Oppo Reno 8 5G Review: The Good kind of Average

When it comes to smartphones under Rs 30,000, Indians are spoilt for choice. So, can the vanilla Oppo 8 cut it in a market riffled with competition from Motorola, Redmi, Realme, Samsung, OnePlus, and Vivo? Let’s find out in our full Oppo Reno 8 review.

First off, let’s take a look at pricing! The Oppo Reno 8 was unveiled sometime last month alongside the Reno 8 Pro. The vanilla Oppo Reno 8 price in India is set at Rs 29,999 for the sole 8GB/128GB variant. Now, let’s get back to the review starting with the phone’s design.

Design and Build

The Oppo Reno 8 has a box-shaped design as opposed to rounded edges around the sides. However, the edges are curved to prevent the phone from digging into your palms. The Reno 8 has a slightly large chin bezel but the rest of the three sides have very slim bezels. On the back, the Reno 8 has a unibody design with a single piece of glass used to cover the entire rear panel, including the camera island. Oppo’s unibody design was previously only reserved for its flagship phones, which gives the Reno 8 a premium look.

The Oppo Reno 8 comes in Shimmer Gold and Shimmer Black colours, our unit came in the latter. The Oppo logo is seen on the bottom of the rear panel, but apart from that, there’s nothing else inscribed on the back, giving the phone a clean matte finish. The one thing I did notice is that the rear panel did catch dust and the occasional fingerprints. The frame of the phone is made of plastic, so while the phone looks premium, it doesn’t quite feel it.

On the flip side, the Reno 8 5G is rather slim and light, measuring 7.67mm thick and weighing around 179 grams. The Reno 8 has a standard layout with the power button on the right and the volume buttons on the left. The SIM tray, USB Type-C port, and speaker grille are all located on the bottom. Overall, the design and build of the Oppo Reno 8 is pretty good, the phone looks great and feels good in the hand. It is worth noting that Oppo has also included a charging adapter, case, cable, and SIM tool in the base.

Display

The Oppo Reno 8 sports a 6.4-inch FHD+ AMOLED panel with a pixel density of 411 ppi. The screen boasts a 90Hz refresh rate, a 20:9 aspect ratio, DCI-P3 coverage, and 8-bit colour depth. The display has good viewing angles with a peak brightness of 800 nits, although it isn’t quite bright enough for outdoor use under direct sunlight.

The screen on the Reno 8 is decent enough for gaming or entertainment but is far from the best in the segment. The 180Hz touch sampling rate is fairly average, while the screen lacks HDR support and isn’t bright enough. Oppo could have definitely done better here.

Performance

The Reno 8 gets a solid upgrade over its predecessor on the performance front with the addition of the MediaTek Dimensity 1300 SoC. The chip is paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Additionally, the RAM expansion feature allows the phone to utilize up to 5GB of unused storage as virtual RAM. The chipset managed a 577 single-core score and a 2401 multi-core score. The numbers here are similar to those of the OnePlus Nord 2T, although they do fall short of the Nothing Phone (1) with its Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ SoC. When it comes to gaming, the MediaTek chip can run any title without much effort.

#diabloimmortal on the #OPPOReno8 5G on High Settings at 60fps @OPPOIndia @oppo pic.twitter.com/MpNiwrV0qL

— Carlsen (@Carlsen0491) August 31, 2022

We ran Call of Duty: Mobile on ‘Very High’ graphics and didn’t see a lot of frame rate drops after a good 30 minutes of gaming. Diablo Immortal ran at 60fps on both Medium and High graphics, although we did see stutters on the latter during intense fights. Other titles that also ran on high graphics without much effort were Asphalt 9: Legends and BGMI. The Reno 8 also has a dedicated game bar that allows you to block out disturbances when gaming. Additionally, you can use the ‘Performance’ mode to get a boost while gaming. The Oppo Reno 8 may not have the best-in-class performance in the segment, but it is powerful enough for both multi-tasking and long gaming sessions.

