Viewing an image or video on the Oppo Reno 4 Pro is like diving into the infinity pool
By Anand Parthasarathy
August 21 2020: Once smartphone makers have decided on the processor and the memory, most other features more or less fall into place. It is a fine judgement to balance a sensible basket of hardware ( primarily camera) and software offerings with good looks and aesthetics.
With the Reno 4 Pro, Oppo hazs struck a nice balance between sense and sensuality: the quad rear camera has 4 lenses – a 48 MP main, an 8 MP for ultra wide angle, and two 2 MP lenses for macro and mono. The last is an interesting design choice;. It allows the user to shoot a photo where the subject in the foreground is in colour, while the rest of the image is monochrome. This can make for a dramatic shot or a stunning video clip that some of the world’s greatest artistes pioneered. You may be old enough to remember Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Oscar winning, ‘Schindler’s List’. If so you may recall the shots where the whole frame, showing Polish Jewish prisoners (like the entire film) is in black and while, but one little girl’s dress is in bright red. You can achieve a similar arresting effect with the Reno 4.
The quad rear combo camera also allows a degree of slo-mo that is rare in phone cameras, slowing the action from a normal 30 or 60 fps to 240 fps – 960 fps. The selfie camera is fairly standard for this price band -- 32 MP, but there are a lot of AI tricks you can invoke to “beautify” the portrait. Oppo has included a made-for-dummies Solop video editor that those of us who are not professional photographers will appreciate.
The 6.5 inch super Amoled 25400 x 1080 display is better than HD quality and Oppo’s design has the image area oozing into very thin bezel area: the only anology I can come up with is the infinity pool in some star hotels. The 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage is adequate but you can’t add external storage.
One interesting fact: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G the fuels the Reno 4 Pro is one of the first anywhere to support the Indian NAVIC navigation system, our own alternate to GPS. However, the phone's spec sheet list GPS, Glonass, Galileo and one other system but NAVIC. I am guessing Oppo could include this by an software upgrade once NAVIC is fully functional.
If the charging unit appears bulky, that is because Oppo offers its proprietary Super VOOC 2.0 technology with the 65 watt charger that makes very short work of charging the 4000 mAH battery. One of the fastest recharges I have seen in similar-spec phones.
The overlay of Oppo’s Color OS 7.2 over Android 10 is a first for India and brings some smart ergonomic features that will take some time to discover but that will make a real impact on usability. The basic look and feel is kept simple which is a blessing.
Oppo legacy users will need no convincing about the Oppo Reno 4 Pro , if they plan to upgrade but I am guessing the phone will also scoop in new users looking for a mid priced model. It is selling in India for Rs 34,990