Chinese mobe flinger OPPO aims £219 A72 handset at penny-pinching Brit youth

OPPO yesterday pushed out its latest smartphone for the UK market: the bargain-basement A72, which packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 platform and retails at £219. Interestingly, OPPO hasn't historically been all that aggressive in targeting the lower end of the smartphone market. Its playbook largely focuses on releasing "near- …

[tip pc]

how do these cheap phones compare to the current Samsung & Apple flagships & affordable's?

how do these cheap phones compare to the current Samsung & Apple flagships & affordable's?

Very tempting

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: how do these cheap phones compare to the current Samsung & Apple flagships & affordable's?

I have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 which has been surprisingly good, just let down a bit by the usual baked in apps that you'd have never installed yourself and the failure of the non-replaceable battery.

The battery issue exposed one bit of dubious build quality: The old battery had a small bit of the plastic sheathing which had abraded through against the back of the phone's casing over 18-24 months. This allowed a leak into the battery and its rapid deterioration. Still, despite it being allegedly non-replaceable, I spent a squeaky-bum half hour or so successfully opening the phone and changing it (good old YouTube). All is well, at lease for the moment.

I'd seriously consider one of these Oppos next time round, but that might be a year or three away. I would certainly never pay the Apple iDiot tax. While Sammies are nice and not Chinese, they are simply too expensive and seem to have even more non-removable crud.

[Anonymous Coward]

Look into my eyes, look into the eyes, the eyes, the eyes, not around the eyes

there goes 220 quid, gone

[Cuddles]

Entertainment credentials?

"OPPO says it is primarily aiming this device at a younger audience, emphasising the phone's entertainment credentials."

What entertainment credentials exactly? It has a screen, a speaker, a camera, and can connect to the internet. I'm not entirely clear how this distinguishes from every other phone on the market.

[tip pc]

Re: Entertainment credentials?

"What entertainment credentials exactly? "

it's marketing. if you're looking for an excuse to spend your money, there it is, or if your trying to justify the spend, there it is.

the fact you're writing about it proves its worked.

[Anonymous Coward]

More marketing bumph

What about 5G ? Processor specs, memory expansios slots, Screen resoltions etc?

[Sp0ck]

Re: More marketing bumph

5G in a £219 phone, you're joking right?

Screen res is in the article, very impressive (for the price) it is too. It''ll be an LCD for that price, there will be no OIS on the cameras.

The only thing I cannot take a stab at will be the SD slot or headphone socket.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: More marketing bumph

It has a micro-SD slot on the same tray as the 2 SIM cards.

Yes, it haas a 3.5mm headphone socket.

[Anonymous Coward]

Xiaomi Phones (In General)

I've had a few of these phones over the years and they have been very good. I would recommend that you get the boat loaders unlocked which is an easy task via the Xiaomi website and downloaded app that you need to install in a windows pc/laptop. Once this is done you can install TWRP (boot loader) and then install a range of Android 9 or Android 10 ROM's from Lineage, AOSP, CR-Droid and many others. These ROM's can be downloaded from XDA https://www.xda-developers.com/. Easy to do and these ROM's are all well supported via the community and have all the bloatware removed and often have much better battery life and camera and audio features.

Have fun.