Oppo Reno4 Pro review

Quad cam setup, sort of

The Reno4 Pro has four camera modules on its back in what is becoming a classic midrange setup. The primary cam is a 48MP Quad Bayer unit (Sony IMX586 sensor inside) with an f/1.7 aperture lens. There's an 8MP ultrawide angle cam too, this one with an f/2.4 aperture. There is, however, no telephoto, which the Chinese Reno4 Pro 5G does have.

The remaining two cameras have 2MP sensors and one is meant for close-ups, while the other is a monochrome-only unit used for aiding in depth detection.

For selfies, the Reno4 Pro is equipped with a 32MP Quad Bayer module (Sony IMX616) with an f/2.4 aperture lens.

The camera app is the same one that you'd find across all Oppos and Realmes. Most of the modes are on the main rolodex with side swipes in the viewfinder switching between them, one at a time. You can slide on the mode 'dial' to flip through multiple modes at a time too. Modes deemed less important can be found in an additional 'More' pane at the far right. A Dazzle Color toggle in the middle of the icon array in the viewfinder engages a color boost, a rather excessive one we might add.

There's an Expert mode where you get to tweak exposure (ISO in the 100-64000 range and shutter speed in the 1/8000s-32s range), white balance (by light temperature, but no presets), manual focus (in arbitrary 0 to 1 units with 0 being close focus and 1 being infinity) and exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 1/6EV increments). These expert controls are only available for the main cam but not the ultra wide shooter.

Expert mode is also the only way to access the macro camera - a bit too much of a hassle, we'd say, and not at all intuitive.

Camera UI

Image quality

Daylight photos out of the Reno4 Pro's main cam are really nice. You get sharpness and detail, and fairly natural rendition of random textures like foliage. Perhaps more than the usual amount of noise is present in areas of solid color like the skies, but it's easily acceptable. Dynamic range is plenty wide, nothing to complain here. Color reproduction is well balanced too and you get lively output without excessive saturation.

Camera samples, main camera

Now, if excessive saturation is your thing, do engage the Dazzle Color mode. The snail sample makes for an especially blinding example, though other scenes don't exhibit quite this striking of a difference. Still, we'd keep Dazzle off.

Camera samples, main camera, Dazzle Color on

The full res 48MP images can extract some extra detail out of the right scene on some occasions. That would require a lot of light and ideally diagonal patterns like we have in our studio shots, plus somehow nearby subjects work better than distant ones. Even then, there's an increase in noise to deal with. In any case, the practical benefits of the full-res mode remain minimal.

Camera samples, main camera, 48MP

There's no telephoto cam on the Reno 4 Pro, but you do get 2x and 5x zoom positions in the viewfinder. We'd refrain from going all the way to the 5x level for anything that requires making out stuff in the image. The 2x mode, on the other hand, does produce quite usable results.

Camera samples, main camera, 2x zoom

The ultrawide angle cam on the Reno4 Pro is no match for the main one in terms of dynamic range and its color reproduction is somewhat off with blues in particular having more cyan to them. Purple fringes line high contrast edges too. All that said, detail is quite good for its mere 8MP resolution and if you don't compare against the main cam, but against other midrange ultra wides, you'd be pleased with the Reno's images.

Camera samples, ultra wide angle camera

In low light, the Reno4 Pro's main cam puts out decent images for its class. They are noisy, but detail is maintained well in the reasonably well lit areas and there's no drop in color saturation. Dynamic range is fairly wide as well, though we'd prefer a brighter exposure in most cases than the one delivered.

Low-light samples, main camera, Photo mode

You do have Night mode to brighten up the shadows for you, and that it does well. Highlights do get better developed too - so solid Night mode results. Night mode shots come with some fine detail loss and extra heavy sharpening to try and compensate for it, but also less noise.

Low-light samples, main camera, Night mode

The ultra wide cam doesn't fare quite as well in the dark, as was to be expected. It's struggling to gather enough light in Photo mode and you'll often end up with very underexposed shots in particularly dark scenes. Dynamic range is pretty narrow as well.

Low-light samples, ultra wide angle camera, Photo mode

Night mode helps a bunch, and produces generally a lot more usable shots, though it does help to examine them downsized to fit your screen. That way you can appreciate the improved exposure and dynamic range, and you won't have to look at the heavy-handed sharpening from up close.

Low-light samples, ultra wide angle camera, Night mode

Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Oppo Reno4 Pro stacks up against the competition.

Oppo Reno4 Pro against the Galaxy A71 and the OnePlus Nord in our Photo compare tool

Portraits

The portrait mode on the Reno4 Pro works really well. Subject isolation is competent, there are no clipped ears and the border along clothes is also rendered without glitches, even our usually problematic wooden wall cladding doesn't present issues. Naturally, messier hairstyles won't be as forgiving on the algorithms, though we found the results to be good enough.

