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Review: OPPO A73

Review: OPPO A73 is a proposition adequate to its valuation, and when promotions appear, it can become an extremely attractive choice.

OPPO A73 is an interesting proposition among mid-range smartphones due to the screen AMOLED. It also offers an interesting housing finish resembling navy blue leather. The specification was not missing NFC or other important details, and the icing on the cake is 30W fast charging. Is therefore OPPO A73 has any disadvantages and is it worth choosing? I invite you to read our review.

How do we rate design? 

OPPO in the model A73 it gave up boring “safe” color versions. Both available options have a very strong character and at the same time strongly differ in finish, not only in color. I got the navy blue version, which has a rough texture that mimics the skin. The silver, mirror logo stands out against the navy blue background OPPO as well as a silver quadruple lens bezel. There is no other smartphone that looks the same. By the way, the matte back hides streaks well and you don’t have to wipe it to make it look good. The second version, in white, instead of a texture imitating leather, has symbols engraved, which is also not a common procedure among phone manufacturers.

The housing of the device is almost completely flat – there are no rounded edges and other protrusions. Even the frame of the device has a flat surface. The smartphone looks slim and light in hand. Its dimensions are 159.8 x 72.9 x 7.5 mm. The A73 weighs 163 grams, so it is one of the light devices in the 6.44 inch diagonal.

On the lower edge there is a USB C socket, a headphone socket, and a monaural speaker that offers quite good quality sound in the hands-free mode. The device housing is not sealed. On the plus side, you can count a drawer with three separate slots – two for nano SIM cards and the third, independent, for a memory card micro SD.

The smartphone can be unlocked with a fingerprint reader on the screen or with your face. While I added the fingerprint without any problems and the unlocking works quite well, when I try to add a face OPPO A73 insisted that it couldn’t detect faces, regardless of the type of light and whether I was wearing glasses or not. Zooming in and out on the phone didn’t help either. I have not encountered such problems in other devices so far. Maybe this is a single case, or the update will solve this problem in the future – hard to say.

What do we think about the display? 

Screen OPPO A73 it has a diagonal of 6.44 inches, a resolution of FHD + 2400 x 1080 pixels and a pixel density of 408 PPI. The display is made in technology AMOLED, which is not common in this price range. Display quality is one of the elements in OPPO A73 it immediately catches the eye. It is bright, contrasting, with very good viewing angles. The manufacturer gives a peak brightness of 600 nits and a standard brightness of 430 nits. The panel is covered with glass Gorilla Glass 3. Image refresh rate is standard 60 Hz. Touch refresh defaults to 135Hz and 185Hz while gaming.

The screen settings include a dark mode, eye comfort reducing blue light, color temperature adjustment, and two color modes: vivid and mild. The screen is one of the most important pluses in my opinion OPPO A73.

Specification and Operating System 

OPPO A73 is equipped with an octa-core processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 clocked at 4 x 2.3 GHz + 4 x 1.8 GHz. The processor supports 4 GB RAM LPDDR4X and 128 GB UFS 2.1 for the user’s system and files.

The benchmarks were as follows:

  • Antutu 8 – 173955
  • Geekbench 5 – 308/1250
  • Androbench sequential read / write – 519/247 MB ​​/ s

The results in Antutu are placed OPPO on the 60th place in the ranking. It is not a smartphone that breaks records – you can find cheaper smartphones that score higher. It is also not so when using OPPO A73 something was missing. If the manufacturer saved a little on performance to put the screen AMOLEDthat would be a good decision. Smartphone during use OPPO it did not cause me problems due to system instability and too slow operation.

The communication package includes LTE, WiFi ac 2.4 / 5 GHz, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC. The set of sensors includes: accelerometer, gyroscope, light intensity sensor, proximity sensor, digital compass and a fingerprint reader in the screen. Localization is realized using standards GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO and BDS.

OPPO A73 works under the control of Android 10 with updates on November 5, 2020 and a system overlay ColorOS in version 7.2. Among the noteworthy system applications we can find a compass, audio recorder, FM radio, WPS Office, and Soloop, an application for quick and convenient editing of movies consisting of short, dynamic shots and cuts to the rhythm of the music.

Among the system functions, it is worth mentioning a screenshot triggered by a three-finger gesture, which can also be taken as a screen clipping, or a scrolling screen combined into one image – also horizontally. It is possible to configure alarm SMS messages, the option to configure an additional safe for private applications and files, as well as a children’s mode that blocks paid SMS messages, prevents modification of the system, limits the list of active applications and the time of using the phone. There is also the ability to clone applications, and a game space that allows you to block notifications and manage energy consumption. The system overlay is clear and pleasant to use.

OPPO A73

What photos does he take and what films does he record? 

