OPPO is yet another brand in the market that has been pushing the boundaries and coming out with cutting edge tech in the smartphone space. After producing the first full-display smartphone with the Find X, they are now back with one of the 10x optical zoom smartphones.
The phone in question the all-new OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, which recently hit the Indian shores with the standard OPPO Reno. The phone features an all-new motorized front camera module and the 10x Zoom. Priced at INR 39,990, the phone goes head to head with the likes of the OnePlus 7 series smartphones.
We got our hands on the Reno 10x Zoom and here is our review.
OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Specifications
- Display: 6.6-inch AMOLED display
- Software: Android 9 Pie, ColorOS
- Fingerprint Scanner: Yes
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Octa-core processor
- RAM: 6 GB
- Storage: 128 GB internal, microSD support
- Main Camera: 48 MP + 13 MP + 8 MP, quad-LED Flash
- Selfie Camera: 16 MP (f/2.0)
- Connectivity: USB-C, Dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, NFC
- Cellular: 4G LTE, Dual SIM
- Battery: 4,065 mAh, Li-ion Polymer, non-removable
- Price: INR 39,990
Box Contents
Box design sports very minimal design with the OPPO Reno branding on the top. As soon as you lift the top part, you are greeted with the smartphone. Underneath lie the documentation and the supplied accessories.
A complete list of items you get inside the box:
- OPPO Reno 10x Zoom smartphone
- Sim Ejector Tool
- Charger
- USB Cable
- Silicon Case
- 3.5mm to Type C dongle
- Warranty and User Guide
Design
Now with the Reno series, OPPO has come out with a new design language that will trickle down to other OPPO smartphone series as well, the first example of that would be the recently launched OPPO K3. The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom is a bulky phone, due to that 6.6-inch display and the overall larger footprint.
We have an Ocean Green unit for review, and the phone also comes in an all-black color scheme. Turning our attention to the back first, you see the triple camera module placed vertically with the flash tucked away in the shark-fin camera module (more on this later) and the OPPO branding on the bottom. There is also a Laser Autofocus module just next to the camera grid to help improve the focus speed. The back is all glass and has matte texture to it which helps in minimizing the smudges. The rear camera module is flushed with the back glass thus increasing the thickness of the phone.
The glass rear panel curves smoothly to meet the metal frame, giving the phone a premium look and feel. Going towards the front, you get a massive 6.6-inch AMOLED display with minimal bezels all-around and a pretty slim chin at the bottom. With the OPPO Reno series, OPPO has introduced yet another kind of camera mechanism, a little triangle which the brand calls the ‘Shark Fin’ since it resembles it. The ‘Shark Fin’ accommodates the front camera, an LED illuminator, earpiece, a secondary microphone, and the Dual LED flash for the rear camera.
According to OPPO, the front camera mechanism has been tested 200,000 times which in layman’s term should last roughly for 5-7 years. Now during our limited time with the smartphone, we didn’t really notice any issue with the module. Coming to the button placement, there are a USB Type-C port and a speaker on the bottom, along with the hybrid dual-SIM tray. The power button is on the right, while the volume buttons are on the left.
Display
The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom comes with a 6.6-inch display upfront. This is an AMOLED display and hence comes with all the bells and whistles that you’d expect on an AMOLED panel. There is no notch since the front camera and the face unlock module sensors are all placed inside the Shark Fin notch. OPPO has done a great job of minimizing the overall bezels, which should be appreciated.
This AMOLED panel is quite bright and crisp, with punchy, saturated colors. According to OPPO, the Reno 10x Zoom can display the full DCI-P3 color gamut which we found to be accurate in our display tests. Now with an AMOLED panel, you get the ability to add an in-display fingerprint sensor and that is what OPPO did.
Performance and Software
The phone comes powered with the all-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC, which is the fastest mobile chipset currently in the market. The new octa-core SoC features Qualcomm’s own Kryo 485 Silver and Gold cores running at between 1.8GHz and 2.84GHz which provides a balanced performance.
Along with that, you get a bunch of hardware thrown at you, like dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, NFC, dual-mode GPS. As the phone has a Hybrid SIM slot, you get the ability to add either two SIM cards or one SIM and a microSD card which can further expand the storage up to 1TB.
We are not a fan of benchmarks, but for those of you who are interested, the phone blows through all the major benchmarking apps. As for real-world tests, both PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends ran at the highest settings and we didn’t notice a single frame drop. Switching between apps was a breeze thanks to the 6GB RAM which is more than enough.
