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Last year’s A72 was an amazing budget smartphone. It featured a decent camera, great internals and solid build quality. This year’s Oppo A74 build upon that last phone with a few additional changes, making it one of the best competitor in the budget smartphone segment.
So how good exactly is the Oppo A74 5G, here’s my review of the device.
What’s In The Box
Inside the box of Oppo A72 5G, you’ll find a transparent clear case, an 18-watt fast charger, a USB type C to type A cable and the phone itself. I am glad that the phone came with a transparent clear case because a lot of companies are skipping the same from their boxes, I am looking at you Samsung.
I digress, along with these things you’ll find manuals and important documents inside the smartphone box.
Construction And Design
The Oppo A74 takes design inspiration from a lot of modern-day flagship smartphones, with a rectangular shape camera array on the backside and a punch-hole camera in the front.
The rear panel of the phone is made of polycarbonate which is great as now there is no risk of it getting shattered in any way. In terms of buttons and I/O you’ll find a power button with a built-in fingerprint sensor, volume buttons, a 3.5mm jack, USB Type-C port and a downward-firing speaker.
The Oppo A74 is equipped with a 6.5 inch 90hz LTPS IPC LCD screen with a screen brightness of 480 nits. I tested this screen in direct sunlight and the phone was still readable.
The screen does have quite thick bezels, but since the screen footprint is so big you won’t have any problem while watching content. The phone is a bit on the heavier side at 190g, thanks to the big 5,000 mAh battery.
Performance And Features
The Oppo A74 runs on the colour OS V11.1 out of the box, which is based on Android 11. My review unit came with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. The device is powered by Snapdragon 480 5G SoC, about which we’ll talk in a minute.
I have used Color OS before and seeing version 11.1 is a breath of fresh air because it features relatively less bloatware. Focus on the word “relatively.” You can also delete most of the pre-installed apps which is another great news.
In terms of features, the Color OS is packed with them. You can customise a lot on this phone ranging from the way you take your screenshot, to gestures and motion controls and how you access different apps.
In this version of Color OS, you’ll get a smart sidebar that can house your easily accessible apps. Along with that, the Oppo A74 5G also has a one-handed mode, split-screen mode, quick return bubble etc.
Let’s talk performance, the Snapdragon 450 5G SoC is capable enough to run games like COD Mobile, Free Fire and other indie titles but struggles a bit while playing Genshin impact. But in comparison, even my OnePlus 7T heats up like an oven when playing that game, so I’d say it’s a win-win situation.
I had no way of testing the “5G” speed as it is not yet available in India. But the download speeds on this device are certainly faster than the previous-gen.
Speaking of a winning situation, I have to give props to this phone’s battery performance. It lasts more than a full day no matter how hard you use it. I wasn’t able to manage a screen time of more than six and a half hours because my eyes were hurting after looking at the screen so much. But the Oppo A74 kept going. I believe it easily has a battery backup of more than 7 hours with heavy usage.
In terms of charging capabilities, the Oppo A74 is decent at best. My review unit went from 0 to 83% in around 90 minutes.
The cameras on the Oppo A74 are relatively better than the Oppo A72. It features a quad camera setup. The indoor shots are still a little bit soft, however, you can use the 48 MP mode for better clarity. The cameras work as intended and there are no surprises, most of the time. Another upgrade in the Oppo A74 is the inclusion of gyro EIS in the video mode. Also, the camera is overall more stable than the A72.
Verdict
The Oppo A74 is a powerful, long-lasting and well-built phone with relatively few caveats than before. For the price of Rs. 17,999 it offers immense value and if you’re in the market for a budget offering, then you shouldn’t sleep on the Oppo A74.
