Introduction and specs
The Oppo Reno5 lineup launched at the beginning of this year, but it's only now that it's getting a European release. Now, the most affordable of the bunch - the Reno5 is here and looks well-equipped too. An OLED panel with a high refresh rate, fast charging, capable SoC, lightweight build and plenty of base storage and memory.
And in a (not so) surprising move, Oppo is releasing this one under two names in Europe. The Reno5 is launching in Eastern Europe, whereas Western Europe is getting it as the Find X3 Lite. The two models are identical in specs as you can see.
Oppo Reno5 5G • Oppo Find X3 Lite
So even though we got specifically the Reno5 model for review, our review findings should apply to both devices in equal parts.
While the Oppo brand is well-known in Asia, and even though it's yet to make a name for itself in Europe, it's positioned as a premium brand elsewhere. So it's no wonder that the company avoids undercutting the competition price-wise and yet focuses on making well-executed handsets with a premium look and feel.
The Reno5 (or Find X3 Lite, if you prefer) uses a bright, 90Hz OLED panel and a 64MP main camera and it also offers one of the fastest charging technologies. It's also nicely compact and pocketable.
Probably the biggest selling point of this one is its size and ergonomics. In a market where behemoths rule, the Reno5 5G is a breath of fresh air with its compact 6.43-inch display and a weight of 172g.
Oppo Reno5 5G specs at a glance:
- Body: 159.1x73.4x7.9mm, 172g; Gorilla Glass 5 front, plastic back and frame.
- Display: 6.43" AMOLED, 90Hz, 430 nits (typ), 750 nits (peak), 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 410ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM7250 Snapdragon 765G 5G (7 nm): Octa-core (1x2.4 GHz Kryo 475 Prime & 1x2.2 GHz Kryo 475 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 475 Silver); Adreno 620.
- Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 2.1.
- OS/Software: Android 11, ColorOS 11.1.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.7, 26mm, 1/1.73", 0.8µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 119˚, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: 32 MP, f/2.4, 24mm (wide), 1/2.8", 0.8µm.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps; gyro-EIS, HDR; Front camera: 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS.
- Battery: 4300mAh; Fast charging 65W, 100% in 35 min (advertised), Reverse charging, SuperVOOC 2.0.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); 3.5mm jack,
The phone also comes with 128GB of base storage, and the Snapdragon 765G 5G is nothing to scoff at.
What we can scoff at is the phone's current pricing. The launch price of €450 is quite optimistic considering that the competition in the midrange is quite heated and this phone comes with a plastic back and frame.
But let's not rush to any conclusions as this phone might offer more than what meets the eye at first glance. First, time for an unboxing.
Unboxing the Oppo Reno5 5G
The phone comes in a premium-looking box and fresh mint color. It contains the usual user manuals and the 65W-capable wall charger with a USB-A to USB-C cable.
Oppo has also thrown in a bonus case, too, along with a pair of 3.5mm headphones.
Design and ergonomics
This is where the Reno5 5G shines, mostly in terms of portability. It has the standard sandwich build with Gorilla Glass 5 on the front but swaps the back glass and metal frame for plastic elements. Which explains the lightweight body.
We received the Starry Black version for review, which isn't too flashy - quite the opposite. The color is simplistic and conservative but changes hues at different angles. A direct light turns it into a mirror even. Unfortunately, fingerprints do stick, and they are easy to spot, too.
The camera design on the back seems to be in touch with today's trends, and the separation of each lens gives the phone a more industrial look, or you can argue that it takes some notes from Apple's design. In any case, we like it. The edges to the side are rounded, as usual, helping with the grip.
Flipping the device reveals a 6.43-inch display with fairly thin bezels all-around. The chin is the only one that stands out, while the top bezel, although thin, still manages to accommodate a fairly big earpiece grille. Sensors for proximity and ambient light are placed under the display.
The front panel is seamless except for the punch-hole for the front-facing camera. The cutout itself isn't big, but it's pretty deep into the panel, far away from the upper-left corner of the screen, and it eats a significant chunk of the display.
