Oppo released their Reno5 Pro in Singapore in January 2021 at a retail selling price of S$899. I used the phone for one week and here’s what I think of it.
Overall feel and design
The Reno5 Pro retains the slim and sleek design that is characteristic of the earlier Oppo phones like the Reno 4 series. The phone weighs 173g and is 7.6mm thick, making it very comfortable to hold and easy to use. The phone design is typical of most phones so anyone can start using it without much issue.
In terms of colors, the phone is available in Starry Black and Galactic Silver. If you’re looking for a unique look, then I recommend the Galactic Silver as the colour of the back of the phone changes according to the direction of light, creating a pearlescent rainbow effect.
The phone is also dual-sim compatible
Audio
The phone does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack but Oppo included a pair of USB-C earphones along with the Reno5 Pro.
There is only a single loudspeaker, located at the bottom of the phone. It can get quite loud, but it’s still unfortunate that there isn’t a stereo speaker setup
Battery
It has a 4350mAh battery, which provides a day and a half of normal usage which is decent. The phone does not have wireless charging capabilities but the SuperVOOC charging system is very reliable and provides fast charging times.
Display and performance
The Reno5 Pro runs on ColorOS11, which provides a variety of customisation options under the Personalisations tab. You can easily change your phone’s theme, wallpaper, fonts, app layouts and a whole bunch of other settings
The phone sports a 6.55 inch Super AMOLED display running at 90hz and provides a crisp and vibrant imagery for all kinds of media.
The Reno5 Pro runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ processor with 12gb of ram. It also has 256gb of storage, which is great, since it does not support expandable storage
It’s performance for everyday use is smooth and reliable
It can play most mobile games without issue. However, more resource heavy games like Genshin Impact will run at lower frame rates and might stutter at times. Also, the phone gets quite warm after playing games for 30 mins or so.
Camera
There are multiple cameras on the phone – 64 MP main wide camera, 8 MP Ultrawide camera, 2 MP macro camera, 2 MP depth sensor and a 32 MP front selfie camera. One of the main features of the Reno Pro5 is Oppo’s AI camera enhancement features. In general, photos taken with the main 64 MP camera will look vibrant, especially when taken in daylight. The ultrawide and macro cameras are good enough, but not amazing. The phone can record videos of up to 4k 30 fps and it’s autofocus is relatively fast. While video and photo capabilities are quite good, audio recording on the Reno5 Pro is still quite basic but on par with other phones brands.
AI Monochrome feature is still available on the Reno5 series, allowing isolation of certain colours when using the filter. The feature is quite accurate and provides amusing results.
The Soloop app is also preloaded into the phone, allowing you to auto generate videos with just a few clicks. Simply pick videos/photos that you’ve recorded, pick a filter in the app and Soloop will automatically edit the video for you. Its quite a useful app as it allows users to quickly generate videos that could be used for posting on social media platforms.
The Reno5 pro is new, but it doesn’t innovate much in terms of smartphone technology. The display is good, battery life is decent and the camera functionality is great. All of which are good enough for most users. However, it doesn’t differentiate itself much from other phones out there, but that just means it’s a safe option for consumers.
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