OPPO A74 4G Review: Looks, Features and 33W Charger : Check
June 29, 2021
Performance: Snapdragon 662, 6GB RAM
Display: 6.4-inch (1080 x 2400)
Weight: 175g
Storage: 128GB
Battery: 5,000mAh
Features:1080p
Rear Camera:48MP Main, 2MP Depth, 2MP Macro
Front Camera:16MP
Rating: 8/10
Price: RM 799.00
A74 is probably one of the best looking non-5G smartphones currently on the market. It has a slender look to it, despite packing a 5,000mAh battery and 90.8% screen to body ratio. But what puts it over the top for me is the mesmerizing colour scheme. Our unit may be called Midnight Blue but in actuality it exhibits a prism effect as you move it about.
It’s color changes from satin blue to baby blue before tapering off to a subtle grey hue. This is a cool look that is bound to keep you entertained for awhile. The effect gives the phone a premium feel. And to the layman, the OPPO A74 may appear to be an expensive device. Admittedly, one of OPPO’s fortes is in making cheap phones look good and A74 is a shining example of this fact.
Most manufacturers tend to spend less time on the design of lower end phones. But this isn’t true for OPPO. Not only does the colour look good, the AMOLED screen is just as vibrant. It’s absence in the A74 5G, was a major disappointment for me. That’s because an LCD can never deliver the same eye-popping colour details.
The Details
It’s a 6.4-nch 1080p panel with a punch hole camera placed at the top left hand corner. That’s an ideal location because you barely notice its presence when watching videos. Over time, you’ll even forget that it’s there, which is what we want. Unlike the 5G variant, this screen has a 60Hz refresh rate.
As such, the performance lacks the same buttery smooth feel when swiping across app pages or transitioning between them. If you’ve used a 90Hz display, this behavior is clearly noticeable. Higher refresh rates play a vital role in determining a phone’s swiftness in responding to your input. That said, this is a standard 60Hz display, so if you’re used to the tech, then this won’t bother you one iota.
What’s It Like?
OPPO has fitted the phone with a Snapdragon 662 chipset and 6GB RAM. It’s powerful enough to handle moderately demanding tasks. Evidently there’s a noticeable amount of lag when launching games or when switching between various apps. It seems as though the CPU needs a little more time to buffer before delivering on the goods.
I noticed this when playing games like Cave FRVR. At the start, the framerate dropped considerably but began to pick up a few seconds later. The phone seems to be overwhelmed by heavy computational workloads. It happens to be the same behavior exhibited by other budget phones of its ilk.
This is only apparent during the startup sequence, but once everything has been loaded properly, the phone performs smoothly and effortlessly. The Snapdragon 662 behavior is reminiscent of the Snapdragon 665, which we tested with the Sony Xperia 10 II. They are very capable chipsets, but require a little extra time to initialize or launch a certain task or app.
Said behavior is only manifested with demanding workloads. If you choose to open a messaging app, YouTube, Chrome or anything similar, the phone responds without hesitation. As it is with any budget device, you’ll need to temper your expectations. The A74 can deliver the goods, it’s just not able to do so instantaneously.
The phone comes with Color OS 11.1, which is based on Android 11. As such it has all the same features you’d expect from Google’s operating system. However, OPPO’s added a few extra features that truly improve the user experience. For the past several years, iOS has been the preferred operating system for those who want a trouble free experience.
Menus and submenus are arranged methodically, to ensure that they can be found easily. As a result, and by exhibiting some common sense, a user should be able to find what he or she is looking for with relative ease. Apple is simply better than the competition at this. Android on the other hand has always been regarded as an overly complicated OS.
Most Android devices require a convoluted way of navigating past various irrelevant menus before arriving at what you want. However, the introduction of the search function has reduced most of said work. Though the experience has been steadily improving, the settings menus are still somewhat of a mess. Surprisingly, this isn’t the case with the OPPO A74.
This phone has an AMOLED screen, but the always on display, raise to wake and double tap to turn on screen are set to off by default. This is surprising, because most manufacturers turn this on during the initial startup process as a way to show off the phone’s capabilities. That said, turning them on was extremely easy.
