Oppo has always been particular about the looks and designs of its smartphones. The Reno Glow design, which first featured on the Reno 5 Pro 5G smartphone launched last year, is perhaps the part of this process to look exceptional. Carrying forward the possibilities of masterly artistry, Oppo now has Reno 6 5G and Reno 6 Pro 5G in its basket. While we’ve already reviewed the former that is quite amazing on all parameters of excellence, this time we have the elder sibling to put to the test. Reno 6 Pro 5G, the latest upper mid-range flagship from Oppo, doesn’t only offer a stunning design but also has a more powerful chipset and improved cameras. Priced at Rs 39,990, the smartphone houses Dimensity 1200, the MediaTek’s most powerful chipset so far, and new camera features that set it apart from the crowd. Let’s get started with the Aurora colour variant that we had for review, without further ado.
Design
Much has been said and written about this phone, and I feel there’s nothing wrong in it when the device offers you a premium feel with its elegant look and eye-catching design from top to bottom, or say display to rear panel. The smartphone will make you feel special as soon as you take it in your hands. It weighs just 177g and is only 7.6mm thick, which makes this device very lightweight and handy.
Following a minimalist approach, the Oppo Reno 6 Pro 5G sports a sleek glass surface on the back that is glossy and has the gradient pattern, but with a smooth matte finish that doesn’t attract smudges. The company’s patented Reno Glow design makes it look even more unique at this price point. Besides, there’s a slightly protruded camera module with four lenses on the top left of the back panel that also houses the vertical Oppo logo which is small and barely noticeable at the right towards the bottom.
Furthermore, the back panel merges perfectly into the metallic frame of the handset that houses the volume rockers on the left, and the power button on the right side. While there’s nothing on the top of the device except for a single noise-cancelling mic, at the bottom it sports a Type-C charging port, a single speaker and a SIM tray. Like its younger sibling, the buttons on the Oppo Reno 6 Pro are tactile and appropriately located and you do not need to shuffle your finger to press them.
Overall, the smartphone will fit perfectly in your hand and is easy to carry around, thanks to its curved design and slim profile. It’s very easy to use with one hand and will not cause any wrist fatigue. Interestingly, the phone also comes with a silicone case (in the box) that gels well with it, besides offering you a better grip over it and giving protection to its edges and corners. On the flip side, there are no dual stereo speakers, which I feel is unsatisfactory at this price point, akin to its younger sibling that we discussed earlier in its review.
Display
On the front, the Oppo Reno 6 Pro 5G sports a 6.5-inch full HD+ AMOLED display that curves into the left and right sides of the phone which makes it even more attractive, giving it a premium look. Thanks to the curved display, the bezels on the phone are scarcely noticeable and will give you an immersive visual experience, especially while watching videos. The smartphone features a tiny punch-hole tucked away on the upper left corner of the display and it’s hardly noticeable while using the phone. This feature will again enhance your visual experience.
The display has an aspect ratio of 20:9 and also offers support for HDR10+ and Netflix HD certification, along with Amazon Prime Video HD and HDR certifications. The smartphone offers support for a 180Hz touch sampling rate and up to 90Hz refresh rate, which are of great help to gamers. There is also support for the Always-On-Display (AOD) feature, which the company has brought to life with the help of a number of screen designs.
The display offers rich levels of brightness and reproduces vibrant colours. There are no issues with visibility while using the phone outdoors, even in bright sunlight. Besides, the display also offers good viewing angles and text readability. The smartphone, by and large, stands tall in this department and is really an amazing device for watching movies or playing games under any light conditions.
Platform
The smartphone is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC with in-built 5G support (as the name suggests). Although it comes in two RAM-ROM configurations (8GB+128GB and 12GB+256GB), we had the higher variant for review. In addition to this, the smartphone offers you the facility to allocate 3/5/7GB memory as VRAM to help improve the performance of the device. But, since the phone has plentiful RAM, this is of no use to the majority of users.
