Oppo has been awarded Consumer NZ's Top Brand title in the mobile phone category for 2020, a year in which the brand also greatly increased its market share in New Zealand.
The Chinese company became the third highest-selling mobile phone manufacturer behind Apple and Samsung in Aotearoa in 2020, up from fifth place in 2019.
It was the second year in a row Oppo was named Top Mobile Phone Brand by Consumer NZ.
"Oppo models have excellent reliability with 94.6 percent reported as fault-free. That's down a little from last year, but those results included most Oppo phones less than two years old," said Consumer NZ.
"Now the brand has been in the market for longer, we'd expect to see lower overall reliability - so maintaining the high standard is a good result."
The consumer watchdog noted that Xiaomi has a higher reliability rating of 95.3 percent and Huawei is the only other brand in the 90s at 91 percent fault-free.
But Kiwi Oppo owners are more likely to say they are "very satisfied" with their phone than any other brand - scoring 82.9 percent, compared to Xiaomi's 81.4 and Apple's 79.8.
Consumer NZ noted that Samsung and Apple beat Oppo in its performance tests, but said it "leaps ahead of all other brands" when performance test scores are analysed by phone cost.
According to statistics from IDC NZ, Oppo's market share of smartphones shipped in Aotearoa rose from six percent in 2019 to 10 percent in 2020.
Oppo NZ managing director Morgan Halim told Newshub he believes the success is a result of understanding local customers and giving them what they want.
"Kiwis love value for money," he said.
"Our point of difference is we offer 'affordable premium'; we want to make sure everyone can access technology - including new and upcoming technologies like 5G - but we're always striving to make that technology more affordable."
Halim also said Oppo customers in Aotearoa appreciate a level of local service that competitors don't offer.
"We're a large global company but we're very big on acting local. We're probably the only smartphone brand in New Zealand that has in-house, local after-service. We don't use a third-party."
Consumer NZ is said to follow a strict review process for its Top Brands, with criteria focused on its own independent test results, customer satisfaction and overall reliability.
