Oppo A79 5G review – Mid-range epitomes and symphonies

Picking up a new smartphone is easy. There are the obvious hits from Samsung or Apple, but look deeper, and you’ll find a sea of Asian brands all vying for your attention. Oppo is one of those brands, whose Reno series you might remember passing through Stuff’s offices a while back. They aren’t all R20,000 or more, though. Occasionally, it’ll dip its toes into the realm of ‘mid-range’, producing something spectacular for R12,000 (or less if you know what you’re doing) — like the Oppo A79 5G.

Is this iPhone?

Uh, no. The A79 might have the conventional good looks necessary to fit in at a Genius Bar, but it doesn’t truly belong. One look at the A79’s accessory-packed box should be enough to tell you that. When was the last time Apple included a phone case and charger?

And of course, those “conventional good looks” involve the A79’s somewhat bulky figure that Apple is so in love with. We’re not bothered by it. We’ll never fault a phone for slimming down, but if the materials are right, those bulky features go a long way in making a R9,000 piece of kit feel like double that price.

Our review model turned up in a ‘Mystery Black’ hue that probably bogged down the marketing team for weeks dreaming it up. On the rear, over in the top right corner is the rectangular “Innovative AI Camera” bump that fortunately doesn’t take up much real estate. The back is all coated in a treated plastic that’ll almost have you thinking “Oppo didn’t really cover this thing in glass, did it?”

Running along the phone’s iPhone-esque metal frame and rounded corners are all the usual port suspects. USB-C holds court in the centre, joined by a speaker vent and something we don’t often see anymore – a 3.5mm earphone jack. You’ll find the volume rocker and power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader along the right, while the left is home to the SIM tray.

Easy on the eyes

It might have the body of an iPhone but that’s where the similarities end. The A79’s 6.72in FHD+ LCD display makes that immediately apparent. That wasn’t a dig, the A79’s display, capable of reaching 680 nits brightness, handled everything we threw at it – which mainly consisted of watching YouTube, answering emails, and handing out Ws in Marvel Snap. That’s the 90Hz spec doing most of the talking.

While it made scrolling around a whole lot quicker, we had difficulties getting the A79’s gaming chops up to scratch. It struggled even booting them up, and in the case of Marvel Snap, a card game in the same vein as Hearthstone mind you, it couldn’t get the frames up higher than 30fps. Now imagine PUBG Mobile.

It’s easy to blame the 90Hz refresh rate for not living up to expectations, but that isn’t it. Our issue lies with the choice of processor: a MediaTek Dimensity 6020, 8GB of RAM and Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. Again – when it comes to handling the mundane stuff, it’s great. Just… don’t expect much more.

More annoying is the Android reskin Oppo calls ColorOS – especially in the beginning. If you aren’t clearing out the boatload of bloatware, you’re being asked to register for Oppo-this or Oppo-that. Once the mountainous pile of Facebooks, Booking.coms and other rubbish was removed, ColorOS settled itself down in the background as a regular old Android clone that can be almost entirely forgotten about.

We did say almost. It’s far from being a big deal, and even further from being a dealbreaker, but Oppo’s presence is felt the most when hooking anything up through Bluetooth. Hit the Bluetooth switch on, and the A79 will automatically try to connect to the last device it used — waiting around thirty seconds before it gives up and accepts new connections. For those who have plenty of devices in a rotation, you have been warned.

Something to say (loudly)

One of the A79’s best features is the inclusion of dual stereo speakers, and what Oppo calls “Ultra Volume Mode” which will send the numbers rocketing up to 300%. Oppo wasn’t kidding. The A79 gets loud. Really loud. But on the journey to 300%, it loses much of its clarity before eventually reaching a level of distortion that becomes downright unpleasant.

When it wasn’t being put through the reviewer mill (because seriously, when will 300% volume ever be necessary?), the A79’s speakers turned out to be surprisingly decent. It’s not often we get to say that about a smartphone we aren’t paying through the nose for. Audio was clear and detailed — improving our YouTube and Netflix sessions a whole lot.

What turned out to be the A79’s proper best feature, however, was the 5,000mAh battery it’s got in there. It’s comparable to Samsung’s S24 Ultra — only losing out on the top spot thanks to the still respectable 33W charger in the box. It managed to conquer a full day without breaking a sweat, very nearly surviving long enough to make it a full 48 hours. It never quite managed the feat, but stick it on power saving mode, keep the gaming to a minimum, and it’ll pull it off easily.

Throw some more intensive use at it — a few videos from Hbomberguy at full brightness should do the trick — and it’ll start to tear at the seams a bit. That means calling out for a charger nine hours in, which, for the price Oppo is asking, is still rather impressive.

Utterly failing the A79’s decent feature set is its fingerprint and face unlock features, the former of which is embedded right into the power button. Under-screen sensors are the future, and the A79 is a perfect example of why. Unlocking the device took at least three tries per attempt — a combination of the failing face scanner and fingerprint sensor. Constant vibrations from the sensor’s failed attempts in your pocket didn’t help matters one bit.

Megapixels aren’t everything

You’ve probably heard that megapixels aren’t everything, or you read the sub-heading, one of the two. In Oppo’s case, it couldn’t be more true. It houses a solid 50MP main sensor in the rear, accompanied by an unenthusiastic 2MP depth sensor, and a simple 8MP sensor around the front. There isn’t a triple-digit spec to point at, but that didn’t stop the A79 from pulling some decent pictures out of the bag.

The 50MP sensor was obviously the star of the show. We knocked out a bouquet of decent-looking images across various lighting conditions, hardly ever losing detail. The 2MP and 8MP sensors are less serious about their jobs but will do everything you ask them to, and do them fine. Don’t expect them to do anything more, however.

You’ll need to flick on the camera’s AI enhancer to get the results we’re talking about, something Oppo leaves off by default. Colour reproduction does take a slight and unfortunate hit but that can be remedied with a bit of editing.

Oppo A79 5G verdict

Oppo’s A79 5G has everything a mid-range phone needs: a big display, excellent battery life, admirable camera skills, and an enticing price. Ignore the R12,000 RRP and you’ll find far more respectable listings around the R9,000 mark. It’s not without faults, like a failing processor that makes gaming a slog, or the too-loud speakers that’ll drown out any sort of quality. Thankfully they’re few and far between, making the A79 a good option for anyone looking to get out from under Samsung’s wing without breaking the bank.