If a few years back you told me I would outrightly recommend an OPPO smartphone, I would have laughed in your face and called you crazy. See, OPPO had built a name for itself as the iPhone clone – almost everything about the phone was inspired by the iPhone. From the design to the software but that seems to have changed and the OPPO A92 is a testament to that.

My recent interaction with an OPPO smartphone after a very long time was with the OPPO Reno 3, a device that we reviewed and found to be quite a good phone. Well, that phone cost 40K and with us now we have the OPPO A92, which costs 30K and comes with quite the spec list:

• Display: 6.5″ 1080p
• OS: ColorOS 7.1 based on Android 10
• Processor: Snapdragon 665
• Memory: 8GB RAM + 128GB internal storage
• Main Camera: Quad 48MP + 8MP (wide) + 2MP (depth) + 2MP (monochrome)
• Selfie Camera: 16MP
• Battery: 5000mAh
• Network: 4G VoLTE (with Faiba 4G support)

What We Liked

Battery life

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I prefer it on Telegram

Top of the list of things we loved about this phone is its battery endurance. That 5000mAh battery capacity is, for lack of a better word, perfect!

On average, I start my day at 8 am and go to bed at around midnight and without fail, the phone would have around 40% battery left. On days that I will have Bluetooth on throughout and take more pictures, this would result in a slightly lower 20% level by midnight.

For those after geeky stats, this translates to 16 hours of usage and 9 hours of screen-on time. For anyone who uses their phone much less than I do, the OPPO A92 can easily last two working days without the need to charge it up.

Speaking of charging, there’s a fast charger included in the box that gets the phone back to 100% in around 90 minutes. The fact that it’s USB-C is also a very welcome change to the OPPO lineup.

Speakers

This is something that we hardly talk about when it comes to phones, well because they are generally just average. We have all been in a situation where you want to show a video or play an audio file to a large group of people and our phone’s speakers just fail us.

The OPPO A92 has a stereo speaker setup, which means there are two speakers on the phone, one at the top and one at the bottom. This produces loud volumes that impress, almost as loud as some Bluetooth speakers without much distortion.

Sofware

Yup, this list of likes is full of surprises. Like the speakers, we hardly consider the software anymore when deciding which phone to buy (this is especially true for Kenyans). However, since we’re talking about an OPPO smartphone, this is important.

The A92 runs on ColorOS 7.1 on top of Android 10 and I must say that this is the most Android OPPO has ever been. ColorOS 7 brought a lot of changes that shed off OPPO’s identity crisis from an iPhone clone to a proper Android phone with everything we love about the operating system.

From the system navigation (that’s better than most Android phones) to neat features such as a secure keyboard that doesn’t record keystrokes when inputting passwords, there’s more Android on the OPPO A92 than with previous models.

Camera

It’s an OPPO so you know it’s gonna be good. Or exaggerated if you follow the memes but kwa ground vitu ni different.

While OPPO made a name for itself with its aggressive beauty mode that would give anyone a Vera Sidika transformation, the A92 features an intelligent AI beauty mode that does exaggerate skin colours and features.

The camera also features different modes such as a 5x Zoom that comes in handy when you need it, portrait mode for those awesome looking images and even a dedicated night mode for when there’s little light to play with.

Here are photos that we took with the OPPO A92:

Oh, there’s more that we like

We’ll try to keep this short. First, there’s the punch-hole selfie camera that gives the phone a modern look. Then there’s the side-mounted fingerprint scanner that is so well positioned, this is what we should be getting instead of the slow under-display scanners. The scanner also doubles as the power button.

Lastly, the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage included puts this phone at the top of the pyramid. I have not had any performance issues with normal usage, neither have I ran out of storage.

What We Didn’t Like

Volume Buttons

No, I am not weird but the volume button placement on the OPPO A92 is a design flaw that results in unwanted screenshots. See, the volume buttons are directly opposite the power button which means you will be pressing them at the same time whenever you try to reduce the volume or lock your phone.

I just don’t understand how this passed the designers but it’s nothing you can’t deal with, you just have to relearn your muscle memory.

There’s a problem with Telegram

I am not nitpicking but there’s a terrible infuriating problem with how the OPPO A92 handles Telegram. See, one of the reasons we love Telegram is because you can choose never to show any of the images or videos sent to you in your gallery.

Unfortunately for you future A92 owner, the phone seems to be ignoring this setting and still showing images you receive in your gallery. The worst part is that it not only shows media sent to you, but any form of media sent to any group or channel you’re in. It also shows cached images and GIFs that you have used in your conversations. Everything appears in your gallery.

We reached out to both OPPO and Telegram regarding this. Turns out the issue has been around since March and Telegram says it’s a software level problem thus only OPPO can fix it. To which OPPO responds that they did fix the issue with a software update, the A92 just hasn’t received that update yet so if you are a heavy Telegram user, keep this in mind.

The solution? You will have to keep deleting the Telegram folders at least once a day until OPPO resolves this issue.

Recommendation

As we finally come to an end of this review, there’s only one thing that I would say to wrap it up. OPPO has finally made a budget smartphone that I can outrightly recommend.