OPPO A7 Pro Launches With a Huge 8,000mAh Battery and IP69K Protection

OPPO has launched the A7 Pro in China, and the battery is easily the biggest story here. The new mid-range phone packs a huge 8,000mAh cell, yet OPPO has also found room for a 120Hz OLED display and a large cooling system.

Durability is another big part of the package. The A7 Pro comes with IP66, IP68 and IP69K ratings, so this is clearly a phone built to take some abuse.

The 8,000mAh battery is much larger than what we were getting from mid-range phones only a few years ago. OPPO also says it has been designed to keep at least 80 percent of its capacity after 2,000 charging cycles under its lab conditions.

That's around seven years based on OPPO's own testing method. I like where Android phones are going with batteries right now. I'd take 8,000mAh and two days of real use over another phone that's 1mm thinner. We used to accept 5,000mAh as the standard, but that number is starting to look small very quickly.

On the front, the OPPO A7 Pro has a 6.57-inch FHD+ OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It's a flat panel with a small hole for the selfie camera, while an optical fingerprint reader sits under the screen.

Inside is MediaTek's Dimensity 6360 Max, paired with LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage. This isn't a flagship chip, but it should be more than enough for normal apps, social media and some gaming.

OPPO has also fitted a 4,300mm2 vapor chamber inside. That's a nice addition for a phone in this class, especially during longer gaming sessions when heat can start to slow things down.

Memory options include 6GB or 8GB of RAM, with 256GB of storage.

Durability may be almost as important as the battery here. The A7 Pro carries IP66, IP68 and IP69K ratings for water and dust resistance.

IP69K is the interesting one. It means the phone has been tested against high-pressure and high-temperature water jets, going well beyond the usual IP68 rating we see on smartphones. OPPO has also used what it calls a reinforced "Diamond Shield" structure to help the phone survive drops and daily knocks.

This is the kind of feature I would like to see on more mid-range phones. A faster chip is nice, but knowing that your phone has a better chance of surviving a drop or an accident with water can be far more useful.

OPPO hasn't gone crazy with the cameras. There's a 50MP main camera on the back, while an 8MP camera handles selfies.

It's a simple setup, and that's fine with me. I'd rather see one decent 50MP camera than a phone with three lenses where two of them are 2MP sensors added just to fill the camera module.

The A7 Pro runs ColorOS 16 and also gets OPPO's AI fraud protection tools. These can warn users about scam calls, spot possible face-swap tricks and look for signs of fraud across different apps. Other features include 5G, NFC, Bluetooth 5.4, an IR blaster and a USB-C port.

The OPPO A7 Pro comes in white, pink and brown finishes and goes on sale in China on September 11. OPPO hasn't announced a global launch yet, although a global version has already appeared in several certification databases.

For me, the A7 Pro is another sign that battery size and durability are becoming much more important in the mid-range market. An 8,000mAh battery and IP69K protection aren't flashy camera features, but they're upgrades you'll actually notice every day.