The OPPO Reno10 series includes the Reno10 5G, Reno10 Pro 5G, and Reno10 Pro Plus 5G. While the latter two models went on sale last week, the vanilla Reno10 is only now available to buy. It is the cheapest model in the lineup and it succeeds the Reno8 5G (review) from last year. The Reno10 5G comes with a fresh new look and several upgrades under the hood to call itself a true ‘successor’. Today, we take a closer look at the phone to help you understand whether it is worth your money or not.
Verdict
The OPPO Reno10 has a design language that’s worth showing off and an attractive AMOLED display, both of which are rather significant upgrades over the Reno8 5G. While the chipset is not its biggest draw, the Reno10 can handle basic daily tasks well and is backed by decent battery life. However, with a price tag of Rs 32,999, the Reno10 5G finds itself amongst some powerful competitors.
Design and display
There’s no denying that the Reno10 5G is a good-looking smartphone. OPPO has tried to keep the design philosophy similar across all three devices in the series. In fact, the Reno10 5G and Reno10 Pro 5G look almost identical from the back, with a similar pill-shaped camera module and camera layout. The only difference between the two phones is the finishing of the panel. While the Reno10 Pro gets a glossy back panel, the vanilla model offers a matte finish. I personally prefer the matte finish as it avoids noticeable fingerprints and smudges.
You have the option to purchase the phone in either Ice Blue or Silvery Grey colour variants. I received the Ice Blue version. This variant features a pleasing light Blue hue with gradient colours that shift depending on the angle and intensity of light hitting the panel.
The 3D curved sides on the front enhance the device’s ergonomics and provide a comfortable grip. Add to that, the phone is lightweight at just 185 grams. This design element is consistent across all three phones in the lineup, and it looks particularly delightful on a phone that costs around Rs 33,000.
The frame sees the power button and volume controls placed at an ideal location on the right side, while the dual Nano-SIM slot is placed at the bottom next to the Type-C port. The Reno10 5G features dual stereo speakers, with a speaker grille at the bottom and the earpiece doubling up as a secondary speaker. This is a pleasant surprise considering the more expensive Reno10 Pro misses out on this feature. The audio quality itself is decent but lacks a certain clarity and punch, especially at higher volume levels.
While the Reno8 offered a 6.43-inch 90Hz AMOLED display, the Reno10 5G gets a bigger 6.7-inch screen and a higher 120Hz refresh rate. OPPO has managed to offer a bigger screen without changing the footprint much by reducing the bezels significantly, especially the chin. The Reno10 5G offers uniformly slim bezels, so you get a rather large and immersive display.
The Reno10 5G boasts an AMOLED panel that delivers vibrant colour reproduction with deep Reds, Greens, and Blacks. The 2,412 x 1,080 pixel resolution ensures consistently crisp picture quality. Moreover, the phone supports HDR10+ content on platforms like Amazon Prime Video. During my review, I watched HDR10+ shows like The Rings of Power and Jack Ryan and found the dynamic range to be satisfactory, although overall brightness levels seemed less than adequate.
Cameras
In some ways, the Reno10 5G comes with some decent camera upgrades. OPPO has replaced the (pretty useless) 2MP macro lens of the Reno8 with a (pretty useful) 32MP Sony IMX709 telephoto camera that supports 2x optical zoom and up to 20x digital zoom. The wide-angle camera still uses an 8MP sensor much like its successor. Meanwhile, the primary camera gets a 64MP Omnivision OV64B sensor compared to the 50MP Sony IMX766 camera on the Reno8 5G. While the higher megapixel count sounds like a nice upgrade on paper, it doesn’t really translate too well in real-world testing.
In normal daylight conditions, the 64MP primary camera captures adequate scenic photos with a good amount of detail. However, it occasionally tends to blow out certain areas like the sky, and overprocess the images. Indoors, the camera performs well with impressive details compared to similar photos taken with my iPhone 14 Plus. Nevertheless, the Reno10 5G tends to oversaturate colours, while the iPhone delivers better colour accuracy. Additionally, images taken with both the primary and telephoto lenses exhibit a cooler colour temperature.
