Design and Display If we talk about the design of the Oppo Reno 2 it looks like a carbon copy of the Reno 10x Zoom, which was launched by the company a few months ago. The company came with the same concept, particularly with the design. It comes with an arched back panel with Gorilla Glass 5 for the protection that gives it a seamless and smooth finish without any sharp edges or camera bump which has been placed beneath the glass cover. This makes it looks absolutely stunning and brings great show-off value.
The company has launched the smartphone in two attractive colours options, Luminous Black and Ocean Black. For the review, we got our hands on a sparkling and polished Ocean Black colour option that shows different shades of the night when moved around, which is one of our favourite aspects of the phone. There is a blue strip in deep shade in the centre on which Oppo’s branding has been stamped on the rear panel along with an O dot that saves the camera setup from inadvertent scratches. This time Oppo has gone with the glossy finish instead of a matte finish, which we already saw on the Reno 10x Zoom. The shiny back grabs hold of fingerprints easily.
When we say Oppo Reno 2, it seemed like a carbon copy of its predecessor. And to an extent it really is. Like it has come with a similar design concept on the front also. It comes with a shark fin-shaped elevating camera, which we have seen on the Reno 10x Zoom that works efficiently and quickly despite the fact that it also has a Face Unlock feature that too works well. On the right side, you can find the power button with a hint of sparkling green colour. While on the left there is the volume rocker key. Here we would like to mention despite having such a large body the buttons placements are very accurate. Even if you have small hands you can easily reach out to them with one hand. On the bottom, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack, Type-C port and a speaker grille. The phone is heavier as it is all made of glass. At times we found the phone too smooth to hold in our hands and we felt it might slide out. Oppo Reno 2 comes with a 6.55-inch AMOLED Panoramic notch-less display with 20:9 aspect ratio. The display screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 6 and the screen offers 93.1 per cent screen to body ratio. This means there is no notch or extra bezel hindrance. It offers a bright display and you would not face any difficulty viewing the phone from any angle and in any light condition.
Performance and Cameras What makes it less powerful is its Snapdragon 730G SoC octa-core processor based on the 8nm process along with Adreno 618 GPU while its forerunner Reno 10x Zoom came with the 855 SoC under the hood. It offers 8GB of RAM paired with 256GB internal storage that is non-expandable. However, during our review, we did not face any lag or deceleration. The performance was smooth even on extensive use.
It runs on Android 9.0 Pie skinned with ColorOS 6.1. Despite this, it comes with all the Stock Android features along with a few customisations with regards to gestures. The device does come with bloatware, nonetheless, these can be easily uninstalled. Watching a movie and listening to your favourite music on the Oppo Reno 2 was also a fairly good experience. The phone delivered a fine and clear resonance. Like we said earlier also, there is a motorized fin-shaped camera that worked fine when it comes to face unlock feature. We choose to go for the in-display fingerprint sensor as it was much faster to unlock the device than using the face unlock feature, which elevates the camera every and it uses extra battery each time.
To give it life Reno 2 houses a 4,000mAh battery, which offers full-day battery life even after nominal use. But if you are a movie buff and love streaming video content on Netflix or else on Prime video, playing games, streaming music, a social media addict then at the end of the day you need to put it on a charge. The best part is, it comes with 20W charge VOOC 3.2 fast charger that charges the phone to a 100%in less than an hour.
The biggest selling point of the Oppo Reno 2 is its quad-camera setup that includes a 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor that is supported by optical image stabilization (OIS) and electronic image stabilisation (EIS). Assisted by, a 13-megapixel telephoto lens, an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera and a 2-megapixel macro lens. Furthermore, it offers a 5x hybrid zoom and 20x digital zoom. The 5x hybrid zoom pictures were detailed, steady and blur-free delivering impressive shots. The brightness, contrast and colours all were just accurate. While reviewing the camera capabilities we did not stumble on colour bleeding. If shots were captured during well-lit circumstances it delivered accurate and detailed pictures that only very expensive phones would offer.
Even macro shots, as well as wide-angle shots, were pretty remarkable. The wide-angle camera lens doubles up as a macro lens, too. In the Portrait Mode it comes with AI beauty mode that softens and brightens the skin under dark environments, large aperture Bokeh option lets you adjust the level of blur before taking the shots. HDR Portrait and monochrome portrait shots are there as well. As it was being advertised to click the best low light pictures, we also put it to test and were amazed to see the results. It worked well enough for low light situations. In terms of videos also it has so much to offer such as slo-mo, time-lapse, expert mode to name a few. You can also shoot videos in low light situations with a dedicated night mode option available on the device.
The elevating shark fin-shaped selfie camera is the best part on the Reno 2 smartphone. Firstly, it is hidden inside the phone to offer a full display screen experience, secondly it so different from the other motorized pop-up selfie cameras that are being offered in the market on other devices. Then it comes with a great bokeh effect, even the videos offer bokeh effect also. Verdict In the end, we would say there are a number of companies that are dominating the market that offer premium smartphones with high asking price, but the fact is not everybody is rich enough to own such smartphones. If you also desire to have a premium-looking device and love photography without burning a hole in your pocket then you can definitely go for Oppo Reno 2. It is a good looking smartphone with a fancy motorised selfie camera, gleaming display, not so powerful but a good chipset and above all the 48-megapixel quad camera set up that fulfils all your photo demands. Pros Eye-catching glass design High-quality camera performance Vivid Display Cons Run of the mill battery life Could have been a little cheaper Delicate to handle For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You can also stay up to date using the Gadget Bridge Android App.
