Oppo Reno4 Pro review

Competition

The upper midrange segment where the Reno4 Pro finds itself in isn't without competition. The Samsung Galaxy A71 retails for about as much as the Reno and will give you slightly better battery life (though with much slower charging), and higher-res main camera, and a chipset that's 10 more than the one in the Oppo (Snapdragon 730 vs 720, not that it makes a huge difference), but none of these is enough to make it a winner. The Reno4 Pro has the superior display, believe it or not, and it's 18g lighter, which could be important. Realistically though, with minor differences here and there, and virtually identical prices, this will often be settled on brand and UI preference alone.

Going against the vivo X50, more differences emerge. The X50 has a proper 2x telephoto cam (that vivo likes to call 'Portrait', but it's a 2x cam anyway), and a 5G capable and more powerful Snapdragon 765G chip, all in a more premium glass and aluminum package. The Reno, on the other hand, wins big on small niceties - headphone jack, microSD slot, FM radio, which the vivo lacks. While similarly priced, there's a pretty evident distinction between these two and if one fits your requirements, the other likely won't.

What about the just announced OnePlus Nord? This one is closer to the vivo in its features (like the Snapdragon 765G chipset), or lack thereof (no microSD slot or a 3.5mm jack) than it is to the Reno4 Pro, but starts at a lower price point and that could be compelling argument in its favor. The Nord also has the ultra wide selfie cam going for it in an otherwise very closely matched camera bout. Again, the Reno4 Pro is the more versatile phone and it's hard to go Nord unless 5G or the bump in performance is important to you.

Now, if performance is important to you, but not so much 5G, the Redmi K20 Pro with its Snapdragon 855 is exactly your thing. It'll get you longer battery life than the Reno4 Pro, a full tri-set of cameras and a notch-free AMOLED display that may not be 90Hz but isn't half bad itself. The motorized selfie cam is cool too. Oh, did we mention the Redmi is some 30% cheaper?

Samsung Galaxy A71 • vivo X50 • OnePlus Nord • Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro

Verdict

Oppo has made a capable midranger with the Reno4 Pro, its focus clearly on the display and battery, delivering a dual-curved AMOLED with flagship-level brightness and industry-leading charging speed. The camera system wasn't that high on the priorities list, yet the Reno does a very good job with what it's got. The extensive list of small nice-to-haves rounds off a very appealing package.

The one most obvious blemish is the Snapdragon 720G chipset in a landscape flooded with 765Gs, for mostly the same asking price. While we'd argue that it's really only an issue when comparing specsheets and benchmark scores, the truth is you definitely can get better absolute performance for the money elsewhere.

If you want to be gaming hard on mobile for a reasonable price, a Snapdragon 855 handset will do much better. The recent S765 offerings will net you 5G and a smaller performance boost. If none of that really matters to you, the Reno4 Pro will likely make you a happy buyer.

Pros

• Very lightweight and fairly compact for the screen size and battery capacity.
• Dedicated microSD slot, 3.5mm jack, FM radio.
• Spectacular display.
• Solid battery life, super-fast 30-ish-minute charging.
• Good image and video quality overall.

Cons

• All plastic build makes it light, but it's not too premium.
• Not the most powerful chipset you can have for the money.
• No telephoto camera, macro shooter is as good as non-existent.