When you look at OPPO A31, look at the price tag, and then at the characteristics, involuntarily recalls the image of one budget smartphone that we reviewed recently. And you realize that every manufacturer is biting into the low-cost segment with the fury of a Bengal tiger. The only question is who the A31 turns out to be – a defenseless victim … or a bigger predator?
OPPO A31: Market Position
The cost of a smartphone in retail is about $220. This puts him in the wild competition sector with everyone in a row, from Samsung to Xiaomi / Huawei / any Chinese.
OPPO A31: package contents
The OPPO A31 package includes, in addition to a smartphone, a 10W charger, as well as a micro USB cable, a transparent silicone case, and a clip for removing the SIM tray. A nice little thing in pursuit – the glued protective film from the factory.
OPPO A31: appearance
I won’t hide the fact that OPPO A31 feels big in hand. Rather premium than not, especially in the blue-white gradient, which is a rare feature for budget smartphones. The gradient is unobtrusive and soft, similar to milk opal. There is also a black color scheme, deep and as solid as possible, and more boring.
The case is made of plastic, but it is soft and pleasant in hand. It does not slip. And if you start, the silicone case, through which all the color charms are visible, is at your service! Rounded edges, logo on the back in gold. And as for a state employee, I repeat, it looks beautiful.
Layout of items in OPPO A31
Front – display and front camera in a waterdrop notch. Someone likes this solution more than a peephole embedded in the display. The display bezels are thick, especially the bottom bezel. Also, what I noticed – when looking at least a little from the side, the light blue color of the body catches the eye, giving contrast to both the black frame and the light screen.
The upper end is empty since all the connectors have moved down – microphone, mini-jack, micro USB, and multimedia speaker. The volume buttons and the SIM tray are located on the left side, which is not combined, which should be noted.
The end on the right is marked with the power button. Behind – the main camera in a vertical version (three modules in the boat, not counting the flash), as well as a fingerprint scanner. Well, the Oppo logo in gold.
OPPO A31: Screen
The display is large, 6.5 inches. Resolution – HD +, 1600 × 720 pixels, IPS matrix. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, there is a medium intensity oleophobic coating directly on the protective film.
The color temperature is slightly cooler than the norm by the standard, but this changes quietly in the settings. For what I want to praise the display – in addition to the brightness, contrast, and viewing angles obvious for IPS – it is for the high maximum brightness level. Even though you look against the sun, everything is readable and clearly visible.
Performance
SoC MediaTek Helio P35 is responsible for the power of the smartphone. 12-nanometer low-end device with eight cores, including four ARM Cortex-A53 at 1.8 GHz and high-frequency four A53, taking up to 2.3 GHz. Plus the PowerVR GE8320 video core.
Data transfer to OPPO A31
Everything is surprisingly good here. In addition to GPS and other Baidou, we support Bluetooth 5.0 with AptX HD and HWA, and Wi-Fi 4/5 dual-band! This set is already solid. Although competitors sometimes lure also with an NFC chip, which the A31 does not have.
OPPO A31: audio capabilities
For music playback, the smartphone has a whole multimedia speaker from below, the quality of which is obvious for a budget smartphone. There is no stereo sound using the spoken speaker either. But there is a mini-jack for connecting a wired headset.
Well, an audio chip with support, including AptX HD. This means that wireless headphones will work wonderfully with this smartphone, and perhaps the sound quality in them will compensate for the budget!
Cameras in OPPO A31
The main set of cameras of the OPPO A31 smartphone consists of three modules – 12-megapixel with f / 1.8 aperture, and a pair of 2-megapixel ones, one for macro photography, the second for determining the depth of the scene. During the day, the photos are good and detailed. The less light, the more noise and artifacts appear.
The front camera of the OPPO A31 is 8-megapixel with f / 2.0 aperture. And since the luminosity stands out a little in a positive direction against competitors’ background, then selfies will be less noisy with a decrease in the lighting level. True, there is no face recognition – although the fingerprint scanner works well overall.
Shell and software: OPPO A31
This smartphone cannot boasting modernity—it works on Android 9.0, running the proprietary shell ColorOS 6.1.2. The shell as a whole is nice, soft, smooth, and pleasant to the eye, with gesture navigation, auto-complete dialing, and all other modern features.
And the color scheme is similar to the gradient of the back cover. But it’s still Android 9, and modern features like the same dark theme are unfortunately absent here. As well as any hints for more modern versions in the update center.
Autonomy: OPPO A31
OPPO A31 is equipped with a 4230 mAh battery, which is quite quiet enough for a day and a half of more or less active use, well, or two days in a sparing mode.
The problem is in the micro USB connector, the weak complete unit, and the lack of support for any fast-charging standard. Purely theoretically, MediaTek has such a Pump Express, but there is little data about it, and from what I found, the standard only works for USB Type-C.
Conclusions
It’s hard to summarize this pale blue OPPO A31. Even when trying to answer the question posed at the beginning of the article, one ponders. On the one hand, we have a large and bright screen, a wonderful case, a rather powerful and energy-efficient SoC with support for modern data transfer standards. And the cameras are pretty decent.
On the other hand, the old version of Android surprises, the lack of face recognition, and many questions about the charger. And in a vacuum, we would have stopped there, but competitors can boast of NFC and a battery more. It will be difficult for him to compete, but he will occupy his niche without a doubt. Yes, and beautiful, of course, many will like
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