OPPO have been making news recently with their high end phones and their 10 x lossless zoom camera lens but it is the mid to lower-end phones where they made their name. OPPO have today released a new entry-level phone to the Australian market showing that they are not forgetting about their origins.
OPPO have today announced the AX5s and are pushing it as being a premium device at an entry-level price. The $299 smartphone boasts a 6.2-inch 720P LCD display with teardrop notch and a very high 89.35% screen-to-body ratio.
Imaging-wise it will sport a dual rear camera setup of 13MP and 2MP with AI built into the camera software and an 8MP front facing camera.
The AX5s will apparently provide up to 13.5 hours of video playback due to the 4230mAh battery and AI algorithm managing battery life and processor usage. The CPU is a Mediatek MTK6765 and is helped by a moderate 3GB of RAM. There is just 64GB of onboard storage – expandable up to 256GB. There is NO NFC onboard unfortunately.
Michael Tran, Managing Director at OPPO Australia, said that while everyone is watching for the upcoming 5G phones, which OPPO will indeed be one of the first with one, OPPO realise that not everyone can afford a premium flagship device:
We understand choosing to purchase a sub $300 smartphone usually means missing out on innovative features consumers actually want. That’s not the case with the AX5s, as we’ve taken many of the innovations found in OPPO’s flagship devices and packed them into our small but powerful new addition.
The OPPO AX5s will run ColorOS 5.2.1 on top of Android 8.1. There is no mention of any upgrade path to 9.0 but OPPO have told us they are committed to providing security updates to all their phones going forward.
The OPPO AX5s retails for $299 AUD and is available in both black and red colours from JB Hi-Fi, Telechoice, Yes Distribution and Mobileciti from today. It will arrive on Optus as well on the 29th of April. If you want a cheap phone with some good but not great hardware this might be one to check out.
Due to OPPO’s track record for updates (or lack thereof), I think people should stay away from OPPO. I have a R15Pro and currently has a November 2018 Security Patch. I don’t care that they don’t provide timely OS updates. Is it too much to ask for my phone to have the latest security patch? I hope Michael Tran is reading this.
Dear Ausdroid Editors, can you please give OPPO and all the other vendors feedback that without NFC their phones are massively gimped for the Australian market.
No new to respond and explain to me that. NFC isn’t used in China ……. I’m talking about for the Australia market
And hey Michael Tran, how about you include this massive innovation (NFC) next time?
Thanks
We do actually feed that back to vendors. OPPO in particular after their Find X didn’t have it last year. I am not sure where they went wrong with no NFC on this one though. You wouldn’t think an NFC chip would cost *that* much? As for Australian only SKUs that’s the issue. we are but a very very small fish in a great big ocean. For example, India the other day had it’s THIRD carrier pass the 300 MILLION customer mark! Unfortunately this gives us very little pull, but in saying that OPPO do feed back everything we tell… Read more »
Thanks very much for your response Scott. One of the reasons I like the site is that you guys take on board the feedback and pass it on to the vendors.
Given it appears that lack of NFC and software updates are a couple of the things holding back OPPO in Oz, hopefully this communication channel results in better products for us Aussies!
I know that Scott has answered this already, but since this is a forum for feedback, I just want add that I totally agree with the OP. As soon as I read NO NFC, I don’t go any further, as that is such a convenient feature in Australia these days, that I see it as essential. I am also not a power user, so there is no way I would buy a flagship phone.
this is all that was stopping me using the Find X as my phone. I loved the design and the software can be worked around these days (mostly) but the convenience of tap and pay is something that cannot be overstated. Especially now that you can use NFC for Myki in Melbourne….