what the Oppo A53 accomplished but it wasn't exactly a wizard either

 

Oppo isn't a hugely well-known name still despite having an extensive range of phones under its belt, among the latest of which is the Oppo A53, a solidly budget model.

 That's no bad thing but it does mean that already, we need to temper our expectations. 

This isn't a phone that will revolutionize the market but nor should anyone expect that from such an inexpensive device.

 On the plus side, it does offer some neat extras that mean it occasionally stands out a bit amongst a busy crowd of cheap phones.

While it's the low price that's the main selling point of the phone, the Oppo A53 also bundles in a 90Hz refresh rate, which isn't entirely unique in this field with the likes of the Realme 6 also sporting that refresh rate

 but is still a welcome addition to spruce up an otherwise fairly ordinary phone.

Besides the classy display, the Oppo A53 actually looks pretty nice for the price. It has a premium look reminiscent of the Honor 10 Lite, with a curved back that is somewhat eye-catching and ensures you're not simply stuck with the same old tedious back that so many other phones stoically stick with it.

Elsewhere, it's perhaps more unremarkable looking, with the standard bevy of buttons 

and a conveniently placed fingerprint scanner right where your finger is likely to linger.

At around 186g and 8.4mm thick, the Oppo A53 is quite bulky, but the aforementioned curved back means it 

sits comfortably in your hand at least, even if your hands are quite small.

Performance-wise, the Oppo A53 is about what you'd expect for the price. In our tests, it slightly outperformed the similarly priced Redmi Note 7 when it came to multi-core performance, 

but it was a fair way behind in single-core performance. In daily use, we weren't irritated by what the Oppo A53 accomplished but it wasn't exactly a wizard either.