The razor-thin frame accommodates the accented power key on the right, two separate buttons for volume control on the left, while the bottom is business as usual - USB-C, 3.5mm audio jack and a loudspeaker grille. The buttons are well-positioned and are within reach. Even the volume keys are easy to reach when you wrap around your index and middle fingers.
The SIM card tray, which is located right above the volume keys, offers just the two SIM card slots, no room for microSD card.
Oppo Reno5 5G
Perhaps only the fingerprint reader's placing is sub-optimal. It's too close to the bottom edge, so you might have to twist your thumb a little, depending on how you grab your phone. Since it's a small phone, that wouldn't be a big issue, but someone with big hands will surely notice.
Nothing beats the sensation of a secure grip over a compact phone when handling it with just one hand. And that's what the Reno5 5G gives you. Sure, it's just as slippery as the rest, but its weight (172g), dimensions and thickness (7.9mm) are hard to compensate for that. Anyone looking for a compact midranger should consider the Reno5 5G.
Great OLED panel clocked at 90Hz
The Reno5 5G's display is definitely one of its strongest suits. It may not have a crazy-fast 120Hz refresh rate, but the 90Hz in this price range would do. Some other qualities compensate for that, such as good sunlight legibility, for example. But first, let's go through the specs.
The panel is branded as Super AMOLED, has a small, for today's standards, diagonal of 6.43" and fits a tall 20:9aspect ratio of 1080 x 2400px resolution. The panel itself is protected by Gorilla Glass 5, and there's a small cutout for the front-facing camera in the upper-left corner.
With the brightness slider cranked up to maximum and the auto mode disabled, the display peaked at 444 nits, and in auto mode, it achieved 634 nits in bright light conditions. If it was more than a year ago, this would have been a flagship-grade display. And we mean this in a good way. However, this result failed to reach the advertised 750 nits, though, of course, the measuring methodology used may affect the readings.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 444 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 634 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 511 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 716 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 396 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 825 | ∞ | |
| 0.349 | 498 | 1427:1 | |
| 0.434 | 613 | 1412:1 | |
| 0.432 | 512 | 1185:1 | |
| 0.541 | 630 | 1165:1 | |
Color accuracy, on the other hand, isn't stellar with the main issue being the rather blue-ish whites. The display is subject to tuning, so you may want to opt for a warmer color temperature if color accuracy is what you are after.
Refresh rate management is half-decent as only a few scenarios would lower the refresh rate to 60Hz to save on some power. Netflix and YouTube full-screen playback runs at 60Hz, but almost everything else is fixed at 90Hz. The menu or the app don't matter, except for those rare cases in which the app itself doesn't support anything above 60Hz. Even when using the native gallery app and watching full-screen videos, using the default video player wouldn't cause the refresh rate to go down. Even though we didn't expect granular HRR control like the one presented in the Find X3 Pro, we expected a bit more from the Reno5 5G regarding the automatic handling of the refresh rate.
Battery life
To be honest, we were expecting average battery results at most, but the Reno5 5G's efficiency surprised us. The rather small, by today's standards, 4,300 mAh battery was able to provide juice to reach an overall endurance score of 109h. That's getting really close to phones using 5,000 mAh cells.
The video playback runtime and the standby scores were the main contributors to the overall score. The web browsing runtime was more than satisfactory, too.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.
All test results shown are achieved under the highest screen refresh rate mode. You can adjust the endurance rating formula manually so it matches better your own usage in our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.
Charging speed
Even if you are not impressed by the phone's endurance, a blazing-fast charging speed can potentially more than make up for it.
The Reno5 5G with its 65W charging support branded as SuperVOOC 2.0 is the undisputed champion in this category.
