Oppo's new budget phone costs $200, but promises good photos

By Williams Pelegrin June 20, 2016

oppo a37 news

Budget smartphones seem to get better each year, and Chinese companies are at the forefront of that race. The latest addition to the budget battleground is the Oppo A37, a $200 phone with an emphasis on photography.

Starting with the cameras, the A37 features an 8-megapixel, backside-illuminated selfie camera that packs large 1.4μm pixels. Both features should allow the front camera to take relatively solid selfies in low-light environments. Furthermore, similar to the iPhone 6S and several other phones, the A37’s display lights up when taking a selfie, emulating the effects of an LED flash.

Recommended Videos

Turning the phone around reveals an 8-megapixel sensor. Even though the megapixel count is not all that impressive, the camera software stitches together five pictures to form a 24-megapixel image. In addition to also featuring 1.4μm pixels, the rear camera lets you wave your hand in front of the camera in order to start a countdown.

Elsewhere, the A37 is more of a standard mid-ranger, with the phone packing a 5-inch IPS screen with a 1,280 x 720 pixel resolution. Powering the A37 is a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and 2GB RAM. As our review of the Motorola Moto G (2015) revealed, this processor and RAM combination was more than good enough for everyday use, but that was a year ago, so it’s unknown how well the processor will fare in the future.

The A37 also features two Nano SIM card slots, as well as a separate MicroSD card slot to enlarge the 16GB of native storage. The 2,630mAh battery should be enough to make the phone survive a full day of usage, but probably not much more than that. Finally, the A37 runs Oppo’s ColorOS 3.0, based on the aging Android 5.1 Lollipop.

Overall, the A37 does not set out to compete with the big dogs, but with a $200 price tag, it does not need to. However, there are many better budget phones on the market these days, so take a peek at the $200 Huawei Honor 5X or Moto G4 line instead. Both of these phones also officially support U.S. networks and the Oppo A37 does not. As such, it would only be able to manage 3G or 2G speeds, which is pretty terrible. It may, however, be a good option in select markets.

Topics

Williams Pelegrin

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

Mobile

Your $1,000 flagship may not have faster 5G speeds than a budget phone

Moto Edge 20 Lite, OnePlus Nord 2, Oppo Find X3 Lite, and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3.

After spending over $1,000 on a flagship 5G phone, you might think you're getting the fastest network speeds possible. After all, isn't that what you're paying for? But our recent network testing shows that may very well not be the case, with 5G performance on flagship phones being minimally better than budget phones, and in some cases, actually worse.

To give you some context, earlier this year, we put the 5G-capable MediaTek Dimensity 700 against the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 in a test to see which processor delivered the best 5G performance and had the best daily user experience. Six months on, we’re going to take a look at four new 5G phones with different chips to see how they compare to answer this question: Does paying more for a smartphone with a flagship processor inside give you the fastest network connection, or is it all pumped-up marketing?
Understanding 5G
Before going into the details, we received some very interesting feedback from MediaTek after our last test, which is also relevant to this one. MediaTek contacted Digital Trends to discuss the 5G speed test results, as the Dimensity 700-powered Realme 8 5G couldn’t match the Oppo A54 5G with a Qualcomm chip inside. The company then took its own test equipment to the area where I had tested the phones, and in conversations afterwards, it gave plenty of insight into how 5G varies across phones, networks, and location.

Mobile

Oppo’s 3 new Reno 7 phones come with midrange specs and affordable prices

oppo reno 6 pro 5g snapdragon 870. Credits: Oppo official.

Oppo has released several smartphones in 2020, including the Oppo Find X3 Pro, as well as models in the Oppo Reno 6 series. There are also potential plans to introduce a foldable phone in the market by as early as December 2021, though any official word from the company is yet to be received. In the meantime, Oppo has unveiled three smartphones as a part of its Reno 7 series smartphones -- the Reno 7, the Reno 7 Pro, and the Reno 7 SE. All three models will support 5G.

Oppo Reno 7
The base Reno 7 will have a 6.43-inch full HD+ AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 90Hz. It's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor with a reasonably sized 4,500mAh battery that can charge at 60-watts. The phone has an 8-megapixel ultrawide and 2MP macro camera sensor, same as the more premium Oppo Reno 7 Pro, but strangely enough, has a more powerful rear camera at 64MP, as opposed to the 50MP Pro model (more on that below). There's also a 32MP selfie camera.
Oppo Reno 7 Pro
The Reno 7 Pro sports a 6.55-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate. It has a 50MP primary camera, as mentioned before, and the same two other cameras as the base model. It boasts a powerful 32MP selfie camera in its hole-punch cutout. This phone also has a special feature in the form of a ringed notification light that is present between the back panel and the rear camera setup. Additionally, the battery charger is slightly faster, at 65W. Last, but not the least, the phone is powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 1200 chipset. The Reno 7 is priced at 2,999 yuan ($579) for its 8GB RAM and 256GB storage variant, and 3,299 yuan ($616) for its 12GB RAM variant.
Oppo Reno 7 SE
Finally, the Oppo Reno 7 SE is the budget model, equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC, and it uses the same display as the Reno 7. The charging speed for its 4,390mAh battery is much lower, at 33W, and it has a lower resolution 16MP selfie camera. Its triple camera setup consists of a 48MP primary sensor, a 2MP macro sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor. It comes in two variations priced at 2,199 yuan ($344) for its 8GB + 128 GB model, and 2,399 ($375) for the upgraded variant.
Price and availability
The Oppo Reno 7 is the base model, and it will have three of the aforementioned variants priced at 2,699 yuan ($422), 2,999 yuan ($469), and 3,299 yuan ($516), respectively.
The Reno 7 and Reno 7 Pro should be available in China from as early as December 3, with the Reno SE being ready to purchase starting December 17. Oppo is expected to release these models to the rest of its global market starting January 2022, with more official release dates expected to be confirmed soon.

Mobile

TCL’s 20 XE and 20A 5G are new budget phones that cost less than $200

Image of TCL 20A 5G front and back.

TCL is back again after its recent announcement of the Tab Pro 5G tablet, this time with two affordable new carrier-exclusive smartphones -- one 4G and the other 5G. While the pair definitely aren't among the best 5G phones of the year, they might have a chance to make it on the best cheap phones of 2021 list.
20 XE

Starting today, you can pick up TCL's 20 XE for $160 at Metro by T-Mobile. It will also be coming to Boost Mobile for $120, but there is no confirmed released date as of yet.