OPPO A94 Full Review

Last March, OPPO Philippines released the all-new OPPO A94 via Livestream on its official Facebook page. The all-new A94 is designed for young trend seekers and mobile gamers who are looking for a powerful and reliable device that can keep up with their video and gaming needs.

The OPPO A94 runs on a MediaTek Helio P95 octa-core processor that has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It also comes with a 6.43-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen, quad-rear cameras, and 4,310mAh battery with 30W VOOC Charge.

I was able to get my hands on one and this review will further help you in deciding if this smartphone is the one you are looking for.

Design and Walk Around

For the design, OPPO is introducing its brand new Flowing Light Design concept, which showcases a gentler and warmer look to the phone. What is notable about Flowing Light Design is that it uses a composite panel used on the back cover. This adds a high degree of transparency that’s comparable to glass but manages to convey a complex matte, yet glossy texture that’s glare-free and soft.

However, the glossy back panel is very prone to fingerprint smudges, so it is best to use the free protective silicone case right away.

As for the color, OPPO A94 is available in three colors: Fluid Black, Fantastic Purple, and Crystal Silver. My unit comes in Fantastic Purple color.

On the front, the OPPO A94 is equipped with a large 6.43-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) AMOLED screen. There is a single hole-punch camera located at the upper left and the earpiece is quite thin and discretely etched within the screen enclosure. Like most smartphones in this segment, the side bezels are relatively slim but with a pretty thick chin. Also, there is no glass type protection mentioned, but it has a pre-installed screen protector.

At the back, the quad-camera set-up is arranged in a matrix-styled rectangular layout. There is also a single LED flash at the right side of the camera module and the fifth dot in the lower left is an AI logo and looks like a camera at first glance.

Found on the left side is the card tray with a 3-card slot for two Nano-SIM cards and a dedicated slot for a microSD card, handy for users who want to further improve storage capacity. Also on the left and below the card tray is your standard volume rocker.

Found on the right side of the OPPO A94 is the lone power button.

The top is clean with only the secondary noise-canceling microphone present.

At the bottom of the OPPO A94, you can find the USB Type-C charging port, a single downward-firing speaker, primary microphone, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

OPPO A94’s body measures only 7.8mm thin and 172g in weight, despite the thickness and weight of the whole device, the body is solidly built and sturdy. The device also is easier to hold and fits well in hands and pockets.

Display and Multimedia

The OPPO A94 comes with a 6.43-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) AMOLED screen with an 85.2% screen-to-body ratio, 60Hz refresh rate, and a touch sampling rate of up to 180Hz for better responsiveness when gaming.

Thanks to OPPO A94’s AMOLED screen you get better color reproduction, deeper blacks, higher contrast, and good viewing angles.

The OPPO A94 screen also comes with 430 nits of brightness and can go up to 800 nits (peak brightness) in auto-brightness. The display also supports DC-like Dimming function (Low-brightness flicker-free eye comfort mode) and Eye comfort mode, which effectively reduces eye fatigue.

OPPO A94 also comes with Widevine L1 certification to ensure you get HD resolution on Netflix and other video-streaming platforms. 4K HDR at 60fps on YouTube is supported as well.

The audio quality of the loudspeaker is like your typical smartphone. It can get loud and the audio quality is average. There’s also some distortion when you maximize the volume. I recommend using headphones or an external speaker for better audio quality.

Camera

Rear Cameras

The OPPO A94 boasts a quad-camera setup—comprised of a 48MP F1.7 primary camera with Phase Detection Auto-Focus (PDAF), 8MP F2.2 ultrawide camera, 2MP F2.4 macro camera for close-range shots, and 2MP F2.4 depth camera.

Quality from the rear cameras under bright lighting conditions is pretty good with accurate colors and sharp detail, though dynamic range can be better.

For low light, it performs well with the Night Mode feature turned on in certain situations and is good enough for the usual social media uploads.

Front Selfie Camera

OPPO A94 uses a 32MP in-display front camera with an F2.4 aperture. The camera also supports different features such as Beautification, Portrait Mode and Filters.

For selfies, it produces good photos, especially in bright conditions. Background blurring for portrait selfies isn’t that perfect but good enough.

Video

For video, the OPPO A94 captures videos from 720p@30fps up to 4K@30fps with its main camera and 720p/1080p@30fps for its front-selfie camera. It also supports 1080p@120fps/720p@240fps SLO-MO videos and ultra-steady mode at 1080p@30fps.