Instead of being hidden in an irrelevant sub menu in Settings, it’s available on the first page. The same is true of gesture controls which can be found under “convenience tools”. The way in which the cascading menus are arranged feels very Apple-like. And because of this the A74 would be perfect for an elderly parent or someone who isn’t accustomed to Android’s interface.
Figuring out where everything is, requires very little effort. From time to time, helpful menus appear to inform you of what the phone can do or provide hints to finding what you’re looking for. The same is true of RAM and storage management. The underlying software constantly monitors the phone’s performance and tries to give you the best experience possible.
It’s this level of support that we need with Android. The phone should adapt to our needs and not the other way around. It’s these little things that prolongs a phone’s service life. Users tend to keep them for a longer period because they are able to get this done in the background without user intervention. Sony takes this experience to a whole new level, but I digress.
OPPO is very generous with chargers too. While other manufacturers begin to offer them as “optional” accessories, the A74 comes with a 33W fast charging brick. It is able to quickly charge the 5,000mAh battery in under an hour. As a means to preserve your battery health, never let the phone’s charge dip below 20%.
That said, you should be able to get slightly more than a day’s worth of power from this phone. Even if you don’t, the 33W fast charger can swiftly get the charge back up to 95%.This is the way things should be. Everything that you need should be included in the box, especially if a phone supports super fast charging.
It’s surprising that for just RM799, you get a phone that not only looks good, performs well and charges quickly with the included 33W fast charger. What more could one ask for? The starter kit is complete, which includes a transparent silicon case. Yes, OPPO has thrown this in as well. Since the phone already has a screen protector installed, there’s nothing else that you need.
If you’re on a tight budget, you tend to be more appreciative of such deals. Instead of having to rush out to buy an overpriced screen protector and phone case, OPPO gives you everything needed, right in the box. As someone who always uses a phone with a silicon case, I can’t begin to explain how agonizing and time consuming it can be to find a case that fits your phone.
A74 Camera Autofocus
As for the cameras, the A74 gets a 48MP Main shooter, a 2MP Macro and 2MP depth sensor. Unlike the 5G variant, this 4G one doesn’t have an 8MP ultra wide camera. This isn’t a big deal because the AI assisted main unit is able to take decent shots with relative ease. It’s similar in nature to that found on the A74 5G, you can capture shots with minimal effort.
Every shot is put through some AI post-processing wizardry to iron out some of the imperfections. As a result, your pictures are tweaked to allow for improved brightness, contrast and sharpness. It can’t work wonders, so you’ll need to put in some effort and ensure there is decent lighting available.
Low light photography is acceptable too, but it’s best kept for social media use only. On the front, the 13MP selfie camera takes good shots but they aren’t great. Mind, this is a budget device and as such you can’t expect the world from it. But given enough patience and proper positioning, the results can be quite flattering.
The absence of optical image stabilization means that your video footage will look a little shaky and out of focus. These effects can be reduced by making smaller but deliberate movements when recording. There’s a technique to it, and once mastered, should help improve the overall results. The phone does have EIS, which does help somewhat.
Overall, you should be able to capture decent photos and videos provided that the proper technique is used. Alternatively, you could mess about with the settings manually, but that would defeat the purpose of having an AI system in the first place. For the price, there isn’t much to complain about.
Taking all this into consideration, I can see myself using a phone like the A74. It’s reasonably affordable yet packs an AMOLED 1080p panel, 6GB RAM, 5000mAh battery, 33W charger, screen protector and a silicone case. You get all of this for just RM799.
Should You Buy This?
If you’re looking for an affordable phone, then the OPPO A74 is a “no brainer”. It ticks all the right boxes in the hardware and camera department. But all of that pales in comparison to the way the company has skinned Android 11. The settings and menus have been purposefully arranged in a meaningful way.
You won’t have to sift through unrelated submenus before arriving at what you’re looking for. Instead, everything is self-explanatory and within a menu or two away. Let’s not forget about the underlying software that looks after your RAM and other performance parameters. It’s a good phone for anyone except gamers or those with demanding workloads.
If you need something that can cope with heavy computational tasks then this isn’t for you. The A74 5G was able to mask its hardware shortcomings with its 90Hz display and Snapdragon 480 5G chipset; but the 4G variant doesn’t have that same assistance. If you don’t like to be kept waiting, buy a more powerful phone.
