On one hand the Oppo Reno 10x series is doing well for the company and yet it felt the need to offer the Indian consumer another phone that looks very similar to the 10x Zoom.
Juxtaposing each other, the Oppo Reno 2 might look like an upgrade to the Reno 10x series, but there’s a lot more happening on the inside.
We used the Reno 2 for a few weeks and here’s a quick review of the device.
What’s Good?
There is a striking similarity between the Reno 2 and the Reno 10 series. However, I feel that’s where the company aims to create a distinct identity for the Reno brand.
There’s more glass this time around and it gives a premium look to the device. I’d always pick glass over metal not only because it looks better, but it adds more grip when you’re holding the phone.
At 6.5-inch, it comes with a slightly smaller display than the Reno 10x Zoom, but the overall quality and performance is good. Texts are easy to read outdoors and without bezels, content is fairly spread across the display’s real estate.
Plus with no notch or punch holes, there’s a clean display at your disposal. Though the performance is snappy and multi-tasking is a breeze, I have a gripe about the UI which I’ll talk about a bit later.
We were pleased with the camera performance. It comes with an array of lenses at the back (four to be exact), which deliver more than satisfying results even under extremely dim-lit conditions.
At the front, you have the shark-fin snappers, that open up to unlock via face unlock, even though you have the in-display fingerprint scanner. You obviously get to use only one.
The 4000mAh battery unit delivers on its promise and the bundled VOOC fast charger ensures it doesn't take a long time to charge the battery from a low 10 to 80 percent. This is one of the bigger pluses of using an Oppo phone for me.
What’s Bad
I am not a big fan of the ColorOS that Oppo offers with its phone. It is not intuitive and you’ll struggle to find some of the basic functions. It was a battle to find the navigation key settings. Until then I spent most of the time navigating the phone swipes and gestures.
Animations also take their own sweet time to load and it still gets its share of pre-loaded bloatware that many users would prefer deleting. Camera processing also takes a hit because of the lag in the software, which has also created issues while using basic apps like WhatsApp, Twitter, etc.
Despite having a snappy performance the Snapdragon 730G process isn’t a flagship, which is where it’ll have to take a back seat against phones that come with a better chipset — like the Snapdragon 855.
Final Verdict
Oppo has played a risky hand pricing the phone at Rs 36,990. Despite the stellar camera performance and the fancy design, it still doesn’t manage to justify that price tag.
The Reno 10x Zoom comes with a Snapdragon 855 chipset and it’s a few thousand bucks more expensive seems to be an ideal bargain in this price range. Not to mention, in this segment, it also competes with phones like the OnePlus 7 and even the Pixel 3A that come with a better camera UI advantage.
The Reno 2 is Oppo’s attempt to make sure the Reno brand stays in the limelight. However, I feel Oppo is cannibalising some of the earlier launched Reno phones as well with this launch.
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