Oppo Reno2 review

Camera - image and video quality

Photography prowess is clearly a major selling point for the Reno2. Like we mentioned earlier, compared to the original Oppo Reno, the second generation comes a lot closer to the flagship Reno 10x zoom flagship photography experience. Apparently, this is where Oppo sees the future of the Reno line more than anything else.

That being said, though, the major showpiece that is Oppo's 5x optical periscope camera is notably missing. What remains, however, is a set of surprisingly well-thought-out snappers. First, there is the main 48MP, f/1.7 26mm, 1/2.0", 0.8 µm unit. It is the same you find on the original Reno and the 10x zoom. Unlike the former and like the latter, it now has OIS. No Laser AF, though, which might be worth noting.

Taking the place of the famous periscope module is a more traditional 13MP, f/2.4, 1/3.4", 1.0µm telephoto with 2x optical zoom and 5x hybrid zoom. Nothing too fancy, but still solid. Naturally, it has autofocus as well. PDAF at that.

The more surprising bit, however, is that the 8MP, 13mm, f/2.2, 1/3.2", 1.4µm ultrawide has autofocus as well. That's not something you see every day and it's leveraged by Oppo to take high-detail close-up shots. You can also get some nice bokeh effect out of the ultrawide.

Last and probably least, the Reno2 has a 2MP supplementary camera. But unlike your typical depth sensor, this one actually has some extra tricks up its sleeve. It is a monochrome black and white unit - f/2.4, 1/5", 1.75µm. As you can probably imagine, shots taken directly from it won't really look all that impressive. However, Oppo is allegedly using it for some powerful portrait mode effects. Color isolation filters that look really impressive.

The camera app offers AI scene recognition - you'll see a small icon when a scene is successfully recognized, and the software will tweak all settings accordingly. Food, snow, pets (dogs and cats), sunsets, grass are recognized correctly.

The app has three major modes - Photo, Portrait, and Video - and you can swipe between those. The Dazzle Color toggle is on the other end, accompanied by the HDR and flash settings. The ultra-wide-angle camera has its own direct toggle next to the Dazzle Color, but you can also access it via the zoom shortcuts - they are 10x, 6x, 2x, 1x, and ultra-wide (which is 0.6x if you are keeping count).

Camera app

There is also a hamburger menu with a few more shooting modes - Expert (manual settings), Pano, Time-lapse, Slow-mo, and Night Mode. The latter is a handheld long-exposure mode for low-light photos.

Image quality

Let's start with some photos shot with the main camera. The 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor uses a Quad-Bayer array and pixel binning - it combines four adjacent pixels into one. The resulting image is reduced to a higher-quality 12MP shot.

And the 12MP snaps we captured during the day are excellent. There is plenty of detail, high dynamic range, mostly accurate colors, good contrast, and overall very nice processing. The photos have just the right amount of sharpening applied so detail is highlighted, but there are not too many sharpening halos.

On the flip side, certain areas with uniform color appear quite grainy. This is not the first time we are observing such behavior out of a Quad-Bayer sensor and it's not really a major deal. It is only really noticeable when pixel-peeping. Overall, the 12MP daylight photos are flagship worthy.

Oppo Reno2 12MP main camera samples

Shooting in 48MP is possible, but the images you'll get have little extra detail - far from enough to justify the increase in file size.

Oppo Reno2 48MP main camera samples

Even though the Reno2 lacks Oppo's fancy periscope camera, it still does pretty well with its telephoto snapper, plus some smart hybrid interpolation. The zoom controls in the camera are pretty straight-forward once you understand what is going on. Pressing the zoom indicator toggles between 1x, 2x and 5x. An extra tap brings you to the ultrawide camera, which also makes sense. You can also pinch to zoom in which case you can granularly get all the way up to 20x.

To get the record straight, 2x gets you the native focal length of the telephoto, which means it's optical zooming. Everything else is done through a careful mix up of cropping and interpolating or what Oppo calls Hybrid Zoom.

Oppo Reno2 2x camera samples

At 2x zoom photos come out very clear and detailed. We have no notable complaints with this mode. Even at the interpolated 5x setting, the Reno2 produces surprisingly usable stills. There is definitely some softness creeping into the frame, but nothing too severe. Detail remains great. Even dynamic range doesn't take too much of a hit.

