Oppo A72 is a mid-range smartphone released by Oppo mobile on April 21 last year. It is made to rival the likes of the Redmi Note 8, Galaxy A71, Galaxy A20, Realme 5, and so on. This is a smartphone made for an average person who likes taking satisfactory pictures, playing games, and surfing the net.

The design of the device is also top-notch, at first glance, you can’t tell that this is a budget device. It has a vertical rectangular module that houses quad cameras and a single led flash. The smartphone also has a big battery capacity that is said to last you for a full day. In this post, we are going to be talking about the device and also be comparing it with the A7 of 2018.

Oppo A72 Key Specs and Features

• IPS LCD Display; 6.5inches 1080 x 2400 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~405 ppi density)
• ColorOS 7.1 based Android 10
• Octa-core Qualcomm SM6125 Snapdragon 665 (11 nm)
• 4-giga byte RAM /8-giga byte RAM
• 128-giga byte /128-giga byte Built-in Storage up to 256GB Memory Card
• Quad rear cameras of 48 MP + 8 MP + 2 MP + 2 MP.
• Front or selfie camera of 16-mega pixels.
• 4G LTE Network
• Fingerprint Scanner (Side Mounted)
• Fast Charging 18W
• Non-Removable Li-Ion 5,000mAh battery

Design

In terms of design, the Oppo A72 comes with a very attractive design. It has a gradient color finish that dazzles when light is pointed at it. The smartphone is available in Blue and Green colors. Its successor, the standard A7 of 2018 comes with a good design too but you can see 2020 in this new A72 smartphone.

Placing the older A7 side by side with the new A72 makes it look ugly. That’s it about gadgets, they usually look beautiful and attractive when released but as time goes on, new design ideas will be popping out, thereby crushing the older ones and make them look ugly in the eyes.

The older Oppo A7 has a horizontal camera module housing only two cameras. The new A72 comes with a vertical rectangular module housing four cameras and a single led flash, you can see an improvement right? The older A7 comes with a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner with an Oppo branding beneath it.

But this new A72 decided to move its fingerprint sensor to the side and it also doubles up as a power button. This time on the A72, there is no Oppo branding anywhere on the rear. Build quality-wise, the A72’s back is made from glass with a plastic frame. The older A7 has a plastic back and frame. One thing about glass is that it feels really smooth and beautiful but they are not durable as plastic.

Display

Looking at the front of the smartphone, there is a punch hole cut-out at the upper left corner of the display which serves as a home for the selfie camera. It has a smaller chin and bezels than the older A7 which is good. It uses an IPS LCD screen which measures 6.5inches diagonally.

The screen is so tall that it has an aspect ratio of 20:9. Someone who has small hands will find it pretty difficult to handle but if your hands are big, you got no problem using it. The display can produce a good viewing experience and videos are capped at 1080p when watching videos on YouTube.

This is because it produces a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels, alongside pixels per inch density of 405. This is a huge improvement over the A7 which comes with a 6.2inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 720 x 1520 pixels, alongside a 271 pixels per inch density.

But while the older A7 produces a lower screen quality, it is very comfortable to hold with one hand as it has a 19:9 aspect ratio. It also comes with a bigger chin size and bezels which made it have a screen to body ratio of 81.6%. The front build of the A7 is Corning Gorilla Glass 3 but the new A72 front material is unknown, maybe a normal glass.

Hardware and Software

Under the hood, the Oppo A72 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chipset which has an Octa-core processor clocked at 2.0GHz for the first four cores and 1.8GHz for the last four cores. It is running on ColorOS 7.1 user interface based on the Android 10 operating system, alongside an Adreno 610 GPU for graphics or gaming.

The smartphone comes in two storage configurations such as 4-gigabyte RAM and 128-gigabyte ROM or 8-gigabyte RAM and 128-gigabyte ROM. There is a dedicated slot for SD cards in case if you wish to extend the storage, but I know you would. Snapdragon 665 is the chipset mostly used in mid-range smartphones this day.

It is very fast in terms of speed and it is good for gaming on low graphics, thanks to the Adreno 610 GPU. The older Oppo A7 only has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chipset having an Octa-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz. The device was released in 2018 which’s why it is running on Android 8 Oreo.

It uses an Adreno 506 GPU for graphics or gaming and comes in three storage configurations which 6 3-gigabyte RAM and 32-gigabyte ROM or a 3-gigabyte RAM and 64p-gigabyte ROM or 4-gigabyte RAM and 64-gigabyte ROM. You have seen that the A72 brought a lot of upgrades and thus, it will be faster than the older A7 as expected.

Camera

For photography, the Oppo A72 comes with a 48-mega pixels main camera with f/1.8 aperture, 8-mega pixels ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture, 2-mega pixels macro camera with f/2.4 aperture, and a 2-mega pixels depth sensor with f/2.4 aperture. On the front, it has a 16-mega pixels camera for selfies or video calls.

Pictures taken with this device are sharp with good details. It is a mid-range smartphone but it takes satisfactory images. Pictures taken with this device is much better than the one taken with the older A7. The older A7 only comes with dual rear cameras which include a 13-mega pixels main camera with f/2.2 aperture and a 2-mega pixels depth sensor with f/2.4 aperture.

On the front, it has the same 16-mega pixels camera for selfies or video calls. The older A7 can shoot videos in 1080p@30fps only, while the new A72 can shoot videos in 2160p@30fps and 1080p@30fps. Their front camera can shoot the same 1080p videos at 30 frames per second.

Battery, Security, and Connectivity

When it comes to the battery aspect, the A72 comes with a big battery capacity of 5,000mAh that supports 18W fast charging. This is an improvement over the older A7 which has a 4230 mAh battery with no fast charging. Oppo A72 will last long for you if you are a heavy user and thank God that you can recharge it pretty fast once it is down.

For security, it has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. Side-mounted fingerprint scanners are easier to reach than rear-mounted ones. The older A7 uses a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, so the A72 having a side-mounted one is good. Connectivity-wise, the new A72 smartphone has Bluetooth 5.0 which is faster than the Bluetooth 4.2 in the older A7.

Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11, GPS, and FM Radio.

Conclusion

To conclude, the Oppo A72 is a very good mid-range smartphone you can get. It is the main competitor of the Redmi Note 8 and the Galaxy A21. It also comes with a good improvement over the older A7(its successor). So should you get the phone? Definitely yes, get it.