Review: OPPO Reno3 and OPPO Reno3 Pro – 44MP Selfie Camera and Awesome Performance

OPPO Reno3 vs OPPO Reno3 Pro

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Last year, we reviewed the OPPO Reno2 series and a couple of other OPPO flagship smartphones. The Reno series was born (birthed) just a couple of years ago but has already managed to acquire user affinity and popularity more than the oldest OPPO Find X series, which has always been positioned as a high earned series device.

Competitively, Reno 3 Series is equipped with a powerful quad camera, high-quality screen, and a large amount of memory. Let’s see how the OPPO Reno3 Pro differs from the Reno3 and the performances of the devices.

Technical Specs

Here are the key specs of our review units (OPPO Reno3 and OPPO Reno3 Pro)):

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Design and Display

With the design and ergonomics of the novelty, everything is fine and even excellent. The first thing that catches your eye is the minimal thickness of the case, and the weight just 170g for Reno3 and 175g for Reno3 Pro. And this is at a time when modern flagships are no longer shy to pass for 210 – 215 grams (like the Reno 10x Zoom). Here, on the contrary, the body build was reduced: the frame around the screen is the thinnest, the weight is the lightest, the thickness is minimal (7.9 mm for Reno3 and 8.1mm for Reno3 Pro). Yes, and the last Reno 2 case thickness was as much as 9.5 mm, and it weighed 189 grams. So herewith the dimensions, everything is excellent.

The display here is Super AMOLED; the diagonal is 6.4 ″, the resolution is 1080 x 2400 pixels, the aspect ratio is 20: 9, the pixel density is 411 PPI for Reno 3 while Reno3 Pro is 405 PPI. It can also be kept in automatic brightness mode, which is more economical for the battery and also prevents eye strain for users.

It is also significant that in the finishing they did not sharpen the side edges; they are almost flat here because the devices can be held firmly in hand. Both halves are made of Gorilla Glass 5, and in the middle, respectively, is a broad, sturdy aluminium frame. The metal is matte, and the glass is also not too slippery, the oleophobic coating is of high quality, there are no complaints about all this, the smartphone lies comfortably in hand and does not slip out.

Simply put, the OPPO Reno3 Pro is simple, clean, and smooth with a rounded body that feels great in hand. Reno3 Pro filters blue light to protect your eyes with TUV Rheinland Tech. The Reno3 Design comes from the infinite change of the sky’s colour with a light, creating an illuminating effect when viewed from a specific angle. In Reno3, the front camera is located in the center of the drop-shaped notch (for Reno3 Pro, there are two front cameras, and they are located in the elongated hole in the upper left corner of the display).

Recommended Read: Review: OPPO Reno2 vs OPPO Reno2 F: Is It worth the Extra Bucks?

OPPO Reno3 elements on the case are placed in different positions: the power buttons are on the right-hand side while volume buttons and SIM/memory card ports are on the left-hand side. A USB Type-C ports, audio jack, microphone, and very loud and, as always high-quality, stereo speakers (Dolby) are underneath the device while there is another mic on top of the device. This is the same with the Oppo Reno3 Pro, so I don’t need to mention this all over again. The rear camera of both devices has protruding protection, which I don’t really fancy. Because the smartphone is unstable on the back, swaying when working with the screen.

OPPO Reno3 Pro Design

OPPO Reno3 Pro Volume buttons + SIM Slots

OPPO Reno3 Design

Camera

Four rear cameras and a 44-megapixel front camera

The main camera of Reno3 received four cameras, as in the top-end device of the series – Reno3 Pro. The Ultra Clear 108MP Image optimizes most common user scenes, especially under bright light, such as the details of building, or venation of leaves.

The main camera has a 1/1.72-inch sensor with a resolution of 64 megapixels and a lens with an aperture of f / 1.7. The telephoto lens is based on a 13-megapixel sensor and a lens with an aperture of f / 2.4. The ultra-wide angle is equipped with an 8-megapixel sensor and a lens with an aperture of f / 2.2. Finally, the 2 megapixel sensor is designed to assess the depth of the scene.

