Oppo Reno 6 Pro

                              Oppo Reno 6 Pro

 

Oppo's premium Reno line of smartphones has been updated with the newly launched Oppo Reno 6 Pro and the Oppo Reno 6, both 5G smartphones that succeed the previous Reno 5 series. Once again, the focus for these phones continues to be slimness and lightness, but they also have more powerful SoCs and new camera features to boast of. Oppo hasn't deviated too far from the tried and tested formula that we've seen in the past, which is both a good and not-so-good thing. We'll get more into this further in the review.

Today, we'll be focusing on the Oppo Reno 6 Pro which is the hero model of the series. Oppo is heavily promoting its new “bokeh video” feature which is said to simulate the kind of soft background blur you can get when using a narrow aperture lens on a DSLR or mirrorless camera. Along with this, the Reno 6 Pro retains a lot of the features that made the Reno 5 Pro 5G great. However, we now have some very stiff competition in the sub-Rs. 40,000 segment, so can the Reno 6 Pro keep up? 

The Oppo Reno 6 Pro is only available in one configuration just like its predecessor, but Oppo has doubled the storage and increased the RAM. This new model comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The latter is not expandable, as the SIM tray can only accommodate two Nano-SIM cards. The Reno 6 Pro is priced at Rs.39,990 in India.

Oppo has not messed about with the design of the Reno 6 Pro too much, and it looks strikingly similar to the Reno 5 Pro 5G. It's the same thickness as the older model at 7.6mm, although the weight has gone up a bit (177g). The chrome-lined frame and the curved front and back look very nice. There's Corning Gorilla Glass 5 over the display, while the glass at the back gets a special treatment, giving it a matte finish with a shimmering crystal-like appearance. The Aurora colour that I have looks very pretty, and this phone is also available in a Stellar Black trim.

I found the placement of the buttons to be ergonomic. At the bottom, you'll find the SIM tray, USB Type-C port, and speaker. There's no writing on the flattened top like on the previous model, only a microphone. The Oppo Reno 6 Pro does not have a headphone jack but you do get a USB Type-C headset in the box.The display is well-spec'd too. It's a 6.5-inch full-HD+ AMOLED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ playback certification, and a 180Hz touch sampling rate. This is exactly the same as with the Reno 5 Pro 5G, and I was hoping for more of an upgrade. The bezels are evenly slim all around and the cutout for the selfie camera is unobtrusive.

Like with the previous model, you get an in-display fingerprint sensor and the option of an always-on display to quickly check notifications, the time, the battery level, etc.

Having tested the Oppo Reno 5 Pro 5G myself, the design of the new model felt very familiar. The low weight and slim design are still positives, and the new textured finish for the glass back makes it look very appealing.

One of the biggest upgrades to the Oppo Reno 6 Pro is the new MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC. Compared to the Dimensity 1000+ SoC in the previous model, the new one is built using a smaller 6nm process (versus 7nm), and has a tweaked CPU configuration with more powerful ARM Cortex-A78 cores. GPU performance is also said to be improved, even though it's the same subsystem on paper. The Reno 6 Pro isn't the first phone in India to sport this SoC; we recently saw it in the Realme X7 Max (Review).Other features include dual-band Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth, NFC, and the usual suite of sensors and satellite navigation systems. Oppo says it has used a colour temperature sensor along with an ambient light sensor, both on the front and back of the phone, for more accurate auto-brightness adjustment. FM radio is not present. The Oppo Reno 6 Pro uses a slightly larger 4,500mAh battery than the one in the Reno 5 Pro 5G, and features the same 65W fast charging capability.

The Oppo Reno 6 Pro is still sorely missing stereo speakers. The previous model skipped this too, and it's a shame that we still don't get them even with the new generation. Today, you can find stereo speakers in phones that cost well under Rs. 20,000, so to not have them in a phone at this price level is a big miss in my opinion.

This phone runs the company's latest version of ColorOS 11.3, which is very similar in form and function to the version we tested on the Reno 5 Pro 5G (v11.1). There are the usual customisation options for changing the system theme, always-on display, animations, etc. You get some preinstalled apps from Oppo such as O Relax which plays soothing sounds, and there's a gaming mode that blocks unwanted distractions when playing games.

There are a few interesting changes in the latest version of ColorOS. Some features and apps seem to have been directly influenced by OnePlus' OxygenOS. For instance, there's an ‘AOD Portrait Silhouette' feature in the customisation menu of the always-on display, which is basically a renamed version of the ‘Canvas AOD' feature first seen on recent OnePlus smartphones.

Even the gaming app, previously called Game Space in ColorOS, is now renamed to Games, and the interface design is identical to the app found on OnePlus phones. With the recent merger of the two companies and an announcement that ColorOS will merge with OxygenOS, we could be seeing a lot more shared features and design elements in phones from the two brands going forward.

The Oppo Reno 6 Pro still ships with a lot of unnecessary preloaded apps, which tend to spam your notification tray unless you uninstall them. Unfortunately, apps such as Theme Store and Browser are notorious for this, and these can't be uninstalled.

ColorOS ran smoothly on this phone, partly thanks to the ample RAM, but also due to the speedy SoC, which didn't skip a beat. Benchmark numbers were solid, with the Reno 6 Pro churning out an impressive 5,90,473 points in AnTuTu.

Games ran very well too. Despite the slim body, the back of the phone never got overly hot even after extended gaming sessions. Heavy titles ran such as Asphalt 9: Legends ran perfectly fine with consistent framerates. In most games that I tried, the display refresh rate dropped to 60Hz, but some, such as Brawl Stars, ran at 90Hz. The display also got very bright, which made games feel very immersive. Videos looked great too, including HDR content, although stereo sound would have made the viewing experience even better.

I found the battery life of the Reno 6 Pro to be pretty solid too. I was easily able to get about a day and half of use, which involved lots of video watching and checking social apps. The phone did well in our HD video loop test, lasting for a solid 17 hours and 21 minutes. The battery also charged very quickly with the supplied adapter. I was able to charge the Oppo Reno 6 Pro up to 96 percent in half an hour.

The camera setup on the Oppo Reno 6 Pro is pretty much identical to that of the Reno 5 Pro. There's a 64-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.7 aperture, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel monochrome camera. For selfies, you get a 32-megapixel front camera. The main rear camera still does not have any kind of optical stabilisation, and neither do we have a telephoto camera as an upgrade.Living with the Oppo Reno 6 Pro during the review period was great. It was barely noticeable in my pocket thanks to its low weight, and this also makes for more comfortable one-handed usage. The fingerprint sensor is quick at authentication, but what's even quicker is face recognition. The latter works well even in low light.