Oppo Reno2 5x camera samples

The ultrawide camera on the Reno2 is arguably the least impressive of the bunch quality-wise. Compared to the other two, it is softer, noisier, and with worse dynamic range. Even so, the stills it produces are perfectly usable, but as far as ultrawide shooters go, it is a far cry from the best we have seen.

Oppo Reno2 ultrawide samples

On the flipside, the ultrawide camera comes with autofocus, which you don't see too often. This allows it to pull double duty as a macro snapper. Oppo says it can focus from as close as 2.5 cm from the subject, which is about what we managed to get as well.

Using ultra-wide for macro shots

One great consequence of using the ultra-wide as a macro camera is the great natural bokeh effect you get in the background. The three cameras really provide a versatile setup.

Oppo Reno2 camera samples: wide • 2x • 5x • ultrawide

HDR is naturally an option for each of the cameras. There is an auto setting that works pretty well. Frankly, that's not really surprising seeing how the Ai scene detection on the Reno2 works surprisingly well overall. You get convenient little icons at the top of the camera UI whenever something gets triggered. And these can be more than one at a time.

Camera scene AI at work

Since that is the case, there really is no reason not to leave HDR on auto all the time.

HDR test: 12MP Off • 12MP On • 48MP Off • 48MP On • 2x Off • 2x On

HDR test: 5x Off • 5x On • Ultrawide Off • Ultrawide On

Before we move on to selfies, the 2 MP B/W camera on the back of the Reno2 deserves some attention as well. Its primary purpose is depth sensing, and it seems to handle that task pretty well. The Reno2 can capture convincing portrait shots.

Oppo Reno2 portrait samples

There is the occasional edge detection error, of course, but overall these are nothing short of flagship-grade portraits. Thanks in part to the black and white sensor on the 2MP supplementary camera and some software magic, the Reno2 offers some interesting color filters and effects.

Color filter effects.

Oppo calls these "O6," and they work on video as well and that includes the bokeh effect. You can mix and match the filters and a varying level of bokeh as you see fit.

Some of these presets do require some proper shot preparation and a well though-out scene and background to really shine. Otherwise, they end up looking rather silly.

Oppo Reno2 "O6" color filters

When the lights go down, the Reno2 still packs quite a punch in the camera department. A smudge of noise here and there and some actual smudges and blurriness if you are not overly careful with the autofocus and how shaky your hand is.

Oppo Reno2 low-light samples

Just to be clear, though these are not issues specific to the Reno2, but expected side effects of shooting in the absence of proper light. Overall, just like in broad daylight, the Reno2 produces flagship-grade results in low light.

Oppo Reno2 ultrawide low-light samples

There is also a dedicated Night mode on the Reno2. It does a pretty good HDR job of generally brightening-up shots. Better still, you can have Night mode with any of the three cameras.

Oppo Reno2 Night Mode: Off • On • Off • On • Off • On

Oppo Reno2 Night Mode: Off • On • Off • On • Off • On

Oppo Reno2 Night Mode: Off • Off • Off • On • On • On

Some of them naturally work better, and the usefulness of the algorithm is heavily dependent on the scene itself.

For your pixel-peeping convenience, here is the Reno2 in our photo compare tool.

Oppo Reno2 against the Oppo Reno 10x zoom and the Xiaomi Mi 9T in our Photo compare tool

48MP: Oppo Reno2 against the Oppo Reno 10x zoom and the Xiaomi Mi 9T in our Photo compare tool

Telephoto: Oppo Reno2 against the Sony Xperia 10 Plus and the Xiaomi Mi 9 in our Photo compare tool

Selfie camera quality

It seems Oppo is really trying hard to position the Reno2 as a "creator" device. As such it should come as no surprise that the selfie camera got just as much software attention and goodies as the main camera array.

The 16 MP, f/2.0 unit might be alone on its motorized pop-up "shark fin," but that didn't stop Oppo from translating the "O6" filters on this side as well.

portrait bokeh and color filters on the selfie camera

A little less convincing in the final result, however, due to the lack of a second B/W camera on the front. In between AI Beauty mode, HDR capture support and the aforementioned adjustable portrait bokeh and color filters, even in the absence of a secondary cam, the results look really good.

Oppo Reno2 selfie samples

Oppo Reno2 selfie samples with filters and bokeh

Beyond portrait mode and color filters, there is also a pretty powerful beauty mode. You could just leave the AI Beauty algorithm to do its work by default or go in-depth, tweaking your complexion MMO character-creator style. You can combine all the effects, if that is the level of augmentation you are after.

