When you’re in South Africa and can’t always afford the latest and greatest from the likes of Samsung, Apple, or Huawei, you’ve probably turned your head in Oppo’s direction before. And for good reason. It’s established itself as one of the more consistent brands pumping out wallet-friendly devices. Stuff has grown rather fond of the Chinese manufacturer, having recently spent a couple of days with the Reno 10 and its ambitious camera (plus a bunch of other stuff).

Oppo’s got us noticing its latest addition to its popular A-series line-up: the Oppo A58. The pull factor here is easily the R270/m price (or R6,000 if you’re visiting Bash), though the 5,000mAh battery and 50MP camera are doing a fair share of the work.

Oppo is more than capable

So what does R270/m get you? In the case of the A58, a fair bit. We haven’t had the chance to check it out in person just yet, but we’re guessing Oppo isn’t lying when it notes the phone’s “sleek design” that’ll come in two finishes; Glowing Black and Dazzling Green. We’ll take their word on that (for now), but if you’re after more objective facts, we’ve got those too. The A58 is rocking a 7.99mm thick body and will only take up 192g in your pocket. That’s joined by a half-decent IP54 rating. It won’t survive a trip in the pool or bath, but it will repel light splashes of water and dust here and there.

That “sleek design” surrounds the phone’s 6.72in FHD+ ‘Sunlight’ Display, which touts a peak brightness of 680. Not too shabby for a budget-beater, huh?

As ever, it’s the internals that intrigue us most. Oppo kept things interesting with 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery. It’s packing a 33W charge port that the company reckons will see the phone go from 0-100% in around 75 minutes. It’s also boasting about its AI capabilities (because of course it is), with Oppo claiming the All-day AI Power Saving feature can keep the phone alive for around 91 minutes at 5%. We’ll believe it when we see it.

Oppo’s stuck to the basics where the cameras are concerned, turning up with a 50MP ‘AI’ main sensor — working alongside the 2MP portrait sat on the phone’s rear. Flip it over and be greeted by an 8MP front-facer that’ll put in a shift when needed. Oppo is hoping to make up for any potential shortcomings in the camera department by leaning heavily on its software features. We’ll let you know more once we’ve had a chance to fiddle with them.

The Oppo A58 is available from “leading network providers online channels” from R270/m.