Portrait samples

Portrait mode on the Reno4 Pro works on non-human subjects too a similarly high rate of success.

Portrait samples, non-human subjects

Close-ups

The close-ups out of the Reno4 Pro's 'macro' camera are unimpressive, even as these modules go. Two megapixels is not a lot of pixels to begin with, noise is pretty high, dynamic range is narrow and color saturation is lacking. That's on top of the inherent issue that the cam has fixed focus, so you need to place the phone almost exactly 4cm away from your subject. Perhaps it's a good thing that Oppo stuck the macro shooter out of sight in Expert mode, after all.

Close-up samples

Selfie camera

The Reno4 Pro puts out a solid selfie performance. Images are captured in the nominal 32MP resolution by default and there's no 8MP mode, so you'd be getting big files. They'll also be packed with detail, particularly in scenes with well balanced light. Noise is clearly visible at 1:1 magnification too, but it's unlikely you'd be pixel-peeping into 32MP selfies.

You're more than likely to notice the limited dynamic range in more challenging light - in our experience, HDR worked unreliably (or, rather, didn't work even though the indicator popped up) so you end up with blown highlights. We shot numerous contrasty outdoor scenes with HDR set to both Auto and On and it was an outlier if we actually got an HDR image. A positive spin on this could be that the phone exposes for faces, but we'd appreciate to have that and some highlight detail.

Selfie samples, 32MP

Selfie portraits come with good subject separation and pleasing, natural-looking blur. The occasional combination of subject and background can create some weird border areas (third sample, both sides of the neck), but multiple shots with slight changes in composition should ensure you get a usable image.

Selfie portrait samples

Video

The Reno4 Pro records video up to 4K resolution at 30fps with its main cam and 1080p at 30fps with its ultra wide module. 2x and 5x zoom levels are available too, despite lack of dedicated telephoto camera. You get to choose between the h.264 and h.265 codecs with the older and less efficient but more widely compatible h.264 the default option.

4K footage (50Mbps bit rate) out of the Reno4 Pro comes with a caveat - it's significantly cropped. Worse, however, is the fact that you don't get to see that in the viewfinder - it shows the full width of the sensor while recording only to serve you a tighter field of view in the end result. Mind you, that's the state of things on our review unit. A later firmware version, not available to us at the time of testing, has fixed that.

The actual video quality is so-so - the fairly wide dynamic and the conservative processing we do like, but the image is unusually soft and colors have a greenish tint.

The 1080p resolution gives you the native field of view, so that's good. The 60fps mode (17Mbps) maintains the 4K footage's color rendition, while in the 30fps mode (20Mbps) gives a slightly truer rendition. Despite the lower bit rate for the higher frame rate (counterintuitive indeed, isn't it), both modes give you comparable level of detail and it's some pretty good 1080p detail at that, so we can count that as a small win too.

Zooming in to 2x, the Reno4 Pro maintains its 4K cropping behavior and the color reproduction differences between modes remain as well. 1080p footage is easily usable at this magnification, in both 30fps and 60fps flavors, though 4K is jaggy and best avoided.

The ultra wide angle cam's footage isn't quite as good - dynamic range is narrow and colors are overly saturated, though detail is decent.

Stabilization is constantly active in all modes when shooting on the main cam with no option to turn it off. There's no stabilization on the ultra wide by default, though the Ultra Steady Pro mode does use that module for capture and technically you can get stabilization on the ultra wide that way.

The regular stabilization works excellently overall - it smooths out walking induced-shake, doesn't produce any jelloing or wobbling, handles pans well, and will stay planted on your subject if you're just pointing the phone in one direction. The ultra wide angle cam's footage is very shaky in its default shooting state - we're more than a little perplexed why Oppo didn't implement any stabilization in this mode.

The Ultra Steady mode (non-Pro) uses the main cam and records in 1080p at 60fps. We'd say there's a marginal improvement in stability and a more noticeable viewfinder lag, particularly when panning. The Ultra Steady Pro mode switches to the ultra wide cam and records in 1080p at 30fps. It's stable, that much is true, but can be glitchy with some areas in the middle of the frame seemingly floating on top of the image.

The Reno4 Pro has a few video filters to play around with colors. What's called 'Portrait color retention' will record a mostly black and white clip, but render in color people if it sees them in the frame. Then there are 'Crimson', 'Forest Green' and 'Sky blue' modes which will show red, green or blue subjects in color leaving the rest monochrome. Here's a sampler of videos.

Here's a glimpse of how the Oppo Reno4 Pro compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

Oppo Reno4 Pro against the Galaxy A71 and the OnePlus Nord in our Video compare tool