PARIS – Two new Reno series smartphones, the new Pad Air tablet and one wrist band for sport and health. It is the novelty triptych introduced today by Oppo with an event organized in Paris, the first in attendance for the Chinese company since the beginning of the pandemic.
The choice of the French capital is not accidental: it is here that Oppo presented the FindX in 2018, the first smartphone equipped with a retractable motorized camera and above all the brand’s debut device in Europe.
“Despite many global economic uncertainties, 2021 has been very profitable for Oppo and has seen the shipments increased by 94% in Western Europe. We also managed to maintain fourth place in the global ranking of smartphone manufacturers“, he explained to Italian Tech Isabella Lazzini, Chief Marketing Officer of Oppo Italia, on the sidelines of the presentation in Paris. “As we have done until now, we want to continue to expand our activities and our business constantly, focusing on two product lines: Find and Reno, aimed at the medium-high end market and continuing to forge strategic partnerships, building relationships long-term on important markets. Including the Italian one, where today, just four years after the European launch, 8 out of 10 people know the name Oppo “.
Reno8 Pro, il design
The new Reno8 Pro smartphone is the main protagonist of the Parisian launch. To capture the attention of consumers in a saturated market such as that of smartphones, especially in the medium-high range, Oppo relies on two key features: an original design and photographic capabilities of the device.
The design of Reno8 Pro, net of an aesthetic judgment, certainly does not go unnoticed. The rear body is dominated by a large photographic module, which Oppo’s designers have integrated organically with the rest of the panel. The entire back cover of the smartphone is made in a single piece of Gorilla Glass, which was molded under high pressure and high temperatures. The company has emphasized this construction process several times, developed to avoid the use of different materials for the back and the photographic module, as is the case on many other devices.
We had the opportunity to preview a Reno8 Pro for a few days, and the first impressions were positive. Despite the large size it smartphone is light and handy. The very large photo module does not particularly unbalance the device when held in the hand, even if the rest of the body is very thin.
The only element that does not fully convince us are the junction angles between the rear body and the unibody structure of the device: they clash a bit with the general fluidity of the design and interrupt the good compositional rhythm of all the other lines.
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Net of the design choices and the aesthetic result, which may or may not be liked, Oppo must be recognized as one continuity with the design language of models predecessors such as the Find X3 Pro and FindX 5 Pro, which were already experimenting with rear shells with bold shapes and made of unusual and expensive materials such as ceramic (on the FindX 5 Pro).
Reno8 Pro, photos and videos with the Marisilicon X
The two large lenses that dominate the photographic module are reminiscent – at least in the intentions of the company – of the containers of the film reels of old cameras: it is a tribute to the videographic capabilities of the telephone. “Among the many features of the new smartphone, one of the most important is undoubtedly the ability to shoot videos in 4K with Ultra Night Video mode“, explains Lazzini.” The Oppo Neural Processing Unit Marisilicon X, entirely dedicated to image processing, is the component that makes this function possible. The Reno inherit the NPU from the Find series, which collects our flagships. The intention is to make each product family more and more complete “.
Cooperation
Oppo’s Find X5 Pro ends up on Getty Images
From the first photos we had the opportunity to take, the Reno8 Pro behaves excellently both in bright light and in low light conditions. As already on FindX 5 Pro, the Marisilicon X actually makes the difference in 4K video at night: on a device of this range it is a competitive advantage that should not be underestimated.
It could be done though something more about the composition of the sensors of the camera. If in fact the main lens is coupled to a very good 50MP Sony IMX 766, the second camera is a wide angle of only 8MP. The third is a (useless) 2MP macro that makes the right presence. We could have done without the macro, perhaps in the face of a second more powerful sensor. On the other hand, the sensor of the main camera, a Sony IMX709 with 32MP adaptable angle, is very good: it ensures high-quality selfies and video calls.
Technical characteristics and battery
On the Reno8 Pro Oppo has chosen to implement a SoC from MediaTek, the Dimensity 8100-Max. It is not the most powerful you can find on the market, but it does its duty and above all offers a good compromise between price and performance compared to Qualcomm’s flagship chips.
The chip is flanked by 8GB of ultra-fast LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of memory, again with the speed of the UFS 3.1 standard. The picture is completed by the 5G connectivity equipment (ça va sans dire), the 6.7 “AMOLED display with flat edges which in our opinion contribute positively to the aesthetic success of the device and to the general ergonomics. The weight of only 183g is also excellent. , well below the average smartphone of the same range with dimensions similar to those of the Reno8 Pro.
Together with the Reno8 Pro, the Reno8 model (stop). It is similar in design, but the display has the camera hole on the left and a larger bottom bezel. It also features a less powerful processor, the MediaTek Dimensity 1300, and a smaller 6.4 “AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate (instead of 120). With the higher model, however, it shares the presence of the Sony IMX766 sensor for the camera. 50MP and the Sony IMX709 for the front selfie camera. The battery is also very good: on both it is 4500mAh and is compatible with the 80W SuperVooC ultra-fast charging which compensates for the absence of wireless mode and brings the charge level from 1 to 100% in just 28 minutes.
Oppo Pad Air e Oppo Band 2
At the Paris event, Oppo found space for the presentation of two other new products: Oppo Pad Air, the the brand’s first tablet to officially arrive in Europeand the Oppo Band 2, a new generation of wrist band for sports and health.
Oppo Pad Air is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 mobile platform, a 10.36-inch 2K display and four speakers with Dolby Atmos support. It weighs just 440g and the metal body measures just 6.94mm thick. It is a lightweight and durable tablet designed for web browsing and multimedia content. Another feature to take into account is the size of the battery: it has a volume of 7,100mAh and can guarantee a long autonomy, with up to 10 hours of continuous video playback.
OPPO Band 2 instead mounts a 1.57-inch display: it has a 47% higher display-to-body ratio compared to the previous generation and a larger display area to improve interactions with the interface. The brightness of the screen is very good, reaching 500 nits and making it easy to read the contents even in the presence of strong external light, for example during a running session in full sun. The device is also very light, weighing only 33g. The sensors include a 6-axis motion detector, a heart rate monitor and an oxygenation meter. There are 100 training modes and the Osleep function to monitor sleep quality.
Prices and availability
Reno8 Pro is available in Italy starting today at a recommended price of € 799.99 for the 8GB + 256GB version. Until September 30, the launch offer includes in the price the True Wireless Oppo Enco X2 headphones, a cover, the Oppo Watch Free cheap smartwatch and the participation in the drawing of two tickets for a Champions League match, of which Oppo has become official sponsor. Reno8 instead costs € 599.99 in the 8 + 128GB configuration. In this case, the initial offer includes the Enco Free 2 headphones, a cover and participation in the lottery for Champions League tickets. Oppo Pad Air is available on the Oppo Store with a recommended price of € 349.99 for the 4GB + 128GB version, or € 299 for the 4G + 64GB model.