Oppo A94 5G

 My Samsung Galaxy S5, inherited from my son, became unstable a few weeks ago. Considering that it is well past its use by date, it provided reliable service across 7 years. I have been using it for 3 -4 years.

There are now a wide range of mid-range phones to select from. Going by a colleagues recommendation, I explored the Oppo range of phones and purchased the Oppo A94 5G a couple of weeks ago. Its a mid-range phone with a competitive price, 1/3 price of the latest iphones or mid-range Samsung phones. 

So far, I am happy with its performance as I am not a heavy phone user. Porting everything across from the Samsung, using the recommended 'phone clone' app was straightforward. All apps came across and have been accessible. All apps and mobile browsing have been performing as required.

Two apps have provided some learning: 

- The Adidas runtastic app was one of a list of 'fitness apps' recommended for Android phones. I have been using the free version (which is currently sufficient for my needs) to track my bike and tramping trips. So far, the app has been straight-forward to use. A comparison with the results from friends indicates some accuracy for distance travelled, although the 'ascend' in m for my weekend tramp up to Mount Grey was rather high. So will check this out again on my next tramp.

- inaturalist app worked well for about 5 entries before lack of coverage stymied further direct entry of botanical samples. The farm we were walking across is above Purau on Banks Peninsula and rural mobile coverage would have been challenging, especially in the two valleys we tranversed. I reverted to just taking photos and will upload these via PC later this week. 

Battery life of the phone, set on battery safer and low screen light has been very good. Even with the runtastic app and inaturalist app both running, along with photo/video taking and googling, the phone used up only about 1/2 its battery life across the day. Will continue testing across the month and see what happens :)