Oppo A73 review: The budget smartphone that sets the bar for 2018
The Pitch
With Oppo’s flagship R-series aimed at offering a better deal than Apple and Samsung’s high-end devices, the company’s A-series has tended towards setting their sights on the customers that fall outside of that mainstream. In other words: customers who want the best phone they can get for the least amount of money upfront.
Although they have history of excelling in it, these days, Oppo are far from the only brand operating in this niche. With every passing year, the budget phone space becomes even more crowded and competitive. Following on from last year’s A57 and A77, the A73 might look a little different at a glance. However, behind the 18:9 display and facial ID login, it’s fundamentally driven by the same core pitch found in its predecessors - albeit this time at a significantly lower price-point.
Specs
The Oppo A73 boasts a 6-inch TFT FHD+ display and comes powered by a MediaTek MT6763T processor. Under the hood, it pairs up 3GB or RAM and 32GB of on-board storage (which can be further expanded via MicroSD). These technical specs are rounded out nicely by a 3200mAh battery, which charges via the MicroUSB port at the bottom of the device.
In terms of the software involved, the A73 runs on Android 7.1 overlaid with Oppo’s friendly neighborhood ColorOS (V3.2) skin. Then, in terms of connectivity, the A73 comes with Wi-Fi (802.11), 4G and Bluetooth (4.2). No NFC here, though there is Dual SIM support.
Finally, the A73 closes out the deal with a 16-megapixel front-facing camera (with f/2.2 aperture) and a rear shooter boasting a 13-megapixel sensor (and a f/2.0 aperture).
In terms of pack-ins, the phone comes with a set of headphones, a charger, MicroUSB cable and Oppo's usual transparent plastic case.
Design
As far as the aesthetics of A73 go, there isn’t a whole lot here that strays outside of Oppo’s usual MO.
“I can’t believe it’s not Apple” is still the name of the game here. However, the smooth metal unibody means that it’s much more in line with the iPhone 6 or 7 than the ‘glass sandwich’ design of the more-recent iPhone 8 or iPhone X.
That said, there is still a headphone jack to be found here - which may or may not matter, depending on where you sit on wireless headphones.
Regardless, the A73 is - to its credit - surprisingly lightweight to hold. The build quality and feel-factor isn’t quite premium but that's not to say it isn't nice. For the greater part of my time with it, it rarely felt like a cheap knock-off. To its credit, it felt like most Oppo phones, which is to say it felt good. Nevertheless, the size of the display involved means it’s definitely going to be more for those who appreciate a larger sized phone.
Oppo are calling-out this display as a pro for those enjoy watching lots of video content on their phone. However, your mileage may vary here. The 18:9 display isn’t the crispest out there - but it is easily the cheapest (knocking last year’s Huawei Nova 2i off its perch). Still, the TFT FHD+ display can be a little dim at times and doesn’t quite carry the spark or luster you can find elsewhere. I wouldn’t say it’s 'bad' but it’s definitely a weak-link that holds the A73 back.
Regardless, this upgrade has seen the fingerprint sensor booted from the foot of the display to the backside of the device. As is the norm for Oppo - this feature works blisteringly fast and it generally a pretty reliable method of unlocking your phone. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the facial recognition in the A73.
As will likely be an ongoing trend throughout the rest of this year, the A73 supports a form of facial recognition-based login. This works as described - but it’s not as secure, reliable or fast as Apple’s FaceID. Having spent a bit of time using the face-unlock capabilities of both the Galaxy Note 8 and OnePlus 5, I found that Oppo’s version of the feature just felt like it wasn't as fast or reliable. There’s potential that the company could improve this aspect of the device in the future via software updates. However, at the moment, that potential remains untapped.
Digging below the surface, it’s worth noting that the version of ColorOS here is still based on Android Nougat rather than the more-recent Oreo. Given that the important improvements made in Oreo are the kinds of internal ones you could easily blink and miss, this is pretty forgivable - but it still left me wanting. Much like the R11s, the lack of split-screen multitasking does work to counteract some of the extra space afforded by the 18:9 display.
Performance
As you’d expect out of an Oppo-branded smartphone, the A73 runs gleefully fast. Navigating between apps and the home screen is super-smooth. However, sometimes more-intensive apps do take a noticeable second or two to load. It’s not as agonizingly slow as some budget phones, but the difference between this and beefier stuff like the Oppo R11s is definitely felt.
In terms of multitasking, we found we could usually get to about eight or nine apps in the mix before the performance of the A73 started to become bogged down and sluggish. Obviously, this puts it behind heavy-hitters like the Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro and LG’s V30+. However, given that this is a budget phone priced at almost a fifth of what those flagships retail for, this is entirely an expected outcome.
When it came to benchmarks, the A73 acquitted itself reasonably well. It cleanly took out a lot of its budget competition when it came to PCMark but fell significantly shorter when it came to 3DMark’s suite of tests - which is pretty frustrating given the higher price of the A73 compared to the Nokia 3, Huawei Y5 and Moto E4.
Note - 3DMark recently updated their Android app, allowing you to run see separate benchmark scores for OpenGL and Vulkan API. We’ll be including the scores from the latter in our tests going forward but have only listed the former here in order to best compare the A73 to the budget phones we reviewed last year. In addition, we also encountered a number of issues and incompatibilities with the A73 and the GeekBench benchmarking app - which is why those scores aren’t included in the chart below.
Camera
While the camera in the Oppo A73 doesn’t quite hit the same highs as that found in the company’s R-series, it doesn’t exactly slouch either. In terms of what I was able to get out of it, I came away pretty impressed.
That said, the equipment here is absolutely slanted towards those who favor a selfie over a landscape. The front-facing camera comes with more megapixels and boasts a facial feature optimization engine and support for ‘Bokeh’ portrait shots.
Considering the asking price, the results are pretty good. However, they rarely triumphed over my own expectations for the device.
The A73 delivers pretty adequate photography in low-light conditions but it lacks the exquisite crispness, detail and vibrant colors you can find elsewhere.
Battery
Like performance, the battery life offered by Oppo has always been the other side of the company’s trademark strengths. The A73’s 3200mAh battery pairs up nicely with its modest processor, leaving you with a phone that absolutely has what it takes to run through the fullest of days despite the absence of any AI-driven battery optimization algorithms found in more-expensive phones.
Unfortunately, charging it back up takes a little longer than I’d have liked. For whatever reason, the A73 doesn’t feature Oppo’s proprietary VOOC charging tech - which is a little frustrating.
In PCMark’s battery test, the A73 took 10 hours and 16 minutes to run down. In context, this isn’t the highest result we’ve ever seen. However, it does put the device in good company.
The Bottom Line
Compared to its predecessors, the biggest advancement that Oppo have made here might just be the price. At launch, the A77 was $448. The A73 is almost $100 cheaper at $359 - and it’s certainly the better device.
Is this the best budget phone of 2018? Way too early to say. However, it certainly sets a high - or low - standard that every other vendor playing in the budget space will have to take into account as the year chugs along.
The Oppo A73 is available now in Gold and Black colour variants from Optus, Vodafone, JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks, Woolworths and The Good Guys and retails for $359.
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