An Underwhelming Phone | Oppo A18 Review! [Part 2]

8MP of pure bliss

When we’re talking about cameras in a phone as basic as the Oppo A18, there isn’t a lot to talk about. While we constantly contradict the existence of high MP cameras, such as the 50MPs found on a lot of phones nowadays, there is also the other extreme of that. Having too few MPs and a smaller sensor size means you have a larger crop and fewer light passing through, so the results aren’t going to be as pleasant, even with good software added to the mix.

If you will ask us the ideal MP for a phone camera, that would be 12MP but of course, it shouldn’t be as small as 1/1.4″ size. Apple and Google did this almost perfectly until they switched to a pixel-binning process. Though, there are decent 8MP phones back in the day but they are carried by their large sensor size. This is evidence that no image sensor or cameras are created equal, even if they do hold the same MP count.

CAMERA SAMPLES:

The Oppo A18 uses an 8MP camera which really is not a lot these days. This sensor must have come straight out of 2015 because the quality here looks like it hopped back a few years. While we found the colour reproduction to be “okayish” (it’s still somewhat dull for our tastes), it has the same problems we encountered for the A-series. Namely, the oversharpening and the unbalanced dynamic range.

The selfie camera isn’t good either. It’s soft and underwhelming. Due to it only having FIVE MEGAPIXELS of resolution, it significantly looks worse than the A58 even. This is without filter too.

Here’s a comparison shot between the A18 and the A58. Both of these are in their normal settings.

VIDEO:

Just like the A58 and almost every A-series phone to exist, the Oppo A18 is capped at 720p or 1080p at 30fps. Although, it’s much more understandable here considering its price tag and camera type. 1080p videos have a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels or around 2MP so it’s obvious the 8MP can handle such a quality. Heck, an 8MP sensor can even handle 2160p because the resolution there equates to around 3.1MP only. Though, the chipset does not support 4K video and the phone does not need it either.

Above is a sample video using the front camera. This is the quality you’ve come to expect from a device like this and also, it is just as shakey as the Oppo A58.

See, there’s not a lot to see here. Stay tuned for Part 3, where we discuss the phone’s performance. If that’s even applicable.