Review: OPPO Reno13 F 5G — a premium user experience for under $600?

This year, OPPO is bringing all three versions of the Reno13 to Australia. We have already checked out the standard Reno13 5G and the Reno13 Pro. We came away impressed with both of these, and while they could be considered mid-range smartphones, they are at the top end of that range.

Over 54% of smartphones sold in Australia are priced under $700, which equates to 80,000 sub-$700 phones per week! While the two Reno13 phones reviewed previously are excellent phones, they start at $899. Enter the Reno13 F 5G.

The OPPO Reno13 F is exceptionally similar to the Reno13 5G in design, but the hardware inside makes it a $599 smartphone instead of a $899 smartphone (Reno13 5G).  Now the big question is: Does the drop in specs inside the phone make much of a difference to the user experience?  Read on to hear my thoughts.

Hardware differences

Just like the Reno13 5G, the Reno13 F is Luminous Blue and under some lighting conditions and angles it looks a blueish hue but on others a shade of purple.  OPPO’s colouring is great and just adds to the premium feel of the phone.

The Reno13 F is square and angular around the sides like so many phones these days, but the corners are very slightly curved to allow it to sit comfortably in your hand. It looks virtually identical to the Reno13 5G, so much so that I had to leave the silver sticker on the rear of the Reno13 F to determine which phone it was.

The Reno13 F is bigger than the Reno13 5G by 4mm and has a 6.67-inch display compared to 6.59-inch in the Reno13 5G. Apart from the size, the displays look virtually identical.  The bezel on the F version is slightly larger than that on the Reno13 5G which undoubtedly adds to the price.

Both displays are AMOLED displays with a 120Hz refresh rate, but the difference is in the resolution. The Reno13 F has an FHD+ resolution, compared to the 2K that is in the Reno13 5G. As a general rule, when using the phone, the difference is not all that noticeable unless you are reading walls of text. The Reno13 F display is big and bright, with amazingly vivid colours that pop.  

We used to see MediaTek chipsets exclusively in cheaper phones a while ago, but not anymore. The Reno13 F houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 (4nm), whereas the Reno13 5G houses a 4nm MediaTek Dimensity 8350. There is a noticeable difference in power from one phone to the other, which I am putting down to the chipset, as there is nothing else that would slow the Reno13 F down when compared to the Reno13 5G.

Although noticeable, the difference does not affect the everyday experience all that much. You do notice the slight slowdown in navigating from one app to another and slower transitions, but it really does not affect your everyday experience. The speed is not super slow or anything deleterious to your experience; it is just slower than the MediaTek chipset.

One piece of hardware that we don’t normally see on a sub-$600 phone is an under-display optical fingerprint sensor. The sensor under the display in the Reno13 F is the same as that in the Reno13 5G and is once again placed extremely low on the display, but of course you get used to that. How OPPO managed to include this higher quality (than a power button sensor) sensor in such an affordable phone is beyond me but I am impressed.

Camera

Just like the Reno13 5G, the Reno13 F houses a triple rear camera setup, but the actual cameras included are not the same. While the main camera appears to be the same, a 50MP wide-angle camera, the ultrawide camera is still an 8MP camera, but it has a slightly smaller FOV, so it is not quite as good.

The third camera on the Reno13 F is a 2MP macro camera, while it is a depth camera in the Reno13 5G. Does that make much difference? From what I found, not in real-world scenarios.

The quality of the photos from the Reno13 F was really good.  As per usual, the images in decent light were good, with bright colour reproduction and really good detail.  The picture quality difference between the two cheaper Reno13 phones was minimal at best, showing just how capable the Reno13 F is/was.

The difference was evident in low-light imaging. While the Reno13 F’s imaging was decent, it lacked the detail of the 5G version and didn’t manage to pick up as much colour and light. You can see this in the images below. With such similar camera setups, it shows that the image signal processing (ISP) is better with the MediaTek chipset than the Snapdragon.

Software

I’m not going to cover the OPPO software again.  We’ve done it to death.  Needless to say, the Reno13 F brings the same software that the Reno13 5G does, with not just ColorOS 15 but also AI features.

If you want to check out just what is in the software, check out the software section in the Reno13 5G review.

All the features work just as well on the Reno13 F, albeit just a bit more slowly.

Battery life and charging

The Reno13 F arrives with a slightly larger battery than the Reno13 5G, at 5,800mAh versus 5,600mAh but it will not charge as fast as the Reno13 5G.  At a wired charging speed of just 45W, it is still OPPO’s SUPERVOOC charging protocol though.

This speed is still really fast though and very few non-OPPO phones can match this speed, even the ultra-premium phones on the market.  There is no wireless charging on the Reno13 F, which is not a massive issue with very few phones at this price including it.

As for battery life I found it to be slightly less than that of the Reno13 5G but still impressive.  A vast majority of users will not have an issue making this phone last a day off a single charge.  Power users are less likely to be buying this $599 phone though, so that cuts this number down even more. 

Final thoughts

The OPPO Reno13 F offers premium build quality with decent specs under the hood and the same software they OPPO include in their premium smartphones. With a Snapdragon chipset it powers through from one app to another, although it is a bit slower than the more expensive Reno13 5G.

The display is big and vivid, amazingly offering a good quality AMOLED display in a phone under $600. The fingerprint sensor is also their premium optical under display fingerprint sensor with incredibly fast and accurate responses.

The camera quality has improved over the Reno11 F of last year and although really good, it isn’t at the same quality as that of the Reno13 5G, but then that is $300 more expensive. Low-light imaging suffers, as it often does in cheaper phones but overall the camera quality is much better than you would expect from a phone priced under $600.

If you are looking for a phone under $600, I’d struggle to find a phone that I’d recommend more than the OPPO Reno13 F. It is exceptional value for money at its RRP. The OPPO Reno13 F 5G is available now at RRP $599 in Plume Purple and Luminous Blue at JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks, Harvey Norman, Big W and OPPO’s online store.