Review: OPPO Reno 2, a powerful quad-camera smartphone

Priced at Rs 79,000, Reno 2 is available in luminous black, ocean blue colours and a seamless user experience

OPPO, a brand that has always centred itself around the camera is back once again with Reno 2. This new entrant seems set to continue the upward trend the company is facing in the country.

Reno 2 comes with a quad-camera setup featuring a 48 megapixel, 8 megapixel, 13 megapixel and 2 megapixel rear cameras and a 16-megapixel pop-up selfie camera. The smartphone is equipped with a 4,000 mAh battery pack and a brand new VOOC fast charging technology.

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Design

Looking at the design, you can understand that there’s a degree of smoothness to the device that impresses you right away when you feel the phone in your hand. The glossy finish that is curved at both sides is what enhances the beauty of the phone. The smartphone has no bump whatsoever where the cameras are centred which gives the phone a premium-class look.

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The power and volume buttons are easy to reach when in one hand but it is quite an exercise for the thumb due to the full-screen display.

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The vertical strip right beneath the four cameras is outlined and shines in a way never seen before. It makes the Reno 2 look more sophisticated and exceptional design-wise than ever before.

Camera

The company has played on its cameras as it’s packed with cutting-edge photography technology that prepares any shot really well whether it is near or far. The four cameras consist of a 48-megapixel ultra-clear main camera, a 13-megapixel telephoto lens with autofocus, an 8-megapixel wide-angle lens with up to 116 degrees wide lens and 2-megapixel mono lens. The cameras all-in-all capture the minutest of details.

With the 5x Hybrid Zoom, an equivalent of 16-83mm focal length and 20x digital zoom, the seamless and continuous switch between different focal lengths through the latest Fusion Imaging Technology helps and redefines moments too.

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As far as capturing a video is concerned, the different angles can be chosen while achieving very clear and high-quality results as OPPO’s Reno 2 is equipped with a video stabilisation feature that works hand-in-hand with the Hybrid and Digital Zoom to get rid of any shaky and jarring videos.

The Ultra Dark mode is another feature of this device was something we really liked trying out too. Pictures captured in this mode were captured beautifully with clearly showing objects and leaving bare minimum to the imagination.

While the most interesting feature has been the selfie pop-up camera that would very sleekly slide out of the top and slide back in too once the selfie mode was switch on or off. The pop-up camera also creates a bokeh effect wherein the background blurs out keeping the object in the front in focus and crystal clear quality.

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Performance

Enhancing the efficiency and that less power is consumed, Reno 2 runs on a processor of 730G Qualcomm Snapdragon which ensured that the users of the smartphone face no delays and lags.

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While the phone runs on Android 9 as Android 10 still hasn’t been made available to the OPPO phones, we sure are hoping that there would be an update soon so we could get even better user experience.

With no overheating issues, we enjoyed running various different applications at the same time. You can play a game and keep your Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat running in the background with no worries of the other apps taking up space or internet use.

Battery

One thing is for sure, the battery on Reno 2 is superbly huge! The device comes with a 4,000 mAh battery pack which lasts more than 12 hours at a stretch. It gave us a great user experience when we could stream online videos without having to worry about the battery dying or having to charge it. The VOCC flash charging brought the 12% battery up to more than 80% in less than half an hour which works very well for us!



Hardware

Reno 2 comes with up to 8GB RAM and 256GB ROM space which is bigger than its predecessor. The smartphone has a single speaker at the bottom edge of the phone which means that the volume is loud enough but there is nothing special that stands out in this phone in comparison to other phones of this range.

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OPPO has worked on the fingerprint scanner that appears on the screen only saving tons of space on the front or the back of the phone. The fingerprint scanner also lights up when we clicked on the screen a few times.

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Verdict

Priced at Rs 79,000, Reno 2 is available in luminous black and ocean blue colours with gradient and a really fantastic seamless experience.

Rating: 4/5