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OPPO A74 Review — Getting The Essentials Plus A Bit More
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OPPO A74 Review — Getting The Essentials Plus A Bit More

by July 13, 2021
Overview
Highlights

The OPPO A74 is considered to be an entry-level smartphone where it is powered by a Snapdragon 662 chipset. Coming with an AMOLED display, it features a 48MP triple camera setup. Read on to find out if it's worth it.

Warranty

1-year

Price

RM899

Positives

+ Quite a decent design
+ Perfect for those who want a rather thin device
+ Battery life is good
+ AMOLED display does its job
+ Fast 33W charger

Negatives

- A higher refresh rate would be nice
- Could be fitted with a better SoC for more performance
- Dual stereo speakers would definitely bring a better experience
- Glossy back is a fingerprint magnet
- Macro mode could do with some refinement

Pokde Scoreboard
Pokde Rating
Appearance
7.6
Efficiency
8.0
Features
7.5
Materials
7.0
Performance
6.9
Portability
8.2
User Experience
7.0
Value
7.0
Bottom Line

The OPPO A74 offers quite decent essentials plus a little bit more to the table. It still could do with a little bit of refinement however.

7.4
Pokde Rating
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It’s been quite awhile since we’ve tested out OPPO smartphones. This time around, we’ll be taking a look at their midrange device in this OPPO A74 review. What exactly does it have to offer? Read on to find out.

Unboxing the OPPO A74

OPPO A74 Review - Unboxing

OPPO A74 Review – Unboxing

Inside the box, you can expect to find the following items to be included with the device:

  • OPPO A74
  • Earphone
  • USB-C cable
  • Charging brick
  • SIM ejector
  • TPU case
  • Documentation

Appearance

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OPPO A74 Review – Front

The OPPO A74 sports a 6.43-inch AMOLED display. Here, we can see that the side bezels are not too thick but as for the bottom, there is a little bit of chin situation going on here.

On the right hand side, you’ll only find the power button residing in solitude. As for the opposite left side, there’s the SIM tray accompanied by the volume rockers.

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OPPO A74 Review – Bottom

As for the bottom here, you’ll find the 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone, USB Type-C port, and the speaker grille. The top however is completely empty.

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OPPO A74 Review – Back

Turning over to the back, the smartphone comes with a glossy finish and as you can see here, we’ve got our hands on the Midnight Blue variant of the device. On the bottom right, there’s the usual OPPO branding and the top left is where you’ll find the triple camera setup.

OPPO A74 Specifications

CPU Snapdragon 662 Octa-core (4 x 2.0GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4 x 1.8GHz Kryo 260 Silver), 11nm
GPU Adreno 610
Memory 6GB LPDDR4X
Storage 128GB (expandable via microSD)
Display 6.43-inch AMOLED (1080×2400), 60Hz
Rear Camera 48MP f/1.7, PDAF
2MP f/2.4 macro
2MP f/2.4 depth sensor
Night Mode, AI, HDR, portrait mode, Beautify, Pro Mode, up to 1080p30 video
Selfie camera 16MP f/2.4
Portrait mode, HDR, AI, up to 1080p30 video
Connectivity LTE Band 1/3/5/7/8/20/28/38/40/41
Dual SIM
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz & 5GHz)
Bluetooth 5.0
USB Type-C
Battery 5000mAh
33W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging
Dimensions 160.3 x 73.8 x 7.95mm
Weight 175g
Ingress protection N/A

Performance

As you might’ve noticed from our recent smartphone reviews, we won’t be including our usual PCMark Work and Battery benchmarks due to the platform releasing a new version. It wouldn’t be unfair to compare the A74 to older devices through it. So let’s get on with the performance test.

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OPPO A74 Review – Antutu V8

We can see that the OPPO A74 uses the same chip that the previous A73 used, the Snapdragon 662. While it does score higher, it’s not by much. Comparing with higher-end chips, we can see that the difference is substantial.

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OPPO A74 Review – Geekbench 5

Again, we don’t see a solid performance, in Geekbench 5. That being said, it is to be expected with such a chipset powering it.

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OPPO A74 Review – 3DMark

The trend repeats over in 3DMark, showcasing the graphical performance of the smartphone. We can see from the synthetic tests that the Snapdragon 662 isn’t really an eye-catcher.

When it comes to battery performance, it was pretty impressive however. For my personal usage, the phone lasted me a 2 full days before I needed to juice it up again. Of course, this depends on usage, but it is certainly helped by the fact that it’s not running on a high refresh rate display.

User Experience

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OPPO A74 Review – User Experience

When it comes to the feel of the device itself, I pretty much like it. It’s lightweight on the hands and it’s quite thin. If there is something that I don’t like about the design, it is the back as it’s glossy. Sure, it looks pretty on the eyes, but as you’d expect from such design, fingerprint stains are easily gathered there. You can counter this by using a phone case, which they’ve provided one inside the box. We’d recommend using at least that instead of having it fully naked.

I do have to commend the display on the device. It feels like a solid experience when it comes to watching videos, thanks to the AMOLED panel. Colours are vibrant and you get dark blacks, which is usually the case with AMOLED screens. As for audio, the single speaker is loud enough. It would’ve been nice however if they had offered a dual speakers for a more immersive experience.

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OPPO A74 Review – UI

The OPPO A74 runs on ColorOS 11 based on Android 11. If you’re familiar with the skin, there’s not much difference. Though I’m fine with the skin, I find the smartphone to be rather sluggish, especially when I open multiple apps in the background. This is likely to be caused by the Snapdragon 662 chip as it isn’t the most powerful SoC around. While I enjoyed the AMOLED display, I felt that the phone would benefit from 90Hz refresh rate at least for a smoother user experience.

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OPPO A74 Review – Camera UI

As for the camera UI, it’s pretty straightforward. If I had to change anything, I’d prefer the ability to customize the modes that’s available on the front. Let’s say that you’re a big fan of the macro mode, it’d be easier if it was directly in front of you instead of having to select “More” every single time.

I’d commend the camera of the device when taken in good lighting. The 48MP mode also produces rather decent shots. On the other hand, I was a bit let down by the macro camera. When taking shots with it, shots would usually be overexposed and it just ruins it for me. If you’re not a big fan of the mode as I am, I guess you’d be fine.

The front camera is good enough for selfies with details being captured decently. You can also use the Portrait mode to get a little bit of bokeh effect for that cool background blur that everyone seems to like. As for the Night mode, I’d say it’s good enough. When it’s turned on, you can see the sky clearer but there is a little bit of noise as you would normally expect.

You can check out the full-sized images right here.

OPPO A74 Verdict

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OPPO A74 Review – Verdict

Overall, the OPPO A74 is a decent enough device thanks to its battery performance and lovely AMOLED display for your daily usage. It is however hampered by their choice of using a Snapdragon 662. That being said, the device is still considered an entry-level offering from the brand.

If you don’t mind the some of the cons that were mentioned earlier and you fancy the design, there’s nothing wrong if you decide to go for it, especially at the price of RM899. I just wish it had a better chipset..

We would like to thank OPPO Malaysia for providing us the OPPO A74 that was used in this review.

About The Author
Raja Idris
The name's King, Kingky King. Likes to keep it simple and straightforward. A person who games regardless of what platform. Need value for money performance? Get AMD.

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