While it’s tempting to consider such a cheap, solidly built phone from this dependable brand, it’s worth separating price from value. Put simply, there are far better phones available for the same – or just a little more – money, including the Moto G8 and the Oppo A5 2020.

OPPO A15 Phone Case, OPPO A15 Cover Magnetic Flip Splicing

This is a familiar set up for the budget class – and, once again, the presence of that low-megapixel macro is hard to justify. Extreme close-ups look so grainy and ugly that we doubt many will use the Macro mode after their initial attempt. The culprit is the humble MediaTek MT6765 CPU, with a paltry 3GB of RAM supporting it. A Geekbench 5 multicore score of 930 is very low, even when compared to other budget phones.

Oppo A15 Case Types

Just below this is a physical fingerprint sensor, which is another sign that this isn’t a premium phone. It is both reasonably fast and reliable, however, which is important.

Oppo Cases - Etsy UK Custom Oppo Cases - Etsy UK

Oppo Mobile UK managing director Kevin Cho claims that the Oppo A15 has been “designed with users’ social networking and entertainment needs in mind”, which explains the presence of a large 6.52-inch IPS LCD screen. Consider the older Oppo A5 2020 with its Snapdragon 665, which scored 1,301. Or, to use a contemporary of the Oppo A15’s, the Nokia 3.4, which managed to hit 1,188. It just pips the Alcatel 3L on 847, as a result of that phone’s even less capable MediaTek MT6762. The Oppo A15 comes with ColorOS 7.2 out of the box, which is a custom skin running on top of Android 10. It’s a reasonably clean and smooth take on Google’s OS, albeit one that suffers from garish icons and somewhat jumbled menus. It’s worth noting that the Nokia 3.4 and the Alcatel 3L both squeeze in an ultra-wide lens – although it’s fair to say that cheap ultra-wides are never particularly great. With that in mind, the argument for a single, decent wide lens is strong at this end of the market. It also isn’t unusual to find such a low-resolution display at this price, of course. The Alcatel 3L, the Nokia 3.4, and the Moto E7 Plus share this particular spec.

A super-cheap phone that comes with compromises

Either way, the onus here is wholly for that main sensor to come good. In general, evenly lit conditions, the results are just about acceptable given the low price tag. There’s a reasonable balance to shots, with Oppo’s customary natural color science. There’s no getting away from the fact that the Oppo A15 is a super-cheap phone. Its entirely plastic design is almost completely without embellishment. One of the areas in which the Oppo A15 does deliver is battery life. A fairly large 4,230mAh unit serves those modest components well, happily taking you into a second day of use before needing a top up..

OPPO A15 - 6.5 inch, Dual Sim, 32 GB, Triple AI Camera Sim OPPO A15 - 6.5 inch, Dual Sim, 32 GB, Triple AI Camera Sim

In moderate use, you’ll comfortably get through a full day on a single charge, and quite possibly through to a second. Media will take an extra chunk out of your battery life, but not as much as you might expect.

Around the front are some fairly chunky bezels by late 2020 standards. The phone’s forehead and chin, in particular, are larger than we’ve grown accustomed to. Meanwhile, a teardrop notch makes the phone feel a little dated at a time when hole-punch notches have become more the norm in the budget sector.

Oppo Case - Etsy UK Oppo Case - Etsy UK

The Oppo A15 comes with an ostensible triple camera setup, featuring a primary 13-megapixel lens supported by a 2-megapixel macro and a 2-megapixel depth sensor.The rear of the device is a largely featureless expanse of plastic, shiny right up to the point at which it will be covered with greasy fingerprints. Your eye will probably be drawn to the square camera module in the top-left corner, which is framed by a faux-metal surround.