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Oppo A74 Battery test: Good balanced performance

This device has been retested in the latest version of our protocol. Overall, sub-scores and attributes are up to date. For detailed information, check the What’s New article

Released in May 2021, the Oppo A74 lands squarely in our Advanced ($200-399) category and brings with it a number of attractive features for a device at its price point, including a quite high-resolution OLED display and a multi-camera setup. Let’s take a look at the kind of battery experience you can expect from it, based on our comprehensive Battery protocol tests.

Key specifications:

  • Battery capacity: 5000 mAh
  • 33W charger included
  • 6.43-inch, 1080 x 2400, 60 Hz OLED display
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 (11 nm) chipset
  • Tested RAM / storage combination: 6 GB + 128 GB

About DXOMARK Battery tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone battery reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective tests over a week-long period both indoors and outdoors. This article highlights the most important results of our testing. (See our introductory and how we test articles for more details about our smartphone Battery protocol.)

Test summary

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.


Oppo A74
133
battery
143
Autonomy
146

221

165

195

131

198

119
Charging
108

224

132

212

139

205

130

194

Key performances

Charging Time
2 days 16h
Battery life
Charging Time
0h48
80% Charging time
Charging Time
1h11
Full charging time
Quick Boost
4h46 autonomy
after 5-minute charge
Please be aware that beyond this point, we have not modified the initial test results. While data and products remain fully comparable, you might encounter mentions and references to the previous scores.

Pros

  • Balanced overall scores and user experience
  • Strong charging experience at its price point

Cons

  • Struggles in gaming and video playback

The Oppo A74 posted one of the highest scores among all devices tested so far, tying with the Wiko Power U30 at 86 points, and both just two points behind the current leader in our database, the Samsung Galaxy M51 (and both coming in 8 points ahead of the 5G version of the A74).

The A74 showed a more balanced performance, with good scores in all categories (as opposed to both the M51 and the Power U30, whose scores ride heavily on their outstanding performance in Autonomy, while both were far less impressive in Charging).

The table below shows the battery capacity, charger, display type and resolution, and processor specifications for the Oppo A74, the Samsung Galaxy M51 (Advanced segment), the Wiko Power U30 (Essential segment), and the 5G version of the Oppo A74 (Advanced).

Oppo A74

Samsung M51 Wiko Power U30

Oppo A74 5G

Battery capacity

5000 mAh 7000 mAh 6000 mAh 5000 mAh

Charger

33W 25W 15W 18W

Display type

OLED OLED LCD

LCD

Display resolution

1080 x 2400 pixels

1080 x 2400 pixels

720 x 1640 pixels

1080 x 2400 pixels

Processor

Snapdragon 662 (11 nm) Snapdragon 730G (8 nm) Mediatek G35 (12 nm)

Snapdragon 480 5G (8 nm)

Autonomy (77)

How long a battery charge lasts depends not only on battery capacity, but also other aspects of the phone’s hardware and software. The DXOMARK Battery autonomy score is composed of three performance sub-scores: (1) Stationary, (2) On the go, and (3) Calibrated use cases. Each sub-score comprises the results of a comprehensive range of tests for measuring autonomy in all kinds of real-life scenarios.

Light Usage
92h
Light Usage
Active: 2h30/day
Moderate Usage
64h
Moderate Usage
Active: 4h/day
Intense Usage
39h
Intense Usage
Active: 7h/day

Among the devices in this comparison, the Oppo A74 came in last in all of our Autonomy tests. Be that as it may, its overall score of 83, while significantly behind the Wiko Power U30 (90) and the Samsung Galaxy M51 (98), nevertheless is high enough to keep the A74 in the upper echelons of our Battery database.

Stationary

Oppo A74

82

104

Vivo Y72 5G
Best: Vivo Y72 5G (104)

A robot housed in a Faraday cage performs a set of touch-based user actions during what we call our “typical usage scenario” (TUS) — making calls, video streaming, etc. — 4 hours of active use over the course of a 16-hour period, plus 8 hours of “sleep.” The robot repeats this set of actions every day until the device runs out of power. 

The Oppo A74 battery kept going for 67 hours 20 minutes in our TUS testing, which while respectable, is some 18+ hours behind the Power U30’s nearly 86 hours. The non-5G A74 had better nighttime performance than its 5G counterpart, but the 5G version showed better overall performance, providing nearly two hours more autonomy.

Typical Usage Scenario discharge curves

On the go

Oppo A74

83

96

Samsung Galaxy M51
Best: Samsung Galaxy M51 (96)

Using a smartphone on the go takes a toll on autonomy because of extra “hidden” demands, such as the continuous signaling associated with cellphone network selection, for example. DXOMARK Battery experts take the phone outside and perform a precisely defined set of activities while following the same three-hour travel itinerary for each device.

Broadly speaking, the Oppo A74 is on par with two of the three devices in this comparison (all of which posted scores in the low to mid 80s). However, both versions of the A74 and the Power U30 trail quite a ways behind the Samsung Galaxy M51’s class-leading 96 points.

Autonomy for on the go use cases (full charge)

Calibrated

Oppo A74

69

100

Samsung Galaxy M51
Best: Samsung Galaxy M51 (100)

For this series of tests, the smartphone returns to the Faraday cage and our robots repeatedly perform actions linked to one specific use case (such as gaming, video streaming, etc.) at a time. Starting from an 80% charge, all devices are tested until they have expended at least 5% of their battery power.

