OPPO Reno7 5G
RM1,999
Pros | Cons |
+ Lightweight and beautiful design | - Lack of stereo speakers |
+ Vibrant display | |
+ Good camera performance | |
+ Fast charging | |
OPPO has recently launched the new Reno7 Series, which consists of the Reno7 5G and the Reno7 Pro 5G. Both devices have been marketed as "The Portrait Expert" so today we're trying the vanilla Reno7 to prove the slogan. Read on to decide if it should be your new pick.
Design
When it comes to the design, OPPO sets a pretty high standard for its devices and the Reno7 didn't disappoint. The Starry Black variant that I received doesn't showcase a boring black finish on the rear cover. Instead, it has a nice blue-black gradient finish with a matte texture and subtle glow, thanks to the OPPO Glow and LDI (Laser Direct Imaging) technology. If you hold the phone at a certain angle, the rear cover looks as if it's completed with shades of black, from dark to brighter tone.
Thanks to the matte finish, it's not a fingerprint magnet, and compared to the vivo V23e that we reviewed not long ago, it's more comfortable to hold in hands as it doesn't feel slippery. With its 173g weight and 7.81mm thickness, it's a comfortable fit in my hand.
Display and Audio
The Reno7 sports a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate and up to 180Hz touch sampling rate. While the picture quality is crisp and colors are rich on the 1080p screen, it loses out to 120Hz display competitors at the same price range. The overall experience is still smooth regardless as it doesn't affect daily social media and web browsing.
A fingerprint sensor is integrated into the display and face recognition can be done using the front-facing camera on the top left of the screen. For a phone with a premium design like this one, I'm put off by its thick chin.
OPPO has also missed the audio department, making no improvements to the speaker setup with the mono speaker still retained on this model, instead of a dual stereo system. The lack of Dolby Atmos support also doesn't help the average bottom-firing speaker. Thankfully, though, this one has a 3.5mm audio jack that was missing on the Reno6.
Camera
If you're familiar with the Reno series, you would know that its main focus is on the cameras and the Reno7 is no exception. The triple rear camera setup on the back houses a 64MP main camera, an 8MP ultrawide angle camera, and a 2MP macro camera. At the front is a 32MP selfie camera.
Photos taken by the main camera unit have a good amount of details and the colors are fairly accurate. Under darker conditions, photo quality is a bit downgraded and when Night mode is enabled, images will be slightly filtered.
While the ultrawide angle camera can take a wider photo, details are expectedly not as good as the primary unit.
The macro camera also performs decently but you'll notice noise in the photos. If you want to take photos of subjects up close, you can opt to zoom in using the primary unit.
Bokeh Flare Portrait, AI Color Portrait, B&W modes
Moving onto the highlighted 32MP front camera, it's capable of delivering nice selfies in daylight with a range of beauty filter options, from AI Color Portrait to Bokeh Flare Portrait, and more.
As for video recording, the Reno7 offers up to 4K resolution at 30fps but if you want to apply AI features like the Ultra Steady EIS mode or filters in your videos, the camera will drop back to the default 1080p. There's also a Bokeh Flare Portrait Video feature that blurs the background in real-time when it detects humans in video recording.
Performance
Coming to performance, the Reno7 uses the same MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC as the one in its predecessor, the Reno6. The processor supports 5G and Wi-Fi 6. It is also equipped with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which is more than enough to store photos, videos, music, and documents. RAM expansion is available with a few options if you need extra RAM, including 2GB, 3GB, and 5GB.
In terms of daily performance, I managed to use it for everyday tasks without experiencing any lag. As for gaming, it can still handle gaming monster Genshin Impact but you can only opt for low graphical settings at 30fps. It will still heat up after some time of playing but not to the point of burning your hands.
To satisfy your needs for figures, our benchmark tests results are as follows:
Backed by a 4300mAh battery, it can easily last through more than a full day's use if you're not hooked on gaming. It comes with a 65W Super VOOC fast-charging support, which can juice up the phone to 100% in around 31minutes.
Buy or no buy
The Reno7 is a pretty well-performing mid-range device if you would like to upgrade from an entry-level smartphone. It does have a beautiful design, solid battery life, good camera performance, and RAM expansion feature.
But if you own a Reno6, I wouldn't recommend you to change it to the Reno7 as there isn't any major makeover on this model. Both feature the same chipset, the same amount of RAM, and 90Hz displays. If you'd still like to go for the Reno7 series, the Reno7 Pro would be a better choice, especially its glowing rear camera unit.
