Oppo Reno4 Z 5G review

ColorOS is a step behind in v7.1, Android is 10

The Reno4 Z 5G runs ColorOS 7.1 - that's 0.1 less than the majority of recent Oppos, including the Reno4 Pro and Reno4 Pro 5G. Hardly a dealbreaker since there's not much difference between the two, but it just goes to show that the Z might be a little slower to get updates. It's still Android 10 that's underneath the in-house UI layer.

The homescreen situation is predictable - you get to choose between the simplified approach with all the apps arranged on the homescreens or the two-tiered homescreen + app drawer way. The UI basics are entirely ordinary.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App Drawer • Quick toggles and notifications • Task switcher

We found no theme store on this unit, and there was just a single theme pre-installed, so customization isn't great in this respect. The app icons themselves, on the other hand, are highly customizable.

Homescreen settings • Homescreen settings • Homescreen mode • Swipe down options • A theme • Icon settings

Navigation options are aplenty too. The standard Android 10 navigation, which employs the side edges for going Back while upward swipes from the bottom take you Home, is called Swipe Gestures from Both Sides in ColorOS, and that would be our top choice.

Color OS has a gesture for a quick switch between the last two apps if you swipe in for Back, but hold for a brief instant. That's optional, and it can work in addition to the default side swiping on the bottom of the screen.

A classic three-button navigation bar is available if you're old school like that, and it lets you choose between two layouts. There's also a More option, which will take you to the Swipe-up gestures alternative - the middle option between the navbar and real gestures.

The Smart Sidebar feature we've seen on other ColorOS builds is here too. A swipe in from the side opens a toolbar with actions and shortcuts. You can customize them and also adjust the bar's position and opacity.

Navigation options • Smart sidebar

The Reno4 Z 5G's display supports a 120Hz refresh rate, and you get a four-way setting between 120Hz, 90Hz, 60Hz, and Auto. As we detailed on the previous page, that setting is only ever set in stone if you have it at the 60Hz position, with the other modes adjusting it to optimize the experience.

There's a system-wide dark mode, and it can be engaged permanently or according to a schedule. It'll invoke supported apps' dark themes, but you can also enforce dark mode on third-party apps that don't have it built-in. There is no Always-on display on the Reno4 Z 5G.

Refresh rate settings • Dark mode

Unlocking the Reno4 Z 5G is best done using the capacitive fingerprint sensor on the right. As far as this type of implementation goes, the one on the Reno is among the better ones - it didn't discriminate between the left index finger and right thumb and unlocked swiftly and consistently. If, however, you find yourself suffering from a common inherent flaw of such fingerprint readers - accidental touches with any part of your hand triggering it, you can have it engage with a press on the button, which is otherwise not required.

Basic face recognition is available too. It uses just the selfie cam (so no fancy 3D scanning) and isn't as secure as the fingerprint reader, but it's fast and convenient. The phone can be set to require at least one open eye for added security.

Biometric security settings

Drawing letters on a turned-off screen remains a staple of ColorOS, and it is present on the Reno4 Z 5G as well. As usual, the torch and the camera app are probably the most useful assignments. In this version of ColorOS, you cannot launch the camera with a double press on the volume buttons as you can on ColorOS 7.2, so the screen off gesture remains a viable option.

Gesture shortcuts

The multimedia apps such as Photos, Music, and Videos are provided by Oppo. There's a File Manager, a Phone Manager, and a few other tools pre-installed, including a custom calculator and a voice recorder. As has been the trend with recent handsets by the company, the replacement of the in-house Phone and Messages apps for Google's own has made its way to the Reno4 Z 5G too.

Gallery • Videos • File Manager • Phone Manager • Calculator • Voice recorder

Synthetic benchmarks

The Dimensity 800 is in charge of doing the calcs on the Reno4 Z 5G, a Mediatek midrange SoC that also goes by MT6873V. Only a U separates it from the 800U that we saw on the Realme 7 5G just a couple of weeks ago, but that U makes quite the difference in the core configuration, in fact.

The Dimensity 800 we have here has 4 Cortex-A76 cores and 4 Cortex-A55 ones, compared to the 2xA76 + 6xA55 arrangement in the Dimensity 800U. On the other hand, the beefy A76s are capped at 2.0Ghz on this one, while they can go as high as 2.4GHz on the U. A similar core count vs. clock rate trade-off can be seen in the GPU department; otherwise, the same Mali-G57 base design - the 800U uses three cores, the 800 here in the Reno has four.

