OPPO Reno10 Pro Smartphone Review

Flagship-close smartphones will continue to improve and adopt some of the features of the top models. At the same time, they may even have some features that the most expensive smartphones don’t have (for example, infrared sensors), but they will also be inferior in some ways (such as processor power). In today’s review, we will tell you what a buyer of OPPO Reno10 Pro should expect.

OPPO Reno10 Pro specifications

Gear

Even with a simpler price tag, the package of cheaper models than the flagships remains more complete. With the OPPO Reno10 Pro 5G, you find a powerful power adapter for really fast charging, a matching cable and a small pin to open the SIM card slot. It’s certainly not the biggest package that could be, but it’s nice to get a cool power supply at no extra cost.

The display also comes with a proprietary protective film. It’s not very comfortable, which I’ll talk about in more detail below, but the manufacturer at least took care of the display. What you have to buy additionally is a case. It is not included in the package, but most users will need such an accessory anyway.

Design and usability

As is often the case with devices at this price, the OPPO Reno10 Pro looks and feels just as good as the flagships, even if not all of its components match those of the more expensive models. However, the design department responsible for this can still be praised, as the device turned out very well. The test model is in silver gray color, and there are no other options on the Ukrainian page of the manufacturer’s website. However, the Reno10 Pro can be found in a more delicate color – Glossy Purple.

The front and back of the case are made of glass. On both sides, the glass has a slight curvature, which I personally like because it looks nice and is quite comfortable. The back glass also has a frosted coating that changes color at different viewing angles – a cool effect. However, the smartphone can easily slip out of your hands, which is why the user will most likely need to find a suitable case. Unfortunately, this detracts from the overall look.

The upper left corner of the back is traditionally occupied by the camera unit. It is large (especially against the backdrop of a relatively thin body) and high enough to prevent the device from lying flat on the table. Again, the case is supposed to compensate for this, but it also makes the device look “thicker”.

The chrome frame is made of plastic. However, because of its shine, it easily imitates metal, which does not detract from the design. Protection is another matter. Plastic is less resistant to various types of damage, and given the thin side bezels, it is unlikely that the glass will remain unscathed if dropped or hit hard. There were no problems with the placement of all the controls. Among them, I would only like to mention the presence of an infrared port for controlling home appliances – a convenient thing.

With dimensions of 162.3×74.2×7.89 mm and a total weight of 185 grams, the device was quite comfortable to use. In my case, the test model was without additional accessories. It was comfortable and pleasant to use the smartphone. There are no noticeable flaws in the build quality of the OPPO Reno10 Pro. Another thing is that it is only a matter of time before a smartphone without a case accidentally slips out of your hands (especially when they are wet). But this is still a common feature for a large number of modern gadgets, so I wouldn’t consider it a disadvantage. What is really missing is at least minimal protection against water and dust, which is not mentioned on the product pages.

Display

In the OPPO Reno10 Pro, the display not only fulfills its main function, but also complements the design. This is achieved through the curved sides. Subjectively, it looks good. And here we return to the aforementioned protective film, which causes some inconvenience. The thing is, it doesn’t cover the side completely, and your finger gets caught on it here and there. Personally, I would remove it immediately. But it’s not a given that it will be easy to find a more comfortable replacement.

These pages also have a minimal impact on the user experience, although there are no critical inconveniences. At the same time, even in the absence of specific settings, the display easily handles false touches and “understands” what the user needs at any given moment.

However, if the screen were flat, the device would look quite ordinary. The screen diagonal is 6.7 inches. The matrix occupies 93% of the screen, so although there are bezels, they are hardly “giant”. The resolution is 2412×1080, the aspect ratio is 20:9, the refresh rate is up to 120 Hz and the sensor polling is 240.

The front camera notch is located at the top in the center of the screen. The small circle can’t be hidden, but I wouldn’t say that it disturbs the view. Besides the traditional little animation when unlocking the phone, the manufacturer has not yet added any interesting software solutions (such as Dynamic Island) to the system.