Both the Samsung Galaxy M51 and the Wiko Power U30 dominate in this category, so it is no real surprise that both versions of the Oppo A74 (each with 69 points) are far behind their competitors (31 points behind the Samsung, 23 points behind the Wiko). But it’s important to note that a score of 69 is still above average. Although its performance when gaming was a tad disappointing (coming in last among the four devices here), the A74 did a very good job when streaming video.

Autonomy for calibrated use cases (full charge)

Linearity

The Oppo A74 showed extremely good linearity, with its last 20% (as shown on its indicator) turning out to be actually more than 20%! Its true capacity at the 20% mark was 21.5%, with the Wiko following at 19.1%, and then the A74 5G (17.1%) and the Galaxy M51 (16.5%).

Charging (81)

The DXOMARK Battery charging score is composed of two sub-scores, Full charge and Quick boost. Full charge tests assess the reliability of the battery power gauge; measure how long it takes to charge a battery from 0% to 80% capacity and from 80% to 100%; and measure how long and how much power the battery takes to go from an indicated 100% to an actual full charge. With the phone at different charge levels (20%, 40%, 60%, 80%), Quick boost tests measure the amount of charge the battery receives after being plugged in for 5 minutes. 

Wired
Wired
51%
in 30 min
0h48
0 - 80%
1h11
Full charge

A more powerful charger helped the Oppo A74 blow its three competitors out of the water in our Charging tests, racking up more than 20 points over the Samsung and Wiko devices. It also came in 18 points ahead of its 5G sibling, again due to the difference in charger sizes (33W vs. 18W for the 5G version).

Power consumption and battery level during full charge

Full charge

Oppo A74

75

121

Black Shark 5 Pro
Best: Black Shark 5 Pro (121)

It takes the A74 only 48 minutes to go from empty to an 80% charge (vs. well over an hour for the other three devices). Again, this is attributable in part to its having a stronger charger, but also because its battery is smaller than either the Samsung’s or the Wiko’s.

When the A74’s indicator shows 100%, our experts estimate its true charge level to be 97%, whereas the M51 and Power U30 are at only around 95%; but here the 5G version of the A74 comes closest to being truly full, with a ~99% charge when its indicator says 100%.

Time to full charge

Quick boost

Oppo A74

83

111

Realme GT Neo 3
Best: Realme GT Neo 3 (111)

The non-5G Oppo device easily outperforms the comparison devices by nearly 20 points, providing an average boost in autonomy of some 4 hours 45 minutes after being plugged in for 5 minutes — more than twice the additional battery life as the others.

Oppo A74 Samsung Galaxy M51 Wiko Power U30 Oppo A74 5G
Autonomy boost (hh:mm) 20%4:43 2:12 2:18 2:31
40%4:45 2:26 2:19 2:17
60%4:54 2:06 2:20 2:22
80%2:28 2:05 1:56 2:11
Percentage boost 20%10.2 %4.1 %4 %5 %
40%10.3 %4.5 %4.1 %4.6 %
60%10.6 %3.9 %4.1 %4.7 %
80%5.3 %3.9 %3.4 %4.4 %
Energy consumed 20%2477 mWh1405 mWh1463 mWh1345 mWh
40%2495 mWh1553 mWh1476 mWh1224 mWh
60%2575 mWh1342 mWh1480 mWh1265 mWh
80%1297 mWh1331 mWh1225 mWh1166 mWh

Efficiency (87)

Our Efficiency score comprises two sub-scores, Charge up and Discharge. Charge up is the efficiency of a full charge (how much energy is drained from the wall outlet vs the energy capacity of the battery, as well as the efficiency of the charger and its residual consumption). Discharge is how much current the smartphone drains from the battery when in use (the ratio of battery capacity over autonomy). Better autonomy with a smaller battery means better efficiency.

The Oppo A74 achieved a very good score for this attribute, on par with the Samsung Galaxy M51 for both charge up and discharge efficiency, and better than the Wiko Power U30 and the Oppo A74 5G.

Charge up

Oppo A74

77

105

Nubia RedMagic 7 Pro
Best: Nubia RedMagic 7 Pro (105)

At 77 points, the Oppo A74 just edges past the Samsung device by a single point (76), but is clearly better than its A74 5G counterpart (64) and vastly superior to the Power U30 (49). Further, at 79.5%, the A74 has the best charge efficiency among the compared devices, again just a whisker ahead of the M51 (78.7%), clearly ahead of its 5G sibling (72.6%), and way ahead of the Wiko (64.1%).

At 86.3% efficiency, its adapter doesn’t quite manage to keep the trend alive, with the Samsung adapter showing 88%; however, the A74 still comes in ahead of both the Wiko (82.7%) and the A74 5G (85.6%).

Discharge

Oppo A74

88

121

Apple iPhone 13 Pro
Best: Apple iPhone 13 Pro (121)

The A74’s discharge efficiency is good and on par with both the M51 and the A74 5G (all in the high 80s), but all three devices fall behind the Power U30’s excellent 102. Though it did quite well in a number of sub-category tests, the A74 struggles with gaming and video playback.

Conclusion

The A74 manages to bring a solid battery experience without compromising on either autonomy, charging, or even the screen definition. If you are not a gamer and if you are not looking for such features as 5G or higher than 60 Hz refresh rates, then the A74 should be able to satisfy most needs without having to worry about your battery life.


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