Oppo Reno2 Beauty mode samples

Of course, if you don't really feel particularly "artsy" for a given shot, you can opt-out of all the filters. Although it does take some time since there are a few, including auto Ai Beauty Mode.

In-depth Beauty mode options

The results still look great. The detail is plenty, sharpness is pretty much uniform throughout the frame, and even though you only get a single fixed-focus came on the front, the focus plane is fairly wide.

Oppo Reno2 selfie samples

All and all, the Reno2 is a surprisingly powerful selfie machine, with clever software doing most of the heavy lifting.

Video capture quality

While still on the topic of selfies, filters, and effects, it is worth noting that the Reno2 offers all of the aforementioned goodies for video as well as photos. Better still, it does so on both the main and selfie cameras.

Portrait mode and effects are available for any video or still shot

Yes, that means you can have bokeh in your vlogs, as well as color filters applied to your videos in real-time. When it comes to video, though, these are no longer called "O6", but F6 instead. We aren't exactly sure why, but, in any case, they look pretty similar.

Once we started piling on real-time effects and bokeh to selfie videos, the lack of a second camera on the front started to become apparent. Even so, it is an admirable software effort on Oppo's part to pull off this kind of result. If you are particularly careful about your background and avoid sudden movements, you could even call some of these clips usable.

The main camera setup handles live bokeh and color filters better. Still far from perfect, but noticeably better.

But even in the absence of cool party tricks like live bokeh and color effects, the Reno2 stands its ground in the video capture department. Both the regular cam and the telephoto can shoot video at up to 4K@30fps. It is the standard affair - AVC + AAC MPEG-4 inside an MP4 container. If you would rather save some space at a small quality penalty, you can also switch over to HEVC.

Video camera UI

The audio capture situation is rather interesting. You get to choose between a Standard mode, as well as 3D recorder and Sound Focus. All of these are pretty self-explanatory. The latter two have an additional toggle to reduce wind noise. It is worth noting that 3D recorder is the default option and using it does produce a rather odd 3-channel audio stream in the recorded file.

4K capture from the main camera is flagship-grade. The detail is plenty, and noise is pretty much non-existent. As for complaints - there is a fair bit of corner softness going on. Also, colors could be considered a bit on the dull side. That, however, is more of a matter of personal preference and one could just as easily call it "mature processing".

Dropping down to 1080p, video quality remains competitive. Our sample video did end up a bit more jittery than we would have liked to see on an OIS-enabled camera even if there was a bit of wind to account for.

The same jitter is very much there in 2x zoom videos. Quality remains decent, but small moving objects tend to come out quite pixelated for some reason. Dynamic range is worse, but that is to be expected.

While the Reno2 allows you to capture 4K video in 5x zoom mode, you definitely don't want to do that. The result is a pixelated mess.

The ultrawide camera can only go up to 1080p. It still suffers from the motion pixelation/jitter we already mentioned. Although it really isn't all that bad, perhaps due to the lower resolution. There is a bit more noise all around the frame, but overall, the ultrawide videos also look pretty great. One thing to note is that they clearly have a different color profile to them. Perhaps a bit "punchier."

Video stabilization is one area we had plenty of issues on the Reno2. For one, you can never really turn off stabilization all the way. Not manually, at least. If the phone's AI is thoroughly convinced it is sitting on a tripod, it does seem to toggle it off some times. As you can imagine, this made capturing our standard lab posters hard. Plus, even if that is admittedly less of an issue in real-world use, you never really get to use the sensor in its entirety - the field of view is always cropped compared to photos as this is how digital stabilization works.

The worst part, however, is that the EIS is very prone to horizontal tearing with something as simple as capturing while walking. There is an additional Ultra Steady mode in the camera app as well, which we naturally tested out, hoping for better results. It turns out it is more of a software interpolation technique for smoothing out moving objects in the frame itself, rather than the entire frame. It still had an effect, though. Even so, at the end of the day, we were pretty disappointed with the video stabilization on the Reno2.

Last, but not least, here is the Reno2 in our video compare tool. We reiterate, once again, that the framing for these clips was particularly fiddly due to the constant EIS, so please excuse any imperfections.

4K: Oppo Reno2 against the Oppo Reno 10x zoom and the Xiaomi Mi 9T in our Video compare tool

4K Tele: Oppo Reno2 against the Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) and the Samsung Galaxy Note10 in our Video compare tool