You also get creative features like Dual-View Video and AI Color Portrait Video. Dual-View Video allows users to record from the front and rear cameras at the same time. While the AI Color Portrait Video works by recognizing the person in the video shot with OPPO A94 and can intelligently highlight your subject’s natural colors while turning the background black and white.

The recorded video from the main camera is good enough and usable for casual social media postings.

ColorOS, Apps, and Security

OPPO A94 runs on ColorOS 11.1, based on Android 11 out of the box. The ColorOS 11.1 is a seamless, clean, and pretty UI that is easy to navigate. Pre-installed are the standard OPPO and Google suite of apps, as well as some bloatware apps.

In terms of security, OPPO A94 is equipped with an in-display fingerprint sensor and facial recognition for unlocking the device. Both work well---the fingerprint scanner is pretty fast, and the accuracy is close to excellent. However, the face unlock feature can slow down in situations where there isn’t much light.

Hardware and Performance

OPPO A94 runs at optimal performance thanks to its Mediatek Helio P95 octa-core processor. This processor is made using a 12nm process and is equipped with two ARM Cortex-A75 prime cores that operate at up to 2.2GHz and six ARM Cortex-A55 efficiency cores that operate at up to 2.0GHZ, along with IMG 9XM-HP8 GPU operating at 970MHz.

My unit comes with 8GB (LPDDR4X @ 1866MHz) RAM and the performance of OPPO 94 is buttery smooth; resource-intensive apps are no problem at all and smooth gaming experience in various gaming applications.

OPPO A94 is available in the Philippines in one storage variant - 128GB storage, with 110GB of available storage (17.7GB used out of the box). If you need additional storage, you can further expand the storage via its dedicated microSD card slot.

Below are the benchmark scores from this device:

• AnTuTu v9.1.6 – 224,132
• Geekbench 5 – 400 (Single-core), 1555 (Multi-core)
• PCMark – 8,120 (Work 3.0)
• 3DMark – 1,285 (SSE – OpenGL ES 3.1) 1,711 (SSE – Vulkan)
• AndroBench – 511.35 MB/s (Seq. Read), 204.45 MB/s (Seq. Write)

30W VOOC Charge, Battery Life, and Connectivity

The 4,310mAh battery of the OPPO A94 can provide enough battery life in daily use and can easily last you a whole day of moderate usage that includes multiple sessions of gaming, watching YouTube, and scrolling through social media feeds. In the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life Test, the unit yielded a score of around 11 hours and 29 minutes.

With OPPO A94’s 30W VOOC Flash Charge 4.0 technology, the 4,310mAh battery can be charged up to 100% in just an hour.

Deep software optimization like Sleep Standby Optimization, Optimized Night Charging, Power Saving Mode, and Super Power Saving Mode are also available in OPPO A94 which could make a big difference in battery life.

Aside from the battery and charger, the OPPO A94 has your usual connectivity features, including dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by), 4G LTE, dual-band WiFi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, a 3.5mm audio jack, and USB Type-C.

OPPO A94 Specifications

6.43-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) AMOLED display, 409ppi
MediaTek Helio P95 2.2GHz octa-core CPU
IMG 9XM-HP8 GPU
8GB LPDDR4X RAM
128GB of internal storage
microSD card support
Quad-rear cameras (48MP f1.7 PDAF wide + 8MP f2.2 ultrawide + 2MP f2.4 macro + 2MP f2.4 depth)
32MP F2.4 front camera
ColorOS 11.1 (Android 11)
Dual-SIM / 4G LTE
WiFi / Bluetooth 5.1
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
USB-C / 3.5mm audio jack
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
4,310mAh battery w/ 30W VOOC Charge
160.1 x 73.2 x 7.8mm (dimension)
172g (weight)
Colors: Fluid Black, Fantastic Purple, and Crystal Silver

What’s inside the box

The box contains the smartphone itself, Earphones, USB type-C to USB-A charging cable, 30W VOOC Charger, SIM card ejector tool, protective silicone case, quick guide, and safety guide with warranty card.

Price and Availability

The OPPO A94 is priced in the Philippines at Php13,999 and is now available nationwide (OPPO brand stores and partner dealers) and leading e-commerce platforms - Shopee and Lazada.

Verdict

For Php13,999, the OPPO A94 offers Filipinos a good performing and decent smartphone experience with its AMOLED screen, Mediatek Helio P95 processor, and 30W VOOC Charge.

Is this the smartphone you are looking for? Given its price and various competition, there are other options out there that offer better features and specs at the same price. But if you’re looking for a very capable smartphone as your daily grind, you can shortlist this one.