OPPO A83 vs Honor 7A - Under 10K Selfie Showdown

The Honor 7A is an affordable selfie-centric phone that may just be an indirect competitor with the on-sale priced OPPO A83. Which one takes better selfies? Let's find out!

OPPO A83 and Honor 7A selfie camera comparison

The OPPO A83 with 2GB RAM remained one of the better selfie centric phone at its original price of PHP 8,990. Now that it is on-sale at PHP 6,990 it may indirectly go against the upcoming selfie centric Honor 7A.

Single camera for both phones at the back

Both phones have an 8MP selfie camera with the Honor having an advantage on paper larger maximum aperture of f/2.0 and a softlight flash. On paper, this means that the Honor 7A may be better in lowlight.

18:9 screens

Both are good looking phones but we are here to see which one can really take the best selfie for the price range. So we decided to take both phones out for a selfie showdown!

Left side of the phones

Let's see who performed better!

OPPO A83 vs Honor 7A Selfie Camera Specs

Device	OPPO A83	Honor 7A
Back Camera	8MP f/2.2 w/ A.I. Beauty Recognition Technology and screen flash	8MP f/2.0 w/ softlight LED flash
Selfie Camera	PHP 6,990 (2GB RAM/16GB ROM), PHP 9,990 (3GB RAM/32GB ROM), PHP 11,990 (4GB RAM/64GB ROM)	PHP 6,990 (PHP 5,990 flash sale price)

Scene 1 - Daylight without beauty

Both phones struggled with skin tones. The Honor 7A leaned towards reddish tones  while the OPPO A83 that leaned towards yellowish tones. The Honor 7A however is closer to real life colors. Upon closer inspection, it is clear that the OPPO A83 renders more detail.

They both struggled with controlling bright areas and both are susceptible to flaring.

The Honor scores 1 point for color accuracy while the OPPO scores 1 point for higher details. Honor 7A - 1 point, OPPO A83 - 1 point

Scene 2 - Daylight with face beauty

The OPPO A83 has aggressive skin softening that it looks too cartoon-ish. The details in the background remain but the face has smoothen to the point that it fees off. The Honor 7A on the other hand has little softening and it isn't too far from the non-beauty mode image. This results in a more natural look.

In terms of colors, it is the same as the first scene where the Honor leaned to reddish tones while the OPPO leaned towards yellowish tones. Again, it is also obvious how more detailed the OPPO is.

The Honor 7A wins for giving a more natural look instead of the aggressive cartoon like smoothening of the A83. Honor 7A - 2 points

Scene 3 - Indoor without face beauty

Even though the Honor has a higher maximum aperture of f/2.0, it wasn't able to adjust exposure to brighten up the scene as well as the OPPO. To the Honor 7A's defense though, the image is accurate capture of the situation.

It is also obvious how both struggled with over exposed areas.

The OPPO A83 gets a point for being able to adjust exposure automatically even though the Honor 7A accurately captured the situation. OPPO A83 - 2 points

Scene 4 - Indoor with face beauty

This batch is consistent with the last scenes where in the OPPO rendered more detail but because of the aggressive smoothening resulted in our faces looking off. The Honor has slightly lesser detail and resolution but it captured the colors accurately.

The Honor 7A scores points for a natural look and feel while the OPPO scores a point for adjusting the exposure automatically to improve exposure. Honor 7A - 3 points, OPPO A83 - 3 points

Scene 5 - Selfie indoor

Both phones struggled with white balance and skin tones because of the multiple light sources. The OPPO A83 is consistently rendering more detail in bright lighting situations but is struggling controlling overexposed areas that results into unpleasing flaring. 

The Honor 7A was able to control flaring/overexposed areas with deeper contrast than the OPPO A83 but it couldn't handle the skin tones in this scenario.

OPPO A83 gets a point for consistently retaining more detail while the Honor 7A gets a point for better flare control and deeper contrast. OPPO A83 - 4 points, Honor 7A - 4 points

Scene 6 - Selfie indoor with face beauty level 5

The OPPO A83's image is good but is thrown off with the green color cast and the heavy smoothening on the sugject's face and the orange shirt that resulted in loss of detail and made the subject look cartoony.

The Honor 7A is more detailed but with rougher grain with accurate color reproduction; thus, it gets the point for this round. Honor 7A - 5 points

Scene 7 - Lowlight without flash

With minimal light sources, both phones loses a lot of detail. The grain has soften both images to a large extent. The OPPO A83 lost more detail. This is where the larger maximum aperture of the Honor 7A comes in to play.

It comes down to preference, do you prefer a softer image with softer grain or do you prefer to see more detail but with rougher grain?

What surprised us is that even with little light, the Honor accurately adjusted white balance. while the OPPO leaned to an aggressive reddish tone. In dim lighting conditions, the Honor 7A wins given that it was able to render a lot more detail though at the cost of rougher grain with accurate white balance.

To the OPPO A83's defense, it still did well compared to other phones in the price range. Honor 7A - 6 points

Scene 8 - Lowlight with flash

Like the previous scene, the OPPO gravitated to a warmer, reddish tone but with a softer image and with a softer grain pattern while the Honor captured the cool tones given off by the white soft LED flash while rendering more detail but at the cost of rougher grain.

Again, It comes down to preference but for us, we would not mind having rough grain as long as the subjects are detailed but some people wouldn't mind a softer image as long as the grain isn't too rough. Both Phones gets a point. 

OPPO A83 - 5 points, Honor 7A - 7 points

Verdict

The score is 7 for Honor 7A and 5 for the OPPO A83. It is clear that in this selfie camera showdown that both phones can take good selfies.

The OPPO A83 is able to consistently render more detail except in low light situations. It is also able to compensate for situations with dark areas and compensate for them. 

But, the Honor 7A consistently captured the colors and scene accurately even though it had less detail. It was also able to control flaring and overexposed area by a noticeably margin.

It is clear that even though the OPPO A83 has better overall specs, the Honor 7A is better selfie shooter.

So if you are focused on selfie shooting, the Honor 7A may be a very good option. 

What do you guys think? Do you agree?

The Honor 7A will be available starting July 7 on Shopee with a retail price of PHP 6,990 and will be on flash sale for PHP 5,990 on July 7, 14 and 30.

On the other hand, the OPPO A83 is also available nationwide with a starting price of PHP 6,990.