OPPO announced their latest Reno series in Milan in February and the Reno 13 F 5G, Reno 13 5G and Reno 13 Pro 5G are now available to purchase in Australia.
OPPO have sent over the entire range for us to check out, with Scott handling the reviews on the Reno 13 5G and Reno 13 F 5G, while I got my hands on the Reno 13 Pro 5G.
Until their return to the premium market with the launch of the Find X8 Pro last year, the Reno series has been substituting in quite well for their premium phone series in Australia. That focus on the Reno line offering a more premium alternative isn’t changing, with Michael Tran, OPPO Australia’s Managing Director, saying during the global keynote, :
“This is the Reno Series like you’ve never seen it before. With the technology inside, there’s absolutely nothing ‘mid’ about these smartphones’
Priced at $1,299, the Reno 13 Pro 5G slots into the premium phone range, packing in a bright 6.83” display, Mediatek Dimensity 8350 processor with 12GB RAM and 512GB of on-board storage with a 5,800mAh battery which supports 80W SuperVOOC charging powering the show.
OPPO of course have stacked their Reno 13 Pro 5G with a triple rear camera system headlined with 50MP main and telephoto sensors and an 8MP ultrawide rounding out the trio.
It comes with Android 15 and OPPO ColorOS 15, which includes five OS updates and will receive 6 years of quarterly security maintenance releases (SMR) making it a sustainable option for anyone who likes to keep their phone for a few years.
I’ve been using the Reno 13 Pro 5G for two weeks now and here’s how it went.
Launching in two colours, Plume Purple and Graphite Grey, the OPPO Reno 13 Pro 5G offers a choice between something with a bit of flair, as well as a more traditional colour option. I personally love the Plume Purple colour option that was sent over for review which has an iridescent texture that makes it stand out.
While I love the colour, what I don’t like is that there’s no TPU case included in the box to protect the phone. It’s been a couple of generations since one was included – but at just a couple of dollars to include some basic protection, it seems disingenuous to not include one – come on OPPO!
The phone does come with protection built-in, at least for dust/water, with an IP69 rating, their highest to date. The ‘9’ in that IP69 rating indicates the phone can stand being exposed to jets of water for a period – and this new water resistance rating supports a new feature: underwater photo and video recording, with a dedicated Underwater Mode to allow for distortion-free photos and videos – and you can see some results down below.
The rear of the phone contains the camera island in the top left, which houses some seriously large 50MP sensors which sit above the camera island, alongside the smaller 8MP ultrawide and LED Flash. As camera bumps go it’s fairly low-profile, yet those big sensors do stick out and make the phone rock when it’s sitting on a desk.
Design wise, the Reno 13 Pro is super slim, fitting into a pocket or bag easily, yet it still includes a large 5,800mAh battery that supports OPPO’s SuperVOOC 80W fast charging.
The button and port layout is the same as other OPPO phones with the volume rocker and power on the right hand side. The SIM tray – which supports dual-SIM is on the base next to the USB-C port [USB 2.0 only :(] and the downward firing speaker.
The top of the phone looks fairly boring to be honest – yet contains one of the best features on the phone – at least for me – an IR Blaster. You can barely tell it’s there, and honestly without the IR remote app in the software I wouldn’t have found it – but it is, and it’s super easy to get up and running – here’s to taking over the TV in the food court or pub ;).
The included app is simple to use, letting you add in a variety of IR controlled devices from Air-conditioners to TVs, receivers and more. The remote interface has all the basic controls there, so as long as you have your phone in your hands, you can control the TV.
The 6.83″ AMOLED display is beautiful, as we’ve come to expect from OPPO phones, with both bright and vivid colours thanks to the 10-bit colour and 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut support.
The phone display is capable of up to 120Hz refresh rate, making it smooth to scroll around or use in games and apps and the screen can easily be seen inside and outside thanks to the 1200 nits peak brightness. While there’s brighter screens on other devices, you won’t be disappointed with this one.
The audio is a pairing of the earpiece with the speaker on the bottom of the phone for stereo audio. There’s no Dolby or DTS audio enhancements on-board, but OPPO has baked in Spatial Audio and Holo Audio for a little extra.
The Reno 13 Pro uses a Mediatek Dimensity 8350 processor built on the 4 nm process. It’s paired with 12GB of DDR5 RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage.
It’s been a long road for Mediatek but they’re no longer being relegated to lower end, or mid-range handset with great performance and the octa-core Dimensity 8350 is a great example of this.
This is an impressive processor and it handles pretty much everything well with no lag. It’s fast to boot from power off or when restarting and it loads apps and games with ease. Switching apps or playing games is smooth and is all handled with ease.
As usual, it ran through Geekbench and 3DMark to see how it handles.
The rear camera island is stacked on the OPPO Reno 13 Pro 5G, with a 50MP main sensor, as well as a secondary 50MP sensor behind a 3.5x telephoto zoom and an 8MP ultra-wide sensor with 116° degree field of view that also acts as a macro camera. On the front is another 50MP sensor, embedded in a punch hole notch in the display.
The shots out of the Reno 13 Pro 5G are excellent, offering some great colour and depth of field. Using dual 50MP sensors – one for the main, and the other behind the 3.5x optical zoom means you don’t have to sacrifice quality which you tend to find with the ultrawide which is good but does miss some of the depth of field with the wider shots.
That said, the ultrawide has a great autofocus so you can get down to a more macro field of view and capture some good close up shots – better than the dedicated 2MP macro camera on the Reno13 F.
The telephoto at 3.5x zoom looks good, and does blast right out to 120x zoom if you need it but the processing is quite extreme, but the 7x digital stop does look ok.
The low-light shots from the main sensor are excellent, with good depth and shadowing, and you get similar results on the telephoto sensor, though the ultrawide does lose a bit of the colour reproduction.
