OPPO A92 review: a solid mid-range smartphone for the vibrant young adult

To give you a picture of what to expect from an OPPO A92 review, it is important that you know that the A92 is a successor to the hugely popular OPPO A9 2020, which we reviewed late 2019 and considered to be a smartphone that delivers on all fronts. See our OPPO A9 2020 review. The A9 2020 was the mid-range smartphone to beat in its class.

At first glance, you quickly notice the OPPO A92’s clean design, as well as the punch-hole camera in the 6.5-inch 1080P fullscreen display. Housed in that punch hole is a 16-megapixel selfie camera. The rest of the specs include a 48-megapixel quad camera at the back, and a fingerprint scanner in the side-mounted Power button. The other specs you will not see include the Snapdragon 665 chipset, 8 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, a large 5000mAh battery, and 18W fast charging.

These are impressive specs fit for a mid-range smartphone that is looking to get the attention of vibrant young adults who are looking for top value for money without spending on a flagship.

OPPO A92 review: Photography

At the back of the A92 is a rectangular camera module that houses four camera lenses – a 48MP main lens, an 8MP ultrawide lens, a 2MP mono lens, as well as a 2MP portrait lens. These are supported by an AI automatic scenario identification system that OPPO says is capable of recognizing up to 22 different scenarios and adjusting photos accordingly. We took it for a spin.

Here are sample photos taken with the 48-megapixel rear camera:

Up next, I took the zoom capabilities of the rear camera for a spin, and came out with the next three photos.

How about night photos? The OPPO A92 pulls that off nicely.

As you can see, OPPO A92 takes really good photos in both day and night settings. Photos mostly come out crisp and sharp. The camera is able to extract lots of light when taking photographs in Night Mode.

Selfie Camera

As mentioned earlier, the front-facing camera is a 16MP lens. I took it for a spin and have sample photos for you as well:

Portrait mode introduces a significant amount of blown highlights in selfies. The subject stays sharp though.

Ultra Steady Video And So-Loop Smart Video Editor

Shooting videos is always a tricky affair, as most videos shot on smartphones tend to come out shaky. OPPO has included video stability in the A92 so that recorded videos come out smooth, even when there is a lot of motion during the recording. If you have ever seen one of those shaky videos, you will appreciate this feature.

OPPO has also developed a video editing app that turns you into a video producer without needing detailed technical knowledge. That app is called Soloop and is included in the A92. The app also includes a range of filters that can be applied to your videos. Youtubers and others who want to produce good-quality videos on social media will find this extremely useful.

OPPO A92 review: Performance

What kind of performance do you expect when you marry a solid mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chipset with 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage? Performance that does not disappoint. OPPO A92 ran smoothly at all times, keeping up with all tasks we threw at it.

What you need to know is that while Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 is not a flagship chipset, and OPPO A92 is not a flagship smartphone either, it delivers super smooth performance in most situations. 8 GB of RAM means that you can launch and switch between apps smoother.

If you are into mobile gaming, you will be pleased to know that OPPO’s Hyper Boost is included in the A92. The name is self-descriptive: it boosts performance so that games (and apps in general) to respond
faster.

As for storage, 128 GB of internal storage memory is large enough for most smartphone users. But if you need more space, there is a memory card slot available.

Battery Capacity And Charging

Keeping the lights of the A92 on is a massive 5000mAh battery that keeps going on all day and into the next one. If you are one of the most demanding users on earth and push the phone really hard, you can empty it in one day. But chances are that you are not, and so this battery will keep you going for longer than that. Part of that is due to the low-power consumption of Snapdragon 665.

A big battery is one thing; charging it is another. Thankfully, OPPO has included 18W Fast Charge technology with the A92, so that you can quickly charge the phone from 0 to 50% in 30 minutes. That means that no matter how low your battery is, you can get a good top-up even if you have just a few minutes to charge it.

OPPO A92 review: Design

Our OPPO A92 review unit comes in Aurora Blue, and it is beautiful. If you prefer a darker look, OPPO A92 is available in Twilight Black as well. Whichever you prefer, both of them utilize what OPPO calls Constellation Design. It is a fancy name for a beautiful thing: it is based on the idea of the changing sky from day to night and vice versa. Light streaks shimmer as you turn and change the position of the phone. The result is an eye-catching smartphone.

