OPPO A74 review: Many competitors offer a little more

The new OPPO A74 is the entry-level model of this year's A series in terms of both price and hardware. It is currently available for around 249 euros and includes an OLED display, 33 watt fast charge and a 5.000 mAh battery.

That all sounds very good, but in return customers unfortunately only get a Snapdragon 662 from Qualcomm and no ultra-wide-angle camera. The OPPO A74 left me with mixed feelings in the last few days, as there is a lot of light, but unfortunately also a lot of shadow and the competition has more to offer in some points. What I mean by that, you will find out in the following lines.

Haptics, design and processing

With dimensions of 160,3 mm in height and 73,8 mm in width, the A74 can neither be assigned to the more compact nor to the larger smartphones. For today's standards it is a relatively normal size, although a few years ago it would definitely have been assigned to the larger smartphones. I find the weight of 175 grams very comfortable and with a thickness of 7,95 mm it is also quite thin.

The frame and the back are made of high-gloss plastic and do not feel too high quality, but to be honest, I would have imagined it to be worse. Compared to Little X3 NFC or OnePlus North N10 5G the OPPO device definitely feels a bit higher quality. Nevertheless, you shouldn't expect too much here. The back is slightly rounded on both sides, which contributes to good handling. My test device is black, which, depending on the incidence of light, also has a slight bluish shimmer. It is prone to fingerprints, but here too I would have imagined it to be much worse, because the color is not too reflective like other black smartphones. In addition to the color, the camera hill in the left corner is also immediately noticeable. Here the Chinese manufacturer has installed three sensors and a flash in a rather conspicuous rectangle. The bump protrudes noticeably from the case, which makes the smartphone wobble when it is on the table. We'll get to the quality of the cameras in a moment, of course.

If we turn the A74 around, we see a familiar mid-range front. The edges around the panel are very thin on three of four sides and the front camera sits in the form of a small punch hole in the left corner.

The workmanship is completely satisfactory for the price. The back cannot be pressed in as hard as on some other smartphones and the buttons are well made, have a solid pressure point, but sound a bit cheap when pressed.

Display - great

The OPPO A74 has an AMOLED display with a diagonal of 6,4 inches. It has a sufficiently sharp resolution of 2.400 x 1.080 pixels and supports a refresh rate of 60 Hertz. For less than 300 euros, some offer 120 Hertz, but then with a poorer LCD and not OLED. And yes, of course, there is now one Notes redmi 10 Pro, which is equipped with a 120 Hertz OLED panel, but on the one hand it costs a little more and on the other hand you can't expect an OLED screen with a high refresh rate everywhere for less than 250 euros, at least in my opinion.

The front camera is in the form of a small punch hole in the display. (Image: TechnikNews)

I would prefer this panel to any LC display with a high refresh rate because the color representation and contrast values ​​are much better. For me personally, colors are reproduced a little too saturated in the "Vivid" mode, but with a few clicks the color reproduction can be adjusted to suit one's own taste. In the "Mild" mode, colors are then reproduced much more naturally.

The maximum brightness is also okay. In direct sunlight it is a bit difficult to read, but it is still possible. Here, too, the panel is one step ahead of the competition with LCD, and so is the viewing angle stability. The colors only change a little at extreme viewing angles, but that is completely normal. Overall, the OPPO A74 has an excellent display for a price of 250 euros.

Software - so many personalizations

The software used is the in-house ColorOS user interface in version 11, based on Android 11. The software has little to do with stock Android. It is quite colorful and sometimes confusing, especially the settings. Otherwise, I actually really like ColorOS because there are many additional and personalization functions. For example, you can customize the colors of the UI according to your own taste or change the icon style. There is also a good night mode and ingenious gesture control. Unfortunately, some bloatware was initially pre-installed with Facebook, Netflix and Co. Except for Netflix, all other bloatware apps can be downloaded prouninstall without problems.

Performance - expandable

Under the hood is a Snapdragon 662 from Qualcomm, which we already get from the much cheaper one Little M3 know. There is also 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of flash memory, which can be expanded via a micro SD card.

Unfortunately, the performance didn't really convince me, which is primarily due to the processor. Apps start and close rather slowly and there are constant stuttering and delays. This is of course sufficient for everyday things like WhatsApp, Instagram or making phone calls, but if you switch between different apps a lot, the A74 quickly reaches its limits. I'm also very worried about its future viability. If the processor is already reaching its limits now, what will it look like in two years?

