Oppo A31 smartphone review with key features

The first quarter of 2020 was particularly productive for Oppo. Of course, enterprising Asians have released smartphones in batches before that, just have time to read the reviews, but February gave the world even too much good technology at an incredibly low price.

What is China famous for? Firstly? Of course, the phenomenal ability to fully recreate the legendary products of expensive brands, such as American Apple or South Korean Samsung. So the Oppo A31 smartphone has every chance of becoming the first budget and high-quality copy of the IPhone X, which is currently the best-selling among the entire line. Let's find out about the similarity of the two smartphones and about the gross mistakes of the Oppo manufacturers right now!

News from Oppo

Over the past few years, Oppo has made a major upgrade of its products. The media are already predicting the glory of Xiaomi for her. However, is this prospect encouraging for loyal fans? After all, as you know, with an increase in the level of production, prices immediately rise. Because of this, it is quite possible that a youth brand will not keep itself waiting and will quickly transform into an elite brand for much richer buyers.

However, don't worry ahead of time. In early February, the company informed the press that prices for the "A" and "Reno" line had been reduced. The guest of today's review just got a generous discount. For residents of Russia, this is a saving of up to 3-5 thousand rubles, which is significant, isn't it?

Appearance

The Oppo brand has presented a smartphone, the design of which is almost identical to the IPhone X. Is this good? Maybe bad?

According to the canons of modern fashion, the phone has acquired considerable dimensions - 163.9 x 75.5 x 8.3 mm. At the same time, it is still comfortable to hold in your hand, which is facilitated by its small width and only 180 grams of weight. Oppo A31 is elongated and has the shape of a rectangle with slightly rounded edges. The body is made of glossy plastic, which is to be expected at such a low price. The budget material instantly collects scratches, and on light colors and dirt. However, one cannot fail to notice that bright overflows and a gradient make it stand out from the rest of the smartphones of the line. Of great concern are plastic side frames, on which chips will appear after six months of daily contact with the keys in the pocket of jeans or a jacket. What can not be said about the front of the device, reliably protected by tempered glass.

Do not be afraid! The scratch problem can be easily solved with a silicone case and a protective film.

In general, the design is quite simple and minimalistic. On the back there is only a block of three cameras, as well as a miniature (compared to Xiaomi) fingerprint cutout, bordered by a silver ring. As in the iPhone, absolutely all cutouts (USB, headphones, including the speaker) have moved to the lower side of the smartphone. This means that this is where the device will look the least presentable. On the front, a frameless screen awaits us, also rounded and a teardrop-shaped front camera. Simple and tasteful!

Equipment

Smartphones have undergone huge changes in 2020, regardless of their price.Each box now, in addition to the standard charger, coupons, certificates, a clip for a SIM card slot and a USB cable, now contains a branded silicone case that is perfect for each model.

And Oppo was greedy about the colors for the A31. There were only two of them: fantastic white (with overflow in mint) and mystical black. The appearance of the latter goes beyond any scope of the average price segment. Intense black, with immunity to fingerprints, looks like a luxury.

Specifications

Screen

At the heart of the budget flagship is a 6.5-inch IPS LCD. The Chinese brand is still a long way from Apple's high-quality materials, but it's not worth underestimating the capabilities of this display. The brightness of the output image reaches 480 nits or candelas. The image is bright and saturated, and this is one of the main advantages of a cheap, at first glance, matrix.

The fragility of this and the small ratio of pixels per cm2, only 270 ppi, can spoil the picture, while other products receive a minimum of 380 ppi. That is why the screen fades a little with a strong deflection. In sunny weather, the screen also loses its saturation, but in cloudy weather everything is perfectly visible! Do not wait for luxury customization, the Oppo A31 has only two possible modes: normal (with a blue tint) and for reading (with yellow). That is why the screen resolution corresponds to 720 x 1600, with the ability to display videos and photos in HD quality (720p), at 1080 and 4K the image will take a long time to load and display incorrectly.

At the same time, the display response speed is high. No glitches with fingerprint and unlock through the screen. Most importantly, the first surprise from Oppo was hidden here - unlocking using Face ID, just like the "ten". The function also met the expectations of users, no false positives or errors.