Coming to the Software, the phone comes powered by the new ColorOS 6 out of the box. Now, we have seen the new ColoOS build on the latest Realme smartphones as well and have a fair bit of understanding of how refined the skin is. With the ColorOS 6 based on Android 9 Pie, you now get an App drawer which can be revealed by a simple swipe on the home screen.
There’s quite a bit of bloatware, including apps that you might never use. Thankfully, most of them can be uninstalled in the settings. Other preloaded apps include a few that duplicate Google’s core functionality, a Phone Manager, Facebook, UC Browser, NewsPoint, Dailyhunt, Paytm, Helo, Webnovel, and Amazon Shopping.
ColorOS 6 brings, interesting features including UI themes, customizable navigation keys, multiple swipe-based navigations, gesture and motion shortcuts, a Private Safe for securing private files and apps, a timed Kid Space with app and feature restrictions, Clone Apps, and Game Space to optimize performance and reduce interruptions while gaming.
Overall, the UI is a highly skinned and customizable version of Android. Hence, if you’re someone like me who loves stock Android, then you’re definitely going to have a hard time getting used to the ColorOS.
Camera and Battery
The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom introduces the 10x hybrid zoom with the periscopic camera similar to what we have seen on the Huawei P30 Pro. Talking about the cameras, there is a 48-megapixel f/1.7 standard camera, a 13-megapixel f/3.0 telephoto camera and an 8-megapixel f/2.2 wide-angle camera on the back. Both the standard and telephoto cameras come with optical image stabilization.
The camera app is well designed and navigation between different camera sensors and across other camera software features is extremely convenient. You get a bunch of modes ranging from Photo, Video, Portrait to Night, Pano, Expert, Timelapse, and Slo-mo. You also get a button to cycle between wide-angle, 1x, 2x, 6x, and 10x zoom levels.
The main camera is the Sony IMX586 sensor that we have seen in a number of smartphones lately. It is a very capable camera module and we have seen consistently good results coming out of it. The 48-megapixel camera managed to produce some of the best results we have seen on a smartphone camera. The camera got the exposures right almost all the times. The shots taken in the portrait had very decent edge detection with a subtle background blur.
We put the telephoto lens to the test and it also performed decently well at least during the day time. The 2x zoom mode uses the primary camera while zooming beyond this, kicked in the telephoto lens. Images taken up to 10x zoom had good color and plenty of detail in them. The camera was quick to lock focus and the added OIS took care of the rest. Pushing beyond 10x hybrid zoom to 60x digital zoom you can’t expect good quality, since even a little shake of the hand is magnified tremendously, making it hard to get a decent shot.
Performance at night was also fairly good. The Night mode did brighten up some shots but is only suitable if both you and the subject are perfectly still, otherwise it could lead to some horrible motion-blurred shots.
On the front, you get a 16-megapixel f/2.0 selfie shooter tucked away in the ‘Shark Fin’. Selfies were good overall in the daytime but blurry and noisy at night. As usual, you get a beautification mode which could make you look fake if not set correctly.
Video recording goes up to 4K with 30fps or 60fps. You can zoom digitally to 10x but you can’t shoot video through the wide-angle or telephoto cameras something we think OPPO should enable with a software update.
Coming to the battery, the phone comes packed with a 4,065mAh cell which lasted us a full day with moderate to high usage. People with light to moderate usage could easily hit a day and a half worth of use. OPPO’s 20W VOOC 3.0 fast charger took 10 mins to charge from 0-15% and approximately 1 hour 20 minutes to fully charge the phone.
OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Pricing
- 6GB/128GB – INR 39,990
Pros
- Good looking Design
- AMOLED Display
- Versatile Camera
- Excellent Price
Cons
- Bloated UI
- Low light camera performance could be better
Verdict – Should you go for it?
With the Reno 10x Zoom, OPPO has delivered a smartphone with class-leading specs and hardware at a very attractive price. The powerful Snapdragon 855, ‘Shark Fin’ camera and the all-glass design bring out the excellence that we usually get and expect from a Korean or Californian smartphone maker.
The standout 10x zoom camera performs as expected and provides features that we have only seen on the Huawei P30 Pro which is twice the value of this phone. The only drawback we see is in the software department and we hope OPPO improves in the next generations to come. Priced at INR 39,990 the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom get a recommendation from our side.