OPPO A73 it has 4 cameras on the rear and one on the front. Among them, there are as many as two auxiliary cameras for measuring the depth of the scene with a monochrome matrix, with identical parameters (it is completely unknown why). The list of cameras is as follows:

  • 16 MP, f / 2.2, PDAF – main camera
  • 8 MP, f / 2.2, 120˚ – wide-angle camera
  • 2 MP, f / 2.4, monochrome lens for depth measurement
  • 2 MP, f / 2.4, monochrome lens for depth measurement
  • 16 MP, f / 2.0 – selfie

The list of camera modes includes: Photo, Video, Ultra Night, Portrait, Sticker, Google Lens, Expert, Panorama, Text Scanner, Extra HD, Slow Motion, and Time Lapse Video. The camera can activate the AI ​​function, as well as filters with live view and HDR. You can change the magnification of the frame to 2 and 5 times, but each type of magnification is performed only digitally, by cropping a fragment of the photo from the basic 16 megapixel matrix. Therefore, the quality of the enlargements is significantly lower than that of the standard photo.

Daytime photo quality is good. The camera is picky about lighting conditions and cannot always cope with backlight and contrasting scenes. However, there are many situations in which OPPO A73 you can take nice pictures with the main camera.

Wide-angle photos, although less detailed and with a lower resolution, are still useful and allow you to capture a wider frame, which no digital treatments on the primary matrix would allow. That’s why I rate the wide-angle lens as an important, practical addition.

But night shots are too much of a challenge for this model OPPO. The smartphone has problems with reconciling bright lights and dark backgrounds – either it does not perform multiple exposure or it is worse than more expensive phone models. Even when there are no problems with too black background and too bright lights, the photos are very blurred and noisy.

OPPO A73 records 1080p video only at 30 frames per second. Video can be recorded with both the wide-angle and main camera, but you cannot switch between them during recording, only use the digital zoom. On the plus side of video recordings from OPPO A73 there is effective digital stabilization, no problems with focusing, no problems with fluidity and sound. However, this is not the most detailed Full HD recording I have seen – it is a bit blurry and quite noisy. However, I find these more acceptable downsides than the lack of stabilization found in some other smartphones in a similar price range.

Sample pictures:

OPPO A73

OPPO A73

OPPO A73

OPPO A73

How long does the battery last? 

OPPO A73 it has a 4015 mAh battery and a 30W fast charger that charges the battery halfway in 30 minutes and full in under one hour. This is an important advantage that we still will not meet in every smartphone – there are exceptions in every price range, and the cheaper the smartphone, the more it becomes a rule. Many other manufacturers believe 18W is still fast charging. Here OPPO showed himself from the good side.

In the video playback test with YouTube with brightness set to half the value OPPO A73 discharged after 13 hours and 15 minutes. That’s half the price for this phone. There are results below 10 hours, although they are getting rarer. The best players exceed 20 hours of continuous playback. However, it is worth remembering that the screen AMOLED in OPPO A73 set to half the brightness, it will be brighter and will offer a better experience than in many other smartphones, which obtained better results thanks to weak screens. Because OPPO A73 deserved a strong four.

OPPO A73 – Conclusion

What happened to me in A73 I like the look and finish of the case, the screen AMOLED, non-hybrid dual SIM, up-to-date and usable software and fast charging. It’s a strong set of features to compete with old guard manufacturers. However, when we consider smartphones among new Chinese brands such as realme, Xiaomi etc. the competition gets a lot fiercer. Screen AMOLED in this price range it will always defend itself, as well as 30W charging, but you can find proposals with a slightly higher efficiency or a slightly better camera. Despite this OPPO A73 it is still a proposition adequate to its valuation, and when promotions appear, it can become an extremely attractive choice.

Who is it for OPPO A73:

  • For those who appreciate the screen in AMOLED technology
  • For those requiring fast charging
  • For those looking for an extraordinary appearance

For whom it is not OPPO A73:

  • Not for those who put performance above all else
  • Not for those who would like to have a really useful 4 cameras
  • Not for those who want to record 4K video and take good quality night photos

The main advantages and disadvantages OPPO A73

Advantages OPPO A73:

  • Original, extraordinary housing resembling navy blue leather
  • Headphone jack
  • Non-hybrid dual SIM
  • Small size and weight
  • High-quality screen AMOLED – a rarity in this price range
  • Sufficient specification for comfortable use
  • Current Android 10 with an overlay ColorOS 7.2
  • Useful main and wide-angle camera
  • Stabilized FHD video
  • 30W charging – full in less than an hour

Disadvantages OPPO A73:

  • Unsealed plastic housing
  • I was unable to add a face to unlock my phone
  • Performance rather lower than competitors at a similar price
  • Poor night shots
  • 2 out of 4 cameras offer poor quality
  • FHD video could be more detailed
  • No 4K recording
  • Many competitors have a larger battery and longer runtime