Oppo expanded the Reno series with the introduction of the Reno 8 5G and Reno 8 Pro 5G (Review). These two smartphones are being marketed as Oppo’s “Portrait Expert”. We reviewed the Reno 8 Pro 5G which impressed us with its design and build quality, but it doesn’t offer as much value as the competition when it comes to performance. Will Oppo Reno 8 5G bring the same experience or have an advantage over the competition? Let’s find out together.
Oppo Reno 8 5G price in India
The Oppo Reno 8 5G priced at Rs. 29,999 for the sole variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Oppo offers the phone in two finishes, Shimmer Gold and Shimmer Black. The price brings it up compared to OnePlus Nord 2T 5G and Mi 11X 5G.
Oppo Reno 8 5G has all the ports on the bottom
Design of Oppo Reno 8 5G
The Oppo Reno 8 5G has a stylish design and the Shimmer Gold variant that I caught my attention quite easily. In line with current design trends, Oppo has flattened the edges of the Reno 8 5G. This makes it easy to hold and comfortable to use with one hand. The corners are curved and they don’t sink into your palm when using the phone. The frame is made of plastic and doesn’t feel premium to the touch.
You’ll get a large 6.4-inch display on the front of the Oppo Reno 8 5G, with a cutout in the upper left corner for the selfie camera. It has quite thin bezels that help provide an immersive experience, except for the chin at the bottom. Oppo has used Corning Gorilla Glass 5 on the screen for protection.
With a weight of 179g, Reno 8 5G is not heavy and does not cause fatigue when used for a long time. The power and volume buttons are located in the center of the frame on either side, making them easy to reach. These buttons have a reassuring click that avoids having to second guess an input. The top of the frame has only the secondary mic. The SIM tray is at the bottom along with the main USB Type-C port, speaker, and microphone.
The Shimmer Gold variant can cover fingerprints quite well
The Oppo Reno 8 5G has a triple camera setup at the back and the module is molded into the back. The camera lens cutouts are very large, easily drawing attention to the camera module. The design reminds me of OnePlus Nord 2T (Review).
Oppo Reno 8 5G Specifications
Oppo Reno 8 5G has an AMOLED display with full-HD+ resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, and 180Hz touch sampling rate. While the OnePlus Nord 2T also has a 90Hz refresh rate, other competing devices like Motorola Edge 30 (Review) offers a higher 144Hz refresh rate.
Oppo Reno 8 5G is powered by MediaTek Dimensity 1300 SoC, an octa-core SoC clocked at 3GHz. There is a RAM expander feature that allows you to expand the RAM up to 5GB. Fixed storage space can be a cause for concern for some as it is not scalable. smartphone. Oppo could have offered a variant with a higher storage capacity.
You get two nano-SIM slots and a tray with a rubber ring around it to protect against dust and water ingress. However, the Reno 8 5G is not officially IP certified. It has support for Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, dual 5G standby and 4G VoLTE. It also has six satellite navigation systems. Reno 8 5G has a 4,500mAh battery that supports 80W fast charging. Oppo also includes a compatible charger in the box, which is a big plus.
The plastic frame on the Oppo Reno 8 5G does not feel premium to the touch
Oppo Reno 8 5G runs ColorOS 12.1. Android 12. It is running the July 2022 Android security patch at the time of writing this review. The phone comes pre-installed with a large amount of bloatware like Byju’s, Dailyhunt, FinShell Pay, HeyFun, Josh, Moj, Netflix, Paytm, Snapchat and a few others. Most of these apps can be uninstalled. Oppo offers plenty of customization options through the Theme Store app. You also have the option to change the accent color to match the color of the background image.
Oppo has added Air Gestures that allow users to interact with the smartphone using hand gestures without touching the screen. I found this feature to be gimmicky and it didn’t work as expected. You still get the traditional gestures like three-finger swipe to take a screenshot, double tap to wake the screen, and flip to mute an incoming call among others.
Performance of Oppo Reno 8 5G
The Oppo Reno 8 5G delivered a smooth experience and there was no sign of stutter or lag during my usage. The 8GB of RAM onboard combined with 5GB of allocated storage is RAM allowing for seamless multitasking. I also didn’t have to wait long for the apps to load. The in-display fingerprint as well as facial recognition are always quick when authenticating.