But colour aside, picking up the phone, I immediately liked it. Why? The light weight and slim profile. Heavy phones can be a chore to handle, and smartphones have gotten heavier and heavier over the years. All things being equal, you want a lightweight, comfortable phone in your hand. That’s the OPPO A92.

OPPO A92’s display comes with1080P resolution. In simple English, it displays everything with a high level of sharpness.

Side Fingerprint Unlock. Side-stepping the traditional location of the fingerprint scanner, which is the back, or the increasingly common under-display version, OPPO has built it into the Power button on the right side of the A92. And it works well too. It is a good user experience not having to reach anywhere else but the power button when needing to wake up the phone.

I particularly like it. The Power button feels exactly like where the fingerprint scanner should be. Setup was quick and it performs as smooth as it should.

OPPO A92 review: Software

Software is a key part of every smartphone user experience. OPPO’s Custom software, ColorOS is in version 7.1 here on the A92. ColorOS is a fairly heavy skin of Android OS and changes the look and feel of the OS, as well as adds some useful tools. ColorOS 7.1 is based on Android 10, so all the Android 10 features are here, including Dark Mode.

Should you choose to, you can sign in with your OPPO ID to use their services. If you do not have an OPPO ID yet, just create one and you are good. But if you would rather not, simply skip and move on. It isn’t mandatory.

Smart Assistant

ColorOS has a helpful tool called Smart Assistant built-in. It is available as a homescreen pane and can be accessed by swiping to the right on your homescreen. It is OPPO’s take on Google’s feed. Smart Assistant functions like an organizer, helping you keep track of things like the weather, your calendar, your quick functions, fitness schedule and more.

Privacy Control

One of the things I found intriguing about ColorOS is how it gives the user a greater deal of control over their privacy, including what details get synchronized to the phone.

Usually, on other Android phones, once you sign into your Google account, your Google Contacts are synced to the phone. Not in the case of the OPPO. You have to manually take an extra step to : In the Contacts app. select “Sync with Contacts of Other Accounts”, next page -> select your Google account and make sure that the Auto-sync Data toggle is enabled.

Then on the next page, you get to select what gets synced from your Google account – Calendar, Contacts, Drive, Gmail, Google Fit Data, People details. Once you have selected what you want, tap “Sync Now” at the bottom of the page.

It is quite a number of extra steps, but I see its privacy benefits. If you are a user who does not want all your Google details on your device, OPPO’s software gives you control. It gives you the freedom to pick and choose what gets synced to your phone.

Also, when a third-party app requests access to your phone’s microphone, camera or location, you will get a prompt in the status bar. This allows you to act immediately, to accept or block the specific permission.

Security Features in ColorOS

Also baked into ColorOS are some other nifty security features – Secure Keyboard, Screenshot & Screen Recording Prevention, and Prevent Background Recording of Audio/Images.

You can toggle Secure Keyboard to auto-activate when you need to enter a password. It will take over from your default keyboard, which often tracks your input and can leak your secure info. Secure Keyboard does not track or record your keystrokes, it does not connect to the Internet, and it does not give suggestions when you type.

When using Secure Keyboard or OPPO’s Private Safe, screenshots and screen recording are disabled, so your secure information cannot be captured. Lastly, anytime an app or service starts using your phone’s microphone in the background, you get notified in the status bar. And should any background app try to use the camera, you get a prompt too.

There is the Anti-harassment/Fraud feature too, which is another name for OPPO’s call blocking feature. You can create a Blacklist, as well as a Whitelist, of numbers. I really love the security-focused features of ColorOS.

OPPO A92 review: Conclusion

In summary, OPPO A92 is exactly what we have come to expect from OPPO Mobile – a beautiful smartphone that gets the job done all round. It looks good, is light in the hand, runs smoothly, takes great photos, and is hard to fault. The OPPO A9 2020 pulled this off, and the A92 has built on that.

OPPO’s A-series are designed to tackle the now highly competitive upper mid-range market. As such, the A92 offers specs and performance that are solid, while not being high-end. So, the A92 is a smartphone to buy if you do not want to spend top money on a Reno smartphone.

The A92 is available for (8GB+128GB) – ₦109,900 at accredited dealership and e-commerce platforms nationwide.

Visit www.oppo.com/ng for more information.

Author: Mister Mobility

Master storyteller and founder of Mobility Nigeria, Mister Mobility, has used and reviewed hundreds of mobile phones since 2001.