The image of the AMOLED matrix is quite good. The manufacturer has provided four color profiles: Vivid, Natural, Cinematic and Brilliant. The first two have a better color coverage. At the same time, all of them allow you to adjust the color temperature to your liking. In general, the picture is very good and comfortable for everyday use. But why the manufacturer has not yet “taught” its smartphones to switch on the evening mode (Eye Comfort) with reference to the sunset is a mystery.

Vivid profile measurements:

Natural profile measurements:

The backlighting is generally sufficient for various occasions, although flagships these days have much brighter displays. For example, the OPPO Reno10 Pro’s screen can reach up to 950 cd/m² when playing HDR content and up to 800 cd/m² outdoors. The maximum brightness level indoors is 510 cd/m² and can be reduced to 2.2 cd/m² for working in the dark. There was no reason to criticize the system for poorly chosen values during the test.

Safety

OPPO did not look for non-standard solutions for this price segment when it came to quick unlocking methods. That is why the Reno10 Pro can scan fingerprints and recognize the owner’s face. In the latter case, only the front camera is used. You should not count on it in the dark or when wearing sunglasses. In all other situations, there were no problems.

However, if this method does not work, you can use a fingerprint sensor. It is hidden under the display. It’s an ordinary optical version with not the fastest response and accuracy, which is why you sometimes have to lift your finger a couple of times and put it down again. However, it generally works quite well.

If you use both unlock methods, you won’t have to enter passwords too often. And I don’t think it takes long to get used to the quirks of both unlock methods. They have typical behavior for this category of smartphones, and probably many users have had similar experiences in the past.

Sound

In some ways, Reno10 Pro was surprising. And that is the sound. The smartphone has a very good speaker, with which it would even be possible to get acquainted with the latest selections on Spotify in the morning. But there is only one speaker, and the earpiece speaker is not involved at all when it comes to media playback.

It is worth noting that there are no problems with telephone conversations. The speaker is able to provide the necessary volume for communication on a busy street. The microphone is also more or less up to the task, although it can still let some noise into the conversation.

The device doesn’t have a standard headphone jack, so you’ll have to rely on wireless options (or fiddle with an adapter). The good news is that there are no problems with wireless headphones: the connection is stable and works predictably.

Performance and software

The OPPO Reno10 Pro is powered by an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G (SDM778G) processor. It consists of four Cortex-A78 cores (up to 2.4GHz) and four more Cortex-A55 cores (up to 1.8GHz), and the graphics are handled by the Adreno GPU 642L. All this is complemented by 12 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB UFS 2.2 drive (the Chinese version has UFS 3.1 for some reason) is used for data storage (of which 4 to 12 can be allocated to help RAM).

The device also supports 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, several navigation systems and NFC. There is no room for memory cards, but there are two SIM card slots.

Synthetic benchmarks showed results on par with other devices with a similar chip. In the settings, you can find a high-performance mode that increases the scores by a few percent, but does not affect them dramatically. And this performance should be enough for the average user. But yes, flagship chips are capable of increasing the level of performance many times over, which will be felt in image processing speed, AI tasks and, of course, games.

If you have demanding tasks, the processor can still heat up the smartphone. However, it does not heat up as much as some flagship Qualcomm solutions did before, and the gadget itself works stably at maximum even for a long time (trotling of a few percent of the total capabilities can be ignored because in practice it remains invisible to the user). 

There are also a lot of little things in the system. Android 13 under ColorOS 13.1 looks pretty good. You can still spend some time setting it up, but it will be quite useful. Of course, there are also some small things (for example, I already mentioned the Eye Comfort Mode). But these are the exceptions to the rule. The main thing is that it all works well and does not cause critical inconvenience.

Of course, performance is not perfect either. A slow drive can sometimes be noticeable, for example when loading large games. The same goes for photo editing, which we’ll come back to in the next section. Again, these are details that will be noticed by users who have previously owned flagship smartphones. And we can’t say that the device is “too slow” – no. Most likely, the buyer will still be satisfied with the performance of such a smartphone.

