It had to happen; it was long overdue. As large screen phones crossed the 200 gm threshold, there was bound to be a backlash. That’s the first thing I loved about the OPPO Reno 4 Pro. That moment when you first hold the phone in your hand and discover how light it feels. It’s a welcome relief from each time I’ve picked up a new flagship phone over the past couple of years and wondered why they can’t make them lighter. The Reno 4 Pro comes quick on the heels of the 3 Pro that we checked out for MW in March this year. There’s more to this device than just it’s form factor.
This is a good looker. We checked out the Silky white colour option; pearl white would have been a more accurate description given the textures of the elegant back. At 161 gm, it isn’t just light but also incredibly thin (just 7.7 mm). The curved design with an anti-glare matte finish lends it a premium vibe and repels fingerprints. That’s a rare thing given how most smartphones are fingerprint magnets.
The other head turner is the display. OPPO manages to stretch it to 6.5-inches despite its lightweight form factor. The 3D Borderless Sense screen also pushes the screen to body ratio beyond 92%, opting for a single punch-hole display. The Super AMOLED display (1080 x 2400 pixels / 402 PPI) also features a 90Hz refresh rate. It’s fun to scroll through webpages or watch HD videos; the gaming experience is equally fluidic.
The elegant design language also extends to the rear cam. We like the placement of the quad cam that combines four lenses that include a 48MP primary lens, an 8MP ultra-wide lens, a 2MP macro lens and a 2MP depth or mono sensor. Let’s talk about videos first. The cam offers a host of options including a clever AI colour portrait video and monochrome video with three video filters that allows you to highlight red, green or blue objects in a video. You could have fun accentuating the blues of the ocean when you’re at the beach. The selfie cam also comes with a bag of tricks including our favourite night flare portrait that allows you to take terrific night portraits with a neon effect. We were equally impressed with lowlight images snapped on night mode. This is one of the most versatile shooters in this segment.
OPPO has packed the Reno 4 Pro with a 4000 mAh battery that didn’t let us down in everyday usage. The headline feature of the battery story is OPPO’s Super VOOC 2.0 65W charger bundled in the box. This one’s probably the F1 car of chargers, powering up your device from 0 to 100% in 36 minutes flat. Battery performance is impressive busting the stereotype that solid battery life equals to heavy phones.
We’re not sure if battery life was one of the considerations that made OPPO choose a Qualcomm 720G processor to power this device. It’s not the fastest in the segment and there are moments – like using the fingerprint sensor, where the device seems to skip a beat. It’s a surprising decision and one that might turn off heavy duty users. There’s 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage (in addition a dedicated Micro SD slot to expand the memory). The device clocked 1750 on our multi-core Geekbench test that isn’t in the same league as its rivals. Our other crib is OPPO’s proprietary Color OS UI that’s still too busy for our liking.
The OPPO Reno 4 scores with its design language and premium finish. The rear cam packs a punch and the lightning quick 65W charger gives it a huge edge. Although we’re puzzled with OPPO’s choice of processor, the device delivers a solid performance that should please most average users. But can it hold its own in this competitive price segment with its Rs 34,990 price tag? We’ll find out soon enough.
The OPPO Reno 4 Pro costs Rs 34,990 and is available in Starry Night and Silky White colour variants.
