Friends+Design
- Absolutely captivating glass-and-metal design - arguably one of the best designs of 2019 so far - the OPPO Reno is a sight to behold both front and back, and very similar to it's senior cousin, the Reno 10x Zoom
- Curvy and smooth finish makes it a joy to carry around
- Fairly comfortable to use one-handed, which is an impressive feat for a 6.4inch screen phone
- The absence of any notch and the thin bezels on all sides gives the phone a distinct visual identity
- The matte texture on the back glass gives it a bit of a grip and saves it from smudges (and for more careful users, OPPO also has a protective case in the box)
- The in-screen fingerprint scanner is in a comfortable position
Display
- Excellent, captivating AMOLED screen - large and notch-free - watching content on the screen is a treat
Software
- Color OS 6 is now much leaner, snappier, and more streamlined
- It also packs relatively lesser bloatware than before
- There are of course many add-on features as well - including Game space (to optimize game performance), Kids space (parental controls), Smart driving (for safety on the road), and special gestures for activating Google Assistant or switching to split-screen mode
Performance
- Solid performance with a Snapdragon 710, along with a generous 8GB of RAM - both day-to-day use and gaming are smooth, and lag-free
- There are some competing phones (like the OnePlus 7) that will give you the flagship Snapdragon 855 at the same price, so the Reno isn't quite top bracket in terms of performance, even for this price range
- Under stress, the phone has a tendency to warm up towards the top
Camera
- Very good set of dual rear cameras - they take some impressive pictures with very good HDR
- Most of the photos have a nice balance of warm and cooler tones, good sharpness, and good dynamic range
- Portrait shots are good too - the camera setup does particularly well with subject detection and the blurring stays realistic alongside maintaining natural skin tones
- The Reno’s performance at night is also noteworthy - with a dedicated Night mode, a lot of detail in low light is preserved and the phone is able to balance spots of lighting well
- The other star of OPPO’s show is the front facing camera, with an intriguing shark fin pop-up design, that's sure to turn heads - the quality of the selfies is pretty good too
- The rear camera setup misses out on ultra-wide angle lens, OIS or optical zoom capabilities - and because of the lack of versatility, while the camera is very good for the price, it can't quite compete with the cameras on the top flagship phones
- Video quality, especially, is not the best, due to lack of OIS
Audio
- It would have been nice to have stereo speakers too (like the OnePlus 7) - the speaker unit at the bottom edge of the device offers loud sound, but it lacks in richness, and is easily covered by your natural grip when using the phone in landscape mode
Battery
- Very good battery life with a 3765mAH battery combined with some good software optimization - you will comfortably stretch it 1.5 days with light to moderate use
- Excellent VOOC fast-charging, one of the best fast-charging technologies in the industry at present - you will get a full charge in about an hour
Verdict
- Overall, with the good camera setup, a beautiful design, a very good battery life, Reno is worthy of consideration alongside other budget flagships like the OnePlus 7, especially for users who are not seeking top-end performance (and stock-like Android) and instead value the comfortable fitting curves of the Oppo Reno and its ‘shark-fin’ selfie camera design
