Phone manufacturer Oppo recently announced the Kenyan launch of the new Oppo flagship phone, part of the Oppo Reno series range of smartphones.
The newest addition to the Reno series is the OPPO Reno 8, which comes in two variants i.e. Reno 8 4G and the Reno 8 5G. The 4G one is retailing at Ksh. 42,999 while the 5G variant will go for Ksh. 59,999.
We had a chance to test drive the new phone (5G version) and here are our thoughts;
Design and screen
The Oppo Reno 8 comes with an all glass front, protected by Gorilla Glass 5, and a plastic frame.
The 6.4 AMOLED touchscreen, at 1080 x 2400 pixels, is super bright and is quite visible even in bright light. The screen is great for gaming and watching movies as it brings out the colours nicely. The selfie camera is on the front top left while the fingerprint scanner is on the lower middle.
At the back, it features a minimalist design with the back camera protruding from the back cover. On the side, we have the power button on the right and the volume controls on the left. You have to press the power button + the upper volume button to turn off or restart the phone. The left also has the SIM card plus memory card slot.
It comes with USB-C charging port, which is at the bottom of the phone, with the speaker on the right. The Reno 8 is the first in the series not to come with a headphone jack. The phone also obviously doesn’t also come with earphones. To listen to music, you have to use the inbuilt speakers or ear buds via Bluetooth.
The phone design is compact and feels comfortable. It feels lighter than the Reno 8. The main camera lights up (or rather the LED light around it) whenever you have notifications.
Network
The Reno 8 5G is quite fast and it is one of the phones that is supported by the Safaricom 5G network. I was able to get downloads of up to 200 Mbps. As Safaricom rolls out 5G across more parts of the country, the 4G still works great.
Performance and software
The Oppo Reno 8 comes with a MediaTek Dimensity 1300 processor, Octa-core (1×3.0 GHz Cortex-A78 & 3×2.6 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) CPU and Mali-G77 MC9Adreno 610 GPU. It also comes with 256 GB internal storage and 8 GB of RAM. The RAM is expandable by up to 5 GB via virtual RAM.
It also comes with Android 12 operating system coupled with ColorOS 12.1. Out of the box, the usual Google and Oppo apps comes pre-installed.
My experience with the processor, RAM plus OS combo was great. 8 GB RAM was more than sufficient for me even when running heavy apps together or gaming. However, if you need extra RAM for the normal operation of the phone, you can expand your RAM.
Camera
The Reno 8 comes with a triple camera setup at the back i.e. 50 MP (wide), 8 MP (ultrawide) and 2 MP (macro). It also comes with a 32 Megapixel selfie camera.
The camera experience is quite good. Oppo has enhanced the night feature which means that the camera takes great pictures even in low light situations. They have also improved the portrait feature to take better up close pictures of yourself or others.
Other features that come with the cameras include;
- Night shooting feature for low light conditions
- High-efficiency video coding (HEVC) to be able to record high quality videos that save space.
- HDR and AI enhancement to automatically detect objects in a photo or video and to enhance them to get the best picture
- Portrait mode
- Pro mode
- Other include; Slow motion, time lapse, microscope and text scanner.
Here are some photos I took with the camera.
Battery
The Reno 8 comes with a Li-Po 4500 mAh battery with 80W fast charging. The phone charges quite fast and it takes around 30 minutes to get to 100% from 0%. It however does retain charge for a phone with such a bright screen. I was able to get 10 hours with heavy use and 12-14 hours with moderate use.
It has the power saving and super power saving mode features which should help you if the battery drains in a location where you are unable to charge your device.
Final thoughts
The Oppo Reno 8 is a great smartphone that comes with fast charging, great battery life and an amazing camera setup. It is a great buy for a mid-range smartphone and I highly recommend it.
The Reno 8 5G is retailing at Ksh. 59,999 while the Reno 8 4G at Ksh. 42,999. They are available at Oppo retail stores countrywide.