Cameras

Mid-range smartphones can also have a good set of cameras. The main unit usually contains at least three. And the OPPO Reno10 Pro was lucky in this regard, getting useful cameras for different occasions, without, for example, macro, which is unlikely to be used often by owners. Here is the list of cameras:

• main wide-angle – 50 MP, aperture value ƒ/1.8, optical image stabilization;
• ultra-wide-angle camera has 8 MP, a 112° capture angle, and a ƒ/2.2 aperture;
• and telephoto – 32 MP with ƒ/2.0 and 2x optical zoom.

With such a set of cameras, it is likely that each sensor will be used at some point. And while they may be inferior to flagship options in terms of capabilities (for example, the optical zoom is only 2x), they are good cameras for their price range.

So during the day, the main camera combines pixels in its standard mode and takes 12.5 megapixel photos (there is also a separate mode for full resolution). The post-processing tries to preserve more or less natural colors and a “natural” look for the sky, plants, etc. Shadows are also not distorted, as is sometimes the case with other manufacturers. So you can usually count on good photos with a fairly natural look. The only thing is that moving objects can occasionally be slightly blurred, but this becomes more noticeable when you zoom in or on a large monitor.

Although the camera is capable of recording video in 4K resolution, it’s better to use Full HD because it offers much better stabilization. However, when you move your smartphone, you can still see how it affects the image. Also, for some reason, the camera captures images that are too bright.

At night, it’s a little harder for this camera to cope with artificial light, and the photo will have oversharpening and some “noise”. Objects in motion will naturally lose clarity. But such comments can also apply to more expensive models. In general, the night mode is not bad and allows you to take a good photo for social networks.

Despite the fact that the ultra-wide-angle camera, for obvious reasons, produces more noise and cannot afford sharper images, the photos are still great. Again, the post-processing keeps the image “closer to the original” without adding excessive color saturation. The lens correction also handles the edges of the photos quite well.

Video recording is much more difficult with this camera. The brightness is not the best either. But considering the resolution (and the class of the device), it’s hard to ask for a better image.

Unfortunately, this camera is noticeably lacking at night. Of course, this depends on the lighting conditions, but a couple of flashlights will definitely not be enough for a relatively decent photo (the example with the historical museum illustrates this well). To be fair, even the flagships have a hard time in such conditions.

Like the main sensor, the telephoto sensor combines pixels to produce an 8-megapixel image. The user only has the option of zooming in 2 times, and anything more (or rather, “closer”) is done digitally. Nevertheless, even under these circumstances, the camera manages to produce quite nice images, although the brightness could be turned down a bit.

As expected, zooming at night is done by cropping the main camera, not the telephoto. And the shooting functions here are the same as for the “wider” angles of this camera.

The front-facing camera takes full 32-megapixel (f/2.4) photos. With a viewing angle of 90°, it allows you to take a photo with your friends. Yes, there’s a bit of “noise”, but it’s not critical. At the same time, the detail is very good and, if necessary, you can digitally “wash out” the background of the self-portrait (with additional settings). The camera is quite good in different conditions, so it is unlikely to disappoint the owner.

The camera app looks standard and doesn’t require a lot of getting used to. There don’t seem to be a lot of settings, but there are options to get you started. All in all, nothing revolutionary, but everything you need is there.

Autonomy

With a 4,600 mAh battery and not the most “voracious” processor, the OPPO Reno10 Pro has a pretty decent battery life. Due to an annoying notification about the power saving mode, the battery test stopped at 20%, but before that it managed to cross the 9-hour mark, which is a very good result overall. Users who do not immerse themselves in “heavy” games and do not use the camera very often should be able to count on a day of operation, even with a reserve. But that’s not the most interesting thing.

This model supports 80W SUPERVOOC fast charging, for which an appropriate (large) power adapter is included. The smartphone can be fully charged in just 25 minutes, which is even faster in real use if the user is not in the habit of fully discharging the device. At the same time, the smartphone optimizes the overnight charge, keeping the charge at 80% until the morning and then bringing it to the maximum.

There is no support for induction charging. However, Reno10 Pro can still share the charge with another device that requires a suitable cable.