The Reno3 Pro camera is not afraid of shaking hands at all as it still capture a clear shot of the image. Even on the 20x digital zoom, the smart stabilizer works out smartly, but the quality of the photos themselves is blurry – they can’t even be posted on the social network. Shots taken on 2x optical zoom and 5x hybrid optical zoom are very much okay.

OPPO Reno3 Camera

OPPO Reno3 Pro Camera

All cameras are able to function together with HDR. This option works fine in the “Auto” mode, improving both light and dark tones of contrasting scenes. Artificial intelligence confidently recognizes the scenes and selects the settings.

Nevertheless, in non-standard lighting conditions, if you choose wide-angle optics, the colour reproduction will not always be accurate. With the main camera and the Telephoto lens, this does not happen.

Recommended read: OPPO A9 2020 Hands-on Review: Where Beauty & Performance Marry

The video stabilization works fine. The Ultra Steady Video Pro and Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) are the technology behind the stable video recording. The video is smooth, without sharp jerks inherent.

Reno3 Pro shoots well in mixed and artificial lighting, as well as in the absence of light in the dark. In most cases, the Night mode helps out. It combines several shots and works out all the tones of contrasting scenes. For shooting with manual settings, an Expert preset is provided.

Multi-megapixel selfies

The front camera is built into the display and they are located at the upper left corner of the display. The camera is equipped with a 44-megapixel sensor, 2MP depth of Field Lens and a wide-angle f / 2.4 aperture lens. The image quality is great even in dim light. Reno3 Pro front camera comes with Ultra Night selfie Mode to solve the pain point of taking selfie at night, capturing beautiful moments at night. Sharpness appears only from a distance of about 30 cm, that is, for example, you can’t get a macro picture of your eye. It seems that the calculation was made for shooting with outstretched hands or a selfie stick. For self-portraits, there are traditionally many beauty options: smoothing of the skin, correction of the shape of the face and nose, eye size and so on.

The OPPO Reno3 Pro records 4K videos at 30 fps. The supported format is Full HD with 30 and 60 fps, as well as slow-motion clips in HD and Full HD. During movie shooting, you can freely switch the zoom. You can also take shots while recording the video simultaneously.

In 4K mode at 30 frames per second, the gadget produces a picture with the correct colour reproduction and high definition. Shooting in Full HD at 60 fps uses Ultra Steady Video 2.0 stabilization, which makes the video smoother.

Software and Performance

OPPO Reno3 Pro uses the 64-bit Mediatek MT6779 chipset . It is carried out according to the 12-nm process technology, it includes an eight-core CPU (2 productive Cortex-A75 cores operate at frequencies up to 2.2 Hz, another 6 energy-efficient Cortex-A55 – up to 2 GHz) and GPU – PowerVR GM 9446 (970 MHz ) The smartphone comes with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded with a memory card.

OPPO Reno3 Pro Vision score — OPPO Reno3 Pro Vision Testscore

The OPPO Reno3 Pro cooling system has proved to be wonderful, therefore, it’s quite safe to take this smartphone into consideration for game lovers.

There are stereo speakers that work in pairs and sound impressive. The sound quality is excellent and clear, there is support for Dolby Atmos with presets. The sound as a whole is really impressive.

OPPO Reno3 and OPPO Reno3 Pro run on Android 10, supplemented by the proprietary ColorOS 7 skin. Like most other similar skin, ColorOS changes the interface a bit and adds useful functionality and additional configuration options. ColorOS 7 supports interchangeable themes, a dark theme (new in the seventh version of the skin), the ability to host multiple applications on one screen, a sidebar with quick access to various tools, and a number of other useful features. The interface works quickly and smoothly, no noticeable slowdowns or lags were found. Preinstalled Apps on the devices are Soloop, Zalo, Zing MP3, Agoda, Bao Moi, Netflix, Lazada, etc.

ColorOS 7 Skin

The smartphone uses the latest version of the fast charging technology, VOOC 4.0 . The smartphone very quickly gains half the battery capacity (in 20 minutes up to 50%), and then more calmly gets the device fully charged within an hour. For a capacity of more than 4000 mAh, this is a good indicator.