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Oppo Reno 8 Pro Review: Every bit as performant and high-end as premium fla
Oppo Reno 8 Pro Review: Every bit as performant and high-end as premium flagships
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro may not be armed to the teeth, meaning it’s not positioned as a flagship device on the market. But having used it as my primary phone for the better part of the last couple of weeks, I can say it’s every bit as high-end and performant as other premium devices in 2022. It comes with advantages and disadvantages of its own, but the Reno 8 Pro might actually be better than many other upper mid-range phones that are available out there. It’s not without its flaws, but I think the Reno 8 Pro hits a lot of right notes you’d expect from a flagship phone and it shines with a few unique features of its own. For me, the Reno 8 Pro excels with its overall fit and finish and in the camera department. You also get an excellent AMOLED display with small and uniform bezels and a reliable in-display fingerprint sensor. The MediaTek Dimensity 8100-Max can push through all the day-to-day workloads with ease but it struggles a bit with some resource-intensive tasks. Oppo’s ColorOS — though it ships with a lot of bloatware — gracefully runs the show with a ton of impressive customization options and unique features. The company has also left no stones unturned in the battery department as the Reno 8 Pro easily lasts through an entire day without breaking a sweat. It also charges incredibly fast with a beefy 80W charger that is included in the box, so there’s not much to complain about, really. There’s clearly a lot to like about this phone but let’s dive deep into the Oppo Reno 8 Pro review to learn more about it in detail and find out how it competes with other super mid-rangers in this segment.
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Oppo Reno 8 Pro review: Specifications Here’s a quick look at the Oppo Reno 8 Pro’s specifications to give you an idea of what it brings to the table: Specification Oppo Reno 8 Pro Build
About this review: Oppo India sent us the Reno 8 Pro smartphone in Glazed Green colorway for testing. This review was written after spending about a week with the phone. Oppo had no input in this article. Oppo Reno 8 Pro Review: Design and build quality
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro measures 7.34mm in thickness and weighs 183 grams, making it one of the thinnest and lightest phones you can buy right now. The chamfered edges on the aluminum frame make it slightly easier to hold but I don’t feel particularly confident using it with one hand because of how tall it really is. The Reno 8 Pro is almost as tall as the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, so I’d say it’s not the most comfortable phone to hold for folks with small hands. You can always slap a case to get a better grip and also to protect it from accidental drops. There’s one included in the retail box which I think serves the purpose. The Reno 8 Pro also has great haptics which adds to the overall premium feel of the device. I’ve maxed out the haptic intensity from the settings (Settings > Sound & Vibration > Haptics and tones) and the phone offers tight feedback with no rattles. The power and volume buttons on both sides of the phone press down with a satisfying click, so no issues there either. There’s a USB Type-C port at the bottom along with speaker grills. The secondary speaker sits within the earpiece cavity on the top. There’s no headphone jack on the phone and Oppo doesn’t bundle the device with a pair of USB-C earbuds either, so keep that in mind. The Reno 8 Pro looks and feels like a high-end premium phone that's built to compete with more expensive flagships out therefigure.center { margin-top: 0px !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; } .quotecenter { width: 80%; float: none; margin: auto; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; color: #de7300; } figure.wp-block-pullquote.quotestyle { border-top: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; } blockquote.centerquotestyle { color: #006e95 !important; } @media only screen and (max-width: 600px) { .quotecenter { width: 90%; } } Overall, I think the Oppo Reno 8 Pro looks and feels like a high-end premium phone that’s built to compete with more expensive flagships out there. The back design with a single piece of glass gives it a stylish look and a luxurious in-hand feel while using it. The tall form factor of the phone may take some time to get used to, especially if you have small hands like me but I have no other issues with the design and build quality of the phone. The Reno 8 Pro looks and feels better than the OnePlus 10R which has a plastic back. Oppo Reno 8 Pro Review: Display
The Reno 8 Pro's display can refresh at 120Hz which paves way for some smooth animations and UI transitions.figure.center { margin-top: 0px !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; } .quotecenter { width: 80%; float: none; margin: auto; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; color: #de7300; } figure.wp-block-pullquote.quotestyle { border-top: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; } blockquote.centerquotestyle { color: #006e95 !important; } @media only screen and (max-width: 600px) { .quotecenter { width: 90%; } } Specs-wise, the display on the Reno 8 Pro can refresh at 120Hz which paves way for some smooth animations and UI transitions. This isn’t an LTPO panel, so you can only lock it either at a 60Hz refresh rate to conserve battery or go all in for a 120Hz refresh rate for a better experience. I recommend using a 120Hz refresh rate because the battery life is impressive regardless, as I’ve mentioned in the battery life section below. The Reno 8 Pro’s AMOLED display also gets bright enough to be used under direct sunlight. Notably, you also get a ‘Bright HDR mode’ which automatically increases the brightness whenever it detects HDR media. The display itself is great in terms of contrast and color rendition. It may not be as sharp as some other smartphone displays out there, but I think it’s great for day-to-day usage and even media consumption. The great image quality coupled with a 360Hz touch sampling rate makes it a treat for gamers too. You can easily run some graphically demanding titles like the new Apex Legends Mobile at max graphics settings and enjoy some smooth visuals. It’s an excellent display overall, and it’s easily one of the best things about this phone. Oppo Reno 8 Pro Review: Cameras
