Oppo Reno Ace review

Android Pie with Color 6.1

The Reno Ace runs on Android 9 with the in-house ColorOS 6.1 on top. We'd have liked to see Android 10 at this point in time on a phone of the Ace's caliber, but Oppo apparently is not ready ColorOS-ing that just yet.

Unlike the Realme X2 Pro, which has a dark mode that themes up the interface and most apps in a deep gray, the Reno Ace only has the classic white ColorOS look, for the time being at least.

During the initial setup the phone offers you to try gesture navigation, and we feel like this is the way to go in late 2019, but if you're old-school you can opt for the classic three-button navigation.

There are two types of gestures too, and we like the 'Swipe Gestures from Both Sides' variety better. Quick inward swipes from the sides envoke the 'Back' action, but there's a nice twist too - swipe in and hold, and that's a shortcut to the previously used app so you can switch back and forth between two. To get to the task switcher, you swipe up from the bottom and hold.

The other gesture implementation is with swipes from the bottom only with designated areas that act as back and recent tasks, or with 'Simple gestures' that deny you the 'Back' action.

Navigation options galore

The Color OS lets you enable an always-on clock and has the usual homescreens with a widget pane - a rather standard affair.

You can use both fingerprint and face recognition for screen unlock, with the under-display optical fingerprint scanner taking priority. It's plenty fast to the point where it doesn't make a difference when compared to a capacitive one. There's also Face Unlock, which isn't quite as secure as it only uses the selfie cam as opposed to some form of 3D mapping. It's still very quick, can be set to require an open eye, and you can have it bypass the lockscreen altogether.

Always-on clock • Biometrics and security

Okay, back inside the phone, Color OS has gained an app drawer option since version 6. You can switch between it and the default all-homescreen design in the launcher settings.

Homescreen • Folder view • Launcher settings • App drawer

The notification shade features notifications, quick toggles, and a brightness scrubber and has a modern flat look. The task switcher is akin to Apple's, though it has an End All button. And split screen is available for all compatible apps.

Notifications • Toggles • Task Switcher • Split screen • Split screen

Clone apps and file safe functions are on board, as well as real-time translation thanks to an improved voice assistant.

There is a Phone Manager quite similar to what Huawei and Xiaomi have on their phones under the same name. It handles memory cleaner functions, app permissions and encryption, and virus scanning.

Game Space allows you to handpick which notifications pass through when you are playing games, and you don't want to be interrupted. There are also different performance modes and an option to lock the brightness only for certain games.

There's an in-house Gallery app with a pretty feature-rich editor. A basic music player is also available, but it lacks any sort of settings like an equalizer, so you're better off using a different one. The File manager is reasonably capable, though.

Clone apps • Phone manager • Phone manager • Game Space • Gallery • Files

Synthetic benchmarks

The Oppo Reno Ace packs the latest Snapdragon 855+, Qualcomm's fall refresh on its top-end chipset for 2019. As such, the Reno Ace is among the most powerful phones available. It exists in three RAM and storage (all UFS 3.0) versions - 8/128GB, 8/256GB, and 12/256GB and we have the medium spec for review.

Running the usual set of benchmarks, we're witnessing that Oppo's dialed things down a little. In single-core GeekBench, the Reno Ace is posting scores on par with the Pixel 4 XL and its Snapdragon 855, though the Ace does beat the Realme X2 Pro in this discipline. Most other current phones deliver higher scores here, with the Mate 30 Pro, OnePlus 7T and Galaxy Note10+ outperforming it by 20 to 30 percent.

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  1334
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  822
• OnePlus 7T
  788
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  779
• vivo NEX 3
  747
• LG G8X ThinQ
  746
• Asus ROG Phone II (120Hz)
  736
• Oppo Reno Ace
  637
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  628
• Realme X2 Pro
  589

The Reno Ace catches up in the multi-core portion of the benchmark, where it matches the S855+ vivo NEX 3 5G, though the OP 7T and Mate 30 Pro are still ahead.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  3544
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  2972
• OnePlus 7T
  2932
• vivo NEX 3
  2794
• LG G8X ThinQ
  2763
• Oppo Reno Ace
  2745
• Realme X2 Pro
  2602
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  2514
• Asus ROG Phone II (120Hz)
  2396
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  2300

Moving on to Antutu, the Reno Ace outscores the Pixel 4 XL (small victories) but loses to the Mate 30 Pro and vivo NEX 3 5G, and the Realme X2 Pro (which the Reno did outperform in GeekBench).

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• vivo NEX 3
  497858
• Asus ROG Phone II (120Hz)
  483239
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  468595
• Realme X2 Pro
  467653
• Oppo Reno Ace
  434063
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  403267

Graphics performance is middle of the road, with the Reno Ace narrowly beating the X2 Pro in 3DMark, though falling short of the Reno 10x zoom's numbers. The vivo NEX 3 5G is the one to beat here, short of the all-out gaming-focused ROG Phone II.

3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone II (120Hz)
  6814
• vivo NEX 3
  6757
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  6475
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  6441
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  6322
• Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
  6282
• Oppo Reno 10x zoom
  6052
• Oppo Reno Ace
  5847
• Realme X2 Pro
  5792
• Sony Xperia 1
  5792
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  5287
• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  4850
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  4632

Things are more level in GFXBench where there's little to separate the Reno from its competitors, and, well, little to separate them from each other when it comes to raw performance offscreen.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  120
• OnePlus 7T
  79
• Asus ROG Phone II (120Hz)
  78
• Realme X2 Pro
  78
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  76
• vivo NEX 3
  74
• Oppo Reno Ace
  72
• Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
  71
• Sony Xperia 1
  71
• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  71
• LG G8X ThinQ
  70
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  69
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  69
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  68
• Oppo Reno 10x zoom
  67

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone II (120Hz)
  68
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  60
• OnePlus 7T
  59
• vivo NEX 3
  58
• LG G8X ThinQ
  58
• Realme X2 Pro
  57
• Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
  57
• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  57
• Oppo Reno 10x zoom
  57
• Oppo Reno Ace
  56
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  56
• Sony Xperia 1
  55
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  38
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  37
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  34

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  67
• OnePlus 7T
  48
• Asus ROG Phone II (120Hz)
  47
• Realme X2 Pro
  47
• vivo NEX 3
  44
• Oppo Reno Ace
  44
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  43
• Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
  42
• Sony Xperia 1
  42
• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  42
• LG G8X ThinQ
  42
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  42
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  42
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  41
• Oppo Reno 10x zoom
  40

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  57
• OnePlus 7T
  41
• Asus ROG Phone II (120Hz)
  40
• LG G8X ThinQ
  38
• vivo NEX 3
  37
• Realme X2 Pro
  37
• Asus Zenfone 6 (Zen Power Boost)
  36
• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  36
• Oppo Reno Ace
  35
• Oppo Reno 10x zoom
  35
• Huawei Mate 30 Pro (Perf mode)
  34
• Sony Xperia 1
  33
• Samsung Galaxy Note10+
  24
• Samsung Galaxy S10+
  23
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  21

All in all, the Reno Ace performs to a high standard, though Oppo's chosen to reign in that powerful chipset a little and limit its potential. All is well, however, and the phone does put out flagship-grade numbers, just not record-setting ones. It only warms up moderately after repeated benchmark runs, and while it does throttle a bit, it's not a big offender in this respect.