Cameras

The Reno 8 also gets a camera upgrade on the back, now using a 50 MP Sony IMX766 primary sensor, which is fast becoming the go-to camera sensor in the segment this year. The main camera is paired with an 8 MP ultrawide shooter and a 2 MP macro unit. On the front, the Reno 8 is equipped with a 32 MP selfie camera. The rear camera system can record 4K video at 30 fps or 1080p video at 60fps. The camera setup is similar to that of the OnePlus Nord 2T, although the 50 MP shooter here lacks OIS. So let’s take a look at how the cameras perform in the real world.

The Reno 8 snaps detailed photos in daylight with good colour reproduction. Images in daylight also had good contrast and decent dynamic range. Additionally, there’s a 50 MP mode that allows you to capture even more details in shots. The ultrawide camera maintains the same colour profile as the main camera in daylight, although shots look a little less detailed and softer. The macro unit can be a swing and a miss and takes a fair bit of time to get it right.

In low light, you can use the night mode to reduce noise and brighten up images while maintaining good detail. However, the darker areas in the shots have somewhat of a watercolour look, although the detail tends to fade. In the absence of ambient light, camera results were average. And while ultrawide shots were better than average at night, you still need some ambient light to get usable results.

The 32 MP Sony IMX709 selfie camera sensor performs exceptionally in daylight, giving you detailed shots with natural colours. Portrait shots had good edge detection and a natural blur, no matter whether you use the front or rear cameras. The rear camera system can capture 4K videos, but it is limited to 30fps. Even so, the footage looks good but lacks stabilization as the EIS doesn’t work very well in 4K resolution. Overall, the Oppo Reno 8 has a really good set of cameras that don’t disappoint and are among the best in the segment. Apart from the lack of OIS on the main camera, there is little to complain about.

Battery

Battery life is not going to be an issue on the Reno 8 thanks to the phone’s 4,500 mAh cell that can easily last an entire day. After playing Diablo on High graphics on the ‘Performance’ mode for 30 minutes straight, the Reno 8’s battery dropped by around 8 percent. Under heavy usage, I was left with 15 percent of battery life before hitting the sack. But even if you are left with very little battery life to take into the next day, the 80W charging support will fully power up your device in less than 35 minutes.

However, beyond battery life and charging, Oppo has taken a few more steps to ensure battery health is maintained over a prolonged period. Oppo’s Battery Health Engine and 5-Layer Charging Protection ensure you get the most out of that 4,500 mAh cell. Oppo also promises solid battery life up to 1,600 charging cycles, which is twice the industry standard. Overall, Oppo says that the battery will be reliable for over four years. So apart from excellent battery life and super-fast charging, the Reno 8 also delivers battery longevity.

Software

The Oppo Reno 8 ships with Android 12 with ColorOS 12.1 on top. ColorOS has a ton of customizations through the Theme Store app, wallpapers, Floating Window widget, and more. You also get the option to turn on Air Gestures, allowing you to interact with the phone without touching the screen.

You also get features like a sidebar, which lets you create a list of apps to launch in split-screen mode. The one downside of ColorOS is that it comes with a ton of bloatware pre-installed, although most of these apps can be uninstalled. However, some pre-installed bloatware is here to stay. The software on the Reno 8 isn’t anything out of the ordinary, it is reliable but could definitely use some work.

Verdict

With all the upgrades, the Oppo Reno 8 is a worthy successor to its predecessor. Rather than just opt for quality-of-life upgrades, the Reno 8 offers massive upgrades across the board, so even if you make the upgrade from Reno 7 to 8, you still won’t be disappointed. The Reno 8 offers excellent performance, solid battery life, fast charging, and a good display. Additionally, the cameras here are also among the best in the segment, while the unique design also works in Oppo’s favour.

On the flip side, the mono speaker system is sub-par, the software could use some work, and both the chip and display could be better. The Oppo Reno 8 is a well-balanced smartphone that ticks all the right boxes that matter. It doesn’t quite excel at anything but very rarely goes wrong and that’s the reason the Reno 8 gets our recommendation because it is pretty hard to find fault in it.