OPPO‘s latest A series smartphone promises decent performance for the price, to go along with long battery life and fast charging.

In the Philippines, the OPPO A96 carries a suggested retail price of P15,999, or around $302 converted, for the lone variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage. It’s already available in Starry Black and Pearl Pink colors at OPPO stores as well as at online and offline retailers nationwide.

If you’re considering this phone, or you’re on the fence about it, you may want to read on to find out what its key features are and whether or not the A96 is for you. Here are our thoughts after a month of using it.

Dressed to impress

Sporting OPPO’s Glow Design, which allows the smartphone’s surface to sparkle with a “million nano-level starts,” the OPPO A96 looks premium, despite having a minimalist feel to it. We also like that our Starry Black unit features a matte finish that doesn’t pick up too many fingerprints and adds to the unit’s comfort factor. The Pearl Pink variant has a color-changing pearlescent gradient design going on.

The large camera island on the back lends the A96 a more sophisticated vibe. For convenient unlocking, the handset is equipped with a side fingerprint reader embedded in the power button, and it works as intended — consistent, fast, and reliable. Additionally, the phone’s chassis offers IP5X and IPX4 dust and water resistance, respectively, and has passed rigorous environment and drop tests to ensure durability over time.

Powerful performance with dynamic RAM extension

The OPPO A96 is not your average mid-tier phone when it comes to day-to-day tasks and multitasking. Inside, it is kitted with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G chipset paired with Adreno 610 graphics and 8GB RAM. The processor is fabricated using a 6nm process for optimal performance and efficiency. The RAM can be expanded up to 5GB via the phone’s dynamic RAM extension feature, which allocates some of the unused internal memory to be used as RAM, resulting in faster multitasking.

Standout entertainment package

Up front, the OPPO A96 is equipped with a 6.59-inch LCD display with FHD+ resolution and full DCI-P3 coverage. It also delivers up to 600 nits of brightness in auto-brightness mode, so you should be able to use the phone outdoors in bright light. But the real kicker here is the screen’s 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling, which combine to give you a smooth and responsive experience, particularly for mobile gaming.

The punch-hole display boasts slim bezels as well. OPPO quotes a screen-to-body ratio of 90.8%, which is quite impressive given the device’s reasonable price tag and contributes to a more immersive viewing experience.

Another standout feature is the smartphone’s stereo speakers, which complement the fast and colorful display. Whether it is for playing games or streaming videos, the A96 has the hardware to get the job done well.

Dual high-resolution cameras

Not to be outdone by the competition, the OPPO A96 packs a 50-megapixel camera on the back, assisted by a 2-megapixel bokeh sensor for better-looking portraits with accurate background blur.

Testing the rear-facing camera system ourselves, we found that the images shot on the main camera came out crisp, with good colors and dynamic range. Portrait mode, in particular, makes the subject of your photo pop effortlessly. For sharp and high-quality selfies, the A96 uses a 16-megapixel front camera. The selfie quality is generally good, with the camera preserving our skin tones and facial detail.

Here are a few pictures we shot on the OPPO A96.

Long-lasting 5,000mAh battery with fast charging

To ensure continued long-lasting use, the A96 is powered by a 5,000mAh battery that supports OPPO’s 33-watt SuperVOOC fast cable charging — plenty fast for a phone in this price bracket — over a USB-C port. When you talk about quick charging on smartphones, most users still experience it at a maximum of around 25 watts, thanks to Apple and Samsung dominating the world market, so it’s great to see the A96 go the extra mile to give you shorter charging times.

In our test, it took our unit 85 minutes to reach a full charge from zero and 28 minutes to get to 50% battery capacity. Those are some solid numbers for a midrange phone

In our test, it took our unit 85 minutes to reach a full charge from zero and 28 minutes to get to 50% battery capacity. Those are some solid numbers for a midrange handset, especially given its sizable battery.

So there you have it — our favorite OPPO A96 features in no particular order. Indeed, the latest A series phone offers plenty of features for not a lot of money. If you think this is the model for you and want to purchase it online, visit the brand’s official stores on Shopee here or on Lazada here.

OPPO A96 specs

• 6.59-inch display, FHD+ resolution, 90Hz refresh rate
• 6nm octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor
• Adreno 610 GPU
• 8GB LPDDR4X RAM (+ 5GB virtual RAM)
• 256GB UFS 2.2 storage
• Dual 50-megapixel main, 2-megapixel portrait rear cameras
• 16-megapixel front camera
• Side fingerprint reader
• 5,000mAh battery with 33-watt USB-C charging
• ColorOS 11.1 based on Android 11
• Color options: Pearl Pink, Starry Black

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