OPPO A95 Review — A High-End Entry-Level Device?

OPPO Malaysia has recently introduced ta brand new device and we decided to take a closer look in this OPPO A95 review. Should you get the smartphone? What exactly does it have to offer? Let’s find out, shall we?

Unboxing

Unfortunately, the review unit that we received didn’t come with a box. That being said, we expect the usual to be included inside such as the phone itself, charging brick, USB-C charger, soft case, and the usual documentation.

Appearance

The OPPO A95 sports a 6.43-inch AMOLED display and as you can see here, there’s a slight chin down below but nothing excessive. The punch-hole camera is located on the top-left corner.

On the right hand side is where you’ll find the power button. As for the opposite side, there’s the standard volume rockers and SIM tray.

Moving to the bottom, you can find a 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone, USB-C port, and the speaker grille. As for the top of the device, it’s completely naked.

In case you haven’t realized it yet, we got the silver colour variant of the smartphone, where you can see the OPPO Glow design. The top-left corner is where the triple camera cut out can be found.

OPPO A95 Specifications

CPU	Snapdragon 662 Octa-core (4 x 2.3GHz Kryo 260 Gold + 4 x 1.8GHz Kryo 260 Silver) 11nm
GPU	Adreno 610
Memory	8GB (+5GB via RAM Expansion)
Storage	128GB
Display	6.43″ FHD+ (2400x 1080) AMOLED display
Audio	Dual speakers
Camera	48MP f/1.7 main camera, PDAF 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide 2MP f/2.4 macro camera AI Camera, Auto HDR, Pro Mode, Portrait, Beauty
Selfie camera	16MP f/2.4 selfie camera
Connectivity	WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 5.1
Software	MIUI 12.5 based on Android 11
Battery	5000mAh 33W fast charging
Dimensions	160.1 x 73.4 x 7.8 mm
Weight	173g
Ingress protection	IPX4

Performance

We start off with Antutu V9 for our synthetic test and as you can see from the chart, the phone doesn’t score really well. It did score slightly higher than the previous OPPO A74 that we reviewed earlier in the year, but that’s pretty much about it.

A similar result can be seen on Geekbench 5’s test. We can see that it’s far from the scores of several smartphones that we’ve checked out in recent time.

Heading to graphical performance, it’s a similar story again. But this time around, the OPPO A74 even outscores the A95, albeit not by much.

Next up is PCMark’s Work 3.0 test, which shows that it’s not far behind the company’s recent mid-range smartphone series. The difference in performance based on their SoC can really be seen right here.

Coming to battery life, we see on PCMark’s battery test here that it lasts a decent amount of time. What we’re curious is how the difference between it and the OPPO A74 managed to be so huge, which the latter tops the list right here.

As for real life usage, I find that the device shows a different result. It’d take nearly two days before I would find the need to charge the device back again. Usage would include the usual social media browsing, chats, and video binging on YouTube.

The 33W charging brick comes in handy when you need to quickly juice up your smartphone. For me personally, anything above 18W is good enough, so that’s good. The company has claimed that the charger can get 54% of battery in just 30 minutes, an experience that I can vouch for.

User Experience

If you like thin smartphones, the OPPO A95 certainly fits the bill. It has a nice matte finish for the back which gives a nice feel to it. Personally, I’d usually use a case to avoid fingerprints staining the back of a device but I don’t find the need right here, which is a plus for me.

Despite the phone only having a single speaker, I’d say that it’s loud enough. It’d definitely be better with dual speakers but I’m still fine with it. Should you not be satisfied by that, I’d suggest you to use headphones or earbuds. That’s what I’d do anyways, regardless of the smartphone.

For the screen, it’s definitely a satisfying one with its AMOLED panel. Colours are vibrant and has better contrast compared to your usual LCD displays and makes everything look better.

Going forward to gaming on the device itself, it’s pretty much what you’d expect from a device like this. You will be able to play most of the games albeit at lower graphics settings. That should be okay, if you’re not a person who cares about having the best, most crisp visuals.

The phone does get rather warm after about 15-20 minutes of gaming on games like COD Mobile and PUBG Mobile but it’s nothing alarming.

While my experience with ColorOS 11 (check out ColorOS 12 here) has been decent with previous smartphones, I can’t say the same with the A95. While the looks are there, the user experience was hampered. There is sluggish-ness when I’m swiping around with the device. It’s not helped by the fact that it only runs on 60Hz instead of a higher refresh rate.

The same could be said when it comes to the camera UI. When capturing shots, you’d need to wait a couple of seconds for them to get processed most of the time, so you might want to keep steady when you do so. While I’m fine with the layout for the camera menu, if you don’t fancy it, well there’s no customization for you to find here. What you see is what you get.

Photo results in good lighting came out rather decent and they’re definitely worthy for your social media uploads. That being said, the macro camera is a hit or miss for me as it has trouble focusing on subjects from time to time.

I’d say the downer for the camera is in low-light conditions. You can see certain areas on shots to be ‘smudged up’ and lacking in clarity. There’s definitely a need for improvement on that end.

Check out the full-sized images by heading to the link right here.

OPPO A95 Verdict

Is it a good enough device? In some ways, yes. Is the price justified for it? Well, that’s a hard one since the price tag is RM1,099. I’m still fine by the fact that it lacks a high refresh rate but I’d definitely expect a newer chipset instead of the Snapdragon 662 that’s being offered here. If you look at it, the majority of what’s provided is the same as their OPPO A74, and even that is cheaper.

That being said, the OPPO A95 does look good and the finish on the back is nice. If you don’t mind some of the cons that I’ve mentioned, I’d definitely suggest you to get the phone for the promo that they’re having, where it’s on pre-order and you get several free gifts including an OPPO Enco Earbuds.

We would like to thank OPPO Malaysia for providing the OPPO A95 that was used in this review.