Best Review of the OPPO Reno 8 5G: More Than Just a Camera Phone

Can the OPPO Reno 8 5G differentiate itself in a sea of rivalry in the Rs 30,000 price range?

The Reno 8 5G and the Reno 8 Pro 5G are two recent additions to OPPO’s Reno 8 line that was recently released in India. In our evaluation, we praised the latter’s durable battery and all-around design.

The OPPO Reno 8 5G, on the other hand, has to fend off a flurry of smartphone attacks. Among the products released under the Rs. 30,000 price range are the OnePlus Nord 2T, Motorola Edge 30, Poco F4 5G, and iQOO Neo 6. Can the OPPO Reno 8 5G, with its stunning camera and design, compete with the rest of them? Read our review to find out.

Review of the OPPO Reno 8 5G: Solid combination of cameras

We’ll start with the smartphone camera since OPPO takes great pride in promoting it. A 50-megapixel primary camera with a Sony IMX766 sensor makes up the camera system. This sensor is common in handsets in this budget bracket, including the recently released Nothing Phone (1) and the OnePlus 10T. Additionally, it has a 2-megapixel macro camera and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera. The 12-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera on the older sibling and the sensor on the 2-megapixel macro camera are the only differences between this camera combination and that of the Reno 8 Pro.

As you can see in the photographs attached, OPPO refers to the Reno 8-series as “Portrait Expert,” and the Reno 8 5G lives up to that billing with respectable details and strong edge detection. The gaps between the body and the hands, as well as a tiny window close to the cap, are successfully covered up. In an effort to achieve the “bokeh effect,” portrait images taken at night are at best passable.

Photos taken during the day had a respectable dynamic range and high detail. The contrast was good, and the colours were mostly neutral with little focus on the reds. After zooming in, text at greater distances remained still readable.

The colour harmony is disturbed when the camera is switched to an ultra-wide angle. It opts for a warmer tone and reduces the contrast levels. The edges of these images have a small distortion as well. Although the lower resolution macro camera produces consumable images, the details are insufficient. There are many editing options in the camera app. For instance, AI augmentation increases the photographs’ vibrance and saturation. This mode can be useful if that’s what you’re into. Additionally, it includes an HDR mode that tends to slightly enhance the greens.

With the OPPO Reno 8 5G, images taken in low light turned out alright. The gadget automatically activates night mode in low light. The images were brightened by night mode, but the loss of details gave the pictures a watercolour appearance.

The 32-megapixel Sony IMX709 sensor produced detailed, good-quality, and generally natural-looking selfies. It had beauty modes turned on by default, but we could disable them in the camera app. Selfies taken in poor light resulted in an overexposed background and an odd yellow colour. The device produced accurate self-portraits with great edge recognition and overall superb captures. Even at night, the front camera produced useful, high-quality pictures.

Up to 4K 30fps video may be played on the OPPO Reno 8 5G, while 60fps is not supported. On the other side, the OnePlus Nord 2T does provide that in this price range. At 1080p, the device’s videos showed reasonable stabilisation, but when we switched to 4K, all was lost.

Review of the OPPO Reno 8 5G: Minimalistic Beauty

The OPPO Reno series has been gorgeous for the past few years. That also applies to the Reno 8 5G. There are two colour options for the device: Shimmer Gold and Shimmer Black. For this review, we have the earlier.

The fact that it could change colours grabbed a lot of attention from passengers in trains. But there’s also a chance that it briefly rendered some people blind. Like the Vivo V23 Pro from a few months ago, it may change colour depending on the angle at which light hits the back. The Reno series has never used a unibody design before; in the past, it was only used on its flagship products.

The back panel has a pleasingly rough surface to the touch. It also does not gather any dust or smudges, which is an added benefit.

In normal use, the OPPO Reno 8 5G’s flattened sides felt a little bit sharp. Although the curved edges are a little blunt, this trend seems to have started with the iPhone 12-series and has been going strong ever since. Since this is not ideal ergonomically, adding a case should solve the problem if this is a deal-breaker for you. To set the camera module apart from the rest of the body, it features a small hump. When the object is kept on a flat surface, the protrusion causes it to wobble.

A power button is located on the device’s right side. The secondary microphone is located at the top, while the volume rockers are situated on the left. The device’s bottom houses the speaker grille, primary microphone, SIM slot, and USB Type-C port. The 3.5mm headphone jack is absent. The buttons’ tactile feedback is quite good.

The OPPO Reno 8 5G weighs 179 grams and has a thickness of 7.67mm. Because of the big display, one-handed use was also possible, albeit with some difficulty. The weight felt well-balanced. Speaking of the display, the Reno 8 5G has a 6.4-inch AMOLED screen with 90Hz refresh rate. The Motorola Edge 30 has a 144Hz panel, whereas the iQOO Neo 6 and the OnePlus Nord 2T both provide a 90Hz refresh rate panel.

Due to Corning Gorilla Glass 5’s protection of the display, the gadget should withstand light drops and scratches. With the exception of the bottom chin, which can be distracting, it has a screen-to-body ratio of 90.8%, and watching material on it is an immersive experience. On the other side, while using the gadget to watch videos, the display had a hole for a hole punch camera in the top-left corner of the screen and a black outer ring that wasn’t too distracting.

