the device provides an option to add more storage via a 3 slot MicroSD card capability.
Design
Rather than having large bezels we’ve seen in older devices, we’ve grown to embrace notches and Oppo has done a commendable job, utilizing a water drop notch to house the selfie camera and maintain a minimal bezel portfolio.
Price in Kenya
Oppo A9 2020 will cost anywhere from Ksh. 28,000