Hopefully, it stays that way from now on.
Oppo asked us to take a look at their newest budget phone offering, the A58 4G. The phone is the direct successor of the A57 4G which we reviewed last year. Immediately, upon opening the box, we can already tell that the phone is an upgrade, starting from the display. It now uses a punch hole instead of a waterdrop, which is getting really outdated.
Oh, speaking of the display, it’s also now in FullHD+ resolution and is much brighter, topping at 680 nits! We used it and even at a low brightness setting, the phone is ridiculously bright. The company is calling it a “sunlight display”. As in, when you put it under the sunlight, you can still tell what’s going on. The overall lack of contrast under the sunlight was one of our problems with the predecessor and we’re happy they jotted notes.
DESIGN:
The back features a matte-like finish, at least for the Glowing Black variant, and uses the same iconic Oppo Glow design that was also implemented on the A57. It has this glossy oval overlay, also made of plastic that adds to the phone’s aesthetics. However, we’re not a fan of glossy things as they can get dirty thanks to them being fingerprint magnets. At least, it’s only in this part. The rest of the back is using a matte finish.
Both its frames and the back are made of plastic. You can really tell just by holding it. It’s at least more understandable here than it is on, say, the OnePlus Nord 3, because the A58 4G is a budget phone outright.
The phone looks more premium than what it actually costs, just like many of Oppo’s phones. We love this type of simple yet attractive design. It isn’t over the top like the Reno, nor too flashy like the Tecno POVA 5. It certainly can blend in the environment but when a person observes it, they can tell how nice it actually looks.
The top frame is empty. No mic, no headphone jack, nothing to see. The bottom is a lot busier because this is where the two ports—3.5mm jack and USB-C port are located. The single speaker is located here too. Despite what Oppo’s website suggests, there is only one speaker to see (or hear) here.
The right frame features the side-mounted fingerprint scanner and power button, as well as the volume rockers. The left frame houses the SIM and MicroSD Card tray.
UNBOXING:
The Oppo A58 4G came with your typical smartphone package. Namely, a 33W charging brick and cable, a silicone case, a SIM Ejector tool, and some paperwork. Nothing much to report here. The phone is placed below where the paperwork is. It is placed right side up with a transparent plastic film wrapping around it. This film contains some highlights of the phone like the sunlight IPS LCD and 33W SuperVOOC fast charging.
CONCLUSION:
It’s nice to see that the main upgrades coming from the Oppo A57 are quite visible here. That includes the dot notch and a more modern design. We also appreciate that the phone has a better Helio G85 chipset and comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB ROM. Even Android Go might suffer with a phone that just has 3GB RAM so having this configuration feels like the minimum requirement.
We love the design of this phone. It is simple yet elegant. Something we are fond of. It’s beautiful enough for the keen eye to appreciate but also mundane enough for it to blend well to the environment, so it isn’t a thief magnet.
You can clearly tell it’s made of plastic just by the touch alone. The use of matte instead of glossy is also an upgrade as now the phone has a higher-tier look while also keeping away fingerprint smudges. Honestly, though, we have tested so many black or grey phones that we’re somewhat getting tired of it. We’re hoping that agencies and phone brands send us a phone aside from black or grey. Even white is nice.