Oppo Reno review

Who is the Oppo Reno for?

Someone obsessed with a unique design

The comfortable fitting curves of the Oppo Reno and its ‘shark-fin’ selfie camera make it a unique prospect. There’s no other phone like it and you end up getting an immersive all screen design in the process too.

You value good battery backup

In combination with the phone’s display resolution and mid-range processor, the 3,765mAh performs above than average in most circumstances. Given Oppo’s 20W VOOC charging support, waiting for your phone to charge will become a thing of the past.

You don’t want to spend as much as a flagship

As comprehensive as the phone is, the Oppo Reno makes its share of sacrifices. A slower processor or the lack of a dedicated ultra-wide angle lens are just some of them. If you can live with those sacrifices, this is the ideal choice.

Who’s it not for?

You want the best multimedia experience

In spite of its 6.4-inch bezel-free display, something that weighs down the phone’s overall media consumption experience is its speaker. Particularly when watching videos or playing games, the natural grip of your hand can easily interfere with sound and silence it completely. The lack of stereo speakers means you will not get a rich and full sound experience.

You are an Android purist

No matter how smooth OEM skins get, very few give you the look and feel of a pure Android. Oppo’s Color OS has neither and also its fair share of bloatware so puts it down in the pecking order for people who nitpick software.

Competition

Xiaomi Mi 9

Priced exactly the same as the Oppo Reno, Xiaomi’s Mi 9 brings you a much higher-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor but with half the storage at 128GB. 

It has more refined optics including OIS and an ultra-wide angle lens and supports fast wireless charging. You do lose out on the wow factor of the ‘shark-fin’ selfie camera or the truly bezel-less display of the Oppo Reno

• Read our Xiaomi Mi 9 review