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Huawei vs Oppo | Which Smartphone Brand Is Better?
Huawei and Oppo are not the same company. That’s something I have heard people saying. They are both Chinese smartphone manufacturers that have been growing rapidly in the past few years.
It’s been 2 weeks since I made the last brand comparison guide, which was Xiaomi vs Realme. I have always wanted to write about Huawei since their Google ban back in May 2019, so this is a good opportunity to do so.
I suppose that you are planning to buy a smartphone and you are torn between these 2 brands, so in today’s guide, we are going to compare Huawei and Oppo to figure out which of these two brands gives you the best products.
Key Takeaways
- Huawei is better than Oppo in terms of overall specs, camera quality, battery life, and pricing.
- Oppo’s parent organization is the Chinese multinational BBK Electronics, which also owns brands like Realme, OnePlus, and Vivo.
- Huawei has a way to use Google Services through GBOX, an app gallery.
- Both Huawei and Oppo have value-for-money phones in the low and mid-range.
- Huawei has the upper hand in camera quality, offering a better telephoto lens, and a time-of-flight camera.
- Huawei offers a better cost-to-performance ratio, while Oppo’s fast charging technology can degrade battery capacity over time.
Which brand is better, Huawei or Oppo?
When it comes to the overall specs, camera quality, battery life, and pricing, Huawei is better than Oppo.
It no longer “officially” supports Google Services for devices released after May 15, 2019, but there is a way to use them with a brand new app gallery called GBox.
Who Makes Oppo Phones?
Oppo phones are manufactured by Oppo Electronics Corporation, a Chinese electronics company headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong Province.
The company was founded in 2004 and has grown to become one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in China.
It is not as popular as Huawei, even though its parent organization is the Chinese multinational BBK Electronics, which also owns big brands like Realme, OnePlus, and Vivo.
They did climb to the top of the Chinese market as the #1 smartphone OEM in the country.
Huawei & GBox
There is, in fact, a way to use Google Services with Huawei as of 2022, and that’s GBox(formerly known as Gspace).
GBox is basically an app gallery that Huawei uses, and in that application, you have the option to download any Google software you might need.
It has everything from Chrome, YouTube, and Gmail to Drive and Maps. I’m not sure how long this is going to last, but it’s a way for Huawei to cheat around their ban since they are not officially releasing any Android smartphones with Google Services.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, both Huawei and Oppo have high-quality phones in the low and mid-range price ranges, and they will cost you about the same.
The difference is in their high-end phones, where Huawei is more expensive, but their quality is far superior to Oppo’s.
Additionally, it is very important to mention that Huawei offers a better cost-to-performance ratio, so their phones are the most worthwhile at their given price.
Design
They both have smooth and glossy designs, and their phones are fairly lightweight and easy to carry around. However, the main difference between these two brands is that Huawei has a wider range of colors than Oppo.
This can be great if you’re looking for something that’s more colorful or unique in appearance, but if you’re just looking for a basic phone with a simple design then it doesn’t really matter which brand you choose.
This is always very subjective, but in my opinion, Huawei has the upper hand in phone design, even though their phones are a little bit heavier.
They were among the first makers of folding smartphones, which is slowly becoming a trend with other brands following in their footsteps.
Oppo also has some good designs, but nothing out of the ordinary. Overall, both brands look very similar, so just pick whatever smartphone design you like the best.
Battery Life
Both brands offer large capacity batteries in their phones that will last for 1+ day with proper management before they turn off so you don’t really have to pick one based on their battery.
The only warning here would be that Oppo’s fast charging technology can degrade battery capacity to 80% after a few years so that is something you should have in your mind before you choose to use a fast charger.
Huawei Camera Quality
When somebody talks to me about Huawei, the first thing that comes to mind is their top-notch camera quality. It’s way better than any Oppo phone on the market.
Take the Huawei Mate 50 Pro as an example, which has the best camera of 2022 after the agreement that they got with Leica in 2016. It’s actually better than what the iPhone 14 Pro Max and Google Pixel 7 Pro have to offer. Huawei ranks as #1 on DXOMARK!
That really tells you how much Huawei has improved in that aspect. It’s the first camera with an adjustable aperture. If you are one of those people who want the best smartphone for photography, make sure you check it out.
Telephoto Lens
With the use of the new periscope telephoto lens, greater optical zooming capabilities are crammed into a small chassis without sacrificing image quality.
This SuperZoom lens has a 10x hybrid zoom and a maximum of 50x zoom so it can essentially put the moon right in front of your eyes with pretty decent resolution and detail.
It also works in conjunction with the 40 MP main camera’s ability to give color saturation and the steadiness of OIS.
Huawei Time-of-Flight(TOF) Camera
The most recent high-end smartphones of Huawei have a function called ToF (Time-of-Flight). Because of its improved depth resolution, which has been characterized as being four times greater than previous cameras, it has been advertised as a “Super Sensing Camera”.
(For those who don’t know, Distance-to-Subject, also known as “Depth Resolution,” is another term for identifying the subject from the closest point (foreground) to the farthest point (background)).
By increasing the depth of field, the subject is isolated in the picture and has a clearer, sharper focus.
Software | Hardware
As for their software, Huawei has HarmonyOS while Oppo uses ColorOS. Both are based on Google’s Android. They give the user options to make optimizations and changes. They are pretty decent operating systems but nothing to boast about.
When it comes to their hardware, Huawei beats Oppo by a wide margin since their specs are just better overall. The only thing that the latter can compete with is its cameras.
I have to admit that, similar to Realme phones, their cameras are excellent for their price. Overall, Huawei is the winner here with superior specs.
Advantages and drawbacks:
If we want to be completely honest, both brands have advantages and disadvantages, just like any other company out there. Below is a list of all of them:
Huawei Pros – Cons
Pros
- Exceptional cameras that can even go toe to toe with Apple’s and Samsung’s flagship phones.
- Fast charging is available.
- One of the first brands to have folding smartphones.
- Very affordable prices in comparison to their competitors.
- Very good Battery Life with 1+ day of usage until it turns off.
- They have curved phones with stylish designs.
- Monthly security updates.
- Easy transfer of data with Huawei HiSuite.
- High-quality specs at a reasonable price provide a really good Price-to-Performance Ratio.
- They have many more product lines which involve Smart TVs, computers, smartwatches, and more.
- Good customer support.
- They have their own community where you can ask for help if needed.
Cons
- Huawei phones are slightly heavier.
- Some of the older models are known to be a bit laggy at times.
- Issues with their operating system when you try to share apps from Android to HarmonyOS.
Oppo Pros – Cons
Pros
- Excellent camera features.
- The large battery capacity is similar to Huawei and other Chinese brands.
- Very good budget phones.
- They have their own community and forums like most brands out there.
- A lot of their devices have Gorilla glass.
- They are frequently adding new features.
- Stylish design.
- Good customer support.
Cons
- No software updates so you will stay with the same ColorOS API version until you purchase another phone.
- The Specs that they offer can definitely be improved.
- Some models can have heating issues.
- Their fast charging technology can degrade battery capacity to about 80%.
- Oppo phones have a nice design but nothing unique.
Conclusion
Finally, both brands have a lot to offer you, even though you will have to consider their drawbacks before purchasing. I highly recommend you buy a Huawei phone over an Oppo since you can now have Google services.
If you are interested in a budget phone for around $100-$150, Oppo could maybe give you a very reasonable solution. If you have any further questions or ideas for future posts, make sure to let me know in the comments down below.
