Oppo is not usually known for selling cheap phones – the first smartphones the company publicly launched in Nigeria cost between N139,000 and N149,000 – but a fast changing competitive smartphone market have forced the company to come up with cheaper alternatives reputed to be tailored to the needs of Nigerians.
Last week the company launched the OPPO A1k and A5s. The A1k is priced at N44,900 while the A5s come in two variants priced N54,900 (3GB+32GB) and N69,900 (4GB+64GB). OPPO, a global smartphone manufacturer ranked the fourth largest in the world, has seen its market share in Africa undermined by competitors who capitalise on widespread low income situation of millions of households and offer consumers devices sold at below market standard prices.
Although OPPO told BusinessDay that it sold out all its four shipments to Nigeria in 2018, the company however, knows that it has to up its game to secure its position in Africa’s largest market. The good news is that in doing so, the A1k and A5s devices however do not lose much of the company’s innovative edge. There is still a lot of smartness packed in each device.
The cheapest among them, the A1k comes with a 6.1-inch LCD waterdrop screen and a 1560×720 pixel and has a 4000mAh battery for longer lasting browsing time and a 32GB ROM making for more daily usage experience. The phone is also equipped with ColorOS 6.0, OPPO’s latest update to its intuitive operation system. The innovative borderless design further increases speed and overall ease of use. In addition, ColorOS 6.0 has multiple ‘smart’ functions, including OPPO Cloud Service, Notification Bar, Smart Assistant, Riding Mode and Gesture Navigation, allowing users to experience a smarter lifestyle.
Intelligent smart assistant provides users with a one-stop service portal, which directly presents the most important information in the form of a card on the Home screen. Users can view and use it at any time with no need to install a large number of apps. Supported card features include shortcuts, favorite contacts, schedules, step counter, and photo album, etc.
The A5s screen at 6.2-inch LCD waterdrop screen is slightly taller than A1k. the height advantage means there is more for viewers to see particularly on the screen design which draws its inspiration from a water droplet on the verge of falling. From gaming to watching videos to just plain web browsing, users can enjoy an immersive experience.
Its 4230mAh battery and up to 3GM RAM means there is longer battery life for users up to 13.5 hours of video playback, thanks to AI algorithm optimization and a low power-consumption MTK6765 processor. Its 2.3GHz CPU and 3GB RAM enables several applications to run seamlessly at the same time, effectively eliminating freezing and serving multiple user scenarios.
