Let’s confess: we were a little apprehensive about reviewing the Oppo A83 given our not-so-happy experience with Oppo’s mid-ranger Oppo F5, whose much-hyped AI selfie camera was quite disappointing in our experience.
Oppo, the Chinese gadget-maker whose parent BBK Electronics also owns popular brands such as OnePlus and Vivo, has been focussing on enhancing its camera features by equipping its lenses with artificial intelligence capabilities that it hopes will help make people look more beautiful and elegant. All that’s cool; who doesn’t want to look pretty on a snap?
Now the promotional literature for Oppo A83 also claims the same — the 8 MP selfie camera is powered by Oppo’s AI beauty recognition technology. And how does it do this? By sifting through Oppo’s database of human faces, the camera is able to recognise and correct more than 200 human ‘facial feature spots’ and capture the ‘real you’.
But the fact is not many would like to see the ‘real you’ in a selfie and the AI’s job is to fix the real you and build a “new you”. To be fair, the Oppo A83 is a sweeping success on this front.
The selfie camera is a surprise star in this price range. It does justice to the image captured and the doctoring it performs on the image is just in the right doses. So, as a result, you get clear, nicely saturated, deep, rich selfies.
If you are a pro with facial expressions and ambient lights, the Oppo A83 offers you a great deal of opportunities to satisfy the narcissist in you.
The 13 MP rear camera is no different. It focuses faster and takes clear photos even in low-light conditions. The Ultra HD mode, which you can find under the Expert options in camera settings, is a blessing, especially for those who travel without a DSLR and want sharper, detailed photographs.
The camera negotiates jerks pretty well and the images look clear and noise-free. The A83’s video recording is up to the mark; the auto-focus is fast enough and the camera can shoot even in 1080, 720 pixel, and lower dimensions. Another impressive feature is the face-unlock.
This works super-rapidly and even in dimly lit surroundings, the scanner is able to track your face and unlock the phone. This is quite useful, especially given that the phone doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner, unlike most of its peers.
The Oppo A83’s audio is average, though. But if you use a good earphone set (certainly not the one Oppo gives you along with the gadget), this won’t be a major problem.
The Oppo A83 has a compact form factor, which makes it quite easy to hold and handle.
The device is supplied with a back cover and a screen guard, which could be useful given that the A83 doesn’t boast premium glasses or scratch-free surfaces. Oppo A83 has a 5.7-inch TFT display (1440x720) and has the in-vogue 18:9 aspect ratio, and thin bezels.
The display is bright and shiny, and the colour rendering is above average. The device has 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage, which can be expanded. The RAM doesn’t run out that easily, even during significant multi-tasking.
The dual-SIM device runs on Oppo’s ColorOS 3.2, which is a tweak on Android 7.1 Nougat. It is powered by the octa-core MediaTek MT6763T SoC processor (which achieves clock speed of 2.5GHz, in case you know what it means). And there are the routine features, VoLTE, 4G, WiFi, a 3,180 mAh battery (which gets charged at a fairly decent pace and doesn’t drain out that easily) and so on.
If you are looking for a compact, good-looking camera phone that doesn't slow down easily, the Oppo A83 may easily top your list.
Price: ₹13,990
Pros: Good front and rear cameras, compact design, good processing speed, fast face-unlock
Cons: Audio, breakable glass, not the latest OS