The Oppo Reno 8 undercuts many other phones with its low mid-range price tag and provides decent specs for its pricing, including a nice-looking screen and fast charging. There are certain problems, though, like as Oppo’s poor cameras and disregard for the “hand-feel” of phones.
Oppo Reno 8 Review
Although Oppo’s Reno series of mid-range Android phones aren’t as expensive as the A series or as ostentatious as the Find X5 Pro, many people find them appealing due to their competitive pricing and practical specifications. This “vanilla” model, which was introduced alongside the Oppo Reno 8 Pro, combines a few essential specifications with a comparatively low price tag.
First of all, for a mid-range phone, its 80W charging capability is quite quick. Although some of the quickest phones on the market now have top speeds of 150W, 80W is quick enough to be impressive without immediately draining a phone’s battery.
Navigating the phone seems rather quick thanks to the MediaTek chipset, which is strong enough for most tasks, including games if you don’t need the best visuals.
In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, the display is large enough for comfortable use without forcing you to reach far to pick up the phone. You really can’t complain for a phone at this price, even though it lacks one or two high-end functions.
Although this phone is undoubtedly not flawless, there are a few features that I truly appreciate. Although its capabilities aren’t awful for its price point, the angular and iPhone-inspired appearance makes the phone difficult to handle for extended periods of time. From a photographic standpoint, the gadget won’t blow the world away.
Additionally, we anticipate that some people will find the Shimmer Gold’s appearance annoying. While it is undoubtedly striking, reflecting light rays to display the color spectrum at specific angles, some people simply prefer phones with a simple design. Although there is a black alternative as well, based on the pictures we have seen—we were not given one to test—that version still appears to be highly reflective.
The competition is arguably the Oppo Reno 8’s largest problem. Even when considering devices other than Oppo, such as the Google Pixel 6a, Samsung Galaxy A53, or iPhone SE (2022), the Oppo Find X5 Lite provides comparatively comparable features at a reduced cost.
In other words, although the Reno is good for its price, it isn’t particularly striking or ostentatious in any way that sets it apart. You won’t be disappointed if you get this phone, but you could be better off elsewhere.
Design
Despite being a smaller version of its Pro sibling, the Oppo Reno 8 is not “pint-sized” in the sense of smartphones; rather, it simply means smaller.
Despite having a significantly smaller screen, its thicker bezel makes it just a hair smaller than its sibling, measuring 160.6 x 73.4 x 7.7 mm. It feels fairly light in the palm at 179g.
Speaking of “pretty light,” you’ve probably already seen the Reno’s radiant design, which features a shiny, silvery pearl hue on the rear that changes color as you move it around to display the various light spectrum colors. Although there is a plain black version as well, we tested the Shimmer Gold variant.
Because of its design, the Reno is not very comfortable to hold in the hand. Following Apple, Oppo is one of several firms that have given its phones jagged corners and flat edges, which press into your palm when you hold the phone. Not nice.
You won’t be depending on a finicky side-mounted fingerprint scanner here because the Reno has an in-display scanner, which performed reasonably well in contrast to several phones at this price range.
The absence of a 3.5mm headphone port is another peculiarity for the price tag; although almost all high-end phones have abandoned this design element, it is still widely used in low-cost smartphones. But not here, since the USB-C is the lone port.
Display
With a 6.4-inch display, the Oppo Reno 8 is slightly smaller than many other handsets of the same price (but it is larger than that on the Pixel 6a or the iPhone SE).
Because it is an FHD+ screen, the resolution is 1080 x 2400. It should be mentioned that numerous smartphones, ranging from low-cost to high-end models, have that resolution, making it by far the most popular. It’s important to keep in mind that you’re viewing streaming movies and games with the same pixel count as someone who spent twice as much.
Because the screen is OLED, the color contrast is sharp and the brightness can reach a high level. Additionally, blacks appear darker than they would on an LCD panel.
