OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G review: some hits, some misses

The Reno10 Pro 5G has the first-ever telephoto portrait camera in the Reno series.

• By Ashish Kumar -
Published On: July 21, 2023

OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G, the middle child in the Reno10 series, is an interesting proposition. The handset comes with similar camera capabilities and the same stellar design as the flagship Reno 10 Pro Plus (review) but ships with a smaller battery than its siblings and no stereo speakers. That said, shutterbugs might find the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G among the best camera phones in the segment.

Here's my review of the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G after using it for a better part of the week:

Verdict

The OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G may not be the most well-rounded device in its segment, but it is still an option worth considering, especially in the offline market. The phone boasts an excellent design, a lovely screen, capable cameras, and terrific battery life, making it a compelling choice for some.

Design and display

• The OPPO Reno-series smartphones have always been known for their attractive design choices, and the Reno10 Pro 5G is no exception. The phone features a 3D curved design that exudes a premium look and feel. Around the back, the handset boasts a large oval-shaped camera module with dual-tone finish, which is likely to catch the attention of others around you. The upper half of the module has metal material with a matte finish, while the lower half has a black glass material. Although it creates an appealing visual contrast, the module noticeably juts out of the frame, which may be unsettling for some users.
• And if you wish to use the device without a case, you'll have a hard time keeping the phone clean due to its glossy glass back, which is a magnet for fingerprints and smudges. That said, the handset ships with a good-quality transparent TPU case. The handset is thin and lightweight and features a plastic frame with curved edges that allows easy handling and wielding. The Reno10 Pro measures just 7.89mm in thickness and weighs 185 grams. 
• Other design elements include an in-display fingerprint scanner, which I wish was slightly higher up the screen and a little bit faster, and a USB Type-C port at the bottom edge. The volume rocker and power button are at the right spine of the phone.

• The front of the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G has a curved 6.7-inch AMOLED display, which is an absolute delight to watch. The display bears FHD+ (2,412 x 1,080p) resolution, smooth 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support, 950 nits peak brightness, and an impressive 93 percent screen-to-body ratio. The bezels are razor-thin and symmetrical on all sides, ensuring an immersive viewing experience. The colours appear sharp and crisp, even when viewed from an angle, in its default settings. Moreover, the display's brightness level is adequate, making the display legible even under direct sunlight.
• The 120Hz refresh rate also works seamlessly across UI and supported apps. The HDR content looks great, but at the time of writing this review, only YouTube had the support for this. Netflix and other streaming platforms were not able to stream the content in HDR. While it all looks good, I wish the phone had stereo speaker output for a better listening experience. The phone packs a single bottom-firing speaker with Dirac audio, which gets loud but crackles at maximum volume.

Camera

• The OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G comes equipped with a triple rear camera setup, featuring the same 50MP Sony IMX890 OIS primary sensor and 8MP 112-degree field of view (FoV) ultra-wide sensor as the flagship Reno10 Pro+ smartphone. However, the telephoto portrait camera has been downgraded to a 32MP sensor from 64MP and delivers only 2x optical zoom instead of 3x. The cameras deliver satisfactory results for the most part.

• Starting with the 50MP primary sensory, it outputs 12.5MP images by default, with ample details, decent dynamic range, and vivid colours, at least in daylight. The lowlight shots also turn out well but they look soft and slightly noisy. That said, the noise level can be remedied to some extent by utilising the night mode feature. As for the 8MP ultra-wide camera, there is some granular loss in details around the edges of the frame whether you are indoors or outdoors.
• The 32MP telephoto portrait camera works effectively on both human and non-human subjects, delivering some likeable images with a beautiful bokeh effect as long as the sun is out. The overall edge detection appears to be good, but when zoomed in to the maximum level, some issues become noticeable. There is a peculiar ghosting effect where the subject separates from the background, which does not look good. The camera also supports 2x optical zoom, allowing you to zoom in without losing details; however, post-processing tends to over-saturate the colours.
• Speaking of the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G's post-processing capabilities, they seem to be a bit on the slower side. The device takes a couple of seconds to process images, leading to a discrepancy between what you initially see in the viewfinder and the final result. Another issue that I encountered with the smartphone's camera is the lag while shifting from the main camera to the 2x telephoto. The handset can shoot images up to 30x with digital zoom, but the results at high zoom levels can be iffy.

