The Oppo A78 5G costs over RM1,000 but has a 3-year-old processor and only a HD+ screen

When Oppo first started teasing their latest midrange smartphone, the Oppo A78 5G, we noted that it would have to be a lot cheaper than the Oppo A77 5G’s RM1,199 price tag. This was mainly due to the new smartphone coming with only a HD+ display and a downgraded processor compared to its predecessor. Well as it turns out, it’s now been formally launched by Oppo, and while it is cheaper, it’s certainly not much cheaper.

Oppo A78 5G Malaysia pricing and availability

The Oppo A78 5G will come in just one specification with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, with a RM1,099 price tag. It’ll be available from 14 January onwards, and you can find it at all Oppo brand stores, their authorised retail partners, their official store on Lazada and Shopee as well as their telco partners Maxis, Umobile, Celcom and Digi. Furthermore, those of you who purchase an Oppo A78 5G at any participating Oppo brand store will also be able to get a free Oppo band worth RM159.

Oppo A78 5G specs

As we hinted at earlier, on paper at least the Oppo A78 5G is looking to be a rather disappointing smartphone especially if you were expecting an improvement over the A77 5G. For starters, you’re going to be using a weaker MediaTek Dimensity 700, a 7nm processor that first debuted in 2020. In contrast, the Oppo A77 5G had the newer and better Dimensity 810 instead, a 6nm chip that offers roughly 10% improved performance over the Dimensity 700.

The Oppo A78 5G also comes with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage; despite their marketing material it doesn’t actually have 16GB of RAM. Instead, you have the option to ‘add’ up to another 8GB of virtual RAM, which uses your storage instead. You can also add an SD card that’s up to 1TB in size. The Oppo A78 5G will come with ColorOS 13 out of the box.

Another pretty major disappointment is the 6.56-inch LCD display that’s still only pushing a HD+ resolution. It’s hard to justify a HD+ display in 2023, especially when you consider that even the likes of Samsung have bumped up their entry level Galaxy A devices such as the Galaxy A14 5G into higher resolution FHD+ displays. The Oppo A78 5G’s display also has a 90Hz refresh rate, 600nits of peak brightness and full coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut.

Elsewhere, you’ll find a dual rear camera setup with a 50MP, f/1.8 main camera sitting above a 2MP, f/2.4 black and white sensor; there’s an 8MP, f/2.0 camera for selfies too. There are some nice-to-haves on the Oppo A78 5G though in its defense, such as a 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging that they claim can fully charge your device in just 67 minutes. There’s also stereo speakers, a 3.5mm audio jack, IPX4 water resistance and support for WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC and 5G. The Oppo A78 5G will be available in two colours, namely Glowing Black and Glowing Purple.