Design
I think this is a classy-looking phone. The back looks just like the curved glass of a flagship, while the visual impact of the quad camera array on the back is great. Even the positioning and the quality of the finish on the lens surround don’t seem “budget”.
However, and you may have guessed this, the Oppo A5 2020 is mostly plastic. The front is Gorilla Glass, but the back is an imposter. It’s plastic, and feels like it. The sides are plastic too. So the illusion you get a flagship-a-like phone for £180 fades when you actually use the A5.
There’s plenty to like about the hardware elsewhere, though. The buttons are metal and feel good, you get a protective case in the box. There’s a headphone jack and the speakers are excellent for a cheaper phone. There’s a driver above the screen and one on the bottom edge, for stereo sound, and these are punchy little units.
They are loud and, unlike a lot of phone stereo pairs, the front speaker is just as full-sounding as the bottom one. Front drivers can often only there to add a bit of extra treble, and to stop the audio seeming lop-sided. These are real friends to a podcast.