Filling

The smartphone works with the penultimate version of the Android operating system - 9.0 (pie). It is even surprising to find products based on it in 2020, but it still remains the most stable and effective. Here, for the first time, neural networks were used to predict user work algorithms and a system of gestures. In the A31, to activate the functions, you need to swipe the desktop to the left and customize the space for yourself. Close cooperation with Google is also noticeable, because among the factory applications, more than 10 belong to it.

The transitions between the menus are smooth, loading the browser takes no more than 3 seconds, in many respects it is worth to thank the author's shell for this ColorOS 6. The color scheme of labels and widgets in pleasant light tones. Oppo manufacturers believe that in this way the user will be less distracted from work by bright combinations.

A reasonable question "why was the shell called ColorOS?" suggests itself.

Meanwhile, these are not empty words, the performance has really increased, but thanks to accelerator applications, for example, Hyper Boost (for games) and System Boost (guess why).

What about the most important part of any device - the processor? In the Oppo A31, it is represented by the mysterious 12-nanometer Mediatek MT6765V / CB Helio P35 chipset. Its specifications are on par with the 6th generation Snapdragon. This is normal for budget smartphones. A smart chipset based on 8 cores, divided into clusters depending on tasks, works. The first one is represented by 4 cores of 2.3 GHz for optimizing the gameplay and watching high-quality videos. The second one took the remaining ones with a clock frequency of 1.8 GHz.According to the Benchmark test, the device can hardly reproduce 3D games at ultra settings, so it will not handle WoT and Pubg 9 games, but it does not run detailed applications and the 2D flagship can be launched without difficulty, the case heats up a lot.

The video processor is also little known to the world; in terms of power it is also from the budget - PowerVR GE8320. That is why gamers are better off looking at more expensive models.

Test results:

• On AnTuTu - 86 352 points.
• Benchmark - 105,070 points.

Autonomy and additional functions

No fast charging features, ultra-fast ports and 30% in 20 minutes are worth waiting for in the A31. The battery (Li-Po type, non-removable) of the flagship is fully consistent with the price, the capacity is 4230 mAh. Not a lot, there will be enough charge for one incomplete day with active use of the mobile Internet and listening to music. Games take valuable interest even faster in 10 hours. Standby mode will last no more than 3 days, but in call mode Oppo A31 will last up to 30 hours.

Camera and memory

I was pleasantly surprised by the approach of the developers to the choice of cameras. In the case of Oppo, the main thing is not the competitive spirit "Who can fit more cameras on the body", but the efficiency of all sensors. In this smartphone, there were three of them at once, not counting the front one. Let's take a closer look at the IPhone counterpart.

The lens of the main camera produces only 12 MP with an aperture of f / 1.8. Despite the small values, the photos will turn out to be of high quality even at night. Users were not upset by the scanty values, because the photo is rich, with well-developed details. Only the zoom suffers, at which the image is significantly blurred.

The second lens got even less - 2 MP. It has a primitive aperture at its disposal, but wide-angle shots are provided with a macro effect and a 27-mm angle. The latter snatched the remaining 2 MP, traditionally it is responsible for the depth of the frame (sensational in the 11 version of the IPhone).

Well, the replica failed. Oppo cameras are still a long way from Steve Jobs' products.
However, let's not forget about the 8 MP front camera. Yes, the phone turned out to be not particularly gaming and certainly not blogging. This fact will not harm busy people, since communication, the most important factor, is at its best here. Memory too, and this is with an additional slot for a memory card up to 128 GB.

Advantages and disadvantages

• Large screen;
• Vivid images;
• Fast loading;
• Nice, simple design;
• Similarity to the IPhone X;
• Cover as a gift;
• Face unlock;
• Good performance;
• Nice price.

• The charge is enough for one incomplete day;
• Ordinary camera;
• Cheap body and side frame materials.

Outcome

The review is coming to an end, so we can conclude that the Oppo A31 smartphone is the perfect solution for people just getting acquainted with modern technology. After all, the manufacturer did not think about games or about high-quality personnel. However, older people do not need this either! A pleasant price (13,000 rubles) and a large screen, on which you can see every letter and a large keyboard, will surely please your loved ones.