One neat feature is the underwater mode. The IP69 rating lets you use the Reno13 Pro 5G confidently when around water and you can dunk it without fear of wrecking your device.
You can take photos or video using the volume buttons and power button rather than the screen to start and stop, a great idea when you have wet hands trying to keep hold of the phone and take a shot.
Overall, this is a great camera to have in your hand almost anywhere and at any time of the day.
There’s a huge array of AI powered camera features included in the Reno13 Pro, bringing them up to par with the offerings found in the camera systems from Google and Samsung.
You get some great options here like an AI reflection remover and portrait enhancer in both day and low-light conditions as well as Best Take, AI image erasers and AI re-imaging adding details, as well as motion tools like AI Unblur and AI Clarity enhancer,
You also get OPPO’s AI LivePhoto – an option that uses the Electronic Image stabilisation on-board to capture 1.5 seconds before and after the shot to create a live photo, and you can share them with iOS users using O-Connect.
The Reno13 Pro includes a 5800mAh battery and supports 80W SuperVOOC charging, with a nice white power brick and cable included in the box.
The battery and charging on OPPO phones is always good. Their SuperVOOC charging tech is one of the best in the world, getting the battery back to full charge quickly, while keeping it healthy. The charging on the Reno13 Pro is no different, with a long life and super fast charging.
In terms of battery life, this phone is a winner, easily lasting through a full day and well into the next with moderate to high use. If you slowed down your usage, you could very likely get a full two days out of it.
The SuperVOOC charging is impressive with my testing getting me from dead flat to just over 40% in 15 minutes, while you can get a full charge in just 49 minutes. That’s impressive no matter what.
The only thing I don’t like about the OPPO chargers is the colour – white shows up everything!!
The OPPO Reno 13 series launched with Android 15, with Color OS 15 along for the ride, bringing OPPO’s design influence, customisation options and features to the software. The Android 15 software includes five OS updates, with the phone set to receive 6 years of quarterly security updates.
It’s not quite up there with Samsung and Google who offer 7 years of security updates, as well as OS updates, but it’s pretty close and does show a commitment to the phones.
The Reno13 Pro comes with the December security update, but there’s Over The Air (OTA) updates waiting to take you to April – right on schedule for the quarterly update.
ColorOS itself is so versatile that the plethora of options available is almost overwhelming. The search in the settings menu is fantastic for finding the setting you want. Some highlights for me are the floating window support – which works pretty well if you plug the phone into a larger display as well as just working on the phone screen. You can also use the Smart Sidebar, a little tab that holds your apps, shortcuts and smart suggestions.
The design of OPPO’s ColorOS is a little divisive with the AquaMorphic design a fair way off from Google’s Material Design. The OPPO AquaMorphic design is more in tune with circles and lighter colours with a focus on rounded corners and widgets like their Aqua Dynamics panels which use bubbles, capsules, and panels to display information. They’re collapsible for some, and can sit almost anywhere on your screen which makes them very helpful for showing up to date info like now-playing info.
The design also covers the look of ColorOS in the settings, and Quick Settings, which have a distinct look and feel. I love the volume and brightness sliders and the adaptive widget that can drop in when you’re playing music.
Like a lot of devices these days, there’s AI infused throughout the ColorOS install on the Reno13 Pro 5G. From the inclusion of Google’s Gemini AI, to AI Camera features and AI apps like AI Studio.
Gemini has replaced Google Assistant going forward, so you can just jump right in and try it out. The AI camera features are definitely good to use, and AI Studio offers different generative AI options for imagery, which is, if you use it, fun, however I find myself not in need of generating an image all that often.
There’s not too much AI slapping you in the face in ColorOS, instead it’s mostly there to help when you need it like Gemini and the AI Camera tools, or just as an option if you want some fun like in AI studio. Like most people I’m waiting for the killer AI app or service, but it’s fairly well done here.
Here’s where the OPPO Reno13 Pro 5G creeps into the not so good territory with an absolute heaping of pre-installed apps and games – as well as a few handy tools and apps.
The handy tools and apps like the recorder, IR Remote and FM Radio etc. are great, offering some tools to use without having to search and download. OPPO has been including these apps for years as part of ColorOS and they add to the utility of the phone. Where OPPO has strayed is by including a load of apps including AliExpress, Booking.com, TikTok, Temu and LinkedIn all pre-installed when you login.
These apps, which we’ve previously seen pre-installed by other manufacturers, can be removed, however it’s annoying to be required to do so on your new phone.
OPPO also include their App Market, an app store which they’ve also decided to pre-install games from so you get notifications about those needing updates if you leave them installed.
It’s a mix of good and frustrating on the pre-installed app front – but you can uninstall the bloat.
The OPPO Reno 13 Pro 5G offers a top-shelf option with a wallet-friendly price compared to some of the more expensive devices on the market.
The hardware is as packed full of features as you can possibly get while still calling it a ‘mid-tier’ device. The display and battery life are excellent, the camera offers great shots in almost any conditions and it comes with a decently long software update schedule. There’s also the IR blaster which should be included on every phone and elevates this phone to another level in terms of value.
The situation with the pre-installed apps isn’t great, however you can uninstall them and if you want your dollars to stretch a little further to get something just a little more premium then the OPPO Reno13 5G is the phone for you.
The OPPO Reno13 Pro 5G is available now for $1,299 in Plume Purple and Graphite Grey. You can see it in-store at JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks, Harvey Norman, or see more and grab it online through OPPO’s online store.
Daniel has been talking about, learning about and using tech since he was able to toggle switches and push buttons. If it flashes, turns on or off or connects he wants to use it, talk about it and learn more about it. Like this article? Buy me a coffee!
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