Then there comes OPPO that challenges their competitors with the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G as it sports a massive change in the camera department.
Allow me to share why I think this phone is actually a big deal.
A very capable array of cameras
Just to briefly address the camera specs, it is worth mentioning that the Reno10 Pro packs four cameras. A 50MP for its main, 8MP for the ultrawide and 32MP for both the telephoto portrait and the front facing camera.
Building on their campaign slogan, #ProPortraitExpert , the telephoto portrait camera is clearly the star of the show when it comes to its camera’s credentials.
It’s a first in OPPO’s Reno series and very unusual to see in a mid range smartphone. That's because telephoto cameras are usually reserved for phones in the flagship category.
In photography, a 50mm lens is commonly called a portrait lens. The Reno10 Pro's telephoto has a 47mm equivalent. In other words, it's really close to how portraits are shot professionally.
As for how this performs, well, I have a feeling that we are going to be seeing a drastic change on how our Instagram feed would look like once more people get a hold of this phone.
Images out of this look beautiful and the tighter field of view is a real godsend when it comes making the subject look flattering. It solves the distortion that we would normally have when taking photos on the main camera.
Playing around with the bokeh slider, you can really achieve professional looking shots with very little effort. Plus, I also found it to perform relatively well even in darker environments.
Would I say it can perform nearly as good as a DSLR or a mirrorless camera? To be honest, in the right hands it probably can.
I still don’t think this performs as well as higher end smartphones with telephoto portrait cameras, but I would say this can come pretty close. You’ll notice its weakness with its edge separation that aren’t as consistently clean as the more premium counterparts.
Nevertheless, around this price, this feature in particular blows any other mid range phone in terms of camera capabilities in my opinion.
On the other hand, having a dedicated telephoto camera, it’s easy to assume that this would perform significantly better with zoomed in shots. That’s not necessarily the case.
I tried comparing zoomed photos of this to the older Reno8 and in some cases, the latter performed slightly better. To think that that was only cropping in from its main camera.
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| Left to right: Main Camera, Telephoto 2x zoom |
But of course, the Reno10 Pro still has the advantage of having both a telephoto and the ability to use its main camera to zoom in by cropping in an Extra HD image. And that will be using the superior main camera sensor.
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| Telephoto 2x zoom |
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| Telephoto 10x zoom |
We enjoyed taking portraits on this but we really couldn't overlook the superb main camera. The Reno10 Pro 5G's main camera uses Sony IMX890 sensor which is a slight upgrade from the IMX766 from the Reno8 5G.
Evidently, this camera has been tuned to get a more proper exposure compared to most phones which makes every subject brighter than they actually are. This tries to capture it as it is and the colors also seem to push more towards being accurate. There's still a bit of an excess in contrast but that's a common thing in smartphones.
Having the lowest megapixel count, you can probably tell that the ultrawide is the weakest of the bunch. And you’re not wrong, but it’s not bad either. It’s still relatively good as long as you’re in well lit environments.
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| Ultrawide |
The 32MP front facing camera on this is also up to the task. It seems to have a consistent color calibration with the other cameras so shifting between them all wouldn’t look weird on our Instagram feed.
You can also zoom out for a wider field of view to capture more people in group selfies or zoom in two times if you prefer a more isolated look.
Video enthusiasts would likewise be pleased as video quality on this is superb with comparable processing from its photo mode. All these cameras are also capable of shooting 4K video with the exception of the front camera.
Not the performance we expected
Talking about its performance, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too happy knowing the chipset that was used on this. That’s because the Snapdragon 778G is a bit of a dated chipset. But still, that doesn’t mean we weren’t giving it its fair share of tests.
This is where things got a bit more interesting.
If you look at benchmarks, the chipset on the Reno10 Pro would seem like a downgrade from their older Reno8 5G. But in actual tests, the Reno10 Pro performed significantly better in heavy games like Genshin Impact.
Unscientifically, I tested the performance with settings maxed out with 60FPS turned on. And it managed to play the game hovering above 40FPS and at times hitting its max limit.
I was thinking that maybe it’s the large 12GB RAM that contributes to this good performance. And while that might also be true, the Snapdragon 778G really was an outstanding performer even back when it was released.
If you didn’t know yet, this is the same chip that is powering the Nothing Phone (1).
That said, I can confidently say that for the typical user, this phone won't hold you back from your normal tasks. It’s more than capable of handling social media apps, gaming and even content creation.
Curved Display
The Reno10 Pro has a curved edge display. While I wasn’t a big fan of this design back then, I can’t deny that this display paired with this curved back case does make the phone easier in the hands.
It’s a 6.7-inch OLED curved display plated with AGC Dragontrail Star 2 glass which according to OPPO is 20% tougher than the usual Gorilla Glass 5. It’s still 1080p but it has a 120Hz refresh rate which does contribute to the overall feel of the phone in terms of actual performance.
And if you look closely, the bezels kind of look uniform on all sides with its 93% screen-to-body ratio.
A new design language
OPPO seems to be going for a more serious yet sophisticated look on this series this time and I think they’ve executed it nicely. What we have is the purple color variant which kind of gives an aromatic vibe that would make you think you smell of lavender.
The back panel is simple, glossy and curved with just the OPPO branding on the bottom while the frame is made of metal with a high gloss finish with a tint of purple.
This phone is also noticeably slim at only 7.9mm thin. It’s actually pretty impressive that they still managed to fit in a telephoto camera and an IR Remote here.
Battery that's enough to last
Powering up this phone is a 4600 mAh battery which is paired with 80W SuperVOOC fast charging. Pretty typical numbers for mid range smartphones today and the experience also isn’t anything to write home about.
Unfortunately, PCMark battery benchmark kept crashing as it came to its end for some reason. But we did run the test alongside another phone. This resulted in around 14 hours of runtime which isn’t half bad but also nothing spectacular. In real world scenarios, I’d say it’s sufficient for a day's use with some juice left the following day.
For charging, while it is tempting to drool over the 100W charging of the Reno10 Pro+, this would give about 30 minutes of charging time which I’d say is decently fast as well.
Who is the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G for?
If you look past the older chipset, this phone is actually a great performer with a well-rounded set of cameras.
Some people might not appreciate that its hardware is not a big leap when it comes to its raw computing power. But that's far from saying that the Reno10 Pro is not a good device.
To people who truly understands cameras, and I'm not talking about its technical specs, the Reno10 Pro has just given more people access to a huge opportunity of creative potential to unlock.
So definitely, if taking portraits is your thing, this might already be the best option you could go for at this price.
And with the new standard OPPO has just set, we'll surely be waiting for more brands to include telephoto lenses at this price point.
Price and availability
The OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G retails for PhP 29,999 and is available in Glossy Purple and Silvery Grey.