• The Reno10 Pro 5G features a 32MP selfie camera that captures images with a satisfactory level of facial detailing and exposure, especially in bright outdoor conditions. The camera also manages to deliver accurate skin tones to a great extent. When it comes to the front-camera portrait mode, the results look impressive; however, like the rear camera, it does exhibit some flaws with edge detection. 

Performance and software

• At the heart of the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G lies Qualcomm's Snapdragon 778G SoC. This 5G-capable chipset can also be found in several other mid-range smartphones, including the POCO X5 Pro, iQOO Z6 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy M52. The performance of the Reno Pro 5G is not the snappiest, but it effectively executes the required job. 
• The handset can manage demanding tasks, including multi-tasking and graphically intensive games like BGMI. However, I wish the phone had better thermal management. Despite the ultra-conductive cooling system, the device gets a bit warm, particularly around the rear camera module, with just half an hour of gaming. Luckily, the phone did not stutter or encounter any noticeable lags.

• When it comes to benchmarking tests, the OPPO Reno10 Pro performs decently, scoring 5,73,577 points on AnTuTu. On Geekbench 6, the handset achieves 1,013 and 2,809 points in single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. That said, the phone's performance throttles at 72 percent of its peak performance while running 50 threads for half an hour on the CPU Throttle test. The OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G comes in just one RAM and storage configuration: 12GB+256GB. While the RAM can be expanded virtually up to 12GB, the storage remains fixed as there is no microSD card slot.
• On the software front, the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G runs Android 13-based ColorOS 13.1 out of the box. Needless to say, there are several pre-installed apps, but the ColorOS skin is quite intuitive and offers some nifty features. These include the Smart Always-On display, which allows you to check important notifications without waking up the screen, an IR Remote Control, Multi-screen Connect, and the HeyTap account for seamless pairing with OPPO earbuds. Additionally, there are options to personalise the UI and several OxygenOS features like O-Relax, O-Haptics, and Omoji.
• The OPPO Reno10 Pro is 5G capable. Here's a speed test done using Airtel 5G Plus network in Faridabad, Haryana:

Battery and charging speeds

• The OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G is equipped with a 4,600mAh battery, which offers decent backup for light users. I was averaging around 7 hours of screen-on-time between charges, with casual browsing, gaming, WhatsApp, and some navigation. On the PCMark 3.0 battery test, the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G returned with a score of 13 hours and 36 minutes, which is good if not great.
  

• When it comes to charging speeds, the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G can be juiced up in no time with its 80W SuperVooc fast charging solution. The company claims that the handset can go from 0 to 100 percent in just 28 minutes; however, in my personal experience, it took approximately 40 minutes to achieve a full charge, which is still respectable. Moreover, the handset comes with SuperVOOC S Power Management Chip for safe charging.

Final verdict

The OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G is priced at Rs 39,999 in India. However, if you are looking for a smartphone with better features at a similar price point, the online market has some attractive options to consider, even if they don't have a telephoto lens. On the other hand, if you prefer shopping offline, you can explore the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G (review) and Vivo V27 Pro (review) smartphones. Both of these models boast beautiful AMOLED displays with 120Hz refresh rate, similar to the Reno10 Pro 5G. Additionally, they offer an enhanced listening experience with stereo speaker output. The Vivo smartphone also comes with an interesting colour-changing design and a more power-efficient chipset.

However, it's worth noting that the Samsung Galaxy M34 5G and Vivo V27 Pro both lack the fast charging capabilities that you get with the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G smartphone. Furthermore, the OPPO device boasts a dedicated telephoto lens, setting it apart from some of its competitors. This makes the Reno10 Pro 5G an interesting choice to consider under Rs 40,000.

Editor's rating: 3.5 / 5

Reasons to buy

• The OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G will have your heart with its 3D curved design.
• The display makes viewing multimedia content a pleasure.
• The cameras deliver satisfactory results for the most part.
• The battery life is decent for light users.

Reasons not to buy

• The phone has a mono bottom-firing speaker, which crackles at maximum volume.
• The handset heats up a bit when stressed.
• The software comes with several pre-installed apps.