Review Summary

Expert Rating
3.5/5

Design
★  
4.0
/5
Display
★  
4.0
/5
Software
★  
3.5
/5
Camera
★  
3.5
/5
Performance
★  
3.5
/5
Battery
★  
4.0
/5

Pros

  • Attractive design
  • Blazing fast 65W charging
  • Stunning AMOLED display

Cons

  • Not the best chipset for its price
  • Average macro camera
  • No stereo speakers

The Reno series from OPPO has had some of the most gorgeous smartphones you will find over the past couple of years. From the shark-fin pop-up camera design to the under-glass rear camera setup and exquisite glass finish, OPPO Reno phones pride themselves in being the best looking not just among phones in their own price segments but those in high-end segments as well. The latest phone to join the rank is the OPPO Reno4 Pro, which was just launched in India.

The OPPO Reno4 Pro, as the name suggests, is a successor to the OPPO Reno3 Pro that was launched in India earlier this year. The newest Reno phone, as you may have guessed, touts a premium design language aided by a punch-hole curved AMOLED display and lightweight build. The mid-range phone also boasts of the Snapdragon 720G chipset, 48MP quad cameras, and 65W fast charging support, among other things. Does the Reno4 Pro impress us with these features at Rs 34,990? We review it to find out.

Verdict

The OPPO Reno4 Pro is yet another stunning addition to the series with an attractive AMOLED display and exceptionally lightweight and sleek build. The phone may not offer the best-in-class processor, but it does come with a game-changing 65W fast charging technology that charges the phone in a flash.

Design and display

Like we said earlier, the Reno series has delivered some extremely good-looking phones in the past and the Reno4 Pro is yet another feather in OPPO’s cap. The phone is a delight to hold as it is exceptionally lightweight and slim at just 161 grams and 7.7mm, respectively. The lightweight build, of course, does not come without some sacrifices to build quality. The rear panel with its rough matte finish is not made of glass but of a polymer resin, which is essentially made of plastic substances. The material used does feel plasticky when tapping the rear panel, but it is what makes the phone lightweight.

The rough finish on the back does make the phone less slippery than typical matte-finish phones. It won’t register fingerprints or smudges, which is always a bonus. The rear panel comes in a gradient Starry Night colour and an elegant Silky White colour, both of which look quite appealing. The four camera lenses on the back are vertically placed and of the same size and shape which gives the phone a nice symmetry. The buttons on the side have a nice tactile feel and there’s an in-display fingerprint sensor as well. The bottom of the frame sees a USB Type-C port, headphone jack and a speaker grille, while the triple card tray is found on the top of the frame.

Moving over to the front and you see a 6.5-inch FHD+ (2,400 x 1,080) AMOLED curved display with a 20:9 aspect ratio and 92.01 percent screen-to-body ratio. There’s a single punch-hole cutout on the top left corner for the selfie camera. The phone comes with a 90Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1100 nits. All of this translates into a stunning display with rich colours, deep blacks and excellent brightness levels.

The OPPO Reno 4 Pro delivers good clarity and contrast while watching movies or shows in high resolution on Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video and other streaming platforms. The viewing angles are great and we had no trouble reading the screen under bright sunlight. You have the option to set the screen refresh rate at 90Hz, 60Hz or Auto, which automatically switches between the two.

Cameras

The Reno4 Pro offers a quad camera setup that includes a 48MP Sony IMX586 primary sensor, an 8MP ultra wide-angle lens, a 2MP macro lens and a 2MP mono camera. Up front, the phone gets a 32MP Sony IMX616 sensor. The camera app will be quite familiar if you’ve used an OPPO or Realme phone before. You can swipe between photo, video, night, portrait and more via the carousel at the bottom. Options like HDR, flash, Chroma Boost and filters are up top. 

Daylight photos from the main camera look quite attractive. There’s plenty of detail to be found, highlights and shadows look good and contrast is mostly on point. With HDR enabled, you can get some good looking photos in tricky backlit conditions. We did notice some flare in the frame when the sun was out, which can sometimes ruin a good photo. The wide-angle lens changes the colour tone to a cooler shade and tends to oversaturate greens and blues, which can sometimes look pretty good. 

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The main camera can offer a nice background blur in close up shots and the AI can detect when you’re going in for a macro photo. You can also use the dedicated macro camera as well to get really close to a subject, but details won’t be quite as sharp. 

The OPPO Reno 4 Pro can offer more than just a regular night mode, but let’s talk about that first. Night mode does well at times to improve the exposure and colours in low light scenes. But there were times when the algorithm would darken the image instead of brighten it up. Notably, the camera supports Ultra Dark Mode as well which kicks in automatically in extremely dark scenarios (as seen above) and it does quite well indeed in brightening the image and adding colour although you have to have your hands extremely steady for a usable shot. Then there is something called Night Flare Portrait mode that can offer an attractive bokeh shot at night provided there are lights in the scene behind you.

