Oppo Reno 7 Pro Review: A Stylish Renovation At A Competitive Price
The Reno 7 Pro carries forward the legacy of Reno series devices of ultra good looks and also comes with 65W fast charging.
New Delhi: The Reno series has been the camera-centric lineup from Oppo and it has, in my opinion, not been credited enough for the good-looking phones it makes in the Reno line. Now, the smartphone maker has launched the Oppo Reno 7 Pro that brings a new design with flat edges that seem to be catching up as a design trend this year, an upgraded camera, and a feature-rich OS.
A first look at the Reno 7 Pro and I realised that it is a fairly slim phone with super fancy looks. It carries forward the legacy of Reno series devices of ultra good looks and also comes with 65W fast charging that is extremely handy at a price point of Rs 39,999. Apart from the new flat-edge design and almost bezel-less display, what else does the Oppo Reno 7 Pro have? Here's how the smartphone fared in my review.
Oppo Reno 7 Pro Design, Display, Looks And Build
The Oppo Reno 7 Pro features a design trend that is catching up in 2022, with flat edges. It looks posh with a slim body and is pretty comfortable to hold. The back panel of the Oppo Reno 7 Pro is vibrant and shiny and when sunlight falls on it, it changes colour. According to Oppo, it has used a laser process to create 1.2 million diagonal micro-lines that can be seen at certain angles. The company also calls the design an aircraft-grade shooting star design The rear side, as well as the front of the Reno 7 Pro, has 2.5D glass. The rear has a textured finish that does not attract smudges and fingerprints easily.
At 1.5mm, the bezels are really thin and make the screen look almost bezel-less. The most interesting part of the phone's design is a light surrounding the rear camera bump that the company calls Orbit Breathing Light. This is kind of a subtle 'notification' light ring built around the camera module that lights up when you get a message, call while charging and when other notifications pop up. Oppo also says that turning on this feature will impact battery life. The fingerprint scanner is under the display and it works pretty fast and accurately. I do prefer the in-display fingerprint sensors over the side-mounted ones.
The rear of the phone is otherwise bare and a humble Oppo logo sits on the bottom right corner. Talking about the weight of the device, at 180 gram, the Reno 7 Pro is pretty light to hold and operate with one hand. It is perhaps one of the lightest in its segment. The display is bright and beautiful with a 6.55-inch full HD+ AMOLED screen that has a 90Hz refresh rate. Viewing the display under direct sunlight was good, but it was a tad bit reflective on certain angles. Viewing content, streaming videos and playing games were a delight, thanks to the rich colour reproduction. I really liked the gorgeous HDR 10+ display that the Reno 7 Pro offers.
Oppo Reno 7 Pro Camera
The Oppo Reno 7 Pro features a triple rear camera setup that is led by a 50MP sensor paired with an 8MP sensor and 2MP sensor. The camera module at the rear looks stunning with a dual tone matte and glossy look. Also, surrounding the camera module is the industry-first Orbit Breathing light that is a unique feature. I would like to see in other smartphones too. There is an option to turn on and off the ability to customise the breathing light to 'quickly blink for incoming calls' and 'slowly blink for notifications' that made it extremely useful to distinguish between calls and other notifications while keeping the phone upside down. However, it's a pity that the colour can't be customised to red, green, and other colours.
The triple set of cameras is powerful with the primary sensor being a custom Sony IMX766 50MP camera developed in collaboration with Oppo which is also the biggest highlight of the phone. The photos clicked in daylight had good colour accuracy and details. I really liked the natural bokeh effect in the images. The colours and dynamic range in the pictures were pleasing in most lighting conditions. Talking about low-light photography, I liked the natural colour reproduction and the highlights and shadows in the images. Looking at the performance of the ultra-wide camera, I'd say it could have been better, considering the price point.
For video calling and selfies, there is an industry-first 32MP Sony IMX709 sensor at the front. The selfie camera is excellent and produces images with accurate colors and great dynamic range. Special mention to the portrait mode that does an excellent job of detecting edges.
Oppo Reno 7 Pro Battery And Performance
The Oppo Reno 7 Pro features a custom variant of MediaTek Dimensity 1200 Max chip that Oppo and MediaTek built together. In terms of storage, there is 12GB or RAM and 256GB of onboard memory. The RAM can be expanded via the virtual RAM feature by up to 7GB. The battery capacity is 4,500mAh along with a 65W fast charger in the box. It took me a little more than 35 minutes to go from less than 10 per cent to 100 per cent charge which has spoiled me. The 4,500mAh battery is enough for an entire day of moderate to extensive social media browsing, watching content on streaming platforms and making Zoom calls. I would like to note that turning on the 'Orbit Breathing' light does impact battery life to some extent.
I was a tad bit disappointed to see the Reno 7 Pro running on ColorOS 12 based on Android 11 which has become dated by now. However, using the ColorOS in 2022 felt nice. The phone had a few pre-installed apps such as Moj etc that spam with silly notifications. A good thing is that even though the phone comes with bloatware most of them can be uninstalled.
Oppo Reno 7 Pro Final Verdict
The Oppo Reno 7 Pro is a competent phone in its price segment and with its trendy flat-edge display, 50MP primary sensor at the back, solid battery life and good performance, the phone packs in a lot of bells and whistles and it doesn't burn a hole in the pocket while doing all that. Thos looking for alternatives can consider the slightly higher priced OnePlus 9RT and Xiaomi 11 T Pro.
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