The Oppo A78 5G is a typical smartphone in the budget and affordable category. At S$399, it's a tier above entry-level models, and offers a bit more in the specs department, such as a mid-range 5G-capable processor, a 50MP camera, and all-day battery life. However, its price is also slightly higher than expected compared with its competitors.

Given its price, you know the A78 5G isn't going to win any design awards. It has a flat display, flat edges, and rounded corners. It's handy enough, with a fairly fingerprint-resistant, matte finish. The same can't be said of the waterdrop notch LCD screen, which seems very susceptible to fingerprints and other smudges. While the screen has a decent 90Hz refresh rate, the HD+ resolution (1,612 × 720 pixel) is disappointing. Oppo says the screen brightness is up to 600 nits, but typically it's around 480 nits. That's fine for indoor use, but the display is very reflective, and not the most legible under direct sunlight. As expected of a budget smartphone, the A78 5G has a side fingerprint sensor. You'll also get a 3.5mm headphone jack, NFC functionality, and a microSD card slot (up to 1TB).

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The Oppo's 50MP main camera is far less impressive than its megapixel count suggests. And that's largely due to the image processing. While photos do show a good amount of detail, they also look oversaturated, and oversharpened. More egregious is the limited dynamic range, with shadows and highlights appearing significantly less prominent than the actual scene. The A78 5G also has a 108MP Ultra-Clear Image feature that boosts the resolution from 50MP to 108MP. The resulting 108MP image had slightly more contrast, but not any significant increase in details. Meanwhile, the file size of the photo went up by almost 50%. Low-light photos weren't good, probably due to the camera's lack of image stabilisation. They were soft, blurry, with lots of noise. Videos also looked soft, and shaky. There's no telephoto or ultra-wide cameras, either. But these downsides are not unexpected for budget smartphone cameras.

Performance is decent. The A78 5G's MediaTek Dimensity 700 chip takes an extra second or two to load apps, but I could run games like Asphalt 9: Legends smoothly enough at 30fps. The phone gets slightly warm during gaming, but not toasty enough to be a concern. However, there were the occasional janky moments, such as while browsing images in the Photo app. The A78 5G's Geekbench 5 score of 555 (Single-core), and 1,707 (Multi-core) puts it right in the middle for Android phones. Battery life is good enough, thanks to a 5,000mAh battery. The A78 5G clocked around 14 hours in our video-loop test at maximum brightness. You can comfortably get a hectic day's usage out of this phone. Its 33W fast-charging isn't anything to shout about, but it will do.

The Oppo A78 5G offers decent performance, good battery life, and 5G connectivity. Its main camera is passable in good lighting conditions, but like most phones in this price range (S$399), it's not as refined or as versatile as more premium smartphone cameras. Speaking of which, I feel its asking price is somewhat on the high side, considering the competition. It's available now from Shopee, and Lazada.

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Note: Review unit provided by Oppo.