Oppo Reno2 Review, Specifications, Price and Competitors

Oppo is a relatively new company in the world of technology but it is getting a great acceptance thanks to its terminals with good performance and an adjusted price.

One of the last launches of last year was the Oppo Reno2, which has as its most outstanding features its four rear cameras (ultra-wide-angle, wide-angle, telephoto and monochrome) and its emergent front camera with shark fin type mechanism that allows having a front “all screen.”

The Oppo Reno2 has a 6.5″ AMOLED display with Full HD + resolution, Snapdragon 730G processor, 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB of storage, 13MP + 8MP + 13MP + 2MP rear cameras, 16MP front camera and 4,000 mAh battery with VOOC Flash Charge 3.0.

Oppo Reno2 Review

Starting with its design, the OPPO Reno2 offers an attractive appearance, with a large 6.5″ screen surrounded by very narrow frames. Instead of resorting to a notch or a hole in the screen, OPPO has opted for a pop-up camera mechanism that achieves a front that is “all screen.”

Unlike other smartphones whose front camera emerges vertically, the OPPO Reno2 selfie camera opens upward as if it were a fan (or a shark fin).

As a result, the OPPO Reno2 offers a high screen-to-body ratio, around 93% according to the company itself (or around 88% if we rely on GSMarena).

The OPPO Reno2 front glass is protected by Gorilla Glass 6, while the glass on the back uses Gorilla Glass 5 protection.

The glass back has a matte finish with bright highlights and is completely smooth, with no protruding element – not even the cameras, which are flush with the surface under the glass.

To prevent scratching, OPPO has included a small O-Dot point that prevents the glass from touching the surface on which we rest.

The OPPO Reno2 is a device of considerable size since it has a thickness of 9.5 mm and its weight is 189 grams. Therefore, if you don’t like bulky smartphones, you should look at other options.

This phone has a 6.5 ″ AMOLED panel with Full HD + resolution, which implies a pixel density of 401 dpi. This pixel density is high enough to make the screen look very sharp, so we don’t miss a higher resolution.

The screen offers a wide color range as it covers all of the sRGB and DCI P3 color spaces, and also has excellent color fidelity. The color temperature is somewhat above the reference value but can be adjusted manually without a problem.

The maximum brightness of the screen is quite high since it reaches 657 nits in high brightness mode, a value above many other smartphones we have tested.

OPPO has included a limited Always on Display (AoD) mode as it only shows the time/date and call/SMS notifications. Since there is no notification LED, it is necessary to turn on the lock screen to see if we have pending notifications.

What OPPO has incorporated is the ambient screen, which turns on the screen when a notification arrives (and in my experience, it often turns on for no apparent reason), as well as the double-tap on the screen to turn it on immediately. Another interesting feature of the screen is the visual anti-fatigue mode (DC Dimming) that prevents flickering of the screen when the brightness level is very low.

One aspect that doesn’t convince me much is the haptic vibration engine, which sounds and feels too strong when you click on the screen. Other smartphones offer a more subtle and, in my opinion, more pleasant haptic response.

OPPO has incorporated a fingerprint reader under the screen that allows you to unlock the phone just by resting your finger on it, provided we have turned on the screen before (for example, by double-tapping or lifting the phone from the table).

The fingerprint reader is quite reliable when identifying the fingerprint, although it is important to support a good part of the finger in the reading area. The unlocking process is fast, although not as much as that of the OnePlus 7 Pro.

The OPPO Reno2 has quite powerful specifications without being a high-end because it has a Snapdragon 730G processor, 8 GB of LPDDR4x RAM, and 256 GB UFS 2.1 storage.

OPPO Reno2 has obtained good scores in all tests, although obviously, it falls below other more expensive smartphones with Snapdragon 855 processors or equivalent. In the day-to-day, the interface moves with extreme fluidity and I have not noticed signs of lag or slowness in any app.

The latest games are not a problem for this smartphone. Stable rates of 30 or 60 FPS have been measured in games like Asphalt 9, Dead Effect 2 or Call of Duty.

The OPPO Reno2 allows expanding the storage by micro-SD card if we renounce the second SIM card, although with 256 GB you should not have much trouble to save all your photos and videos.

In the connectivity aspect, it is well served with WiFi 802.11 b / g / n / ac at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, Bluetooth 5.0, 4G / LTE and, luckily, also NFC. The only notable absence at this point is the FM radio.

The smartphone has a 4,000 mAh battery that offers excellent autonomy, above many other smartphones, so you will have no problem reaching the end of the day with quite intense use of the phone.

OPPO has included 20W VOOC Flash Charge 3.0 that allows you to charge the OPPO Reno2 in just an hour and a half, reaching approximately half the charge in just half an hour. Unfortunately, it does not have wireless charging although the odd thing would have been to incorporate it given the price range in which this terminal moves.

In the multimedia aspect, it incorporates a single speaker at the bottom of the phone, next to the USB-C connector, so it is easy to cover it by hand when holding the phone horizontally. The sound is heard quite loudly although the stereo sound present in other terminals is missed.