The Reno 8 Pro, in case you’re wondering, isn’t the first phone to equip the MariSilicon X NPU as the Find X5 Pro also used it to take better low-light videos. But does it really work? Yes, the MariSilicon X NPU helps the Reno 8 Pro capture better footage in scenes with less than ideal lighting conditions. Here’s a quick video sample in which the Reno 8 Pro’s video footage looks slightly brighter than what the Galaxy S22 Ultra was able to capture. The Reno 8 Pro’s footage looks noticeably sharper in my opinion. The dark corners in the video and even the texture on the handle of the door, as you can see, look noticeably darker and noisier in the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s footage. Neither of these videos looks good from a quality standpoint, but the Reno 8 Pro’s footage is more usable if you want to see what’s happening in the scene. Additionally, you can also use some neat filters to extract and highlight the red, green, and blue colors in the frame. The Reno 8 Pro uses the power of MariSilicon X NPU to process the filter and highlight the colors in real-time as you’re recording the footage. Here, take a look: It works well for the most part but I noticed that it struggles a bit when the objects in the frame are moving too quickly. It’s not necessarily a deal-breaker because I think it still does a fantastic job of processing such an exhaustive filter in real-time as you’re capturing the footage, and not after the fact. Similarly, you can also record a selfie video and have the phone highlight just your skin tone while applying a monochrome filter to the rest of the frame. These features work for both photos and videos. Main camera The Reno 8 Pro doesn’t benefit from the MariSilicon X in the photography department, but thankfully the sensors and image processing are enough to pump out some good-looking shots. This phone captures great photos both during the day as well as at night time. The colors are a bit too saturated to my liking but I think the samples turned out well overall. Almost all the samples captured using the Reno 8 Pro were in overcast weather, so I’d say the lighting was less than ideal in all these samples. The phone managed to make the photos and video look true to the actual weather conditions, without over-processing them, which is good. The images captured using the primary sensor have plenty of details. The exposure is on point and the camera’s shutter speed is also quick, thereby allowing you to take shots of, say, a moving object. The Reno 8 Pro managed to capture some good photos in low-light, but it isn't consistent.figure.center { margin-top: 0px !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; } .quotecenter { width: 80%; float: none; margin: auto; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; color: #de7300; } figure.wp-block-pullquote.quotestyle { border-top: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; } blockquote.centerquotestyle { color: #006e95 !important; } @media only screen and (max-width: 600px) { .quotecenter { width: 90%; } } The low-light images captured using the main sensors weren’t as good as the ones captured during the day with enough light. The Reno 8 Pro did manage to capture some good photos in low-light, but it isn’t consistent. There’s significantly more noise in the low-light images as you can see in the samples below. The shot of the Oppo Enco X2 earbuds attached below is a good example of a significantly softer image when there’s not enough light in the scene. Sadly, turning on the phone’s night mode didn’t make the images look any better. Ultra-wide camera The secondary 8MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide camera offers 112-degree FoV, and it captures some great shots provided there’s enough light in the scene. As soon as you take away the light or shoot in the dark at night time, the images lose a lot of details and introduce a lot of noise. Here are a few ultra-wide shots juxtaposed next to the main camera shot to give you an idea of what the images look like: Macro Lastly, there’s a 2MP macro camera at the back which works as advertised to help you capture some close-up shots. I prefer a telephoto lens over these macro sensors on smartphones, but I was able to capture some good shots with the Reno 8 Pro’s macro mode. Selfies The Oppo Reno 8 Pro comes with a 32MP Sony IMX709 sensor on the front for selfies. I noticed that the selfie camera had a hard time getting the exposure right in some tricky shots with a lot of light in the background. You can get it right eventually, but I was quite surprised to see just how much time it took to lock the exposure. The selfies themselves have a lot of details and I like the fact that Oppo doesn’t force beauty filters anymore. Oppo Reno 8 Pro Review: Performance and Software
