OPPO A7: Impressive selfie camera, good battery life

 New Delhi: Riding on the success of its latest popular "F" series smartphone -- "F9 Pro" -- Chinese smartphone maker OPPO recently launched its new offering in the "A" series" -- the "A7" -- for Rs 16,990 in India.

The dual-SIM handset comes with a water-drop notched display, a mammoth 4,230mAh battery, and face-recognition feature in 3GB and 4GB RAM variants. With a memory card, one can extend the 64GB internal storage of the phone up to 256GB.

Of the two colours in which the phone is available -- glaring gold and glaze blue -- we reviewed the former, which we found a little too flashy. People may find that glaze blue variant more subtle and chic.

Here's what worked for us.

Even though the design of the phone appears textured with thin glazing lines, the feel of the back, however, is smooth.

The fingerprint sensor is pretty crisp and lies below the 13MP+2MP dual rear camera set-up on the back along with an LED flash.

The rear-camera app comes with several modes -- time-lapse, portrait, stickers and panaroma.

The volume buttons, along with the SIM-slot that comes with a dedicated space for the memory card, sits on the left of the phone and the lock button is positioned on the right edge.

The phone sports a 6.2-inch display and a resolution of 1080x2340. The screen displayed vivid colours and the size was very comfortable for watching videos and playing games with decent sunlight legibility.

The 16MP selfie camera is staged in the top centre of the phone, semi-circled by the notch.

Because of the central position of the front shooter, the selfies are at just the right angle you intend them to be at -- which is great -- rather than being displayed tilted on screen.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor supported multi-tasking and running multiple apps simultaneously smoothly making the overall performance of the phone satisfactory.

Even after running several social media apps multiple times a day along with gaming and video-browsing, the battery lasted more than one day.

The bundled charger -- which is not a VOOC (Voltage Open Loop Multi-step Constant-Current Charging) technology-enabled fast charger -- in the package took more than an hour to completely charge the battery.

What does not work?

We found that the phone heats up a lot, but only while charging. The face-recognition feature appeared to be a little slower than expected, especially in low-light conditions.

Given that the brand's reputation is fuelled by its camera technology, in the "A7" -- where the selfie camera is quite impressive, the rear cameras work just alright -- there is nothing exceptional. The phone could have included more features to the camera app.

The phone does not support the company's patented flash-charging VOOC technology, which was also slightly disappointing.

Conclusion: Selfie lovers and those who yearn for a big battery are likely to find the OPPO A7 very attractive although the absence of its flash charging system may disappoint others.