OPPO A31 review: budget Android smartphone with a modern design and a triple camera

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In October 2019, OPPO smartphones began to be sold in Ukraine.Initially, 5 models were available

Including the hipster with an interesting camera OPPO Reno2, which we have already reviewed.Now the company has become emboldened and is actively expanding its assortment in Ukraine.The OPPO Find X2 uberflagship will soon go on sale, and of the budget novelties, the OPPO A31 has already gone on sale.We will deal with its capabilities today.

What is it?
What is included?
What does the OPPO A31 look like?
How good is the screen?
What are the unlock methods?
What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?
What about the interface?
How good are the cameras?
In the dry residue

What is it?

OPPO A31 is a budget smartphone with 6.5-inch HD+ IPS display with a waterdrop notch, budget MediaTek Helio P35 processor, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory expandable with MicroSD cards, rear triple camera with a 12 MP main module and two 2 MP auxiliaries (macro and depth sensor). The smartphone is powered by a 4230 mAh battery and runs on Android 9 Pie with Color OS 6 shell. The interfaces are contradictory: there is dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0, but no NFC, and MicroUSB is used to connect the cable.

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What is included?

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OPPO A31 packed in standard box sizesin white-green colors with the image of a smartphone. Inside - almost a standard set: smartphone, charger, MicroUSB cable, tool for removing the tray, documentation and a couple of small, but nice bonuses in the form of a protective silicone bumper and a protective film (immediately on the screen).

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What does the OPPO A31 look like?

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In general, it’s difficult to criticize or praise in any waydesign of OPPO A31: From the front, it looks similar to most of the current mid-range and budget smartphones. Before us is a large screen with rounded corners, a drop-shaped cutout for the front camera and a thin slot for the earpiece above the screen. Everything is absolutely usual: the frames are not the most record-breaking (especially the chin), but they look decent.

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The rest of the body is made of plastic and hasnice streamlined shape. Apparently, the location of the buttons is not the most common - the OPPO feature and the A31 were no exception in this regard. The buttons are located at different ends of the smartphone, the power button is on the right.

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The volume control buttons are separate andare on the left side. Despite the not the most standard solution, the buttons (both power and volume) are placed at a good height and it is convenient to use a smartphone. The tray is also on the left.

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And in the OPPO A31 it can accommodate two SIM cards and a memory card at the same time, so you don’t have to deny yourself anything.

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Bottom - speaker, microphone, standard 3.5 mm headphone jack and MicroUSB jack. Yes, MicroUSB is still installed on a bunch of state employees. On the other hand, there is probably a cable both at home, in the office, and with friends.

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On the top face nothing interesting was found.

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The back is completely plastic.We have black, green and white options available. Although it is not completely white, but goes a little green. Interestingly, the black version is glossy, our white (and it looks like green) has a matte rough finish. It fits well in the hand, does not slip out and does not leave fingerprints on it. This option seems more practical to me. According to the layout, in the lower right corner there is the OPPO logo, in the opposite corner there is a vertical module of the main camera, in the middle there is a fingerprint scanner. It is surrounded by a thin golden edging and is not very easy to feel at first. Although in a bumper there will be no such problem at all.

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The rear camera protrudes slightly above the body, but overall it is made neatly. Apparently, the main module is located in the middle, and two 2 MP modules are located on the sides.

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How good is the screen?

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The smartphone has a large screen with a diagonal6.5 inches Of course, with elongated proportions, in this case - 20: 9. Resolution is not its greatest strength: 1600x720, pixel density - about 270 ppi, which is quite modest by today's standards. But a good IPS-matrix is used and there is no grainy grain. There is a standard set in the settings: brightness, scale of interface elements, font size and night mode with warm colors. There is no dark theme. As well as individual color rendering modes. But there is a manual adjustment of color temperature.

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Hardware measurements showed that the screen is verynot bad in its characteristics: maximum brightness is 396.694 cd/m², black field brightness is 0.383 cd/m², and static contrast is 1036:1. Color rendition is also very good, deviations from the standard indicators are very small, the average color error ΔE is 4.26, and the color gamut is close to the sRGB color space:

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Comparison with other models:

Device name
White field brightness,
cd / m2
The brightness of the black field,
cd / m2
Contrast

OPPO A31
396.694
0.383
1036:1

Huawei P40 Lite
302.547
0.326
928:1

Nokia 4.2
333.087
0.283
1177:1

ASUS ZenFone 6
444.896
0.446
998:1

Huawei P30 Lite
336.681
0.493
683:1

What are the unlock methods?

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To unlock the smartphone, you can usetraditional rear fingerprint scanner and face recognition. Everything is clear with the scanner, and it works without problems. For face recognition, of course, only the front camera is used, so this method is not too safe. But it works not bad: in good lighting it quickly, in poor lighting it also copes, but it takes a little more time. The backlight from the screen of the smartphone is enough for this purpose.

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What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?

OPPO A31 has a fairly budget-friendly softwareBy today's standards, the filling is: Mediatek MT6765V/CB processor, also known as Helio P35, 4 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 64 GB of internal eMMC 5.1 memory. Helio P35 is a 12-nanometer processor that includes a block of 4 ARM Cortex-A53 cores at 2.3 GHz and another 4 Cortex-A53 at 1.8 GHz; the PowerVR GE8320 accelerator is responsible for graphics. Of course, the smartphone shows modest results in performance tests. In terms of stability under long-term loads, everything is not bad: performance at some points drops to 89%, after which it returns closer to maximum.

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In real life, the interface and applications workok, don't slow down. Although the difference is felt if previously used flagships: everything does not work so smartly. You can play modern games. At minimum settings, of course, including Call of Duty Mobile. Including due to good optimization. Asphalt 9 is also playable, but friezes periodically happen.

