OPPO Reno6 Pro 5G Review By Alex Hong

Hey there, Alex here. This is the new Reno6 Pro 5G from OPPO. I know on paper it doesn’t seem like a massive upgrade compared to its predecessor, but since the last Reno I tried was the Reno4 Pro, I am somewhat curious about how much it has improved, and how the higher end MediaTek chipset would perform. So without further ado, let’s dive right in. First of all, it comes in a fairly standard packaging with a nice set of accessories in the box. I’m especially happy to see that we still get a 65W charger and a case here.

The design of the phone looks very similar to its predecessor on the whole, but there is a new finishing for the rear glass panel which looks and feels great. The phone is also quite slim and lightweight, so it feels pretty nice in my hand. Build quality is solid, and even the haptic feedback feels great thanks to a new X-axis Linear Motor. It’s just a shame that we’re still not getting any official IP rating. On the front of the phone, we’re getting a 6.5” curved OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. Colours look great, and outdoor visibility is decent as well.

In regards to the 90Hz refresh rate, most of the apps that can benefit from a higher refresh rate runs at 90Hz just fine. But I did notice that none of the games I tried was able to run at a higher refresh rate, perhaps due to compatibility issues or whatnot. So do take note if that’s important to you. The only game I play these days is just Mobile Legends which caps at 60Hz anyway, so it’s not really a big deal to me. The bigger deal to me is the lack of stereo speakers, which is a shame considering how nice the screen looks.

So it doesn’t sound quite as immersive while watching a video. The single speaker at the bottom does have pretty good clarity and volume, but it is a bit lacking in bass. The fingerprint sensor under the display works really well, but like the Find X3 Pro, I find the position of the sensor a bit lower than I would have liked. The Reno6 Pro here in Singapore is using the Mediatek Dimensity 1200 chipset, and it’s a pretty solid performer. It runs all of the apps and games that I use well enough, and as long as you keep to a lower graphics settings, it is able to run Genshin Impact at 60FPS relatively smoothly.

The performance is probably similar to older flagship Snapdragon chipsets, which is still pretty good, and I like that it doesn’t really get too warm even while gaming. Because it’s a Mediatek chipset, I should probably mention that it supports regular aptx bluetooth codec just fine, but I can’t seem to get aptx adaptive working. So TWS earbuds that rely on aptx adaptive for lower latency wouldn’t really work well here. Anyway, in terms of battery life, I can get a full day of moderate to heavy use out of the phone pretty easily. I recorded the amount of battery drain while using the phone, so you can pause the video if you want to take a closer look.

Charging speed is excellent as well. With the included 65W charger, it took just 10 minutes to get the phone to 40% from an empty battery, and a full charge took just about 35 minutes. With charging speed this fast, it doesn’t even matter if it doesn’t support wireless charging. Moving on to software experience, it’s running ColorOS 11.3 based on Android 11. There are quite a few preinstalled apps on the phone which I’m not a huge fan of, but I really like the amount of customisation options that OPPO has provided here.

I can change the accent colour, the app icons design, and even the shape for the quick settings toggle. There are also a ton of very useful features built right in. It has the more basic stuff like, swipe down for notifications, double tap to sleep, long screenshot, gaming mode, and whatnot, but there are 2 features that I particularly like. First is the ability to quickly launch a function while unlocking the phone, which is super useful for SafeEntry check-ins. The second, is this gesture which makes it easy to open hard to reach apps with just one hand.

This is probably the best implementation I’ve seen to make one-handed use easier. So overall, I think it's a pretty nice software experience. On paper, the Reno6 Pro comes with 4 rear cameras, but considering the macro and mono cameras aren’t really that useful, it’s really just 2 usable cameras. Anyway, for the main camera, it works pretty well when the lighting is good, and OPPO’s image processing is usually pretty good. It’s not too bad in low light as well, and the camera typically does a good enough job in auto mode.

However, I did notice that using Night mode makes the image look a bit softer, especially near the edges. Interestingly, it’s the opposite for the ultrawide camera which produces sharper looking images when using Night mode. So it’s still able to produce somewhat usable shots. Same goes for shots in good lighting. I wouldn’t say it’s amazing quality, but it’s usable.

For the front facing camera, performance is really good. No matter whether it’s good lighting or at night, it’s able to capture decent looking shots. The bokeh effect in particular worked surprisingly well to me. This effect can be applied to video as well, which is kinda fun, but the quality of the effect is just okay. So if you’re looking for a fun effect, I would recommend just sticking with the AI colour portrait mode which works much better.

Video quality is just okay, and since it lacks OIS, it’s only electronic stabilisation, and that’s limited to 1080p only. Anyway, I think the overall camera performance is pretty decent, with the highlight being the front facing camera. If you want to see whether it’s good enough for your needs, just check out the link in the video description below. I’ve uploaded everything I took with the phone at original resolution. Overall, I think the Reno6 Pro is a pretty enjoyable phone to use.

It has a nice build quality and design, it does the basics well enough, the software experience is pretty good, and it even comes with a 2 years warranty here in Singapore. But at a retail price of 949 SGD, I really wished that it would at least have some sort of IP rating and stereo speakers. I think if we were getting the same variant that they’re selling in Malaysia with the better chipset and camera hardware, it would be a much better deal. Even if it is pretty common for phones to be more expensive here in Singapore, it doesn’t make it easier to accept. Anyway, like I mentioned, it’s still a decent phone.

Maybe it’s not the best value at current prices, but if you can find a better deal for it, it could be worth your consideration. Thanks for watching this video, and see you guys on the next one.

Source : Alex Hong