We thought $499 would be the lowest price for 5G in 2021, and we were wrong. Oppo has hit a new price point, bringing the tech to more people.
If you’ve been wanting to jump into the world of 5G but price was the obstacle, 2021 may well be the cure to what ails you. That’s because prices are dropping for 5G, and dropping fast.
While last year’s phones managed to see 5G drop to under $1000, this year is hitting under $500, and even going further.
We’ve already seen a $499 Realme 5G phone, and Samsung’s A32 covers the $499 5G phone segment, but now Oppo intends to beat both with $399 and $449 options, coming in the A54 5G and A74 5G.
As the name suggests, both models support the 5G connection, and both are actually fairly similar phones all round.
They both rely on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 chip with Android 11 and Oppo’s ColorOS 11, and both with the same Full HD+ 2400×1080 6.5 inch screen supporting the 90Hz screen refresh rate. Both the A54 and A74 also include four cameras on the back, covering 48 megapixels for the main camera, 8 megapixels ultra-wide, 2 megapixel monochrome, and 2 megapixels macro, while the front-facing selfie camera is a 16 megapixel camera.
And they’re both built in very much the same way, with the glass-styled plastic there, with the phones even getting Near-Field Communication (NFC), meaning they can be used for mobile payment with Google Pay, something not every phone sees.
The main difference between the A54 and A74 appears to be memory, storage, charging, and price.
At the high-end, the Oppo A74 5G (above) will cost $449 and offer 6GB RAM, 128GB storage, and support for 18W charging over a wired connection.
Meanwhile, the Oppo A54 5G (below) cuts those specs down a little, dropping the memory to 4GB RAM, the storage to 64GB, and the wired charging speed to 10W, though saving $50 in the process.
Essentially, it means the Oppo A54 5G has hit a new 5G low for pricing, snagging an RRP of $399. That alone makes it the least expensive 5G phone on the market.
“What we’re seeing is a two pronged approach to 5G rollout in Australia,” said Michael Tran, Managing Director of Oppo in Australia.
“On the one hand you have the major carriers accelerating the rollout of the network. Then on the other, you have brands such as Oppo maturing the hardware to make 5G accessible to everyone,” he said.
Both models look set to be available this week unlocked, with the Oppo A54 5G and A74 5G landing at JB HiFi and Officeworks, among others, this week.