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In a proprietary utility, you can turn off notifications for the duration of the game, adjust performance, and more.

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Wireless interfaces include dual-bandWi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, GPS global positioning systems supported, A-GPS, Beidou, Glonass supported. NFC, unfortunately, is missing. For wired ports, OPPO A31 has MicroUSB and a standard audio jack. There is only one speaker, it is average in volume and quality. The sound in the headphones is quite OK for the average user. There is an FM tuner that might come in handy for someone. Among the unusual features, there is the “party” application, which allows you to play one song from several smartphones at once (for example, in case you don’t have a portable speaker outdoors).

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The smartphone is powered by a 4230 mAh battery,quite good with a low resolution display and modest performance. Fast charge is not supported. In fact, given the potential audience of the smartphone, and these are clearly not gamers, the smartphone lasts two days on a single charge. Although, in fact, casual games will also not greatly drain the battery. So, in general, if you use calls, instant messengers, mail, a browser and sometimes YouTube, then the smartphone is quite able to please autonomy. Of course, there are power-saving modes for critical cases.

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What about the interface?

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OPPO A31 runs on Android 9 OS with proprietaryshell ColorOS 6.1.2. Considering that the smartphone is new, you can probably expect an update to Android 10 complete with Color OS 7. There are no complaints about the current version: there are no bugs, slowdowns or critical problems with localization. Works stably. Externally, the interface has been completely redrawn, but there are no fundamental differences in the work itself. As happens with most third-party shells, manufacturers change the appearance and add a little functionality of their own. Standard desktops are available where you can place application shortcuts and widgets, and you can also enable a separate menu with applications. The curtain has been slightly modified: it is still two-level, but opens to fill the entire screen.

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There are plenty of navigation options:standard 3 buttons, two button option and full gesture control. There are also additional gestures for quickly launching various applications, taking screenshots, and so on. The application manager is standard, there is a split screen mode.

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Among the interesting features there is the so-called“Smart panel”. Its logic is reminiscent of Samsung's Edge Panels or Sony's Side Sense. A panel with quick access to the necessary functions, which can be called from the edge of the screen in the right place:

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In stock applications there is everything you need, including a file manager, voice recorder, a utility for migrating between phones and even a simple video editor.

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How good are the cameras?

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The camera configuration is quite simple:The rear camera consists of a 12-megapixel main module with an f/1.8 aperture and phase detection autofocus. There is an additional macro camera with a resolution of 2 MP, f/2.4 and a depth sensor of 2 MP, f/2.4. The video is recorded at 1080p@30fps. Front camera - 8 MP, f/2.0. The proprietary camera application is extremely easy to use. Scrolling switches the main modes: photo, video and portrait. Additional modes are in the drop-down menu. Unfortunately, there is no night mode. The main screen has settings for flash, HDR, filters and digital zoom switching.

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It is worth remembering that this is a budgetsmartphone and camera can’t do miracles. During the day, the main camera takes nice photos with good detail and fairly natural color reproduction. In the evening, you can see that the matrix begins to make noise at higher ISO values and the result is predominantly “soapy.”

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In general, additional cameras in such smartphones are more a tribute to modern trends and marketing. But the camera as a whole copes with blurring the background.

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Macro photography - it may be useful in some rare cases, under certain good conditions. In good light and a still subject. Focus is not so simple.

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Video in FullHD takes off, without any frills: no stabilization.

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In the dry residue

There is always a fierce battle in the budget segmentstruggle. And despite the fact that OPPO A31 cannot be called a clear favorite in its price category, it turned out to be a quite pleasant smartphone to use with a modern design, a large display with pleasant color rendering and brightness, decent battery life, separate slots for two SIMs and a memory card, pleasant, convenient and adequately functioning interface. The main problem of the smartphone is the presence of quite strong competitors: there are not many of them, but Xiaomi and Huawei have a couple of models that can offer higher resolution, a more powerful processor and NFC. The smartphone is already on sale for4500 UAH.

5 reasons to buy OPPO A31:

modern design and practical materials (except for the black version);
high brightness and good color rendering of the display;
long battery life;
separate slots for two SIM and MicroSD;
nice shell.

3 reasons not to buy OPPO A31:

low resolution display;
no Type-C and NFC;
There are competitors with more productive hardware.

OPPO A31

Budget smartphone with a modern design, HD + IPS screen, drop-shaped cutout for the front camera, eight-core MediaTek Helio P35 processor

Rozetka

Hello

KTC

Eldorado

Modern state employee

Specifications OPPO A31

Display
IPS, 6.5 inches, 1600×720, 270 ppi

Housing
dimensions: 163.9×75.5×8.3 mm, weight: 180 g

CPU
Mediatek MT6765V/CB Helio P35 (12nm): 4×2.3 GHz Cortex-A53 + 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A53, PowerVR GE8320 graphics

RAM
4 GB

Flash memory
64 GB eMMC 5.1 + MicroSD

Camera
12 MP, f/1.8, PDAF; 2 MP, f/2.4, macro, 1/5.0″, 1.75µm 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth); front camera: 8 MP f/2.0

Wireless technology
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac (dual band, 2.4 and 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.0 LE, FM/

GPS
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO

Battery
4230 mAh, non-removable

operating system
Android 9 Pie + ColorOS 6.1.2

Sim card
2xNanoSIM

For those that want to know more:

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OPPO A31 review: a budget Android smartphone with a modern design and a triple camera

What is it?

What is included?

What does the OPPO A31 look like?

How good is the screen?

What are the unlock methods?

What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?

What about the interface?

How good are the cameras?

In the dry residue

OPPO A31

For those that want to know more: