The OPPO A-series has always been a crowd favorite. Characterized as affordably-priced, well-rounded devices, the A-series often sports trendy or good-looking designs as well.
The OPPO A98 is one the latest in the series to be released locally. This year’s iteration builds on the A-series’s identity by offering a familiar smartphone experience but with upgrades in design, cameras, and more.
Here are what we believe are the best features the OPPO A98 offers.
Style and durability
As it should be, the OPPO A98 is a sleek-looking device. There are two colors available – Dreamy Blue and Cool Black. Both are built with OPPO Glow to achieve that nice and subtle sheen without attracting fingerprints.
For its build, we have hard edges with a slight curve which adds comfort when gripping the phone. It comes with a 6.72-inch display so this device is rather big. It’s more long than wide and with thin bezels, you’re getting a good amount of screen real estate to work on.
This year, the A98 is also more durable having undergone a series of tests to ensure its strength.
From button stress tests, and drop and tumble tests to temperature and humidity tests, the OPPO A98 5G proved to be a device that is ready for the everyday grind.
Big battery, safe fast charging
The OPPO A98 comes with a 5000mAh battery paired with 67W SUPERVOOC fast charging. A battery this large has proven to last a full day’s load. But to cater to power users, OPPO pairs its large battery with fast charging tech that can top up the device to full in a little under an hour.
And it does this safely, too. With OPPO’s exclusive Battery Health Engine, the OPPO A98’s battery lifespan can be extended to around 1,600 charge/discharge cycles. According to the company, this means that the device should be able to work closer to maximum capacity for up to four years if charged once per day on average.
Loud dual speakers
If you’re a fan of watching or listening on your phone, the OPPO A98 offers a very good set of stereo speakers for that.
The quality of the audio this phone produces is well-balanced and full, with a good amount of bass. Vocal clarity whether for songs or calls is also impressive. At 100% volume, the audio is really loud but not enough that you’ll hear noticeable crackling or distortion.
The OPPO A98 even offers Ultra Volume mode which pushes the limit to 200%. Surprisingly, sound distortions are still minimal at this level so you can enjoy really loud sound if that’s what you’re into.
An everyday camera system
With its 64-megapixel rear camera, the OPPO A98 is a capable everyday shooter.
With enough light, the photos captured are well-saturated and crisp. There’s enough detail to make scenes come alive and it’s color accurate enough as well.
At night, it takes a little more effort but photos can still come out nicely.
Up front, we have a 32-megapixel shooter. Much like the rear camera, this front-facing camera offers good-quality photos when enough light is present. When lights are low, you’re better off finding some source of light to make a better photo.
Probably the weakest link of the OPPO A98 5G is that it lacks 4K video recording. It probably isn’t a necessity for most but if you need it, you’ll have to look somewhere else.
As a whole, however, you’ve got a capable shooter on the A98 that can help you document your days. If you’re after a more sophisticated and professional camera system on a smartphone, you’re better off looking in the direction of the OPPO Reno10 series.
Seeing at a microscopic level
Adopting a feature from the OPPO Reno 8 T, the OPPO 198 5G also comes with a microscope camera.
While I personally still do not see the practical use of this camera (please enlighten me, if you can), it does bring out the curious cat in me. The feature is fun, at least, and it’s pretty interesting to see everyday objects at this level of magnification.
Final thoughts, price, and availability
The OPPO A98 offers a couple more interesting features including a 120Hz display and useful ColorOS 13.1 features. It’s still an A-series device at its core and is a good pick for battery and audio performance. But in a rather saturated price segment, it may have a harder time standing out.
