Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G hands-on review

Introduction

The Oppo Reno7 series has gone global, and India is the first stop. We have the new series' top performer in-house today, so here's our first look hands-on review of the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G.

The Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G shares the specs of its Chinese-exclusive namesake. The highlights include a 6.5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED with a 90Hz refresh rate and up to 900 nits of peak brightness. Oppo has focused on the cameras, both on the rear and the front - the Reno7 Pro has a 50MP wide camera with a Sony IMX766 sensor, and a 32MP selfie camera with an exclusive IMX709 sensor. Here's a quick rundown of the rest of the specs.

Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G specs at a glance:

Body: 158.2x73.2x7.5mm, 180g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 5), glass back (Panda Glass).
Display: 6.5" AMOLED, 90Hz, HDR10+, 500 nits (typ), 800 nits (HBM), 920 nits (peak), 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 402ppi.
Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 1200 Max 5G: Octa-core 3.0 GHz; ARM G77 MC9.
Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
OS/Software: Android 11, ColorOS 12.
Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 119˚; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4.
Front camera: 32 MP, f/2.4, 22mm (wide), 1/2.74", 0.8µm.
Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60fps, 1080p@120fps (market dependent), gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS.
Battery: 4500mAh; Fast charging 65W.
Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC.

The Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G is a nicely-rounded phone, but it's the design that makes it stands out. Oppo calls it eye-catching and dazzling, and that's just what it is. Thanks to LDI technology, the rear of the Reno7 Pro 5G is able to shimmer, imitating a stary sky on our aptly-named Startrails Blue model, while also being comfortable to hold and ward off fingerprints.

There's also a Starlight Black model available, which has a more subdued glittering effect. No matter which of the two models you go for, the camera frame is fitted with a soft breathing light that can react when you get a notification or during charging.

The Oppo Reno7 Pro will be on sale from February 8, priced at INR 39,999.

Unboxing

The retail package features a USB cable, 65W charger, a case, and the phone itself.

Design and ergonomics

The Oppo Reno DNA is evident in the Reno7 Pro 5G. This has always been Oppo's most striking series, and this year Oppo has outdone itself. Before we get into the truly high-tech side of the Reno7 Pro 5G's exterior, a quick look at its flat frame, smart front, and shimmering rear and it's obvious this is a phone meant to be shown off.

The Reno7 Pro 5G is a slim and light phone, in fact, it's the slimmest Reno ever at just 7.45mm. And holding the phone, you'd be forgiven to think it's lighter than its 180g would suggest.

The phone is built well. It feels solid and of quality. The buttons are logically laid out and have fine mechanical feedback.

The flat edges will appeal to many buyers. The frame is metal, while the front and rear panels are made of lightly-curved 2.5d glass. The display is covered in Gorilla Glass 5, while the rear is Panda Glass.

Speaking of that rear panel, Oppo used LDI on it, which stands for Laser Direct Imaging (it's used to design PCBs in the aviation industry). There are 1.2 million micro-etchings with a width of 20 microns across the surface of the smartphone's rear panel.

This gives the phone's back cover a visual and textural illusion of shooting stars that Oppo calls "Aircraft-Grade Shooting Star Design." While the micron-scale etchings help achieve a matte, brushed finish on top of the Oppo Glow layer.

The first stage of the LDI process involves coating a layer of UV protective ink on the glass side that faces the phone to prevent it from being chemically etched during the later steps. This protective layer also helps improve the accuracy of the laser engraving due to its light-absorbing properties.

After this, the opposite surface of the glass is coated with a photoresist layer to create the desired star trails pattern on the Reno7 series, which gives a "dynamic optical effect" when you see the phone from different angles.

The camera frame uses a Twin Moon Camera Design. The upper half is decorated with metal, and the lower half is coated with ceramic" to provide a contrasting but premium experience." The frame has a breathing light around it, underneath a 1mm diameter fiber that's bent to frame the camera area. This fiber emits soft, pulsating lights when the smartphone is charging or receives a call or a message.

The frame is a nice design feature, but because of how it protrudes and its off-center position, the Reno7 Pro 5G wobbles on a table.