The Oppo Reno4 Z 5G is only available in a single memory configuration with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

In the CPU-focused GeekBench, we see the first difference between the two Dimensities quite clearly - the Reno trails in single-core performance on account of its relatively low clock speed. Still, it captures the lead in multi-core results thanks to the many high-performance cores. The Reno is also superior to the Snapdragon 765 bunch under multi-core loads by a healthy margin, though it doesn't compare favorably in single-core tasks.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  2196
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  2009
• OnePlus Nord
  1953
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  1927
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  1898
• Galaxy A51 5G
  1867
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  1848
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  1805
• Realme 7 5G
  1794
• Poco X3 NFC
  1777
• Motorola Moto G8 Power
  1394

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Galaxy A51 5G
  677
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  661
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  616
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  615
• OnePlus Nord
  610
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  608
• Realme 7 5G
  598
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  589
• Poco X3 NFC
  568
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  522
• Motorola Moto G8 Power
  311

In Antutu, the Reno doesn't strictly impress either, though it's not as far behind the SD765s as in the single-core CPU test.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  318882
• Realme 7 5G
  318535
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  318117
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  317139
• Galaxy A51 5G
  316007
• OnePlus Nord
  312794
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  299926
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  295562
• Poco X3 NFC
  283750
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  279579
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  175363
• Motorola Moto G8 Power
  173607

When it comes to graphics, the Reno4 Z 5G doesn't pull ahead of the Realme 7 5G in GFXBench despite having an extra core - hence our speculation that the GPU cores in the Dimensity 800 are clocked lower. The two phones are mostly on par and produce results comparable to the handsets using the SD765 with Adreno 620 GPU - so about as good as graphics get in the midrange. The Galaxy A51 5G, packing an Exynos 980 is ever so slightly behind, while the non-5G A51 is substantially slower, as expected of its modest SoC.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  38
• OnePlus Nord
  38
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  37
• Realme 7 5G
  35
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  34
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  33
• Poco X3 NFC
  33
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  33
• Galaxy A51 5G
  32
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  26
• Motorola Moto G8 Power
  13

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord
  34
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  32
• Realme 7 5G
  31
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  31
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  29
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  29
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  28
• Galaxy A51 5G
  28
• Poco X3 NFC
  27
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  23
• Motorola Moto G8 Power
  12

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  21
• OnePlus Nord
  21
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  21
• Realme 7 5G
  20
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  20
• Galaxy A51 5G
  20
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  19
• Poco X3 NFC
  19
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  19
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  14
• Motorola Moto G8 Power
  7.1

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord
  19
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  18
• Realme 7 5G
  17
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  17
• Galaxy A51 5G
  17
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  16
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  16
• Poco X3 NFC
  16
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  16
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  13
• Motorola Moto G8 Power
  6.6

Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord
  13
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  12
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  12
• Realme 7 5G
  11
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  11
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  11
• Poco X3 NFC
  11
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  11
• Galaxy A51 5G
  9.9
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  8.7

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord
  13
• Realme 7 5G
  12
• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  12
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  12
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  12
• Galaxy A51 5G
  12
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  11
• Poco X3 NFC
  11
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  5.7

In fact, in 3D Mark, the Reno4 Z 5G actually takes the lead of this esteemed mid-tier group, both in the OpenGL test and in Vulkan.

3DMark SSE ES 3.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  3308
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  3294
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  3288
• OnePlus Nord
  3285
• Realme 7 5G
  3163
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  3031
• Galaxy A51 5G
  2837
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  2789
• Poco X3 NFC
  2689
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  2166
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1574

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1.0 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Oppo Reno4 Z 5G
  3180
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite 5G
  3080
• OnePlus Nord
  3067
• Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
  3062
• Realme 7 5G
  3028
• Motorola Moto G 5G Plus
  2821
• Galaxy A51 5G
  2778
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  2595
• Poco X3 NFC
  2495
• OnePlus Nord N10 5G
  2012
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1554

The Reno4 Z 5G is more than adequately powered thanks to the Mediatek Dimensity 800 chipset. The only setback is its lower-than-average single-core CPU performance, but in both multi-core tasks and GPU-related loads, the Reno is about as good as any Snapdragon 765 powered midranger.