OPPO has always loved the selfie camera. Even before Selfies became a thing. The brand arrived in India with a unique revolving camera, over the last 12 months it has brought quite a few innovations to the front camera. The Find X launched in 2018 was a bold design strategy with its unique sliding camera that pushed the screen: body ratio well over 90% at a time when many of its competitors were still smitten by the notch. The Reno 10X Zoom is the brand’s most significant launch of 2019 and part of a new series of lifestyle phones. OPPO also unveiled the Reno along with the Reno 10X Zoom but all eyes are on the pricier Reno with its souped-up spec sheet and triple camera.
First things first. The Reno 10X Zoom is the best looking OPPO device we’ve ever tested. OPPO became the first device manufacturer to use Corning Gorilla Glass 6, the 10X Zoom joins this pack. The glass back is stunning with an iridescent glow that changes with lighting conditions. Our review unit came in Ocean green where this interplay was even more pronounced. We like the premium matte finish; the phone feels really good in your hands. It’s heavy though – 215 gms, in a similar zone as the OnePlus 7 Pro. The smooth glass back is a tad slippery too, but we like the placement of the triple camera lenses – there’s no camera bump on the rear. OPPO bundles an elegant back case in the box that accentuates the design highlights of the device.
A best of breed Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Processor propels this device. You can choose from a 6GB/128GB or an 8GB/256 GB variant: there’s also room for a Micro SD card. We pushed the 8GB/256GB variant to the limit in our tests and it came out on tops. It registered an impressive 355963 on our AnTuTu Benchmark test, not too far behind the OnePlus 7 Pro in this benchmark test. It’s not just gaming or multi-tasking, the in-display fingerprint sensor is super quick too. The heavy-duty 4065 mAh battery adds to the heft of the device but won’t let you down. We went comfortably past a whole day with heavy usage. OPPO also offers its proprietary fast charging solution – Super VOOC, that powers up your device in a jiffy.
An immersive display. That’s almost a pre-requisite for devices above Rs 30,000. This 6.6-inch (2340 x 1080 pixels / 387 PPI) AMOLED display is quite vibrant and the 93.2% screen: body ratio makes it a great screen for video consumption. The Notched display is clearly passé. OPPO continues to surprise us with its selfie cam tricks – this one is probably the slickest rendition. The Reno 10X Zoom features what OPPO calls a shark fin rising selfie cam that plays out like a swivel cam; mighty cool! Like most other pop-up cams, this one is drop proof and tested for longevity. Results on the 16MP selfie camera are excellent, just like other OPPO devices you can ramp up the beauty mode options on days when you need to fool the selfie shooter.
One of the big selling points is the 10x Zoom on the rear cam. This primary camera blends three lenses including a 48MP primary lens, an 8MP ultra-wide lens (now almost a pre-requisite for pricey phones) and a 13MP telephoto lens. The 10X zoom is a great to have feature and worked well in ambient light. Camera performance was good in most our tests but it’s not quite the Google Pixel 3a in lowlight.
The OPPO Reno 10X Zoom packs impressive hardware and a decent camera. It’s let down somewhat by OPPO’s home-grown Color OS (6.0), a rather heavy layer over Android 9.0. The new version makes some slight visual improvements (like the choice of font) but it’s still too cluttered. It doesn’t do justice to the build quality, our favourite thing about the OPPO Reno 10X Zoom and the one reason why this phone is worth checking out.
The OPPO Reno 10X Zoom costs Rs 39,990 for the 6GB/128GB version and Rs 49,990 for the 8GB/256 GB variant. It comes in a choice of Ocean Blue and Jet Black colour options.
