Oppo Reno 8 Pro Review: The best Reno phone ever?

With the Reno 8 Pro, Oppo is breaking many new grounds for the Reno series.

This is the most expensive Reno phone ever, but it’s also the fastest and gets the new MariSilicon X image processing unit that should help it take great pictures.

Design

The design has always been a focus of the Reno series, and the Reno 8 Pro is no exception.

The standout design element here is on the back. The glass material is moulded to form the camera bump, which takes inspiration from Oppo’s Find X5 Pro flagship phone, and rises up from the flat back.

This is further enhanced by the little touches, like the way the camera bump curves up at the very edges and the little green accent on the power button. The unibody design also makes this phone feel very premium. I do wish it had retained some of its predecessors’ shimmery back texture, but this colour still looks quite good.

Also watch: Oppo Reno 8 review

On the front, the extremely symmetrical bezels and flat display offer a classy look and give you more screen real estate.

The Oppo Reno 8 Pro measures 7.34mm in thickness and weighs 183 grams, making it one of the slimmest and lightest phones you can buy right now. It is really tall though, and has flat edges, which means that one-handed usage is not as easy as one would think.

Display & Audio


The Reno 8 Pro gets a 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED display. The display is really good for watching content, with very vivid colours, and the 120Hz refresh rate makes day-to-day usage very smooth. It gets Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection, and a peak brightness value of 950 nits means it’s very usable in direct sunlight as well.

The stereo speaker setup makes for a really nice audio experience, with good clarity, and a decent amount of bass.

PTC: The great display and speakers makes the Reno 8 Pro a really good phone for watching content.

Camera

The Reno 8 Pro gets a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP macro camera.

The camera setup on this phone also benefits from Oppo’s MariSilicon X image processor, which debuted with the Find X5 Pro.

The main camera here carries the tried and tested Sony IMX766 sensor, which continues to give great results in daylight. Pictures come out extremely sharp, with a great amount of detail. Dynamic range is also very nice, and the camera manages to correctly expose different parts of the frame to keep the highlights from blowing out.

The 8MP ultra-wide is not as sharp or detailed, which is expected, but still manages to come out with good-looking shots in broad daylight.

The Reno 8 Pro can do video up to 4K 30FPS, but doesn’t do 4K 60FPS, which is a little disappointing. Still, videos do look very detailed and motion is quite smooth.

The MariSilicon X chip is mainly meant to help with night videos and photos, which do show a marked improvement. Night mode is still very signature Oppo, it brightens up everything and can make night shots look like day shots. But the Reno 8 Pro can still take very good shots in low light settings, with a remarkable amount of sharpness and clarity. 4K videos taken at night also have a little extra sharpness.

Performance & Software

The Oppo Reno 8 Pro carries the Dimensity 8100-MAX chipset, which makes it just about the fastest Reno phone ever.

This is a flagship-level chipset that we’ve tested before, and it’s just as fast on this phone.

Day-to-day usage is smooth and zippy, with no slowdowns or lag. The 12GB RAM that this phone comes with also helps with multitasking.

The Dimensity 8100’s problems with optimisation in games have all been sorted out now, and on Call of Duty Mobile, you can get Very High graphics with a Max frame rate, which makes for gameplay that is both very good-looking and extremely smooth.

The phone only comes with one 256GB storage option, which will be plenty for most people’s needs.

Software & Battery

This phone launches with ColorOS 12.1 based on Android 12 out of the box. ColorOS 12 remains very customisable, light, and easy to use. There is some pre-installed bloatware on this phone, but you can remove it easily without any worries.

Oppo has packed in a 4,500mAh battery into the Reno 8 Pro, which is easily enough to last a full day even with heavy usage. The charging has seen an upgrade - the new 80W SuperVOOC charger can take the battery from 0 to 50 in just 11 minutes, and 0 to 100 in around 27 minutes.

These are incredible charging times which I’m sure will be very useful when you need a quick recharge.

Verdict

At a price of ₹45,999, this is the most expensive Reno phone Oppo has ever released.

But with a flagship chipset, a quality camera setup, and Oppo’s unbeatable sense of style and design, the Reno 8 Pro more than justifies its price tag.