For 249 euros, almost all other smartphones offer significantly more. For comparison, the Poco X3 Pro, which is actually offered at a slightly lower price, comes with a Snapdragon 860 that is significantly superior to the 662. The Snapdragon 720G in the equally expensive Realme 8 Pro is also stronger. Too bad OPPO.

Battery - lasts a very long time

The battery has a capacity of 5.000 mAh and can be quickly charged with up to 33 watts using the included power adapter, which is very commendable for this price range. I always came proI got through a day without any problems and even 1,5, sometimes even two days, were no problem. At the end of the day, with a screen-on time of 6 to 8 hours, I still had about 30 to 50 percent of battery left, which is really strong. So with the A74, no one should have any problems getting through a day without charging.

Camera - fine

A triple camera can be found on the top left of the back. It comprises a 48 megapixel main camera and two sensors, each with 2 megapixels, which are responsible for macro shots and depth effects. Unfortunately, OPPO has not given the A74 an ultra-wide-angle camera, which is another major point of criticism for me. The front camera has a resolution of 16 megapixels and can record videos in FHD with up to 30 FPS.

The triple camera of the OPPO A74. (Image: TechnikNews)

The main camera convinces with a very good dynamic range, which I think is above average for this price. Sharpness, colors and the lowlight performance would then be described as average. When it comes to sharpness, other smartphones are a bit ahead, which is particularly noticeable in the edge areas. In addition, a veil is noticeable in some pictures. Colors are sometimes reproduced a bit too saturated for me, but overall the color reproduction is quite impressive for the price. As soon as the lighting conditions deteriorate, the camera is almost unusable, even if the night mode brings visible improvements. The photos become sufficiently bright, but then quickly start to rustle and details are lost.

Videos can be recorded in FHD at up to 30 FPS. The color reproduction is okay, but there are weaknesses in terms of sharpness, stabilization and audio recording.

Macro shots are absolutely useless even in good lighting conditions. The images are reproduced far too pale and sharpness seems to be a foreign concept to the camera. I recommend using the skin camera and then cropping into the image.

The front camera is also only partially convincing. It is sufficient in most situations, but faces are reproduced much too softly despite deactivated filters and there is also room for improvement in terms of sharpness.

Test photos

Let's take a look at a few test photos. As always, the following images are absolutely unprocessed, but compressed without loss in order to keep the loading times and memory consumption of the website low.

Comparison with the Poco X3 NFC and Realme 8 Pro

Last but not least, we want to compare the camera with the competition in various situations. I decided on the one hand for the Poco X3 NFC, which is currently available for well under 200 euros, and on the other hand for that Realme 8 Prowhich, like the A74, currently costs around 250 euros.

If you like to take macro photos with your smartphone, you shouldn't use any of the three smartphones, as the photos will be blurry and usually far too pale. The A74 actually performs the worst here. The main camera of the X3 NFC impresses with the most natural colors, the A74 and Realme 8 Pro with the dynamic range. In low light, the Realme 8 Pro wins for me due to the great sharpness and good color reproduction. However, some of the photos could be a bit brighter.

Others - decent fingerprint sensor, solid speaker, etc.

In order to be able to unlock the smartphone securely, it is recommended to use the fingerprint sensor in the display. It's surprisingly reliable, but it could unlock the device a little faster. Overall, however, I was quite satisfied here.

Unlike Xiaomi, for example, OPPO only installs a mono speaker on the bottom in this price range. This sounds a bit thin, but is sufficiently loud and is completely sufficient in everyday life.

Last but not least, let's take a closer look at the vibration motor. It doesn't feel particularly high-quality and doesn't sound particularly good either, but I've had a few worse ones.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, it is difficult for me to draw a conclusion about the OPPO A74, because as good as the display and battery life are on the one hand, the performance can be improved on the other. Almost all competitors offer more here. Furthermore, there is no ultra-wide-angle camera, which in my opinion should not be missing for 249 euros. Therefore, I unfortunately cannot recommend the smartphone for the current price of 249 euros and would rather go for a Poco X3 Pro, Realme 8 Pro or Redmi Note 10S.

However, if the price drops to around 180 euros in the near future, you can definitely buy it and get an above-average display, a great main camera and excellent battery life for the price. Unless you want to gamble with your smartphone every now and then or use it for two to three years, then I would rather use a Poco X3 NFC or Realme 8 5G.

We thank OPPO Germany for providing the A74!

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