Oppo Ireland makes a 5G splash with a trio of new smartphone launches

Reno4 Pro 5G does everything well; some very well, says Noel Campion

Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G front

Chinese mobile phone maker Oppo established a base here in Ireland at the start of this year. “We’re thrilled to bring the latest devices from Oppo to the Irish market,” said Thomas Mason, general manager, Oppo Ireland at the launch of their new handsets recently.

Although new to these shores Oppo has become one of the biggest smartphone companies in the world after releasing its first mobile phone in 2008.

In the run-up to Christmas, Oppo Ireland will have three new phones available. I’ve been testing the Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G for the last few weeks, which is available from November 2 along with the Reno4 Z 5G and A53 4G.

Design

Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G in Galactic Blue.

The Reno4 Pro is a sleek looking device with lots of premium materials and a gorgeous finish on my review unit of the Galactic Blue colour. There's also a Space Black colour option.

It feels relatively light (172g) and compact despite the large 6.5-inch display thanks to tiny bezels on either side of the screen although the top and bottom bezels are a little larger than the sides. In the top left of the screen is a small punch hole cutout for the selfie camera. The larger top bezel does house a speaker grill which means the Reno4 Pro has a stereo sound setup.

The screen has rounded edges and large round corners, which is on-trend for 2020. The back of the Galactic Blue is all glass and also has round edges making the phone comfortable to hold. 

The Galactic Blue model has a frosted finish, which I love because it doesn’t pick up fingerprints and it isn’t slippy either. The metal frame is polished and is one of the few phones that are capable of standing on its own, due to the flat bottom edge. 

Here you’ll also find the dual SIM tray, mic, USB-C and bottom-firing speaker grille.

Around the back is the triple, vertically stacked camera system complete with flash and laser autofocus.

Display

The 6.5-inch OLED display is one of the highlights of the Reno4 Pro. It has a 90Hz refresh rate which is fantastic for smoother scrolling and a zippier UI experience. You can also set this to auto where the system automatically switches between 60Hz and 90Hz to improve battery performance.

The display has a peak brightness of 1,100nits and is colour accurate with 100% DC-P3 colour. Contrast and colour saturation are excellent and when watching movies the images really pop thanks to the 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio. 

I had no problem seeing the Reno4 Pro display in bright sunlight, but the display is capable of getting really dim which is great for using it in near darkness without lighting around you and hurting your eyes.

Viewing angles are good with no colour shifting and although this is only a 1080p display, it’s super sharp and crystal clear. There seems to be a trend towards full HD over higher resolution displays this year resulting in improved battery life and reduced production costs. In the end, most of us can’t tell the difference anyway. 

Personally, I’d rather have full HD with a 90Hz refresh rate with good battery life than a higher resolution display with diminished battery performance.

Although the display does support HDR content, neither Netflix nor Prime Video provides support for it on the Reno4 Pro. This is not a dealbreaker given the limited range of HDR content but is strange given the capabilities of the display.

I was able to stream HDR content from apps like YouTube. I watched a HDR trailer for Will Smith's Gemini Man and the detail in shadows and highlights was excellent.

Features

Biometric security includes an under-display fingerprint reader. I found it difficult to get either of my thumbs registered for some reason. 

I had less of an issue registering my index fingers but I use them a lot less to unlock a phone with an in-display sensor. 

Unlocking the phone is generally quick, but sometimes it would take a little longer. This is about the same as I’ve found with most in-display sensors. 

A really nice feature of Oppo’s Colour OS is that you can change the fingerprint unlock animation from a choice of eight. 

Face unlock is also supported and this works flawlessly and is almost instant.

Unfortunately, there’s no official IP water-proof rating or wireless charging option. However, you do get Oppo’s 65w Super VOOC 2.0 wired charging which can go from empty to fully charged in 40 minutes, which more than makes up for the lack of the latter.

Contents

In the box, you’ll find the 65W Super VOOC charger, USB-C cable, transparent case, SIM ejector tool and a set of USB-C headphones since there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack. The Reno4 Pro also comes with a pre-installed screen protector.

Cameras

The Oppo Reno 4 Pro’s standard camera uses a 48MP 0.8 µm onto a 1/2-type (8.0 mm diagonal) unit, with an f/1.7 lens and OIS. Then there’s the 12MP ultrawide camera and a 13MP 2x optical with 5x hybrid and up to 20x digital.

An interesting discovery during my testing shows that the main lens is used for 2x in low light probably due to its wider aperture. The telephoto lens has a slower aperture and would result in more noise so it’s only used when the light is good. 

This all happens without the user knowing and is a technique I’ve seen on other smartphone cameras.

The camera app is clean and simple making it excellent for point-and-shoot snaps. The layout is logical and options like HDR, flash and filters are quick and easy to enable from the main screen. All the usual modes are present here too including Night mode (available on all three cameras), Video, Photo, Portrait and under more, there’s Text Scanner, Sticker, Google Lens, Movie, Pro Expert, Pano, Extra HD, Slo-Mo and Time-lapse.

Night mode is excellent and comparable to many flagship cameras from the likes of Samsung but not as good as Pixel or Huawei top shooters.

Portrait mode does a good job of isolating the subject and blurring out the background. Skin colours look natural and I like that Oppo doesn’t smoothen the skin unless you enable beauty mode. You can adjust the amount of background blur before you take a portrait shot but not afterwards.

Portrait mode only works on the 1x lens. It’s a pity you can’t use the 2x as well.

Colour balance from each of the three cameras is good too but I did notice some shifts from warm to cold colours in different lighting between cameras. Colour saturation and accuracy is generally spot on and looks natural even in landscapes with lots of autumnal colours.

The ultra-wide camera isn’t a weakness here either with decent sharpness and distortion correction.

Video is excellent although there's no 4K 60fps. If you want to shoot in 4K you can only do so using the main lens. Stabilisation is impressively smooth too, especially at 1080p which provides the best features and all-round quality.

Pro mode for video has lots of manual controls including white balance, AF, ISO and shutter speed. You can enable electronic image stabilisation here too, but this will incur a hefty crop.

Overall, image quality is excellent from all three cameras which product fine details, good contrast and well-controlled levels of noise.

Performance

The Reno4 Pro 5G uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, a mid-range chipset although it does come with 12GB of RAM and 256GB storage but no expandable storage. 

In everyday use, I found performance excellent, in part thanks to the more than capable 765G and 90Hz display but also Oppo’s Colour OS which is slick, helpful and highly customisable.

I’m not a heavy gamer, but all of the games I ran on it had no issues running smooth and fast. The 4,000mAh battery is more than capable of lasting an entire day but heavy users will appreciate the lightning-fast charging that can get you to 60% in 15 minutes.

Verdict

The Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G is an excellent all-round phone that does everything well and some things exceptionally. Although 5G isn’t a reason to buy this phone, it’s good to know it has it for future-proofing into the coming years.

Power users, who want the latest tech top-end tech might want to look elsewhere but should expect to pay more. The Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G offers a good balance between value and performance in a package that looks great for everyone else.

Available from eir and three from €799 on prepay and on various billpay plans.