On this occasion, OPPO has decided to keep the 3.5mm connector, so you won’t have to resort to Bluetooth headphones or a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter. In addition, it has Dolby Atmos, which brings greater depth to the sound.

At the software level, it comes with Android 9 Oreo and, above, the ColorOS 6.1 customization layer. This layer adds a large number of features that complement Android like granular permissions for apps, cloning of applications for multi-account, gestures on the screen, encryption of applications, hide apps on the desktop and safe to protect files.

OPPO has added a driving mode that activates when the phone has been connected to the Bluetooth car receiver and blocks notifications, reminders and certain calls to avoid distractions behind the wheel.

Since the Snapdragon 730G processor is designed for games, it is worth highlighting the Game Space functionality.

This functionality improves performance by allocating more hardware resources and limiting the network activity of other apps. In some games such as PUBG, it optimizes performance to improve and make the FPS rate more stable and reduce the delay of keystrokes on the screen.

In the photographic section, the OPPO Reno2 has a versatile quad rear camera consisting of a main camera of 48MP (f / 1.7), 2x telephoto camera (5x hybrid zoom) of 13MP (f / 2.4), an ultra-wide-angle camera of 8MP (f / 2.2) and a 2MP depth camera.

By default, the 48MP main camera uses pixel binning to capture the photos at 12MP, although it offers a super high-resolution mode that takes the full resolution of 48MP to get sharper photos.

In good light conditions, the images taken by the main camera are crisp and colorful and, when light is scarce, the snapshots maintain good image quality. Like any camera, it offers scene detection features by AI, although the retouching is very subtle.

The ultra-wide-angle camera is ideal for taking pictures of landscapes or monuments, as it offers a totally different scene. The drawback is that, in low light conditions, the quality suffers from the absence of optical stabilization and a more limited opening. This camera also allows you to take macro photographs only 2.5 cm away.

Finally, the telephoto camera offers 2x optical zoom / 5x hybrid but has some limitations – such as reduced aperture and, above all, the absence of optical stabilization – that limit its use in low light conditions. The quality of the images is good with abundant light but suffers a lot when we are in a dimly lit environment.

The OPPO Reno2 main camera allows you to take pictures in Portrait mode in combination with the 2MP monochrome camera that captures depth information.

In my tests, the image quality of the portraits has been excellent, with good separation between the subject and background. One aspect I like is that the degree of background blur increases with distance, making it more realistic. However, when using the main camera (wide angle) instead of the telephoto camera, the close-ups show some deformation of the face.

The OPPO Reno2 can record 1080p video at 30/60 fps and 4K video at 30 fps with good image quality and excellent stabilization, especially in Ultra Stabilization mode. It is not possible to record video with the telephoto camera but, as a curiosity, if you enlarge the image (digital zoom) when recording, the sound is centered on the object or person you are aiming at thanks to the use of 3 microphones.

The front camera has a resolution of 16MP, so it is capable of capturing selfies with great sharpness and a wide dynamic range (no burnt backgrounds) thanks to the use of HDR. This camera also allows you to capture photos in Portrait mode with a good result, although HDR functionality is lost and the backgrounds look too white.

Oppo Reno 2 Full Specifications

All images credits and The specifications reference is the official website of OPPO “smartphone-reno2“

The Best and Worst about OPPO Reno2

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Oppo Reno 2 Price and Competitors

The OPPO Reno2 is for sale for $699.00 at several authorized OPPO distributors, although you can find it for a lower price on sites like Amazon.

If you look at other phones, we have some interesting options that can compete against the OPPO Reno2 in benefits and price.

The Samsung Galaxy A80 ( $449.99 on Amazon) incorporates a 6.7 ″ Super AMOLED display with FullHD + resolution, Snapdragon 730G processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, dual rear / front camera (wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle) and battery 3,700 mAh.

The Realme X2 Pro ( $519.00 at Amazon) has a 6.5 ″ Full HD + AMOLED display, Snapdragon 855+ processor, 6/8/12GB of RAM, 64/128/256GB of storage, triple rear camera (wide-angle, ultra-wide-angle, telephoto) and 4,000 mAh battery.

The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 ( $459.99 on Amazon) has a 6.5 ″ Full HD + resolution and HDR, AMOLED display, Snapdragon 730G processor, 6GB of RAM, 64/128 GB of storage. 5 rear cameras (wide-angle, ultra-wide-angle, 2X telephoto, 5X telephoto, and macro) and large 5,260 mAh battery.

With a much cheaper price, we have the Xiaomi Mi 9T ( $307.43 on Amazon) has a 6.4 ″ Full HD + AMOLED display, Snapdragon 730 processor, 6GB of RAM, 64/128GB of storage, triple rear camera (wide-angle, telephoto, ultra-wide-angle) and 4,000 mAh battery

Is it worth buying the OPPO Reno2 Zoom? If you are looking for a smartphone with a modern design, a good screen, competent hardware without being the last shout, great autonomy, and a versatile camera, the OPPO Reno2 is a great option. However, it is situated in a price range in which competitors such as Xiaomi or Realme also have a lot to offer at equally adjusted prices.