Oppo Reno 2: Amazing value flagship beating smartphone
Oppo Reno 2 is Oppo’s new smartphone with quad rear camera and a swivel out selfie camera with amazingly good value. The sleek and premium looking device, captures great photos and videos, offers plenty of performance and battery life with a full screen display to boot. Definitely the flagship beater to consider.
Design
Given its price point, one would wonder if this phone is any good at all. You will be pleasantly surprised. The Reno 2 breaks the mould of flagship killers by playing slightly down on the processor. Using an above average processor, series 7 instead of bleeding edge top of the range 8 series it mean the company can focus on other areas of the phone. And, it has done so tremendously well, improving on all other areas of a smartphone that we love.
Without cutting any corners in the design and looks department, what you end up with is a premium and luxury handset with full display. This is thanks to swivel up selfie camera and in display fingerprint sensor. The full display has even and right up to the edge bezels except for the bottom chin bezel. This is slightly bigger than the top or size bezels but not so big that it stands out.
Key Design Improvements
- Screen to Body Ratio: 93.1%
- Frame Thickness: 3.35 mm(4% Improvement over Reno)
- Durable Screen: Corning® Gorilla Glass® 6
On the back, you find the four cameras arranged in a line vertically, located in the top centre of the phone instead of in a cluster of 2 x 2 on the left corner. This is followed by a rounded vertical column that houses the Oppo brand and the words ‘Designed for Reno’. A single piece of 3D curved glass covers the back including the cameras for an uninterrupted flat surface. On top of that, it is finished in ‘Twilight Mist’ combining deep hues and neon detail giving it an iridescent colour that moves in different light. The two shades on offer are luminous black and ocean blue.
It has been a while since we had an uninterrupted backplate, especially with the growing number or lenses on the back of the camera. Oppo manages to put the camera lenses behind the glass backplate. This means no ugly and sometimes discerning camera bumps.
Amazing Value Flagship Beating Smartphone
This may be a mid-range device given Oppo’s choice of processor but there is nothing on the phone to suggest that this is a cut price device. Using top of the line chip from Qualcomm’s 7 series mobile platform with spacious 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, the phone will fly through any games and apps you care to throw at it.
But Oppo does not stop there, it employs the tried and tested Reno series’s swivel-up camera mechanism, a pivot rising camera design that raises the camera quickly in 0.8s and comes with free-fall protection. We have seen this on the Reno and the Reno 10x Zoom. It uses not three but four cameras for the main shooter and supports fast charging.
Big full screen AMOLED display with no bezel or cut-outs, fast charging, huge capacity battery, quad camera setup, swivel out selfie camera and powerful processor with ample memory and storage, what is not to like.
AMOLED Display
The first generation Reno and Reno 10x Zoom come with a 6.4-inch and a 6.6-inch display respectively. It has barely been 7 months and we are seeing the second generation, the Reno2. This time it settles on an in between display size of 6.5-inch. All Reno phones are full screen devices thanks to the swivel up camera.
Key Display Improvements
- Major increase in display brightness (600–700nits in outdoor mode, max. 800nits).
- Contrast: 1000000:1
- Harmful Blue Light Reduction: 37.5%
- Full Care Display Certification by TÜV Rheinland.
Quad Main Camera
Apart from the display size, there are no great changes to the design moving from the first generation device to the Reno 2. The biggest upgrade has to be the rear main shooter. It has been upgraded from a dual camera arrangement in the first edition to a four camera arrangement.
The original Reno has two cameras while the Reno 10x Zoom has a triple camera setup. Oppo is not taking any changes with Reno2, giving it not three but four cameras. These include a 48MP main camera, a 13MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom, a 2MP depth sensing camera and an 8MP ultra wide angle.
Together the cameras achieve a 5x hybrid zoom and up to 20x digital zoom. That is equivalent to 16–83mm Focal Length. Other areas of the camera worth mentioning is the Ultra Dark Mode that combines AI Noise Reduction, Fine-Tuned Performance and NPU Acceleration to allow the cameras to capture objects even in pitch black. For those who love capturing portrait, use the all new AI Beauty Mode, large aperture bokeh effect, HDR portrait and more to capture that perfect portrait.
Here are the camera details again below.
- 48MP Ultra-clear Main Camera: Sony IMX586 | 1/2.0” Sensor, F/1.7 Aperture | OIS
- 13MP Telephoto Lens: 1/3.4” Sensor | F/2.4 Aperture | Auto focus,
- 8MP Wide Angle Lens: 116° | 1/3.2” Sensor | F/2.2 Aperture
- 2MP Mono Lens: 1/5” Sensor | 1.75um large pixels | O6 portrait mode | F/2.4 Aperture
Gaming Performance & Cooling
The phone uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G chipset. The mobile platform is a series down from the more popular 8 series used on flagship devices. Still, being a higher than average mobile platform, the chip is no slouch. Using Snapdragon Elite Gaming features you get an additional 15% graphics boost over the standard Snapdragon 730. Plus, it offers plenty of AI to optimise captured images using Qualcomm AI Engine.
The phone handles games on the highest settings without breaking a sweat. The onboard cooling system keeps everything running smoothly without overheating.
To sum it up, the Oppo Reno 2, based on Snapdragon 730G mobile platform is a a powerful phone that is suitable for gaming with support for True HDR, rich graphics and cinema quality processing. The Qualcomm Kryo 470 CPU, an 8nm processor clocks up to 2.2GHz while being extremely power efficient. While the enhance Qualcomm Adreno 618 GPU delivers up to 25% faster graphics rendering compared to its predecessor.
To stay cool, Reno2 uses a mix of three different cooling tech. These are cooling gel, triple graphite layering and copper pipes. Feel free to push the phone without worrying about the device overheating. In addition to that, the gaming experience is further enhanced with Game Boost 2.0. Again, a combination of three high performance game tools; FrameBoost 2.0, TouchBoost 2.0 and EngineBoost.
Together with up to 8GB RAM memory and up to 256GB ROM storage, you have a phone that will not only deliver but exceed all expectations.
Dolby Atmos and Hi-Res Audio Sound System
Oppo Reno 2 supports Dolby Atmos for an immersive audio experience be it for gaming, watching videos or listening to music. The latter includes Hi-Res Audio support. With the right headset, the phone can playback and reproduce the full range of sound from lossless audio files at high sampling rate and quality that rivals the CD quality.
High Capacity Battery & Fast Charging
With a huge 4000mAh battery capacity, the Oppo Reno 2 will last up to 8 hours of continuous gaming or up to 13 hours of continuous video playback. On average, it is enough to last you through the day and if you need to top it up, the phone supports VOOC Flash Charge 3.0, the company’s fast charging function. In other words, you can quickly top up to 51% of charge in as little as 30 minutes should you need to rush off.
Final Thoughts
The step-up in performance compared to its already impressive predecessor is to be expected from one generation to the next but don’t expect a big jump. However, the upgrade in camera alone is enough to turn heads and make you sit up and listen to what this phone has to offer particularly when it is offered at the same price point as its predecessor.
