Oppo Reno 10 5G review, the secret appeal is in it’s hues

Chinese headquartered company Oppo brought forward a market-savvy lighter-priced Reno 10 5G as the answer to consumers who do not have the budget for a higher-end, spec-heavy Oppo Reno 10 Pro Plus.

While Oppo edges forward in the South African market in terms of market share, it was interesting to see the Reno 10 arrive slightly after the Reno 10 Plus to the South African market. We suspected the best was saved for last.

We got our hands on the Reno 10 and at first glance, we see purple highlights to a blue exterior on the back. Oppo labels the colour Ice Blue, to describe a blue with highlights of purple when the device hits certain light angles.

We see a traditional Chinese layout of thin narrow bezels, and a curved screen that engles towards a metal silver plane to maximize screen size.

This was a winning formula in 2023, that delivered one important feature to the consumer, a bigger screen, even when the device wasn’t that big in size.

Weighing about 185g with a thickness of 7,99mm, a width of 74.19mm, and a height of  162,43mm, the Reno 10 is sleek in size, light on weight and comes with a chunky camera bulg on the rear as a statement symbol.

Features

It’s a pretty standard phone at first glance when unboxed before you connect it to a network, to have a look at what’s under the hood.

There’s 8GB RAM and 256GB onboard storage coupled with a ColourOS 13.1 operating system, a SIM tray, a type-C earphone jack, and a 5 000mAh battery.

The Reno 10 comes with standard biometric know-how in the form of fingerprint and facial recognition, a MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chip for decent processing power, a 6.7″ AMOLED display, with 120Hz refresh rate, 950nits of brightness, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G processor.

Oppo released its latest flagship phones for the South African market in June last year and labeled the series the Reno10. We see upward mobility in terms of overal specs and design.

Battery

The series came with SUPERVOOC fast charging and some compelling camera image quality numbers. This Reno 10 5G comes with a 5,000 mAh battery, to back up processing power for images that need processing device symmetry.

The rear main camera sits at 64MP with an intelligent focus sensor, coupled with a 32 MP telephoto lens all backed by an 8MP ultra wide angle lens. This is relatively impressive for the lower-budget Reno 10.

We see a front camera with 32MP equiped with an anti-shake video feature and a clear message from Oppo that the front camera does not support video zoom and slow motion.

This is not a train smash considering the massive value for money that comes with the Reno 10 5G. It’s a device that meets consumer creativity needs when factoring in the decent rear camera coupled with a large battery.

The front camera does compensate with panoramic photos, night photo ability, screen fill flash and a time-lapse feature for the creative to remain competently equipped.

It’s the rear camera thats interesting with Google Lense, a dual-view video feature, a time-lapse as well as slow motion feature, panoramic images and images that look impressive when lighting is in your favour.

That’s every photographers wish actually. To capture moments at the right light milisecond.

Is it on board?

The Oppo Reno 10 5G is an everyday device, for the consumer with just the right budget for an entry level device that can meet all creativity prerequisits.

The device is immaculate to look at holding it in decent light as the different colour highlights complements its feel.

It’s only when you tap the rear that you realize a plastic sounding cover. We would have appreciated a headphone jack slot and some headphones considering this a device for the content creator and user on a budget, and we don’t see them buying an adapter purely to add headphones.

Yes there is an option for bluetooth headsets, but a device that is meant to accomodate the smart savvy user should know it’s place in the market, and cost saving for the consumer is what we think the Oppo Reno 10 5G delivers.

Overall, it is a competent smartphone, with a great camera lienup for the price at just under R 9 999.

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