BAIDIYU Case for Oppo A15 Phone Case, Mirror-faced Smart Flip Protective Shell, Full Protection, Cover Case for Oppo A15.(Silver)

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It’s a solid effort with a large display and dependable battery life, but countless compromises – including poor performance, a low-res display, and a sub-par camera – dampen the sense that you’re getting a bargain. You really don’t want to zoom in on any shots taken with the Oppo A15 either, since they don’t stand up well to closer scrutiny. The Oppo A15 is powered by a 4,230mAh battery, which is ample for a phone at this end of the market. And while there is a Night mode here, it really doesn’t seem to do much good in low-light conditions.

and the Alcatel 3L both squeeze in an ultra-wide lens – although it’s fair to say that cheap ultra-wides are never particularly great.At the end of a hugely productive 2020, Oppo released an ultra-affordable smartphone in the Oppo A15. Even at this end of the market, it’s possible to get a flexible camera system with ultra-wide options. The phone’s all-plastic body feels solidly built, if entirely unspectacular, and the presence of a micro-USB port is something of a blast from the past (to put it politely).

This is a familiar set up for the budget class – and, once again, the presence of that low-megapixel macro is hard to justify. The Sony Xperia L4 lost 12% under the same circumstances, while the A15 also pips the likes of the Honor 9A (which lost 8%) and the Realme 5 (on 9%). It can be a little annoying, too, such as with the inability to uninstall apps directly from the home screen.In PUBG Mobile, the graphical settings won’t go any higher than Balanced/Medium – one notch of the bottom – and even then the performance is far from silky smooth. Talking of closer scrutiny, we found that close-up portrait shots struggled to get our subject in full focus, both in normal shooting mode and in the dedicated Portrait mode. You’re unlikely to be indulging in hours of gaming given that humble processor, and even if you’re a total video-streaming hound, the 720p output shouldn’t prove too taxing. Apps such as Netflix can take a while to get up and running, and even Oppo’s own individual Settings menus take an extra beat to load. That screen might be big and bright, but that only serves to highlight its meagre 720p/HD+ resolution.

Factor in the Oppo A9 2020 and the Oppo A5 2020, and it’s been a busy 12 months for this reliable brand’s budget line. Just below this is a physical fingerprint sensor, which is another sign that this isn’t a premium phone. At just 720 x 1600, this is HD+/720p as opposed to the FHD+/1080p resolution that most phones shoot for. Objects containing lots of intricate detail, such as trees and bushes, would take on a granular, heavily processed look.And sure enough, using the Oppo A15 is a far from a smooth experience, with small but frequent delays when moving between apps and scrolling through web pages. The rear of the device is a largely featureless expanse of plastic, shiny right up to the point at which it will be covered with greasy fingerprints. A fairly large 4,230mAh unit serves those modest components well, happily taking you into a second day of use before needing a top up. Still, ColorOS is a suitably customisable UI, so you can tweak things to a reasonable degree of satisfaction.

Saving money is all well and good, but if you want to ensure that your cheap phone lasts through the day, the Oppo A15 is a fair bet. Your eye will probably be drawn to the square camera module in the top-left corner, which is framed by a faux-metal surround. While you may not expect blistering pace from a cheap phone, the Oppo A15 is slow by anyone’s standards. You won’t be watching Full HD video content natively here, and with a pixel density of just 269ppi, web content and photos won’t exactly pop either.The camera also struggles with HDR situations, overexposing elements such as the sky in the background. Meanwhile, a teardrop notch makes the phone feel a little dated at a time when hole-punch notches have become more the norm in the budget sector. While its rear-mounted fingerprint sensor isn’t exactly forward-thinking, it’s pleasingly quick and reliable.