A few months ago, we reviewed the OPPO Reno8 Lite and came away impressed with the bang-for-your-buck that it offered. Now OPPO has launched the Reno8 and the Reno8 Pro and we have managed to get our hands on both of them.
We’ll kick the reviews off with the flagship of the Reno8 series, the Reno8 Pro, comparing it to not just the Reno8 Lite but also the Find X5 Pro – OPPO’s ultra-premium flagship. At $1,199, the Reno8 Pro is a decent drop in price from the Find X5 Pro’s RRP $1,799 but for those looking in this range of the smartphone market it’s important that you know the differences going from one price to the other.
Dan will follow on with his thoughts on the Reno8 5G in the coming days. Stay tuned for the low down on OPPO’s latest Reno smartphone series.
Design
The Reno8 Pro continues the design language of the Reno8 Lite with the square, sharp edges instead of the curved sides that fit seamlessly and comfortably in the hand. This is a throwback to the iPhone and Android phones of yesteryear, and I don’t hate it. It gives it a different feel that feels a bit classier.
One thing the square edges fit nicely with is the flat display. Although the curved display can look great on a phone it is not the most perfect experience around. The flat display allows for the entire 6.7-inch AMOLED display to be used without any mis-touches.
Although the display is just 1080P, it is a 120Hz refresh rate AMOLED display which means that it is smooth to use along with having colours that pop alongside the deepest blacks. This is a step up from the Reno8 Lite although that did have an AMOLED display, albeit just 6.4-inches and 60Hz refresh rate.
The rear of the review device which is a “Glazed Black” colour is a fingerprint magnet. The shiny surface looks great when clean, but you will find yourself cleaning it continually. Most people these days stick a case on their smartphones so that won’t be a problem.
The problem is although OPPO has historically included cases for virtually all of their smartphones, they have opted to not include a case in the box of the Reno8 Pro and the Reno8. Strange decision and I hope it is not a sign of things moving forwards, but you’ll have to think ahead and get your case before purchasing if you want it from day one.
OPPO does have cases available for sale from the Australian OPPO website but at this stage haven’t been able to confirm whether they will be available for purchase from point of sale. The sole case available on the OPPO website is a $44.95 black silicone case which is disappointing. I could suggest hitting up eBay or AliExpress for more and cheaper options.
The camera island on the Reno8 Pro continues with the general design style shown in the Find X5 Pro with the island and rear of the device cut from a single piece of glass and the curve from the rear to the island a beautiful thing – it feels good too.
Hardware
The Reno8 Pro does not have the most impressive specs internally, but they seem to gel well together. They have gone for a cheaper MediaTek Dimensity 8100-Max chipset instead of a Qualcomm CPU but it is still no slouch. It is combined with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage to produce a high-level experience. It does not have the speed nor lag-free gaming experience of the Find X5 Pro but it is no slouch.
I was able to play all games comfortably and day to day use was a breeze. Apps opened relatively quickly and the only issues I had was using the recents menu when there was a large number of apps open already – it lagged a bit bringing up the apps to switch to.
The fingerprint sensor on OPPO smartphones is an amazing experience. Not only is it accurate, hitting the mark close to 100% of the time no matter how much of your fingertip touches the sensor but it is fast. OPPO state that the phone will unlock in just 0.2 seconds from when it registers your fingerprint on the sensor – someone at Google needs to copy OPPO’s implementation as the difference in speeds between all in-display sensors on OPPO phones and Pixel phones is night and day.
The OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G is a dual SIM device and as it is only available from JB Hi-Fi and not one of the carriers you will not find a single SIM version anywhere in Australia.
Camera
On paper, the OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G has all the features required to produce top notch photography. It has a 50MP main lens on the rear, combined with an 8MP ultrawide camera and a 2MP macro camera. Along with this hardware OPPO has added in their MariSilicon X Imaging NPU to provide high end computational photography, including their 4K Ultra Night Video.
“Even in the most challenging night-time or backlit scenes, portrait videos taken on Reno8 Pro appear ultra-clear, with colors that look true to life.”
Around the front there is a high-end Sony IMX709 32MP selfie camera. It all sounds amazing doesn’t it? But how well does it perform in real life?
Good, but not ultra-premium great. Looking at the images below, they look like pretty good photos by themselves but the hardware, although decent, is still not at the level of that in the Find X5 Pro. The Reno8 Pro instead relies a lot more on its computational photography chops, and it shows.
The images from the Reno8 Pro look a lot more processed and sharper than that from the Find X5 Pro and thus look a bit harsh. By themselves they are ok but pale in comparison to that from the Find X5 Pro — see above.
In isolation though you will be happy with the Reno8 Pro photography and considering its price, it offers decent imaging. As you can see above you’ll still be able to get some great keepsake images no matter where you are, at any time of the day. The night imaging is surprisingly good with very little light in some of those images above.
Battery and charging
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – OPPO has the best charging solution of ANY and EVERY smartphone manufacturer available in Australia. They have included their 80W SUPERVOOC fast charging in the Reno8 Pro and they should be congratulated for that. You can charge the phone from nearly empty to 35% in about 6 minutes, to 55% in under 11 minutes, 80% in 18 minutes and to full in a tick over 30 minutes.
This means that you should never run out of battery – as long as you have your charger handy. Plug it in for just 10 minutes and you’ll get another half a day of use (50%). If only all smartphone manufacturers had a solution such as this.
There is no wireless charging in the Reno8 Pro – obviously one way OPPO has decided to save costs and in my opinion with 80W wired charging I’m not sure you’d ever need wireless charging anyway. It would be a luxury, that’s for sure, but if that’s a deal breaker for you, look elsewhere.
Software
We’ve covered ColorOS on OPPO smartphones in the past so there’s no point going over it in detail again but the good thing about it is that it is basically the same from one OPPO smartphone to another. It offers some great features on top of Android’s basic skin.
Tweaks such as personalisations, screen on and off gestures, fingerprint tweaks and more are all included and all work as well on this phone as they do on their ultra-premium smartphones. Sure, the speed and snappiness aren’t quite the same as an ultra-premium device but the experience difference is barely noticeable.
The Reno8 Pro is running Android 12 and ColorOS 12.1 out of the box – expect the August security update not long after turning the phone on for the first time. OPPO has stated that the ColorOS 13 (Android 13) update will be rolling out to the Reno8 Pro “from September 2022” and given the Find X5 Pro update was expected from August but arrived last week we’d expect the Reno8 Pro to receive the ColorOS 13 update to arrive here in Australia in October/November.
For what it’s worth, OPPO has promised that at this point in time the Reno8 Pro will receive two major Android updates and will receive at least three years of quarterly security updates.
Should you buy it?
The OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G is a phone that offers some decent ultra-premium flagship features and imaging without the ultra-premium price. It does fail to match the ultra-premium in some aspects but for those who don’t need everything that you get with an ultra-premium device then this is one you should be considering.
It has a decent camera, especially its low light imaging, producing decent pictures. Landscape images are great but without a telephoto lens be careful not to magnify too much before capturing the photo.
The OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G is a great looking phone with a great display and some decent specs under the hood along with all of the usual features we see in OPPO’s ColorOS. At $1,199 it is possibly priced in the super mid-range segment of the market — where there are not many options.
You can grab yourself an OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G from JB Hi-Fi in Glazed Green and Glazed Black colourways for RRP $1,199.
