- Long software lifespan
- Excellent battery life
- Good value
- Poor low-light camera quality
- Low-resolution screen
OPPO has been rather consistent across its phone portfolio in the last six months or so. Batteries have gotten larger, durability has been improved, and software support has gotten longer.
The manufacturer kicked off these trends with the flagship Find X8 Pro at the end of last year, after which they quickly filtered down to the mid-tier Reno 13 family in March. Now, OPPO's trio of enhancements have made it all the way to the $399 A5 Pro 5G.
Just like the Find X8 Pro, the A5 Pro 5G benefits from an extra-large capacity battery, IP69 water resistance, five years of operating system upgrades, and six years of security updates. While these are expected on a $1,799 phone, they're legitimately a surprise on a phone this cheap.
It's just a shame that such great additions are balanced out but a few striking compromises. While the good outweighs the bad, the OPPO A5 Pro 5G is a mixed bag of highs and lows.
What we like about the OPPO A5 Pro 5G
The battery is great. OPPO has packed the A5 Pro 5G with a 5,800mAh battery, which is 800mAh bigger than what Android phones typically max out at. Unsurprisingly, this leads to long-lasting battery life. Expect around eight hours of screen time per charge or so. That's at least a day-and-a-half of moderate usage, or two full days of lighter use.
It's worth noting that the A5 Pro 5G is one of the first phones where OPPO hasn’t included a charger in the box. While this has become common practice across the smartphone industry over the last few years, you need a first-party OPPO charger to get the 45W fast charging speeds the A5 Pro 5G is capable of, since they rely on proprietary tech.
A 45W charger will cost you $45 from OPPO's website.
Built to last. The OPPO A5 Pro 5G should have a solid lifespan, from both a software and durability perspective.
OPPO is promising five years of operating system upgrades and six years of security updates, which is excellent for a $399 phone. Devices in this price bracket typically get three years of operating system upgrades at max, if that. Many only get one or two.
From a hardware perspective, the A5 Pro 5G is rated IP68 and IP69. Not only can it survive being submerged under water, it also has protection against high-pressure water jets. This is the highest level of protection against water. While protection against water jets might seem like overkill, even IP68 water resistance isn't common at this price point.
OPPO also says the A5 Pro 5G passed the MIL-STD 810H military-grade shock resistance testing, which includes drop tests and impact tests. These types of features are difficult to test, but extra resilience is always welcome.
Decent performance. The A5 Pro 5G isn't the fastest budget phone around, but it's fine. While it doesn't feel especially zippy, day-to-day use doesn't feel slow either. I'd definitely look at an alternative if you're interested in any kind of mobile gaming, however. Even a casual game like Marvel Snap was a little less responsive than I'd like, despite running at the lowest settings.
256GB of storage. Most phones in this price bracket still tend to start with 128GB of storage, but OPPO has kitted out the A5 Pro 5G with 256GB. It's hard to complain about more storage.
What we dislike about the OPPO A5 Pro
Poor low-light camera performance. The camera on the A5 Pro is a mixed bag. You can take decent photos in well-lit environments, but low-light performance is bad. Taking a photo in a dim room can result in a grainy image, and shooting in anything darker results in all but unusable photos.
It's also worth noting that while the A5 Pro technically has a secondary lens on the back, this is just to assist with portrait mode. There's no ultra-wide or macro capabilities here. While these aren't always great on phones in this price bracket, they are still common on rivals.
OPPO A5 Pro 5G camera samples
Check out these camera samples taken on the OPPO A5 Pro 5G. Click or tap on any photo to see a larger version.
Low-resolution display. OPPO has only kitted out the A5 Pro with a 720p+ display, giving it a fairly low pixel density for its 6.67-inch size. As such, the screen might look as sharp as you'd expect. This is especially noticeable on rounded elements, which OPPO uses a lot of in its take on Android.
The A5 Pro 5G's screen is nice enough otherwise. It has a 120Hz refresh rate, it's vibrant, and it's bright enough to use outdoors on a sunny day.
A bit too much bloatware. The OPPO A5 Pro 5G has way too much bloatware out of the box - over a dozen apps. While pre-installed software isn't surprising on cheaper phones - manufacturers get payments from companies, which can help subsidise the price of the device - it's still annoying for the end user. At the very least, you can delete them.
OPPO A5 Pro 5G - Final Thoughts
Even though it has some key weaknesses, the OPPO A5 Pro 5G is a good budget phone. There are just caveats worth considering, such as the weak camera. Is that a trade-off you're willing to make for better durability and extended software support? If you don't really use your phone to take photos, especially at night, it might not be too much of a compromise.
Of course, there are alternatives to consider. The CMF Phone 2 Pro is $50 more expensive, but has a better camera and is a bit zippier. The trade-off here is fewer operating system updates and worse durability. The CMF Phone 2 Pro is only splash-proof, not properly water-resistant.
There's also the Moto G75, which has similar software support, almost-as-good water-resistance, a better camera, and comes with earbuds in the box. It retails for $499, but we've seen it discounted as low as $329.
No matter which phone you decide is right for you, OPPO still deserves praise for the A5 Pro 5G. Bringing flagship-level software support and durability to a $399 phone is fantastic for consumers.
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