The 32MP selfie camera can capture detailed and colour-accurate selfies in daylight. We were not impressed with the selfie portrait mode as the edge-detection was not clean. The selfie camera also supports night mode and ultra night mode as well, but they don’t make selfies dramatically better in low light. The Reno4 Pro gets some interesting options for videos as well such as monochrome video where you can choose between three colour filters to highlight just red, blue or green in a video. You also get Ultra Steady and Ultra Steady Pro options that offer better stabilisation while shooting videos.

Performance and software

The OPPO Reno4 Pro is powered by the new Snapdragon 720G chipset paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. We were disappointed to see this chipset considering the international variant of the Reno4 Pro was launched with the more powerful and 5G-supported Snapdragon 765G SoC. That being said, the Snapdragon 720G is actually a decent mid-range processor that worked pretty smoothly during our review.

The Snapdragon 720G is a fine chipset for day-to-day usage like messaging, social media browsing and opening web pages. Apps opened and closed swiftly and we loved the smooth animation and traditions thanks to the 90Hz refresh rate. With 8GB of RAM on board, we also did not face any issue while multitasking and switching between apps.

The phone is also able to run games like PUBG on HD + High graphics and can even go up to Ultra frame rate on lower graphics, which is great to see. During a 30 minute gameplay session, the phone ran smoothly with little to no lags or stutters. But what really impressed us most was how cool the phone remained during the entire session. The temperature of the phone did not rise at all thanks to an internal multi-cooling system that uses a combination of graphite tube, graphite sheet and copper foil.

OPPO Reno4 Pro runs Android 10 with ColorOS 7.2 on top. The phone had received the July security patch during the review period. ColorOS 7.2 is a fairly easy software interface to use with features like an app drawer and system-wide dark mode available. It does come with some bloatware, including banned apps like Helo, which OPPO says will be removed via a software update. The user interface feels fast and smooth to use with 90Hz enabled. Swiping right on the home screen brings up Google Discover and ColorOS also brings a lock screen magazine.

Notably, OPPO has gone with Google’s call and message apps instead of its own custom apps, something OnePlus has also done with the Nord and Realme with the X3 series. We see a pattern here and it looks like these brands are trying to get closer to delivering a stock Android experience. That being said, the Reno4 Pro does still come with OPPO’s custom browser, music, weather and more such apps.

We would have liked to see stereo speakers on the Reno4 Pro given the pricing, but the single bottom-firing speaker isn’t too bad. Sound quality is pretty clear although it does lack bass. The in-display fingerprint sensor and face unlock both performed well and were adequately fast.

Battery

The OPPO Reno4 Pro houses a 4,000mAh battery, which is pretty average-sized compared to other phones available these days, many of which feature 4,500 or 5,000mAh batteries. With 90Hz constantly enabled, the device will last until evening before you find yourself reaching for the charger. We managed to get around 4-5 hours of screen on time on the Reno4 Pro. In our PCMark test, the phone delivered 9 hours and 26 minutes, which is expected from a phone with a 4,000mAh battery.

But you could overlook the average battery size on a phone that comes with a blazing fast 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 charging support. This the fastest charging technology you can find on a phone right now and it is capable of charging the OPPO Reno4 Pro from zero to 100 percent in just 35 minutes. The phone charges to 50 percent in just 13 minutes, which is fantastic. And yes, there is a 65W charger in the box.

Final verdict

The OPPO Reno4 Pro is yet another gorgeous addition to the series. The phone with its curved AMOLED display, extremely lightweight and slim build and a smooth matt back finish make it a delight to look at. Despite the use of plastic, the phone looks and feels premium, and it is possible to make that happen. The Reno4 Pro also impresses with its stunning AMOLED display and blazing fast 65W fast charging speed. The smartphone also gets a decent set of cameras with tons of features to play around with. 

The only real concern is the use of the Snapdragon 720G chipset, which isn’t the most powerful chipset you will find at this price point. In fact, you have phones like the Realme X3 SuperZoom (review) with the Snapdragon 855+ SoC and the OnePlus Nord (review) with the 5G-enabled Snapdragon 765G chipset that are available for much cheaper. The Reno4 Pro performs admirably when it comes to gaming and day-to-day tasks, but the chipset may not hold up well in the long run. As for everything else, the OPPO Reno4 Pro is as impressive as its rivals, if not more.

Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5

Pros:

  • Attractive design
  • Blazing fast 65W charging
  • Stunning AMOLED display

Cons

  • Not the best chipset for its price
  • Average macro camera
  • No stereo speakers