OPPO Reno2 Review; What's Special About It?

Ciara Alarcon
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INTRODUCTION:

OPPO recently brought its new smartphone – the Reno2 – to the Philippines. Still sporting its predecessor’s unique shark fin-like pop-up mechanism, the Chinese mobile maker claimed that the Reno2 is now designed for content creators.

OPPO Reno2 Review; What's Special About It?
OPPO Reno2 Review; What's Special About It?

Tapped as our main driver for a month now, our team played around with the device to see if it can offer more things than its rivals. After all, we want to know whether it's a great overall handset or just a good vlogging phone. Let’s find out!


UNBOXING:

With a theme of #AnyoneIsAStorymaker, OPPO surprised our team with its special box that is designed by mixed media artist Jappy Agoncillo. The box flaunts an artwork that features various characters and elements, which reflect the modern Filipino youth culture. It also showcases numbers of highly talked about icons, including the Philippine Green Turtle, Milk Tea, Jeepney, and Audrey Hepburn.

Special Box
Special Box

Meanwhile, the special box housed the real OPPO Reno2 box, which is also premium-looking – thanks to its minimalist design and branding. Inside, you’ll see the Reno2 unit with a pre-installed screen protector, 20W VOOC 3.0 USB charger, USB-A to microUSB cable, leather-like case, earphones, SIM card ejector tool, and the user guide.

PHYSICAL:

Just like its predecessor, the Reno2 flashes an expensive appearance, as it comes with a 3D curved glass back with Gorilla Glass 5 protection, and a curved metal frame that gives off an additional premium look to its physique. OPPO also said that it has Iridescent finish to make it stylish and classy at the same time. And true enough, the device feels so elegant and sleek on our hands.

Luminous Black
Luminous Black

The Reno2 is available in three striking color variants, namely Sunset Pink, Ocean Blue, and Luminous Black – which we have right now. Fortunately, this is our preferred colorway for it features a tricky design. At first glance, you’d think that it’s a color black unit that glows in blue.

The device is dominated by a 6.5-inch AMOLED panel, which is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6. Similar to other flagship smartphones, the Reno2 enjoys a full-screen display with no notch, made possible by its shark fin-like camera system that accommodates the earpiece, selfie snapper, and LED flash.

6.5-inch AMOLED screen
6.5-inch AMOLED screen

On its left side, you’d see the volume keys, while the power button and SIM card tray are located on the right part of the phone. All buttons are thoughtfully placed somewhere we can easily reach it. Meanwhile, its speaker grille, USB-C port, 3.5mm audio jack, and MIC are sited at the bottom of the device.

Back
Back


However, what seems to be the eye candy of the Reno2 is its rear panel, as it is perfectly designed to sport a stunning look. Its quad cameras are aligned vertically in the middle. It’s noticeable that it has no camera bump, too. It is mounted with an O-Dot ceramic node, as well, to lift the phone slightly when placed on a surface. Hence, it protects the camera sensors from scratches.

DISPLAY:

The Reno2 is equipped with an immersive 6.5-inch AMOLED panel with an FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution. Having slim bezels on the side and a thick chin, the phone delivers a 93.1% screen-to-body ratio, resulting to an impressive 20:9 cinematic aspect ratio. Obviously, with these specs, the device can surely elevate your viewing experience.

Display
Display

Additionally, OPPO was able to make it a good handset for watching videos and playing games not only because of its notchless display, but also because of its vibrant colors and sharp details. Users will also appreciate its brightness, as we’re able to navigate it even under direct sunlight. 

SOFTWARE:


Software
Software

The Reno2 is loaded with ColorOS 6.1 based on Android 9 Pie. Personally, I didn’t like its default icons, as it appears too large, colorful, and wild for an iOS user like me. Other than that, there's nothing to complain about its skin.

The device is also easy to navigate, while you can arrange your apps either in standard mode or drawer mode. For an easier access, you can enable its Smart Sidebar that will house your most favorite apps, which will be revealed when you tap the sidebar.

In-Display Fingerprint Scanner
In-Display Fingerprint Scanner

The Reno2 sports an in-display fingerprint scanner, as well, which is responsive enough. For additional security, it also supports Face Unlock tech, but we didn't use it avoid wearing out its pop-up camera.

Packed with a large 256GB storage, you’d find numbers of pre-installed apps in the Reno2, including Google native apps, Lazada, WeSing, Soloop, and more. If you think that you won’t need these, don’t worry because you can easily uninstall them to make room for more apps.

See Also: OPPO A5 2020 (3GB/64GB) Now Available in PH

PERFORMANCE:

The Reno2 is powered by a Snapdragon 730G octa-core processor, complemented with Adreno 618 GPU and 8GB RAM. Knowing that it can easily handle our mobile tasks, we still ran it on our preferred benchmark apps to give us a overview.

