Looking for a great budget device? The Oppo A3s are right up your alley! Before you take the leap, make sure to read our guide.
Everything you need to know about the phone is discussed below.
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Although it’s not that big, its price range is significant. This is because the warranty you get with it would affect how much it costs. If you aren’t aware, seller warranties are much cheaper than their company counterparts. Its onboard memory affects its price too.
Although it’s cheap, the phone’s not that light. It’s 168 g which gives it an average heft. The phone doesn’t feel like a budget device. The polycarbonate panel is well done and is soft to the touch. The A3s has a glossy back, further elevating it.
With one look at the A3s, you’ll notice how glass like it is. The gloss is vivid, after all. This is great, but we all know how much of a hassle phones like this are. They collect fingerprints easily.
The phone has dual cameras, placed horizontally towards the left. There’s a metal-like border around the cameras making the device look more expensive.
Speaking of borders, there’s a plastic frame around the device. This isn’t a surprise as the phone’s very budget-friendly.
The A3s is a phablet. However, it’s not the largest one out there. And even though it’s big, the placement of its buttons are satisfying. They’re towards the center of the phone, so using the device is easy if you have smaller hands. It’s not just easy to use, but fun. The buttons are very tactile.
The phone doesn’t cost much, which is why we weren’t surprised to see a microUSB port on it.
In terms of how big the A3s is, the display is 6.2 inches. It’s HD+, which we weren’t too pleased with.
For the most part, you won’t get a viewing experience as great as other phones. It’s more washed out, and soft. At the end of the day, its screen resolution is 720 x 1520 pixels, so prepare yourself.
On a more positive note, the screen doesn’t have much bezel action going on. This is mainly due to the presence of a notch.
If you were wondering if the A3s' notched design is still relevant, know that the recently leaked images for the new Oppo A12e, looks exactly the same. Clearly Oppo has faith in this somewhat outdated design.
In terms of how much screen it has, the device has a screen to body ratio of 81.2%.
You can see Gorilla Glass 3 on its display, which is a pretty resistant material. It’s nowhere as thorough as Gorilla Glass 5 and 6 though, but we’re not complaining.
It’s mind-boggling how great the A3s’ battery is. Although it’s 4230 mAh, it lasts a very long time. With moderate use, the device lasts well over a day. Considering how some premium phones struggle with this, we’re happy.
This is where the pros end. The phone’s charger is atrocious.
It takes well over 3 hours to fully charge the device. We know the phone’s cheap, but this is a pain.
The A3s is not the most powerful phone out there. Considering its price tag, this isn’t hard to see. The device comes with the Snapdragon 450 chip, which is present in phones on the lower end of the price spectrum.
This doesn’t mean it’s bad though. For everyday tasks, the A3s gets you through them. However, once you get heavy-handed, its processor reveals its true colours.
The phone comes with 2 gigs of RAM. This is enough to keep it running smoothly. Some buyers may want more. Well, there are variants with 3 and 4 GBs.
The Adreno 506 GPU is not bad at all. It’s surprising how smooth it is.
In terms of storage capacity, the device comes with 16 GB of space. Although the phone’s cheap, 16 gigs is not enough. That’s why it’s great that A3s comes with 32 and 64 gig versions. You can use a microSD card on the device and upgrade the storage capacity to 256 gigs!
Out of the box, the A3s runs Android Oreo.
Do you think it will get the Android 10 update? If you guessed no, you’re right. The phone hasn’t even gotten the Android 9 update yet.
It comes with a dual-camera setup. There’s a 13 MP primary sensor, along with a 2 MP depth sensor. There is a range of modes, like HDR, portrait, time-lapse, and beauty, which are nice.
The camera captures detail, but not the most. Colours are vivid, but once again, not the best. It does an average job.
Like many budget devices, the A3s overexposes its shots. Although this can be a problem, some may like the effect.
Considering how it performs in good lighting, do you want to know about low light?
Let’s talk about its selfie camera instead:
There’s an 8 MP selfie camera in the front. It captures adequate selfies, but it softens lines out. This might not matter to some.
It’s everything you’d expect from a phone so budget-friendly. This doesn’t mean that the A3s is a bad device, but there are a couple of great alternatives out there. Why don’t we give them a look?
