Oppo F1s has proven to be a very good and capable selfie smartphone. And now it’s time to see whether Oppo A57 can also deliver similar performance or not. This upgraded variant of Oppo A37 also has a new version of Android with an upgraded processor, RAM and more internal storage. Let’s take a closer look at the Oppo A57 in our review.
Oppo A57 design and build
The design and build quality of the Oppo A57 is quite similar to the F1s, as both the phones have almost the same design. However, it is a slightly better phone than the F1S and this is also due to its lower price. The build quality of the phone is still strong thanks to the metal frame, although the Oppo A57 feels made of plastic. The absence of backlit capacitive buttons in the phone is disappointing. The home button on the Oppo A57 is also capacitive and has a fingerprint sensor integrated into it. Due to the matte texture on the rear, the grip of the phone remains good.
Sporting a 5.2-inch IPS display, the Oppo A57 has HD resolution. Due to which text appears clearly and photographs also appear sharp when viewed from a normal distance. We liked the brightness of the phone and the phone can be read well even in sunlight. The colors are well saturated and the viewing angle is also good. Oppo has used Gorilla Glass 4 but the phone already has a screen guard installed on it. Apart from this, an additional screen guard will also be available in the phone box.
On the right side of the Oppo A57, there is a SIM tray that can be used for two Nano SIM cards and a microSD card (up to 256 GB). Due to the presence of a separate SD card slot, users can use two SIM cards whenever they want. The phone has a standard micro-USB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack is provided at the bottom. Apart from a thin ring around the camera lens on the rear of the Oppo A57, there is no other bulge for the camera.
Oppo A57 is thin, light and easy to use. In the box you will get a micro-USB cable, charger, earphones, case, screen guard, SIM ejector tool, and some manuals.
Oppo A57 specification and feature
Oppo A57 has an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor. If we talk about performance, it is almost similar to the MediaTek 6750 given in Oppo F1S. The phone has 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage. Talking about other specifications of Oppo A57, it has features like Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (single band), FM radio, USB, OTG and GPS. VoLTE and 4G support is also available on all Indian bands.
Oppo A57 runs on ColorOS 3.0 which is based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Despite the customization required, the interface runs very well. The phone still has the iOS influence but it is more akin to Vivo’s custom OS. There are now two pages in the notification shade, toggle switches and app alerts have been separated. Oppo has provided a custom app store in the phone. Apart from this, O-Cloud is also provided for backup and gestures to use the phone with one hand and turn off the screen. Along with Duo, Google Suite and some third party apps like Facebook, Instagram and Amazon are also provided in the phone.
oppo a57 performance
Light games run well on Oppo A57. The phone becomes slightly warm when using the camera for a long time. On average, we found 1.4 GB RAM free in the phone which is very good to keep the phone running smoothly.
The fingerprint sensor works well and it detects fingerprints quickly. The fingerprint sensor can also be used to lock apps and files. The phone can play videos up to 1080 pixels and high-bitrate FLAC files can also be played from the stock music player. Talking about the speaker in Oppo A57, it is not very loud for media when it comes to noise but it is fine for alerts and ringtones.
Talking about the camera, the Oppo A57 smartphone has a 16-megapixel front and 13-megapixel rear camera, just like the Oppo F1S. The front camera takes great pictures in good lighting. Selfies can be seen sharp and with detailing. However, photos taken in low light from Oppo A57 look a bit scattered. The screen flash also isn’t very good, so don’t expect to get a great photo unless you hold the phone very close to your face. Beauty mode has a background blur filter. Other modes on the Oppo A57 include panorama, video, and time-lapse.
The rear camera of Oppo A57 produces good landscape and macro shots with detailing in daylight. Colors look good and focus speed is also good. Performance in low light is average. Video up to 1080 pixels can be recorded in Oppo A57 and the quality is also fine. Shooting modes include Ultra HD mode that lets you capture up to four photos simultaneously. Apart from this, Expert Mode, Filter, GIF and Double Exposure are included.
The Oppo A57 packs a 2900mAh non-removable battery that lasts a whole day on a single charge. In our HD video loop test, the phone’s battery lasted for 12 hours 7 minutes, which cannot be called bad. Fast charging is not provided in the phone, so it takes some time for the battery to be fully charged.
our decision
Priced at Rs 14,990, the Oppo A57 is a good package and has a lot in common with the Oppo F1s. But talking about the price, it is more affordable, due to which it proves to be better than Oppo F1S. Camera performance in low light isn’t the best and basic features like backlit buttons and dual-band Wi-Fi are also missing. But the good thing is that it has the same CPU, good build quality and a very good fingerprint sensor.
Apart from this, another reason to buy Oppo A57 compared to Oppo F1s is the availability of Android Marshmallow. As per Oppo, the Oppo F1s will stick to Lollipop. The same thing applies to Oppo A57 not getting Nougat update but at least this OS can be called new for now.
If selfies don’t matter too much to you, the Moto G4 Plus is a better option at this price (until the Moto G5 hits the market). (Review) However, if you are waiting for the price of Oppo F1s to drop, then Oppo A57 will be better in terms of features and performance.