Here are the results:

Benchmark Scores
Benchmark Scores

  • AnTuTu – 263,603
  • Geekbench – 548 (single core)
  • Geekbench - 1,737 (multi core)
  • PCMark Work 2.0 Performance Test – 7,115
  • 3DMark - 37,388 (Ice Storm Unlimited)
  • 3DMark - Max (Ice Storm Extreme)
  • 3DMark - 3,438 (Sling Shot)
  • 3DMark - 2,397 (Sling Shot Extreme)

Call of Duty Mobile
Call of Duty Mobile

While other consumers were frustrated about its chipset, we could say that the device can exceed their expectations if it will be used intensively. In fact, it can run mobile games with heavy graphics – such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Call of Duty Mobile, and PUBG Mobile - without obvious lags and with just minimal frame drops.

As our main driver, we never had a problem with the Reno2. Switching from one app to another is smooth, too. We also noticed that it didn’t heat up when we’re heavily using it.

CAMERA:

Here’s where the fun begins! OPPO claimed that it can do great as a vlogging smartphone. The Reno2 is banking on a 48-megapixel main camera, 13-megapixel telephoto shooter, 8-megapixel ultrawide lens, and 2-megapixel monochrome sensor. For selfies, its shark fin-like module houses its 16-megapixel snapper.

Sample Photos:


Outdoor
Outdoor

Food
Food

Food
Food

Indoor
Indoor

Indoor (Wide)
Indoor (Wide)

Macro
Macro

Night
Night 
Selfie (Portrait and Regular)
Selfie (Portrait and Regular)



Selfie (with beautification)
Selfie (with beautification)

Its main camera can produce great images with sharp details. Unlike other OPPO devices, it’s impressive how it can deliver natural-looking photos with more accurate colors. It has good bokeh effect, too, as it can accurately separate the subject from the background. For selfies, its AI Beautification didn’t overdo its job when enhancing our facial features.

Meanwhile, one of our favorite camera features is its night mode. This allows our team to capture decent low-light photos, however, most images come with visible noises.

For videos, users can fortunately shoot in portrait mode to have a cinematic effect.

Related: OPPO Reno2 F Lands in PH, Priced

CONNECTIVITY:

The Reno2 comes with basic connectivity features, including LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. All worked well during our tests, noting that we also have a good signal reception. Other connectivity features, include NFC, 3.5mm audio jack, and USB Type-C port.

BATTERY:

OPPO armed the Reno2 with a large 4,000mAh battery that supports VOOC 3.0 Flash Charge. As our main driver, the device can last for almost a day, considering that we won’t use it heavily for gaming and watching videos.

Meanwhile, when we’re continuously using it, the device can run up to 14 hours.

On the other hand, charging the phone from below 20% to 100% took us only an hour. Really fast, isn’t it?

OPPO Reno2 Review
OPPO Reno2 Review

VERDICT:

There’s no doubt that the OPPO Reno2 is one of the most good-looking smartphones available in the market. Its sophisticated design allows the phone to look more expensive than its actual price, too.

If you’re after a good handset with enough camera tricks, then, the Reno2 would be one of the best go-to devices. It will also allow users to enjoy watching videos and playing games – thanks to its immersive display.

For gamers, the Reno2 is also worth considering because it has smooth performance with just minimal frame drops when playing games with heavy graphics. It is juiced with a large 4,000mAh battery, as well, which can accompany you throughout the day.

In conclusion, the phone is obviously a good overall smartphone that can satisfy your mobile needs.

The OPPO Reno2 is now available in the Philippines for only Php18,990.

So, is it a yay or nay? Let us know what you think in the comment section below!

OPPO Reno2 Specs (Philippines):

  • Dual SIM, supports LTE connectivity
  • 6.5-inch AMOLED FHD+ (2400 x 1080) display
  • Dimensions: 160 x 74.3 x 9.5mm
  • Weight: 189 grams
  • Android 9 Pie with ColorOS 6.1
  • 2.4GHz octa-core CPU, Snapdragon 730G chip, Adreno 618 GPU
  • 8GB RAM
  • 256GB storage
  • 48-megapixel f/1.7 main shooter + 8-megapixel f/2.4 ultrawide lens + 13-megapixel f/2.4 telephoto lens + 2-megapixel f/2.4 depth sensor quad rear cameras
  • 16MP f/2.0 shark fin-like pop-up camera
  • Multimedia Player
  • 3.5mm audio jack
  • WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
  • Bluetooth 5.0
  • GPS with A-GPS, BDS, GLONASS, GALILEO
  • NFC
  • In-display fingerprint scanner, Face Unlock
  • USB Type-C
  • Price: Php28,990

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