The A1K is big, but not as big as the A3s. This isn’t by much though as its display is 6.1 inches. Similar to the A3s, its screen is IPS LCD, and HD+. We would’ve loved to see something better, but the A1k is budget-friendly.
The phone’s heavier. Once again, this isn’t by much as it’s 170 g.
You’ll see a plastic back and frame. Unfortunately, the phone does little to mask its price. The device has a metallic effect on its rear panel that screams budget device.
It doesn’t come with Android Oreo out of the box. Instead, you get Android Pie. This is where the fun ends as the A1K isn’t getting the Android 10 update.
It uses a Mediatek processor. The Helio P22 is in the device, which beats the Snapdragon 430. No question about it.
Unfortunately, there’s only one variant of the phone. It comes with 32 GB storage, with 2 GB RAM. We know this isn’t enough.
Easily, the A3s has a better rear and selfie camera. The A1K’s rear one is an 8 MP sensor, while its selfie cam is 5 MP.
Battery-wise, they both use a micro USB port to charge themselves. The phone’s battery is 4000 mAh which is smaller, but it’s impressive that it can last well over a day. The A1K’s charger isn’t as difficult as it takes a little over 2 hours to fully charge.
The phone has a screen that’s identical to the A3s’. They both have the same size, screen to body ratios, glass and resolution.
The C1’s even the same weight as the A3s! They differ in colour, but their plastic backs have the same glass-like look. If we didn’t know any better, we’d think that Realme copied Oppo.
After all, they both have a Snapdragon 450 chip and come with Android 8 out of the box. If that wasn’t enough, the C1 has a 4230 mAh battery too!
A major difference is the storage capacity in the C1. The phone comes with 16 gigs of storage, and 2 GB of RAM. Although there’s a variant of the A3s like this, there are better ones. The fact that you only get 16 GBs with the C1 is disappointing, as this would make it hard to use the device.
In terms of cameras, the phones are eerily similar. The C1 has a dual set up that’s horizontal. It includes a 13 primary and 2 MP depth sensor. The only difference is that the C1’s secondary sensor is 3 MPs less. When it comes to selfie cams, the A3s is better. After all, it has 3 more MPs.
No surprise, the Redmi 8 has a plastic back and frame. However, its front is pretty durable as it’s Gorilla Glass 5. The phone feels very premium. It has a 188 g heft to it.
The Redmi device looks cooler. The effect on its back is wave-like and reflects quite a bit of light. You may not be a fan of this though, as you could seriously blind someone if you hold the phone to reflect light.
Yes, we love how it looks but it screams budget device.
Its display isn’t the most noteworthy. It’s IPS LCD, with a screen resolution of 720 x 1520 pixels as well. At the end of the day, the Redmi 8 has a better viewing experience as its screen to body ratio is superior by 0.6%.
In case you’re wondering, both phones are 6.2 inches.
Although its screen is lackluster, it makes up for it with its processor. The phone comes with the Snapdragon 439 chip, which out beats the Oppo A3S’.
Memory wise, the Redmi 8 doesn’t do too bad. It comes with 3, or 4 gigs of RAM. It also has 32 and 64 GB storage variants. Of course, you can use a microSD card on the device, so we have no reason to complain.
The Redmi 8’s battery is way better. It’s 1000 mAh larger and will last you longer. They both come with a fast charge. On paper, the A3s has a better charger (larger by 2 W) but the Redmi 8 doesn’t take as long to charge. The phone a little over 2 hours to get to a 100%.
Although the Oppo A3s has the better camera specs, we didn’t see much of a difference between the Redmi 8 and its shots.
You’re on a budget so you can’t get the best phone in the world. For what you can spend, the A3s is a pretty good phone. It comes with a processor that gets the job done, as well as a range of onboard memories. You can expand it to 256 gigs with a microSD card, which is the cherry on top.
The device’s camera is great, especially the selfie one. However, its screen isn’t worth writing home about. Even though it’s big, the screen is not as vivid as you’d expect. It also makes things look softer than they are, which is an effect a lot of people aren’t fans of.
Overall, the device looks good. Although its body is plastic, Oppo found a way to make the phone look like glass.