The 4,300 mAh battery charges from 0 to 100% in just 40 minutes, while a 30-minute charge will get you 87% of the juice back. Of course, you have to consider that the other phones in the chart below offer bigger batteries that are slower to charge, but the difference in charging times is still huge.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- Oppo Reno5 5G
87% - Poco F3
67% - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
61% - Samsung Galaxy A72
54% - Motorola Moto G100
37%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- Oppo Reno5 5G
0:40h - Poco F3
0:56h - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
0:58h - Samsung Galaxy A72
1:15h - Motorola Moto G100
1:54h
Speaker
Two or three years ago, we wouldn't have complained about the lack of stereo loudspeakers. But with the intense competition in the mid-range segment, this feature has become a standard. That's why we think the absence of two speakers on the Reno5 5G is a rather big misstep. Not to mention the single, bottom-firing speaker is far from loud.
Quality is mediocre, too, and it's hard to rank this phone hard when you have rivals with solid stereo setups. The highs get distorted at higher volumes while the bass is virtually non-existent, taking away some of the depth of every track you play.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
ColorOS 11 and Android 11
The Reno5 5G comes with almost the latest version of ColorOS 11.1. The Find X3 Pro that we reviewed recently came with 11.2. In any case, the difference is marginal.
Oppo jumped from ColorOS 7 all the way up to 11 to match the current Android version and avoid confusion. There are plenty of changes introduced with ColorOS 11 - from UI design to features and performance. Yet, the overall feel of the UI is somewhat familiar. Don't expect the cleaner style and approach Realme and OnePlus have taken, ColorOS remains a heavily customized UI.
You still get the standard app drawer (unless you opt for the simple home screen layout), the recent apps menu is familiar in carousel formation but adds an additional icon row at the bottom, so its easier to find your way around. It even works as a scroll bar for faster navigation through the carousel.
Home screen, app drawer, notification shade, recent apps
The notification shade, however, is mostly the same as before and far from what stock Android offers. The difference is that the quick toggles light up in the same color when switched on as opposed to previous versions of ColorOS, where some of them light up in different colors so you'd have another visual cue.
But as we already mentioned, ColorOS is highly customizable, so you can tinker with pretty much everything you see on the screen. Under Personalization, you can set up a theme, change the icons (plenty of options to go through here), choose the accent colors in the UI, change the fingerprint unlock animation, set up a font of your choice and even customize the quick toggles in the notification shade. The edge lighting effect for receiving notifications and the always-on display features can be found there as well.
Personalization menu
The latter has quite a few tricks up its sleeve. Aside from the scheduling options, you can set a customized text, image or choose from the wide selection of clock styles. The edge lighting allows you to select color only.
Always-on display and edge lighting
The Home screen and Lock screen sub-menu contain a handful of useful options. The first thing we did was to switch the pull-down gesture on the home screen to open up the notification shade instead of search. The trouble is that with this setup, that once you do that, there is no way to invoke the app search with a gesture. The swipe-up gesture doesn't have any role.
Raise-to-wake and double-tap-to-wake are among the most commonly used gestures too, and they are available but are disabled by default.
Home and lock screen options and gestures
What caught our attention is the so-called icon pull-down gesture. It only works on the home screen and makes one-handed operation easier. Swiping your finger close to either edge of the phone minimizes the icons on the home screen, and as you move your finger, it starts to highlight apps. As you release, the app of your selection launches. We were surprised to see how well the gesture works, but it does come with a learning curve.
Lastly, you can reduce the animation speed if you wish to, which in this particular case we find very useful because we've noticed that the animations feel a bit slow. Don't get us wrong, the animations look awesome at 90fps and give you the notion of fluid operation and navigation. But if you are more of a power user and want to speed things up, you can do so with a flick of a switch. No need to unlock the developer's option menu to reduce the animation time.
It's needless to say that one-time permissions and the so-called bubble notifications are implemented in ColorOS 11 as Android 11-intrinsic features. Keep in mind that the bubbles are not supported by all apps, but most of them work fine. You need to tap on the small icon located on the lower-left corner of the notification badge to open up the bubble. Oh, and notifications from messaging apps are neatly grouped in a conversation category. Media playback controls are now integrated into the notification shade, but you can remove it if you wish.
Notification bubbles
The smart sidebar, which is just like the Samsung's edge panel, offers more customization options like adjusting the position, the transparency of the panel itself and also the option to hide the bar in full-screen apps.
