OPPO A3s Review - Battery CHAMP on a budget!

The A3s made a lot of noise for the past few months due to its really good design and promising specs with huge battery and dual-camera setup for just PHP 6,990!

OPPO A3s review

After more than a month of using it, here's our full review. Let's see if it is one of the best for the price?

For our review part 1: OPPO A3s Unboxing and First Impressions

Display Quality

Big screen on a budget!

The A3s is one of the very few with a big screen for the price. In addition, it is also one of the very few with a notch and 19:9 screen-to-body ratio.

Big screen on a budget!

Moreover, it has fairly slim top, bottom, and side bezels for a budget device. The result? It has MORE screen real estate than most smartphones in its class.

It doesn't have the sharpest screen resolution though. This device only has a screen with HD+ 1440 x 720 resolution which is equivalent to 260 ppi.

Fortunately, it is not pixelated in real life. As a matter of fact, it is one of the better performing screens at this price point for us. It has punchy yet accurate colors, good contrast, and nice viewing angles. It can also go quite bright for outdoor use.

On the display settings, you cannot turn off the notch though.

It has 5 points of touch in total. That's usable enough for typing and playing games.

Audio Quality

On the audio part, the A3s has a single loud speaker below. Lows are not that noticeable, but it has decent mids and highs. It also has crisp details overall. It could also go quite loud, but with noticeable distortion and blown-out details. It is decent for the price.

For headphones, quality is average. It is decent, but far from great. It can produce flat audio with clean mids. Driving power is alright. It can drive my UiiSii HM901 properly at around 60 to 70 percent of volume. However, do not expect it to compete with smartphones with dedicated HiFi chips. Wireless audio via Bluetooth is respectable too.

Microphone quality for calls are okay. It is mostly loud and clear. It has decent performance for audio recordings as well.

Battery Life

MONSTER BATTERY SCORE!

The main highlight of the OPPO A3s is its MASSIVE 4,230mAh battery.

At the PC Mark's work battery life test, it got 22 hours and 16 minutes of scores. It is the highest battery score on any smartphone we tested yet!

Unreal battery score!

Real life usage is equally impressive too. It can really last for 2 days on a single charge! Our usual heavy usage include using a lot of social media apps like Facebook, taking photos and selfies, watching YouTube videos, and more.

It also has the usual power saving modes by OPPO to make its battery life last longer.

Charging time is at 2 hours and 45 minutes. It is not that fast, but that's understandable for a phone with large battery capacity.

Camera

REAL dual-camera setup at the back

Behind, the A3s has a REAL dual-camera setup. It goes with a 13MP f/2.2 paired with a 2MP f/2.4 sensor. 

A3s camera UI

It has most of the modes found on other OPPO phones except the pro mode. It still has the HDR, portrait mode, panorama, bokeh, and face beauty. You can also choose the aspect ratio for your shots easily.

Good cameras for the price!

The A3s has fast focus and shooting speed for the price. Close-up shots are also possible. It can take nice macro shots in daylight even without the bokeh mode.

Speaking of daylight shots, it can capture images with plenty of details. It also has lively colors with decent punch and contrast. Dynamic range is also fairly wide most of the time except for against the light shots.

HDR works, but it isn't too HDR. It also has a nice type of 2x zoom and the bokeh has decent edge detection Just do not compare it with devices 2x its price.

Lowlight shots are okay. But expect a dip in quality. It'll have more grain than your daylight shots. It will be softer as well. Use the flash to take better lowlight shots.

Rear Camera Samples

Daylight 1

Daylight 2

Bokeh sample

Indoor

Indoor dim

Lowlight

For selfies, the A3s has an 8MP f/2.2 shooter with OPPO's AI Beauty 2.0 technology.

Good selfie shooter

It is the face beauty tech of OPPO which can automatically give you beautified yet still a bit natural looking selfies with good exposure and colors. It also has HDR, filters, portrait (bokeh) mode, and screen flash for selfies.

The selfie camera UI

As expected, the A3s can shoot highly detailed images in front. It has good colors and white balance as well. The face beauty is just too aggressive and a bit soft. But, it can get my skin tone correctly.

The bokeh for selfies is nice as well. It can also take lowlight selfies with nice details with the help of the screen flash. It could be soft and grainy without the screen flash though.

Overall, its one of the better selfie shooters for the price.

Selfie Camera Samples

Daylight selfie

Selfie with bokeh

Indoor selfie

Lowlight with face beauty

Lowlight selfie 2

Video Samples

Performance

Good scores

Under the hood, the OPPO A3s runs with 1.8GHz 64-bit Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor paired with Adreno 506 GPU, 2GB RAM, and 16GB of expandable storage.

Speedier processor than most at its price point!

The processor of this device is above-average for the price. It is basically higher than most MT6750, Snapdragon 430/435, and Snapdragon 435 found on other brands.

The result? It has one of the smoothest performance for the price. It is snappy and can even play some games like PUBG mobile on low settings with high frame rates properly.

The only issue is it doesn't have the biggest RAM and ROM around at 2GB and 16GB, respectively.

Fortunately, it is still considered as smooth enough as long as you won't install or open a lot of apps.

You will need to shut some of the background apps regularly to keep the performance smooth as well.

Thermal management is average. It gets warm, but far from hot,

ColorOS 5.1 skin

On the software side, this device runs with Android 8.1 Oreo with ColorsOS 5.1 skin. It is basically the same skin found on the OPPO F7. It also has most of the features found on the F7.

The skin is still a bit iOS inspired, but it doesn't have annoying bloats. Most of the pre-installed apps like the optimization apps. It also has the OPPO share for fast OPPO to OPPO file sharing, gestures and shortcuts with the assistive ball, screen recording, and more.

Face unlock is also very fast and accurate even in lowlight. However, it has no fingerprint scanner.

Overall, connectivity and telephony experience is also nice. WiFi is stable, 4G LTE signal is strong in areas with strong LTE, GPS works, and it has dual SIM slots.

It also has USB OTG support and gyroscope for VR and AR applications.

Pros - Stylish design, big screen, fast processor for the price, amazing battery life, good cameras
Cons - No LED notification light, small RAM and ROM size (there's a 3GB/32GB variant at PHP 9,990 though), and no

Verdict

The OPPO A3s is one of the hottest selling budget smartphone right now for a reason. It looks GOOD, good performance for the price, nice cameras, and class leading battery efficiency.

It has few weaknesses, but you cannot go wrong with it. Why? It is simply one of the best for its price!

Build/Design - 4.5
Display - 3.75
Audio - 4
Battery - 5
Camera - 4
Performance - 4.5
Average - 4.29/5