It’s important to note that the image refreshes 90 times per second because the refresh rate is “only” 90Hz. Although some low-cost mobile phones still utilize the outdated 60Hz standard, many products in 2022—including low-end ones—use 120Hz, which produces incredibly smooth action.
Cameras
The 50MP primary camera on the Oppo Reno 8 is its biggest selling feature.
The Sony IMX766 is likely familiar to anyone who has read a review of a mid-range or low-cost phone in 2022; in fact, some high-end smartphones, like as the OnePlus 10T, have debuted with it. Numerous phone manufacturers have jumped on this pretty large 50MP sensor since it “sees” a lot of color and performs well in low light. It is also reasonably priced.
The IMX766 performs as well on the Reno 8 as it does on any other phone that has it. We succeeded to make colorful photos appear even bolder while still taking rather good-looking photos in low light.
Pixel binning, a technique that combines pixels to create a bigger one, makes the photos captured on this device actually 12.5MP. If you’d like, you can shoot at 50MP.
However, there is nothing noteworthy to say about the Oppo’s other two cameras. Both a 2MP macro and an 8MP ultra-wide camera are available. If you don’t mind the low resolution and somewhat drab image, the former does let you to shoot wider-angle photos, but the latter doesn’t really add anything.
Although there isn’t an optical zoom, you can utilize digital zoom (cropping) up to a very high, but unsurprisingly grainy, 20x.
The 32MP selfie camera located on the front won’t let you down. Our photos were reasonably bright and clear, but they lacked the variety of effects found on an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy.
Video recording may reach up to 120 frames per second if you’re content to film at 1080p, or 4K 30 frames per second, which is about normal for a phone at this price.
With the exception of the MariSilicon X neural processing chip for AI, the camera array on the Oppo Reno 8 is the same as that on the Pro model. We were dissatisfied with that phone’s photography capabilities, but since this one is significantly less expensive, it’s simpler to overlook the generally mediocre results.
Performance and Specs
Although the Dimensity 1300 chipset, a mid-range CPU made by MediaTek, isn’t the most potent chip on a mobile device, it is suitable for its price and perfectly suited for its intended function.
Only when we pushed the visuals on Call of Duty Mobile or PUBG Mobile to their utmost did we have problems; otherwise, all but the most taxing games operated flawlessly on the phone.
Additionally, the phone has 8GB of RAM, which is useful for quickly switching between a large number of apps.
The phone’s 256GB storage in the UK is double that of typical mid-range phones, allowing you to download a ton of apps, movies, or pictures without relying on cloud storage or erasing them.
Software
Oppo’s ColorOS UI is installed on top of Android 12 on the Oppo Reno 8. Its look is the primary distinction from standard Android; its program icons and wallpapers use far more vibrant hues.
It’s annoying because when the phone first boots up, it has a lot of bloatware, or pre-installed apps, as they are technically known. TikTok, Lords Mobile, Amazon Shopping, Facebook, and several games we had never heard of, such Bubble Boxes: Match 3D and Tile Master 3D, had to be cleared out.
We appreciate that ColorOS features one of the most sensible and scannable quick-setting menus of any Android derivative. You can access it by swiping down from the top of the screen, which brings up options like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. As depressing as this may sound, compared to other devices, it was notably faster to adjust settings.
Battery life
Our testing indicates that the Oppo Reno 8 has a good battery life; it won’t impress you with multi-day battery life, but nearly no phone will. Rather, you can rely on it to get you through a day of use, whether that means checking the occasional message or using it to power through hours of gaming and snapping pictures.
For a phone with this size of screen, the 4,500mAh battery is about typical; a larger battery would have made the device cumbersome and awkward.
The phone’s 80W charging capability, which charges the smartphone from empty to full in just [TIME], is an amazing feature. With this feature, the Reno charges faster than the competition, which is uncommon for low-cost phones.
Wireless charging is not available.