Oppo Reno4 Z 5G review

3 real cameras, 3 more just for show?

The Reno4 Z 5G is equipped with a quad-camera setup on its back. However, as we've seen on many other budget offerings, only two of these are actual cameras - the other two are there mostly to make it look like the phone has many cameras.

The first real camera, the 48MP main unit, is about as mainstream as they come - it uses a Sony IMX 586 Quad Bayer sensor with 0.8µm pixels and 12MP default image size after the 4-to-1 binning. It is coupled with a lens that has a 26mm equivalent focal length with an f/1.7 aperture.

The second camera that takes pictures you can see is an 8MP ultra wide-angle unit. Oppo says it's got a lens that covers a 119-degree field of view (around 13mm equivalent focal length), but it applies distortion correction (which you can't turn off), and then the FoV drops to 109 degrees (15-ish mm equivalent). The aperture on this one is f/2.2.

Then you have a couple of portrait cameras, 2MP each. Oppo details these as "black-and-white portrait monochrome lens" and "vintage portrait monochrome lens," whatever any of that means. Some phones at least call one of these 2MP cameras 'macro' and let you access and use it, but not here.

Over on the front, in a pill-shaped cutout in the display, you have a 16MP selfie camera with an f/2.2 aperture lens and an extra "depth of field secondary lens." There, that's 3+3.

The camera app is the same one 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.

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 a close focus and 1 being infinity) and exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 1/6EV increments). These expert controls are only available for all three cams, switched from the tree icon on the viewfinder's far end.

Camera UI

Daylight image quality

The Reno4 Z 5G takes okay photos with its main camera - not great, not terrible. Dynamic range isn't spectacular, but it's not bad for the class either. Colors are lively without being over the top, and if the samples are looking a bit on the warm side, it's the afternoon sun more so than a particular tendency of the phone to mess up the white balance.

Detail levels are on par with what you can expect from any 12MP camera, but the way the Reno renders fine textures or sharp edges isn't particularly pleasing. Sharpening is rather heavy-handed, making grass and leaves look very artificial. There's also a fair bit of aliasing to slanted straight lines. A little noise can be spotted too, but we wouldn't call it prominent by any stretch.

Daylight samples, main cam (1x)

The Dazzle Color toggle in the viewfinder gives colors a slight boost, but it's not as dazzling as on other Oppos or Realmes we've seen - we appreciate the more measured approach on this one. We'd even prefer this mode for November and December when nature looks particularly drab where we reside.

Daylight samples, main cam (1x), Dazzle Color on

The 48MP mode is available but isn't overly useful - its results look nearly identical to what you'd get if you upscale the 12MP images to 48MP and apply a little sharpening.

Daylight samples, main cam (1x), 48MP

It's no wonder then that the 2x digital zoom doesn't look particularly great at pixel level either. However, the images will do at fit to screen magnification, though a simple crop from the main camera's shots will serve the same purpose.

Daylight samples, main cam (2x)

The ultra wide-angle cam on the Reno4 Z 5G, being an unpretentious 8MP unit, delivers relatively low levels of absolute detail, and with some noise to top it off. Dynamic range isn't bad for an ultra-wide, and the colors are quite likable, so it's not all bad.

Daylight samples, ultra wide cam

Low-light image quality

Low-light photos out of the Reno4 Z 5G continue along the same 'average' path. Its main cam captures decent detail in the well-lit areas though shadows can be mushy and noisy. The phone tends to expose relatively bright, which we appreciate, even if it can result in blown highlights around point light sources. We observed no white balance issues with warm street lights, an all too common occurrence.

Low-light samples, main cam (1x)

Night mode will salvage the highlights, that much is true, and it will also improve sharpness in the deeper shadows, though the well-lit areas will actually be a bit softer than in photo mode. The aggressive highlight retention can make these images look flat and a little dark. Other phones tend to work on the tonal extremes without sacrificing contrast quite as much.

Low-light samples, main cam (1x), Night mode

The ultra-wide cam doesn't enjoy the night one bit and can't gather enough light for proper exposure in most dark scenes. Its results range from dark and soft in darker scenes to decently exposed but noisy in better lit scenarios, with a narrow dynamic range in either case.

Low-light samples, ultra wide cam

Night mode won't do miracles for the darkest of scenes, but it will help out immensely in more reasonable scenarios. You can expect much better-developed shadows and improved sharpness overall.

Low-light samples, ultra wide cam, Night mode

Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Oppo Reno4 Z 5G stacks up against the competition.

Oppo Reno4 Z 5G against the Mi 10T Lite 5G and the Realme 7 5G in our Photo compare tool

Portrait mode

The Reno4 Z 5G takes really good faux bokeh portraits. It isolates the subject well, makes no blunders with clothes outlines, and does a good job with scenes of varying depth. As usual, a messy hairstyle against a contrasting background could make for unnaturally blurry results.

Portrait mode samples

Similarly, successful results can be expected with non-human subjects as well. So the 2MP depth cameras are not entirely useless, after all.

Portrait mode samples, non-human subjects

Selfies

The Reno4 Z 5G takes good selfies in balanced lighting where you have a well-lit subject and no backlighting (sample 1 below). There's some noise to be seen even in these ideal conditions at low ISO, but there's also fine detail on the subject and nicely natural processing.

With dimmer lighting or more challenging contrasty scenes, the results aren't nearly as good on a pixel level, and you can see the combined effects of high ISO noise reduction and excessive sharpening taking a significant toll on your detail.

On a global scale, colors are a bit muted and could use a nudge in the saturation department, but we have no grounds to complain about dynamic range.

Selfie samples

Front camera portraits show fairly good subject detection across most scenes, though these are a little more prone to errors than what we witnessed on the back camera. Additionally, these get a slight crop from the selfie cam's native focal length, but at then upscaled to match the 16MP resolution, so they get a little bit softer still than the regular selfies, themselves not great examples of sharpness to begin with.

Selfie samples, Live focus (Portrait) mode

Video recording

The Reno records video up to 4K30 with its main cam and 1080p30 with the ultra-wide - there are no 60fps modes in 1080p on either cam. You get to choose between the h.264 and h.265 codec, and that's about all the video settings at your disposal.

The Reno4 Z 5G's 4K videos are sharp and reasonably detailed though we've seen finer textures in other phones' footage. Dynamic range is about average, and color reproduction is a bit more restrained than in photos, though not as far as to be called muted.

The ultra-wide cam's footage is best described as usable. On the soft side, the dynamic range is so-so, and the colors could use a boost.

Stabilization on the main cam is quite effective at removing camera shake and handling pans without abrupt transitions. If you're shooting while walking, the shake, combined with some focus hunting, could result in some slightly annoying wobble, but your mileage may vary. There's no stabilization on the ultra-wide camera.

Here's a glimpse of how the Oppo Reno4 Z 5G compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

Oppo Reno4 Z 5G against the Mi 10T Lite 5G and the Realme 7 5G in our Video compare tool