If you’re eyeing up a new smartphone, the £1000 price that the latest handsets typically come with is somewhat off-putting. That’s where mid-range or budget phones come in. And Oppo’s latest budget phone is an incredible offering.
The new Oppo A5 offers top-tier specs like a 5800mAh battery, IP69 water resistance, 1000 nits of brightness, and a 50MP camera. You get all of that for £229, which is seriously impressive.
The star of the show here is the huge 5800mAh battery. Oppo reckons it’ll last four years without keeling over, and it supports 45W fast charging to keep things moving. Apparently, you can get to 30% in under 20 minutes. Under the hood, there’s a MediaTek Dimensity 6300 chip, paired with up to 12GB of RAM (some of it virtual) and 256GB of storage. A dedicated Trinity Engine in ColorOS 15 promises four years of smooth operation, but we’ll have to see how that actually fares.
Where the A5 Pro 5G starts to flirt with overachievement is in its connectivity and gaming features. AI LinkBoost 2.0 and BeaconLink basically mean you’ll be able to call from anywhere. You also get AI GameBoost and a chunky VC cooling system, plus stereo speakers with a frankly ridiculous 300% volume mode.
Camera-wise, there’s a 50MP main snapper, a 2MP depth sensor, and an 8MP selfie camera. Of course, there’s some AI wizardry that promises to erase reflections, unblur shots, and make other edits you’ll actually want. There’s even underwater photography, which feels unnecessarily exciting for a budget phone.
Oppo’s also clearly had a field day ticking every rugged spec box they could find. This thing is rated IP69, IP68, and IP66 for water and dust resistance. This phone can survive a firehose, dunk in the bath, and dust storm. You get Military-Grade Shock Resistance for good measure, backed by plenty of internal cushioning. Oppo claims it can take a proper knock and still keep going, which is great news if your phone lives most of its life in perilous pockets and rogue bags.
The Oppo A5 Pro 5G is available now in the UK, priced at £229. You can pick it up in either Black Brown or Olive Green directly from Oppo or from carriers.