The AMOLED screen is sharp and has good viewing angles. Reno 8 5G only has a single bottom speaker, but dual speakers will improve the video viewing experience. Thankfully, the single speaker is loud enough. Scrolling through menus feels smooth on a 90Hz display. The panel is set to 90Hz by default but you have the option to switch to 60Hz. There is no option for dynamic refresh rate. I used the phone at 90Hz for the duration of this review.
The main camera on Reno 8 5G uses a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor
In Geekbench 5, Reno 8 5G achieved 603 points in single-core tests and 2,522 in multi-core tests. In AnTuTu, Reno 8 5G achieved 592,361 points. In the GFX Bench graphics benchmark, the phone managed to achieve 60 fps in the T-Rex and 41 fps in the Car Chase test suite. These scores are very similar to the OnePlus 2T 5G. The Motorola Edge 30 also tops out with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G + SoC.
Gaming performance is good and the Reno 8 5G can run Call of Duty: Mobile at ‘High’ graphics and ‘High’ frame rate settings. The game ran at these settings without any sign of lag or stutter during gameplay. I played the game for 20 minutes and noticed a four percent drop in battery level. The phone is barely warm to the touch after gaming.
Battery life is very good, and I could easily get up to two days of use, typically surfing Instagram, browsing Reddit, replying to WhatsApp messages, and watching YouTube videos. In our HD video loop test, the phone ran for 22 hours and 48 minutes, which is impressive. The included 80W charger helps keep charging times low. It managed to charge the phone to 84 percent in 30 minutes and fully charged in less than 40 minutes.
Camera Oppo Reno 8 5G
Oppo Reno 8 5G has a triple camera setup. It has a 50-megapixel main camera with a Sony IMX766 sensor. This camera sensor is widely used in smartphones such as Nothing Phone 1 (Review), Realme GT Neo 3, OnePlus 10T and even Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G (Review). This primary camera has no OIS and relies on EIS instead. The other cameras are an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with a 120-degree field of view and a 2-megapixel macro camera. For selfies, the Oppo Reno 8 5G has a 32-megapixel selfie camera. I found the camera app very easy to use.
Photos taken from the main camera are quite detailed and have accurate colors. Even in lighting conditions, Reno 8 5G still captures accurate colors. The ultra-wide-angle camera has a slight loss in quality compared to the main shooter. However, it doesn’t have any barrel distortion and I couldn’t find a big difference in tone. The camera app has an AI scene optimization toggle that increases color saturation to make photos more vivid.
(Top to bottom): Super wide-angle and main camera models (Tap to see full-sized image)
Close-up shots are good, and the phone doesn’t take long to lock in focus. Portrait photos also have good edge detection and natural background blur. Macro shots are great, but I constantly had to move the phone around to make sure it had the right focus.
(Top to bottom): Macro and close-up camera samples (tap to see full-size image)
Camera performance in low light is decent, and the phone took decent photos in well-lit environments. The darker areas of the frame have a watercolor-like effect. With Night mode enabled, the phone takes long exposure photos that result in blurred photos if the subject moves slightly.
Low Light and Night Mode camera models (tap to see full-size image)
Selfies from the 32-megapixel camera are excellent in daylight as well as low-light. Even the selfie portrait shots are quite detailed. In low light conditions, the phone will automatically turn on the screen flash to help take brighter photos.
(Top to bottom): Daylight group selfies and low-light portrait selfies (tap to see resized image)
Video recording tops out at 4K 30fps for the main camera and 1080p for the selfie camera. The phone relies on EIS to stabilize footage and does a good job when shooting at 1080p. However, stutter is visible in the output when shooting at 4K in daylight and is more prominent in low light.
Identify
The Oppo Reno 8 5G is a well-designed smartphone with capable hardware priced under Rs. 30,000. It offers good performance on par with others in its class and has a good camera for the price. ColorOS has good features but the amount of pre-installed bloatware can be frustrating for those who prefer a clean Android experience. The lack of OIS also adversely affects the camera’s performance, especially when taking photos in low light.
Given the number of smartphones that have launched in this price range over the past year, the Reno 8 5G has been left out. The OnePlus Nord 2T 5G (Review) is the closest alternative and it is almost identical to the Reno 8 5G in terms of hardware. The Motorola Edge 30 (Review) is similarly priced and focuses on slim design while offering a 144Hz refresh rate display and near-clean Android. The Mi 11X 5G (Review) is also worth considering for anyone purely looking for good performance at this price point.