However, the Reno 8 Pro takes a considerable hit when you push the limits of its chipset with a sustained load. For instance, a 15-minute CPU stress test made it warm to the touch and the CPU throttled to about 80-percent of its max performance. Granted you’re not going to make the Reno 8 Pro fire all its cylinders at all times, but I noticed the frame rates drop down to 80FPS while playing a game of Battlegrounds Mobile India (the Indian version of PUBG Mobile). It’s not necessarily a deal-breaker as the game still outputs 90FPS for the most part. But don’t be surprised to see some occasional frame drops as the device starts to heat up over an extended period of time. I saw similar behavior in other games like Apex Legends Mobile while running it at the maxed-out 60FPS setting. We would like to give special thanks to the team at GameBench for the tool they provided us. Their tool makes it possible for any person, whether it be a regular user, journalist, or engineer, to test a mobile game?s performance on an Android device. Check out GameBench to learn more. A 15-minute CPU stress test made it warm to the touch and the CPU throttled to about 80-percent of its max performance.figure.center { margin-top: 0px !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; } .quotecenter { width: 80%; float: none; margin: auto; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; color: #de7300; } figure.wp-block-pullquote.quotestyle { border-top: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; } blockquote.centerquotestyle { color: #006e95 !important; } @media only screen and (max-width: 600px) { .quotecenter { width: 90%; } } Here are some numbers for those that care about benchmarks. The Reno 8 Pro even managed to finish 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme stress test with almost 94-percent stability. It’s particularly impressive considering how a lot of smartphones fail to even finish this test. A big part of Reno 8 Pro’s snappy performance in day-to-day usage can be accredited to the ColorOS software too. The phone ships with ColorOS v12.1 (build no: CPH2357_11_A.09) out of the box, which runs on top of Android 12 and offers a ton of customization options. I am not a huge fan of Android skins with heavy UI elements but the ColorOS has got to be an exception because it brings a lot of meaningful features that are otherwise missing on stock Android. ColorOS makes it incredibly easy to open multiple apps in floating windows, allowing you to take advantage of the big screen for multi-tasking. I must warn you that you’ll see a lot of pre-installed apps on this phone out of the box. I was able to count more than ten applications that I would never install on my phone. But thankfully most of them can either be uninstalled or hidden from plain sight so you’ll never have to see them. This isn’t necessarily a problem with just Oppo phones, but I hope to see bloatware-free devices in the future. Pre-installed apps on the Reno 8 Pro retail unit Some other noteworthy features of ColorOS include a built-in screen recorder, and the ability to clone apps or even hide them along with your private files inside a vault. Oppo also promises to deliver two more major OS updates and up to four years of security updates to the Reno 8 Pro. Oppo Reno 8 Pro Review: Battery life
The Reno 8 Pro is a phone that you can trust to get you through even the busiest days with a lot of screen time./* Pull quote size and added line-height .wp-block-pullquote p { font-size: 1.75rem; line-height: 1.5; } */ figure.quoteright { margin-top: 0px !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; } .quoteright { width: 50%; float: right; margin: 0em 1em; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-bottom: 0px !important; } .wp-block-pullquote p { font-size: 1.75rem; line-height: 1.5; color: #de7300; } figure.wp-block-pullquote.pullrightstyle { border-top: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; } blockquote.rightquotestyle { color: #006e95 !important; } @media only screen and (max-width: 600px) { .quoteright { float: none; width: 90%; margin: auto; } .wp-block-pullquote { padding: 0rem; } } The Reno 8 Pro also supports Oppo’s SuperVOOC charging and it ships with an 80W charger in the box. You can charge the phone up to 50-percent in just 11 minutes, which is impressive, to say the least. Even a full charge to 100-percent will take less than 40 minutes with the included charger, so the Reno 8 Pro is highly reliable with the battery backup overall. Oppo is also packing in its Battery Health Engine on this device, promising that the battery will hold 80% of its original capacity up to the 1600 charging cycle mark, vs the 800 charging cycle mark which is said to be the industry standard. Unfortunately, we do not have the means to verify this claim. The Reno 8 Pro doesn’t support wireless charging, though, so you’ll have to look elsewhere for the luxury of dropping your phone on a charging pad. Should you buy the Reno 8 Pro? The Oppo Reno 8 Pro costs ?45,999 (roughly $575) in India for the model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. This is the only variant you can buy in the country, so keep that in mind. The Reno 8 Pro goes against the likes of the OnePlus 10R for the same piece of the pie. The OnePlus 10R is relatively cheaper but I think the Oppo Reno 8 Pro goes above and beyond to offer a much better user experience overall. One might argue that they’re both peas from the same pod but I’d say the Reno 8 Pro is better equipped overall. I was truly surprised by how much I enjoyed using the Reno 8 Pro as my daily driver for the past week or so, something which I can’t really say with a straight face for a lot of smartphones. The Reno 8 Pro looks and feels like a true flagship phone, even though its price tag may suggest otherwise. It has one of the best displays in this segment and I found the cameras to be a bit more reliable than, say, the OnePlus 10R’s optics, thanks to Oppo’s image processing. The MariSilicon X NPU also extends its support, allowing the Reno 8 Pro to pull off some cool tricks to further improve the experience. The MediaTek Dimensity 8100-Max also performs admirably well to tackle the day-to-day workloads, but the phone tends to heat up more than I’d like, so make a note of that. All things considered, the Reno 8 Pro easily feels like one of the best Reno phones Oppo has released, and I highly recommend it to those who are looking to get a flagship-level experience without burning a huge hole in their pockets. You should buy the Reno 8 Pro if:
Are you interested in buying the Oppo Reno 8 Pro? Let us know by dropping a line in the comments below. The post Oppo Reno 8 Pro Review: Every bit as performant and high-end as premium flagships appeared first on XDA. More... |
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