Introduction
Even though Realme is now a separate company, the similarities between the Oppo A1k and the Realme C2 are undeniable. The two phones are almost identical in shape and measure just a fraction of a millimeter. All buttons, slots, ports, and holes are in the exact same locations on both phones.
The Oppo A1k has a plain back panel rather than the texture and pattern on the Realme C2, but even small things like the plastic molding lines are the same and you'll notice that the two models share a lot of specs as well. Oppo has launched the A1k in two colors, a simple black and ultra-bright red version that we have yet to review. If you like an eye-catching phone, this watch face definitely fits the bill. The phone is made entirely of plastic, but the materials don't feel cheap at all, and the construction quality is very good.
Thankfully, the rear is non-slip and not prone to smudges and fingerprints at all. The edges are slightly curved and the phone is quite reasonably sized by today's standards, and we were able to use it easily with one hand. Our review unit came pre-applied with a plastic screen protector, but it started to come loose in the corners and scratched pretty badly over a day of normal use, which was distracting. There's a waterdrop notch at the top of the screen, with a thin slit for the headphones. Sadly, the phone doesn't have a fingerprint sensor, which we think should be taken into consideration for the price.
The power button is on the right, the volume buttons are on the left, and the upper left tray has cutouts for two Nano-SIM and microSD cards. At the bottom we have a speaker grille, Micro-USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack. The camera bump on the rear sticks out a lot and has a slightly scratched metal ring around it. It may look like a dual-camera module and be the same size as the one on the Realme C2, but the phone only has a single rear camera with a flash next to it.
We think people who are looking for a simple phone will like the Oppo A1k's design, it's not too heavy at 170 grams and is easy to carry around. In the retail box, you get a sizable 10W charger, a Micro-USB cable, and a clear plastic case.
Once again we see a lot of similarities between the Oppo A1k and Realme C2, but it's strange that when the few differences are taken into account, it's the less expensive C2 that comes out. Both phones feature a 6.1-inch 720x1560 pixels 19.5:9 screen, but the Oppo A1k doesn't have Corning Gorilla Glass protection like its closer sibling.
Both phones are built around the MediaTek Helio P22 SoC, which has eight ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 2GHz and a PowerVR GE8329 GPU. We've seen this processor used in several phones for roughly the same price, and you also get the same 4000mAh battery capacity.
Oppo has launched the A1k in just one configuration, with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, and you also get single-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, FM radio, and the usual sensors including an electronic compass. Interestingly, the Oppo A1k only has an 8-megapixel rear camera with f/2.2 aperture, while the Realme C2 has a 13-megapixel f/2.2 camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor, both phones have Equipped with a 5-megapixel front camera.
So continuing on the software side, we see the same Android skin, Oppo’s ColorOS 6, running on top of Android 9. It's a well-designed, customizable user interface. The notification shade and quick settings panel look quite different from their Android counterparts, but you'd normally expect them. One exception is the Settings application, which has a slightly more complex structure.
The lock screen magazine feature displays different photos and links to related articles on the lock screen, but this feature can be disabled. Thankfully these are not blatant ads, but there are ads in the linked articles. There is an app drawer, but you can close it if you want. You can customize the layout of on-screen Android navigation buttons, or choose from four different swipe-based control schemes to suit your preferences.
One of our favorite features is personal information protection, the Oppo A1k can spoof empty call logs, message history, contact lists, and calendars when apps try to read them. You have to opt in, but this feature isn't compatible with all apps, and there's a disclaimer stating it's not guaranteed to always work, but it's a good idea. ColorOS also says it will issue a warning if an app tries to use the phone's microphone or camera while it's running in the background.
Game Space claims to improve gaming performance by clearing your phone's RAM when the game launches, and it can also suppress banner notifications and limit background apps from using network bandwidth. Smart Assistant is the page on the left side of the first home screen that contains a useful panel showing a step tracker, shortcuts to frequently used contacts, and a calendar, but it also tries to offer "top apps" for you to download.
We're a little disappointed with the bloatware that comes with this phone, with Oppo's own App Store and Games Store, and a fake "Top Apps" folder on the home screen that's actually a link to download more crap. ColorOS also has several redundant Oppo and third-party apps, all of which you cannot disable or uninstall.
The Oppo A1k has a decent screen, but it's not very vibrant and colors don't look rich. Videos and games were fine, but we found that the rounded corners cut off some UI elements in full-screen apps and games unless we manually set them to run with the space around the notch darkened. The phone's speakers weren't nearly as good either. . Day-to-day performance is good, but we noticed some very slight stuttering in UI animations, such as when flipping through thumbnails in the app switcher. If you expect to have a lot of background apps open and switch between them quickly, the 2GB of RAM may become a limiting factor.
Battery life is definitely one of the strong suits of this phone, we were able to get a day and a half on a single charge. Our usage involved an hour of video streaming and spending a lot of time taking photos, as well as some web surfing and gaming. Our HD video loop test ran for 19 hours and 43 minutes, which is very good, but it only charges 20% in 30 minutes using the included charger.
The camera app is relatively simple but easy to use. Basic photo, video, and portrait modes are in the standard ribbon at the bottom, while panorama, timelapse, and expert modes are in the overflow menu. You get automatic HDR, some filters and beautification toggles. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of photos taken during the day, which was good even at full size as long as the subject was still present. This is still an entry-level smartphone camera, so it does struggle a bit with high-contrast exposures, but overall we think Oppo does a good job here.
One odd thing we found is that portrait mode doesn't seem to work at all, and there's almost no discernible background blur, even though selfies taken in daylight were fine. However, at night, the situation was not optimistic. Focus was completely off a lot of the time, and detail was shadowy and noisy, making taking photos of our subjects without a lot of artificial lighting simply unusable.
Video was recorded at Full HD resolution, and we saw a lot of focus shifting with moving objects, and the video we recorded was a bit dark, but overall daytime quality wasn't too bad. At night, we encountered the same problem as with stills, and it was more difficult to get focus in the right place.
We think a lot of people will want features like a fingerprint sensor and an additional rear camera at this price point, as well as play games and take decent photos. Still, another option we keep coming back to is the Realme C2. It may not seem fair to compare the phone we're reviewing here with another model, but the simple fact is that they are almost the same device, except that the Oppo A1k costs about 40% more than the base model. Oppo also offers some weaker specs on the camera front, with a lack of Gorilla Glass on the front. Even the pricier Realme C2 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage is slightly cheaper than the Oppo A1k.
Of course, the Realme C2 and several other phones we just named are only available online, and some are only available via flash, so you'll have to compete with that if you want to get the most for your money. Many people can only buy the phone offline, and while that's completely understandable, we hope buyers who encounter the Oppo A1k offline know that other options exist.