The subtle shimmer and glow of the panel is lovely. It reflects light in different ways and has a fingerprint-resistant and matte finish. The surface is textured, which helps with grip.

The upper part of the camera frame is metal, while the lower one is ceramic-coated. Because of this disparity, the top half is matte and resistant to fingerprints, while the lower, ceramic-coated part is glossy and can get smudged. Our unit even gathered a few micro scratches as well.

Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G ceramic coating on the camera frame

The controls are nicely laid out on the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G. The power button on the right is placed right where it needs to be and has a little green-accented inlet that improves tactility. There are stereo speakers on the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G, one in the earpiece and another on the bottom of the phone.

We found the flat frame a detriment to usability. It simply makes the Reno7 Pro 5G uncomfortable to hold for longer periods of time. However, thanks to its slimness and relatively compact size, the Reno7 Pro 5G remains a great overall package.

Controls and frame

The 6.5-inch AMOLED is bright and punchy with great viewing angles. It also has one of the slimmer bezels we've seen - Oppo claims they're 11.5% narrower than the previous Reno. There's an optical fingerprint scanner embedded into the display. It's accurate and works every time, but it's placed a bit lower than we'd prefer. Coupled with the slim bottom bezel, it's a bit of a chore to comfortably hit the scanner with your thumb.

Hardware

The Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G has a 6.5-inch 2400x1080px AMOLED display with a maximum refresh rate of 90Hz, and a touch sampling rate of 180Hz. The display is rated for up to 500 nits for regular use, 800 nits in direct sunlight, and up to 920 nits when viewing HDR content.

The chipset of choice is the 6nm Dimensity 1200-Max, exclusive to the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G. Made in collaboration between Oppo and Mediatek, it has an octa-core processor with 4 performance and 4 efficiency cores - one of the performance cores is the Cortex-A78 Ultra. The processor is paired to 12GB of RAM, while storage is 256GB.

The Dimensity 1200-Max enables AI Deblur technology, which allows the selfie camera to snap blur-free images, and AI-PQ, which enables improvements in color and contrast when viewing HDR content.

Moving on to cameras. The main camera is a 50MP f/1.8 24mm in front of a 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX766 sensor. There's an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide and a 2MP f/2.4 macro sensor.

On the front sits a 32MP f/2.4 that uses a Sony IMX709 sensor, exclusive to the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G. It's an RGBW sensor that Oppo claims to capture 60% more light than the Reno6 Pro's selfie sensor. Like the main camera, the selfie uses DOL-HDR, which snaps multiple exposures into a bright image with less noise. The front camera can detect the number of people in front of the camera and decide whether to crop in or use the full width of the lens.

The Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G has a 4,500mAh battery with 65W SUPERVOOC wired charging. Oppo claims the battery can charge from empty to 100% in only 31 minutes.

Performance

The MediaTek Dimensity 1200-Max is a custom variation of 1200 that has a higher-clocked Ultra core. The processor is divided into 8 cores, which themselves are divided into three clusters. There are four Cortex-A78 - three working at up to 2.6GHz and one, Ultra Cortex-A78 core that ramps up to 3.1GHz. Finally, there are four Cortex-A55's that scale up to 2GHz.

The Reno7 Pro 5G comes with just one RAM configuration - 12GB, but those can be expanded up to 7 additional GB from the ROM memory.

Here are some performance benchmarks we ran with the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G. These are not final scores, and we expect a more review-ready unit to perform better. In our tests, the Dimensity 1200-Max was even a bit slower than the non-Max in the vivo V23 Pro and the Xiaomi 11T.

GeekBench 4.4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G
13142
Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
13057
vivo V23 Pro
12377
vivo V23 5g
8421

GeekBench 4.4 (single-core)

Higher is better

Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G
4319
Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
4304
vivo V23 Pro
4238
vivo V23 5g
3463

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
3049
vivo V23 Pro
3021
Xiaomi 11T
2834
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
2796
Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G
2691
Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
2621
vivo V23 5g
2140
Oppo Reno6 5G
2131

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
1096
vivo V23 Pro
850
Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G
815
Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
813
Xiaomi 11T
742
vivo V23 5g
739
Oppo Reno6 5G
722
Samsung Galaxy M52 5G
603

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

vivo V23 Pro
635060
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
566529
Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G
550659
Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
524692
vivo V23 5g
406498
Oppo Reno6 5G
362450

Software

The Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G comes equipped with the latest ColorOS 12, which in this case, sits squarely atop the now-aging Android 11 and the December security patch. Oppo hasn't given a timeline for an Android 12 update to the Reno7 Pro 5G just yet.

