Earning your A(series): Get more for your rand with the OPPO A72

OPPO, the newest smartphone brand to enter South Africa, will grab your attention and not just because there’s free stuff on offer. Which is to say, there’s free stuff on offer but it’s secondary to the excellent hardware and features that OPPO has headed your way. There are three smartphones available in South Africa at present, the OPPO A72, the A15 and the A53S, but it’s the OPPO A72 that’s most likely to catch your eye.

Face-to-face with the Oppo A72

And eye-catching is certainly something that applies to this smartphone. It features OPPO’s 3D Quad-curve design language, which boils down to sleek, attractive lines that feel good in your hands, dominated by a fantastic front screen. And while you’re going to want to be staring at its front most of all, the rear panel (in either Twilight Black or Aurora Purple) is a rewarding experience in itself. Which just means that people who don’t own your phone also get a chance to appreciate its beauty as well.

OPPO’s affordable headliner features a 6.5in Neo-Display, a 2,400 x 1,080 IPS LCD panel that includes a 90.5% screen-to-body ratio – because nobody likes looking at bezels when there’s such attractive brightness and colour reproduction on offer. The handset’s 405ppi pixel density is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3, which conceals the excellent hardware tucked away inside.

Imagine (Snap)dragons

Hardware like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665, which is backed by 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in every handset. The powerful 64-bit octa-core chipset has all the power you need to get through a day of tough smartphone-based tasks, with OPPO’s own Hyper Boost performance engine optimizing matters in the background. Everything will load and launch quicker than you’re expecting (but you’ll quickly become accustomed to that). It’ll be all the speedier thanks to the Android 10-based ColorOS 7.1’s full support of Google Mobile Services – always a point to consider in 2021.

You never need to worry about running out of juice, because the OPPO A72 comes fitted with a gigantic 5,000mAh battery. In case you’ve forgotten what it’s like to have a smartphone last more than just a single day on a charge, it’s time for you to have your memory refreshed. And, on the off chance you actually do run dry, the A72 also includes support for 18W fast charge. Topping up for a full day of usage is a matter of minutes, not hours.

Pretty as a picture

It’s got the looks, the smarts and the power but how does OPPO’s headline handset for South Africa manage in another important category – the camera? Well, about that… it’s as impressive as you’d expect from this R7,000 handset. The front-facer is a 16MP f/2.0 lens, with OPPO’s AI Beautification tech inside so your selfies always shine. But it’s what’s in the rear that you really want to glide your eyes over.

The A72 sports a quad-camera arrangement, led by a 48MP f/1.7 main sensor. This is backed by an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide lens with an FOV of 119˚. There’s not much you’re not going to get in that viewfinder. There are also a pair of 2MP f/2.4 sensors to look forward to – one dedicated to depth and the other solely for black-and-white image capture. Throw in OPPO’s Ultra Clear Night Mode 2.0 dynamic range image tech and you’ve got a recipe for better images, whether you’re shooting in darkness or daylight.

Rewarding OPPO-tunity

It’s not enough that purchasing an OPPO A72 will net you an excellent mid-range smartphone with a 6.5in 1080p Neo-Display, a 5,000mAh battery and a quad-camera arrangement headed by an excellent 48MP camera sensor. No, you’ll also get access to a free gift – one of OPPO’s W11 True Wireless Headphones – with your purchase (from selected outlets). And if that’s still not enough of a pot-sweetener, there’s also the OPPO Rewards system to look forward to.

Purchasing an OPPO smartphone and connecting your purchase via the handy web form will see you redeeming one of several gifts from the likes of Superbalist, Go Gamers or the store you purchased it from. Rewards include a R300 Superbalist voucher, a R500 voucher from one of the participating retail outlets, and Bluetooth speakers from OPPO.

Want even more? Of course you do. Purchasing your OPPO A72 from the likes of Vodacom Shop, CelluCity, Chatz, or 4U will see you getting your hands on an OPPO A15, free of charge, for the same price of (from) only R499 per month. Or, if you don’t need a second handset, you can also pick the OPPO A72 from R399 per month (over 24 months) or just R299 per month (over 36 months). There’s never been a better time to lay your hands on the excellent, affordable OPPO smartphone range – now in South Africa.