The Reno10 5G comes with a dedicated night mode that slows down the shutter speed to capture more light. Night mode is supposed to deliver better-quality night shots compared to the regular photo mode, but that wasn’t always the case with the Reno10 5G. More often than not, images captured using Night mode turned out to be far less detailed and a lot more hazy. Suffice it to say that the Reno10 5G is not the one to buy if you’re into clicking a lot of pictures after sunset.
The 32MP telephoto lens helps you capture much better close-up shots compared to a 2MP macro lens. The 2x optical zoom manages to retain a lot of the detail that you get at 1x while closing in on a subject to capture a new perspective. Any zoom beyond 2x switches to digital, which means there’s a visible loss in detailing, including a chalky effect. The telephoto lens also comes into play in Portrait mode. In outdoor conditions, portrait shots offer good enough sharpness but the background blur effect is often a hit or miss.
For selfies, you get a 32MP selfie camera just like the one on the Reno8. With this, you will be able to capture good-looking selfies with pleasing colour reproduction and skin tone.
Performance and software
Powering the OPPO Reno10 5G is the MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chipset that is paired with 8GB of RAM. The phone comes in 128GB and 256GB storage variants. Although the Dimensity 7050 is a new processor, it is a downgrade from the Dimensity 1300 that powered the Reno8 5G in terms of overall CPU and gaming performance. While the phone was able to handle basic tasks like messaging and social media browsing without any hiccups, it started to feel sluggish after prolonged usage during heavier, time-consuming tasks.
The Reno10 5G isn’t the best device in the segment for mobile gaming, but it will hold up well for casual gamers. I played a few rounds of Call of Duty Mobile on the highest graphics settings available and was able to get through games with a bunch of kills and victories. I was able to do this because the game didn’t stutter or lag as much as I was expecting it to, but the back of the device did get warm by 4-5 degrees.
The Reno10 5G ships with Android 13 with ColorOS 13.1 on top. If you’re familiar with ColorOS, you would know that it comes with a boatload of pre-installed apps (what we like to call bloatware). The home screen is cluttered with third-party apps like Dream11, Snapchat, Moj, Josh, Netflix, Spotify, and folders for ‘Hot Games’ and ‘Hot apps’. You’ll have to spend some time cleaning up the UI before it offers a sense of clarity. ColorOS 13.1 does bring some useful features like Smart Always-On Display, which allows you to control apps like Spotify and check the status of food delivery apps like Zomato and Swiggy without having to unlock the screen.
Battery
OPPO has increased the battery capacity from 4,500mAh in the Reno8 to 5,000mAh in the Reno10. This larger battery improves the device’s overall battery life, allowing it to last well over a day to a day and a half with moderate usage. However, do note that enabling the Always On display will reduce the phone’s standby time considerably, so use this feature wisely. In our PCMark battery test, the phone managed to record a solid 17 hours of battery life.
In terms of charging speeds, the Reno10 comes with a 67W fast charging capability, down from the 80W speed of the Reno8. As a result, the charging time increases from 30 minutes to around 45 minutes.
Final verdict
OPPO has made some interesting choices with the Reno10 5G. On the one hand, you get a good-looking smartphone with an attractive AMOLED display. This makes the phone worth flaunting around and also makes it a good entertainment companion on the go, especially with the addition of stereo speakers. However, the cameras and chipset don’t live up to expectations and seem like downgrades when compared to the Reno8 5G. At Rs 32,999, the phone faces stiff competition from the likes of the iQOO Neo7 Pro, OnePlus Nord 3, and POCO F5, to name a few.
Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5
Reasons to buy
- The design language is quite attractive and the phone is lightweight while offering a solid build.
- You get a vibrant AMOLED display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate.
- The phone’s battery life is a much-needed upgrade over the Reno8 and will easily take you through a day and then some.
Reasons not to buy
- The camera setup, while an upgrade on paper, isn’t the best you can find in this segment.
- The phone’s performance has been slightly downgraded from its predecessor.
- ColorOS 13 comes with tons of bloatware, which could be off-putting.
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