Nevertheless, the Reno7 Pro 5G gets access to all of ColorOS features and UI tweaks and enhancements. Oppo calls the design 'inclusive,' and it features the new 3D icon graphics and a 'visually tactile' mode of operating. Interacting with most UI elements is accompanied by a subtle vibration from the X-Axis Linear Motor. Adjusting the volume, using the app switcher, or changing a camera mode is greeted by vibration.

ColorOS 12 on top of Android 11

ColorOS 12 comes with new 3D Omoji. Using Oppo's Face Capture algorithm, Omoji can mirror your expression. There are more than 200 accessories to customize your Omoji, and you can set it as a profile picture, or add it to the Always-On display.

Omoji

We tested the two refresh rate modes on the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G. When set to standard, the UI was set to a constant 60fps. When set to High, the UI would idle at 60fps and ramp up to 90fps when scrolling or browsing. YouTube's UI ran at 90fps until we launched a video in fullscreen when the fps dropped to 60. Interestingly, none of our standard set of testing games ran at 90fps.

Screen refresh rate and system navigation options

ColorOS is very customizable. You can change the look and size of the icons - making them rounder, flatter, bigger, or 3D, you can also pick an accent color of your liking, adjust how the Quick Settings look, rearrange them, and pick out of a number of curated high-quality wallpapers and themes.

The Always-on display is also customizable, as is the fingerprint scanner animation.

Customization

The Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G adds the battery usage graph, giving you a breakdown of each app's battery percent and time running.

Battery settings menu

Camera

The Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G is equipped with a 50MP main camera with the Sony IMX766 sensor, flanked by an 8MP ultrawide and 2MP macro cameras, while on the front, there's a 32MP Sony IMX709 RGBW sensor.

The 50MP and 32MP snappers use Oppo's Quadra Binning algorithm, which means they combine 4 pixels into 1 for 12MP and 8MP images, respectively.

Both cameras also include DOL-HDR (Digital Overlap HDR), so they capture multiple images and combine them into a multi-frame final exposure with lower noise, higher resolution, and wide dynamic range.

Camera UI

There are a few modes to choose from. The Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G is set to AutoHDR by default. You can choose to enable AI Scene Enhancement, which will detect a scene and enhance the image accordingly. Extra HD mode will scale up the 50MP main camera images to 108MP. There's portrait mode on both the main and selfie camera with 25 levels of adjustable blur.

Here are some photo and video samples from the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G. The images from the default camera mode have very good per-pixel detail, although there is some noise when you zoom all the way in. Dynamic range is good with both well-preserved highlights and well-exposed highlights, although there's a slight halo at the point where the light falls off, around the edges of the buildings and the trees.

AI Scene Enhancement mode has a better, more colorful output, and it doesn't take away from the dynamic range, so we'd leave it on.

There's a big color and white balance disparity between the wide and ultrawide cameras. It's quite noticeable.

Wide and ultrawide - HDR

Wide and ultrawide - AI Scene Enhancement

Wide - Extra HD 108MP

Selfie camera - cropped and wide mode

[embedded content]

First impressions

We like the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G. It's a nice phone to look at and touch, thanks to its unique design and finish. It's also nicely compact and light, hitting a sweet spot between small and large.

It's also well-equipped with a quality 90Hz AMOLED display, capable main and selfie cameras, and a promise of good battery endurance with lightning-fast charging.

Oppo has priced the Reno7 Pro 5G reasonably, as well, making it a solid choice in the segment.

However, the Reno7 Pro 5G isn't without rivals. There are a few competitors from Samsung and Xiaomi, and Oppo's stablemate vivo that could pose a challenge at lower prices. Realme's upcoming 9 Pro series is also looking like a strong choice.

Is the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G's design enough to overcome those challengers? We're not sure. Only time will tell.

Adblock test (Why?)