The OPPO Reno 6 has been my daily driver for a while now and as is the subtle purpose of this space, here is my full uncut review of the latest flagship from OPPO Kenya that also happens to be their first 5G offering!
If you haven’t seen the unboxing video or read my first impressions, check that out here. I talk about the all-new hard edges that wrap around the Reno 6’s chassis, the rounded corners, the boxy design, and the beautiful transitions from the sides to the display which are solid.
In terms of build quality and appearance, there is literally nothing to hate, OPPO has slso equipped the new Reno 6 with an anti-fingerprint retro design form factor. This is basically glass that feels like aluminum to the touch. The phone feels lighter than expected and has a good but sometimes uncomfortable grip due to its flat sides.
I have had the Aurora variant that changes color based on any stream of light falling on it to manifest a glowing look and I love it. Butt have you seen that stellar black though? You can’t go wrong with black.
OPPO Reno6 5G stellar black
OPPO Reno6 5G Performance and Display
The OPPO Reno6 5G runs on a super-powerful Dimensity 900 SoC from MediaTek. The chipset supports 5G and offers a pretty smooth performance level for mid-range SoCs. I experienced a few lags while using Twitter at first but a software update fixed this.
The Chinese smartphone manufacturer comes in strong with WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 in terms of wireless standards, combined with the 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 storage to complement and make your experience even better.
For benchmarks, the OPPO Reno6 5G scored 708 / 1879 (single/multi), which is better than Samsung’s Galaxy A72 which scored 548/1616
OPPO hates when you use the device as a mobile hotspot for a long time, nevertheless, the Reno 6 delivers a satisfactory degree of performance for everyday use, long phone calls and video calls don’t shake the device and the quality is very good. I did not face any kind of problems running demanding games like Call of Duty Mobile and Ark Survival Evolved and the Dimensity 900 handled simpler tasks like scrolling down Tiktok smoothly.
Speaking of smooth, the Reno6 display-to-case ratio is 91.7 percent, This means small bezzles on the already beautiful device, on the front is a 6.43-inch AMOLED display which refreshes at 90 Hertz making the screen as smooth as butter, both to look at and to use. The display is hands down my second favorite feature on the Reno6 5G.
Battery Life and Charging
Speaking of favorites, this is my favorite feature on the phone! Gone are the days we had to leave our phones charging overnight or have our whole next day screwed up, and I mean gone!
The Reno6 gets its juice from a 4,300 mAh battery that can be recharged via the included 65-watts power adapter. The Reno6 can juice up to the 100 percent mark within half an hour. Crazy and awesome! I have personally got a record 0-100 in 28 minutes!
The battery also delivers solid battery on-screen usage every day, on light use, I was able to use the smartphone for a whole two days without having to recharge it.
Camera
The phone’s imaging system is just as expected… pretty good. Equipped with a triple camera setup with a 64MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 2MP macro camera. You will be sure to get pretty good images with the Reno6. Daylight photos are amazing due to OPPOs excellent HDR mode, , however, the phone struggles immensely under bad lighting. The night mode comes in clutch under fair lighting but also struggles in very dark situations.
On default, the Reno6 uses pixel-binning to merges four pixels into one. This means by default you’re getting a 16MP image that is supposed to be better than conventional 16MP photos. You can easily toggle the full 64MP mode for photos with more depth and detail.
The device can capably handle fast-moving objects outdoors so no blurry photos.
The OPPO Reno6 shoots decent selfies with a very impressive portrait mode on both the selfie and back camera. The photos are edge detection are better than competitors with the pictures showing natural lighting mood, colors, and contrast. please turn off the beauty mode
The ultra-wide-angle shots are pretty decent, the smartphone does a good job with the 8MP shooter, I don’t reckon you’ll be using this mode a lot, while the pictures are usable I noticed distortion at the edges.
At night, the Reno6 doesn’t sleep, there is a dedicated night mode into the smartphone and for even better shots, a tripod night mode feature. Under decent lighting, the night mode captures natural images that are not over brightened and are pleasing to look at, however, don’t expect to capture any usable image in darker environments.
I don’t really care about telephoto lens but there is non included on the Reno6 if that is a dealbreaker for you. I also have no love for the 2MP macro camera
Oppo has placed special emphasis on a digital bokeh video mode, follow us on Tiktok for a full video test.
What we don’t Like
The price, we don’t like the price tag on the Reno6. For the price, the competition has faster performance, the OPPO Reno 6 also just has IP54 certification which is just subpar at this point. The lack of a stereo speaker configuration on this device is absurd, with the high-quality display a single speaker doesn’t cut it.
The device could also use a Color OS refresh, it also lacks a 3.5mm jack, an extendable memory slot, no OIS and video stabilization, and a telephoto lens.
Verdict
The OPPO Reno6 5G is a great future-proof device that will only get bet better with software updates, for instance, while the phone is 5G enabled, you can’t use the feature just yet, The phone is pretty, the device’s performance is alright and the cameras don’t disappoint, however, I strongly feel it is overpriced.
But considered you get one of the fastest quick-charging out there, amazing workmanship and design. The Reno6 is therefore a great recommendation if you are a light user who wants to be among the first to try 5G in the country. Otherwise, there are more powerful and exciting alternatives out there for less than 500 dollars.
OPPO Reno6 5G Sells for Sh59,999.
