There are an awful lot of next-generation flagship phones hitting the market right about now.
In the past month alone, we’ve seen Samsung’s Galaxy Note and Galaxy Fold, LG’s crazy wing phone, a double-displayed Windows Duo and Motorola’s RAZR 2. And give it a few weeks, and we’ll be seeing the iPhone 12 I’m sure.
How then does a smartphone maker compete with all that top-notch tech? One word, value.
Oppo is the only technology company that sounds the same if you say it backwards and forwards. The palindrome of a company has decided to fight smartphone fire with a heck of a lot more fire, and that fire is also cheaper.
This analogy has escaped me for a moment; what Oppo is doing is cramming a whole lot of smartphone technology into a phone that costs much less than those flagship competitors. But does it skimp where it counts?
Dont fancy reading? Watch the whole review here:
Oppo Reno 4 Pro 5G: Design
You wouldn’t know this was going for value by picking it up. It is a lovely hefty brick of a phone, not too heavy and not too light. The treatment of the back is nice too, with a slight matte finish that repels fingerprints. You also get a quad rear-camera setup in a nice neat line.
Elsewhere you get three physical buttons, a single speaker on the bottom next to a USB charging port and – what’s that? A physical headphone jack? In 2020? Wonders never cease.
Oppo Reno 4 Pro 5G: Screen
The entire front is taken up by a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED screen, that bends around the chassis. What makes this thing special though is that it fires out video at 90-hertz. Now not to get too technical, but the higher the refresh rate of a screen the more tactile if feels swiping around it. Oh, and it also increases video and gaming performance.
Oppo Reno 4 Pro 5G: Camera
Now, let’s move on to the camera. All four of them. Those extra lenses give you a regular, wide and zoom options. That gives you a tad more versatility depending on the shots you’ll want to be using it for.
Photos and video are nice and crisp, with actually punchier colours then some of the flagships mentioned before. And do remember those flagships, because they cost quite a bit more than the Reno 4 Pro.
There are also some fun creative features, including one mode that will de-saturate the background on photos and video. Eh, it’ll probably be good for the ‘gram.
Oppo REno 4 Pro 5G: Performance
Now this guy rocks 12 gigabytes of RAM under the hood, as well as 256 gigs of storage. That seemed plenty enough, especially when you consider that Oppo’s Colour OS version of Android is one of the closest to Vanilla Android that you can get.
In short, it’s speedy alright. We threw multitasking at it. Gaming, surfing the web, watching YouTube and didn’t notice much slowdown at all.
Oppo Reno 4 Pro 5G: Battery
Oppo has been banging on about its charging capabilities for a while now, and it says the Reno 4 Pro features some of the fastest charging on the market. Now, we know plugging your phone in isn’t the sexiest of features – but this one does something very special indeed. It can go from zero to 100 per cent charged in just 36-minutes.
Now for those who tend to charge up their phones overnight, this isn’t a big deal. But if you are a power user then it’s probably invaluable.
Oppo Reno 4 Pro 5G: Verdict
The Oppo Reno 4 Pro does what it set out to do then, and really packs some top-end features into a smartphone that costs far less than a flagship.
It certainly punches above its weight, and I reckon all but the most technology-minded really won’t know what they’re missing between this and a higher-end smartphone.
Because to be honest, there isn’t much different…
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