The Dimensity 1200, which we have earlier seen on the Realme X7 Max 5G, is a 6nm chipset that has an octa-core CPU. It has a prime Cortex-A78 core clocked at 3.0GHz and three Cortex-A78 performance cores running at 2.6GHz and four power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 2.0GHz. The GPU on this chipset is the Mali-G77, which offers pretty good results in games. The processor is claimed to be 22 per cent faster and 25 per cent more power-efficient than its previous generation processors. It also promises some extra performance while playing games with its support for MediaTek HyperEngine 3.0 gaming technology.
In terms of performance, it’s super smooth. The smartphone can handle daily tasks like a breeze. It doesn’t run into any sort of glitches or slowdowns, even with a large number of apps installed. Multi-tasking is flawless, thanks to the abundant memory on this device.
Although I’m not much into gaming, whatever the little games I played it was an awesome experience. There were no issues even at the highest graphics settings while playing Battlegrounds Mobile India. We didn’t notice any frame drops or stutters during the gaming session. The phone didn’t heat up even after extended gaming sessions. Taken as a whole, it’s an outstanding performer.
Cameras
Oppo has a reputation of offering outstanding cameras as per the price of a device, and this time too it has endeavoured its best to ensure above-par photography experience by offering a host of photo and video features, coupled with capable camera hardware on the Reno 6 Pro 5G. The smartphone houses a quad-camera setup on its back, including a 64MP (f/1.7, 26mm) primary camera that supports 4K video recording at 30FPS, along with an 8MP (f/2.2, 120-degree) ultra-wide angle camera and two 2MP sensors – one for macro and the other for monochrome photography. There is a 32MP (f/2.4, 26mm) wide camera with support for 1080p video recording on the front.
If we talk about the performance of these sensors, the 64MP primary camera works well across different light conditions. It captures frames with a good detail, and without any visible noise or distortion. In good light conditions, the primary sensor does a good job composing otherwise difficult details like dynamic range, highlights and shadows. Interestingly, the primary sensor can also be used to click 108MP ultra-high resolution images by enabling the Extra HD mode found in the phone’s camera software, which definitely is a good value addition to this phone.
The 8MP ultra-wide camera is also a good performer. However, the shots taken with the ultra-wide cameras lack detailing, especially the colour accuracy, which the primary sensor manages to capture. On the other hand, the 2MP macro sensor lacks the clarity and struggles to capture details even in good light conditions. Besides, the phone’s Night Mode is definitely a neat addition to the device that helps in taking photos with more light than actually exists in the frame.
Now, coming to the front camera, it’s good for selfies. It manages to capture decent pictures in well-lit conditions but not that accurate in the low light, however it’s not bad, just needed some improvements.
For making videos, the Oppo Reno 6 Pro 5G comes with some interesting features that promise to lift up your videography experience. The company’s exclusive Bokeh Flare feature adds cinematic Bokeh effects in portrait videos. This mode essentially transforms background lights in a video into spheres, to make the subject in frame stand out. The AI Highlight Video is another interesting video mode that enables the user to blur the background to increase focus on the subject in the frame. Both the modes are definitely nice additions to the camera software, and they could be a trend-setter in days to come.
Battery
The smartphone comes packed with a 4,500mAh battery with support for 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging. Although it’s not the biggest in the business, the battery is big enough for moderate users to keep the phone running for at least a day, if you browse internet and social media on a regular interval, love messaging and watch videos with a little bit of gaming. However, this is definitely not good for heavy users, as the battery will run out early, especially if you are into binge-watching on different OTT platforms or love playing graphic-intensive games.
Thankfully, the battery gets charged from zero to 100 per cent in around 40 minutes using the 65W charger. Moreover, the Oppo Reno 6 Pro also comes with battery optimisation features such as Super-Power Saving Mode and Super Nighttime Standby, which are of great help in maximizing the battery life of the phone. Overall, it’s a decent-sized battery that defies the phone’s slim and sleek design.
Conclusion
Offering a stunning design, a pleasing visual experience, solid performance, above par cameras and a decent battery life, the smartphone does more than enough in these departments and stands out as a great option in the upper mid-range segment. Having no dual stereo speakers definitely puts a question mark on this device, but its camera-centric innovations place it way ahead of others in the crowd. Although it’s a complete package, the Oppo Reno 6 Pro 5G has competitions too, in the form of Xiaomi Mi 11X and Realme X7 Max, which are similarly specced but priced significantly less.
