Makers of smartphones are always working on ways to help their latest devices appeal to users, especially the young and trendy. They come in good-looking, feature-packed packages with a camera that supports a variety of photographic techniques. Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G was recently released in Singapore on 28 August this year (2021) and it retails for $899 with current ongoing deals at specific retailers. Ziyaad Siddique, VFX artist and video editor with a keen interest in the world of emerging technology, spends a week using the Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G and here is what he thinks.
Ranked the Number 5 smartphone brand, Oppo is fast becoming a powerful player with its constant reworking and improvement of its software and increasingly competitive devices.
Its latest, the Reno6 Pro 5G is 7.6mm thick and weighs about 177g, making it the right weight and size to hold on to and very comfortable to use. The phone comes in Aurora or Stellar Black and its glittery and shimmering finish can be credited to OPPO’s Reno Glow process, that was first featured in its Reno5 Pro 5G smartphone. Apart from visuals, it is fingerprint-free and anti-glare.
There is no change to the physical design , so the phone remains familiar and easy to get used to. Its power button is still located at the right of the phone, with volume buttons on the left. The USB-C port, speakers and a sim card tray are all at the bottom.
General use
The Reno6 Pro 5G is straightforward and quick to navigate, making it easy to use. It comes with a 4500 mAh battery, that, when fully charged, lasts over two days with moderate use. Charging times are pretty fast too when using the SuperVOOC 2.0 charger. Unfortunately, the phone does not support wireless charging.
The phone runs on ColorOS 11.3 and Oppo’s personalisation options have always been great on ColorOS. One nifty feature called Portrait Silhouette allows the user to take a portrait photo of someone and traces the silhouette to generates a cool outlined version of the picture, to be used on your lock screen.
Sadly it has a single speaker setup, making it decent only for casual gaming and video content.
Display and performance
The Reno 6 Pro 5G sports a 6.5 inch or 16.5cm OLED curved display that supports HDR10+ and has a 90hz refresh rate, delivering clear visuals and vibrant colours. The screen is bright enough that there are no issues with visibility, even if you are using it outdoors in bright sunlight.
The Reno 6 Pro 5G runs on a Mediatek Dimensity 1200 chip, along with 12GB of ram, bringing a good amount of performance to the phone. There is no discernible lag and if you need more performance, it can be acquired using the RAM expansion feature that is easily accessible through the settings menu. Here, you can convert a portion of available ROM into RAM, to expand it up to an additional 7GB.
And if you are using the phone for gaming, its performance will not leave you wanting. All the games performed well even when you are using the highest settings available. The phone also does not get too hot during the gaming sessions, even when it is running at the highest performance.
Camera
Studies have shown that 92 percent of smartphone users use their phones to take pictures and that smartphone photography is more popular than Internet browsing, emailing, app downloading, and gaming. So it is no wonder that the camera quality and specs are usually front and centre whenever new smartphones are announced.
It is also no surprise that Oppo included photo and video features, coupled with capable camera hardware on the Oppo Reno 6 Pro 5G. The phone comes equipped with a 64MP main camera, a 32MP front selfie cam, an 8MP Wide Angle cam, a 2MP Macro cam and a 2MP Mono Cam.
Daylight shots generally look good, especially when you use the 64 MP main camera. The wide-angle and macro cameras may not be as great as the main cam, but they do a good enough job too. Good low light shots can be captured using the AI colour feature and Night mode.
For video, you can record up to 4K at 30fps. The video stabilisation feature works with video up to 1080p 60fps.
The new Cinematic Bokeh Flare Portrait video filter, which takes advantage of OPPO’s AI capabilities, simulates the bokeh effect usually seen in cinematic videos. It works decently enough, especially if the background you’re shooting against has a lot of visible light sources. Otherwise, it’s not going to get the best results with plain backgrounds.
The Oppo Reno 6 Pro 5G is decent phone when it comes to day to day tasks and as a camera phone, it does its job well.
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