Review of the OPPO Reno 8 5G: Excellent for gaming and ideal for watching

The only 8GB RAM and 128GB storage model of the OPPO Reno 8 5G retails for Rs. 29,999. A MediaTek Dimensity 1300 SoC running at 3GHz powers the gadget. Both the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ SoC and the MediaTek processor are built on the 6nm fabrication process and can be found in the Motorola Edge 30 and the Nothing Phone (1). You can turn on RAM expansion on the device, which allocates some storage space for usage as RAM. It can be extended to 5GB. We did not, however, see a significant difference between the two.

As there is no way to increase storage with a microSD card, we advise just using up to 3GB when necessary. Go crazy, however, if you have a lot of empty space. Regarding connectivity, the gadget is compatible with WiFi 6, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, and other standards. Two Nano SIM card slots come with a red rubber seal around them to prevent water and dust from getting inside the gadget. Unfortunately, because the device lacks an IP rating, that is the only protection you have.

The OPPO Reno 8 5G’s AMOLED display has pleasing colours and contrast. Even when using the “Natural” video colour preset, it seems to favour the reds a little bit. But we had no problem with this at all. You can select the Vivid preset if you desire brilliant colours because it has both Natural and Vivid preset options.

Thanks to the AMOLED panel’s deep blacks and clear visual details, we enjoyed watching our favourite shows and movies on the big screen. The only speaker that comes with the device is bottom-firing. The single speaker was loud enough, but a stereo configuration would have enhanced the viewing experience.

Additionally, it offers a “Video Color Boost” feature that makes use of AI to optimise the colours in various situations. Unfortunately, this uses much more battery as well. Therefore, we never turned it on because we didn’t find it useful in our usage.

We used some fabricated benchmarks to test the OPPO Reno 8 5G. The device’s score on AnTuTu 9 was 562205, which is lower than the score of the OnePlus Nord 2T. In the single-core and multi-core tests, Geekbench 5 produced results of 452 and 2539, respectively. These are the results on paper; the gadget was also put to the test in a variety of real-world situations, including a few gaming sessions.

After 15 minutes of nonstop gameplay, Apex Legends Mobile could deliver steady 40 frames per second at “HD” graphic and “High” frame rate settings with just a 4% battery loss. Throughout this conversation, the phone remained cool. On “Very High” graphic settings and “Max” frame rates, we then moved to Call of Duty: Mobile.

We experienced a pleasant overall experience with no frame dips or stutters. Plus, we took first place on the leaderboard, so great! Additionally, Asphalt 9: Legends performed flawlessly when the graphic preset was set to “High Quality.” Overall, the OPPO Reno 8 5G provided a good gaming experience, and users should enjoy spending hours tapping away. While we were gaming, the tablet scarcely warmed up.

The OPPO Reno 8 5G worked great for us during our time using it, which was well over a week. As you would anticipate from a smartphone on this budget, the device had no trouble switching between apps or navigating the user interface. The phone’s RAM management is also efficient. The system is based on Android 12 and runs ColorOS 12.1.

Sadly, the software experience was only passable. Lots of bloatware is pre-installed on it. There are numerous apps visible, including Byju’s, Dailyhunt, Finshell Pay, Josh, O Relax, and Snapchat. Although these can be removed, it’s not recommended to shove these apps down the throat. OPPO has incorporated several glitzy features, such as “Air Gestures,” that enable you to manage specific areas of.

This feature strikes me as intriguing. However, in actual usage, it is not particularly useful. When we turned on the play/pause feature through the motions tab, we discovered that it was highly erratic. However, screen-off gestures like double-tapping to wake up, drawing a specific alphabet to start an app, and others are very effective. The OPPO Reno 8 5G has a face unlock function and an in-display fingerprint scanner as far as biometric choices go. Both of these capabilities are lightning-quick and consistently reliable.

Review of the OPPO Reno 8 5G: SuperVOOC allows for extremely quick charging
The 4,500mAh battery within the OPPO Reno 8 5G can easily last two days on a single charge. The device lasted the full day when we took it on a trip and used the phone for music sessions for around three hours.

I used WhatsApp, Twitter, and Instagram for the remainder of the day. It’s excellent that we were able to extend the device’s screen-on duration to almost seven hours. We watched our favourite stuff on Netflix, Hotstar, and YouTube the majority of the time during this period. A gaming session and a camera testing session were also successfully completed.

Inside the box, OPPO offers an 80W SuperVOOC charger. This device miraculously revives the Reno 8 5G from the dead in just 34 minutes. Even better, while charging, the gadget doesn’t get hot.

Review of the OPPO Reno 8 5G: Findings

There are many capable smartphones available in the Rs. 30,000 pricing range. The Reno 8 5G is a respectable device that works well and is comparable to what the competition has to offer. The device’s cameras can capture quality shots in reasonable lighting, and portrait photos taken with the front camera are superb and suitable for social media. With enough cooling, gaming on the Reno 8 5G is also a good experience. It’s a respectable kit thanks to the accompanying quick charger and battery life.

Hardware-wise, the Reno 8 5G and OnePlus Nord 2T are pretty comparable. “This is the phone for office workers living in costly cities, who spend half their pay on rent but want something that looks and feels upmarket at business meetings,” we said after reviewing the latter.

The Motorola Edge 30 is another handset with a starting price of Rs. 27,999 that is an option if your main complaint about the Reno 8 5G is its bloat-filled software. It boasts the classic Motorola design with a 144Hz refresh rate display and a fluid user interface that closely resembles Stock Android. If you’re searching for pure performance, the iQOO Neo 6 and Poco F4 5G are both suitable choices.

Overall, get the OPPO Reno 8 5G if you don’t mind the bloatware and are seeking a handset that can function effectively, charge quickly, and produce good selfie photographs.