Oppo’s optimistic A15 and A53s launch in SA from 7 November, starting at R3,000

Oppo, a new smartphone brand that launched in SA last month, has been clamouring for your attention — though they’ve only launched one smartphone here so far. That’s about to change, as the company’s A15 and A53s smartphones are set to launch this coming weekend. 7 November, to be precise, which is a bit of an odd launch date. Who launches a smartphone on a Saturday?

 Oppo in sight

We’ve already seen the Oppo A72 in action, now it’s time for the other handsets to get a look in. The Oppo A53s is a 6.5in smartphone that sports a 90Hz 720p IPS LCD display, a Snapdragon 460 CPU and 4GB of RAM, with 128GB of storage tucked away inside. There’s a microSD slot, in case you feel the need for augmentation, and there’s also a 5,000mAh battery that should keep you going for quite some time. Certainly till the end of the day. The A53s supports 18W fast charging, so you should get up to a respectable battery level in short order as well.

The 16MP front-facing camera may be the star of the imaging show here, but Oppo’s also fielding three cameras in the back. The 13MP main lens is helped along by a 2MP macro and a 2MP depth sensor. We’re not especially thrilled by the camera skills on offer but we’re also keen to give them a test-drive.

And the price you’ve got to pay for this? The handset is available for R5,000, or at R300/pm on a 24-month contract. Oppo’s mid-range mid-ranger is available from Vodacom stores, Foschini, Cellucity, 4U, Chatz, Hi and Game… among other locations. It launches in two hues — Fancy Blue and Electric Black.

A15 — miss

And then there’s the little mid-ranger, the Oppo A15. It features a similar screen to its better-specced sibling, coming in at 6.52in. That’s a 720 x 1600 IPS LCD, without the 90Hz refresh rate seen in the A53s. Well, this one’s a little cheaper, so it’s to be expected. There’s a MediaTek Helio P35 processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage in this handset, as well as space for a microSD card.

Expect a triple-camera arrangement but we’ll have to wait and see just how effective the 13MP/2MP/2MP array is in practice. The 4,230mAh battery should keep you up and running for the day, at the very least. We don’t have much hope for the 5MP front-facer, sadly.

The Oppo A15 also launches on 7 November and will cost you R3,000 as a pre-paid option or R200/pm on a 24-month contract (from the same places as the A53s). It launches in Mystery Blue and Dynamic Blue.