Smart sidebar settings
The battery sub-menu doesn't offer anything out of the ordinary except for the optimized night charging. If you are one of those people still preferring overnight charging, this feature prevents the system from overcharging the cell and adapts the charging process to your schedule.
It would pump up the battery as fast as usual and leave the last couple of percents right until you wake up. It's supposed to keep the battery's heat lower and prevent it from aging, which is particularly useful for phones with extremely fast charging, like this one.
Battery menu
Last but not least, a few words about the fingerprint reader. Aside from its rather sub-optimal placement, which is too close to the bottom edge, the scanner itself works great. We found it to be fast, accurate and responsive enough even in bright lighting conditions, which are usually the Achilles hell of optical fingerprint readers.
And as for overall performance, day-to-day navigation and responsiveness were great. Although highly customized, ColorOS feels fast and smooth in the current setup. However, if you feel that animation effects are rather slow, which was our initial impression, Oppo has put a handy option to fix that in the settings menu.
Performance
The Reno5 5G employs one of Qualcomm's most powerful mid-range SoCs - the Snapdragon 765G (7nm LPP EUV). And as the device's name suggests, it supports 5G connectivity. As far as horsepower goes, the chipset uses an octa-core CPU running in 1+1+6 formation. The main core that does the heavy lifting is the Kryo 475 Prime running at 2.4 GHz (Cortex-A76 derivative) aided by another Kryo 475 Gold core (again Cortex-A76 derivative) ticking at 2.2 GHz. The other six cores are Kryo 475 Silver (Cortex-A55 derivatives) working at 1.8 GHz used for less demanding tasks. The GPU on board is Adreno 620.
Memory options are just two - 8GB/128GB and 12GB/256GB. The good news is that the base configuration is generous enough but the bad news is that there's no microSD card slot available.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
3311 - Motorola Moto G100
2860 - Oppo Reno5 5G
1813 - Samsung Galaxy A72
1627
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Motorola Moto G100
950 - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
901 - Oppo Reno5 5G
608 - Samsung Galaxy A72
537
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Poco F3
631850 - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
563961 - Motorola Moto G100
556137 - Oppo Reno5 5G
317762 - Samsung Galaxy A72
279342
AnTuTu 9
Higher is better
- Motorola Moto G100
681559 - Oppo Reno5 5G
377615 - Samsung Galaxy A72
333668
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Motorola Moto G100
56 - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
51 - Oppo Reno5 5G
20 - Samsung Galaxy A72
17
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Motorola Moto G100
47 - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
46 - Oppo Reno5 5G
17 - Samsung Galaxy A72
15
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Motorola Moto G100
33 - Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
29 - Oppo Reno5 5G
12 - Samsung Galaxy A72
10
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Motorola Moto G100
23 - Oppo Reno5 5G
8.4 - Samsung Galaxy A72
7
3DMark SSE ES 3.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro
7101 - Oppo Reno5 5G
3208 - Samsung Galaxy A72
2517
The Snapdragon 765G is a perfectly capable SoC and will run pretty much everything you throw at it. For day-to-day use, the chipset is just ideal.
On the other hand, the chip is having a hard time competing in this price segment with the likes of Snapdragon 865 and 870.
`A standard quad-camera setup on the back
As most midrangers out there, the Reno5 5G offers a quad-camera setup on the back and a single shooter on the front. A 64MP f/1.7, 1/1.73", 0.8µm camera does the main lifting and is aided by an 8MP ultrawide shooter with a familiar 1/4.0" sensor. The advertised field of view is 119-degrees, and it uses an f/2.2 aperture.
The other two shooters are 2MP f/2.4 - one is used for depth sensing while the other is used for macro shots. The camera on the front is 32MP with f/2.4 aperture, and the sensor itself is 1/2.8" big with 0.8µm pixels.
Camera menus
The default camera app isn't anything out of the ordinary. The camera modes are arranged in a typical carousel-style list with the Macro mode tucked away in the More sub-menu. The default photo mode offers four toggles - one for the ultrawide, one for the main 1x mode and two zoomed ones of 2x and 5x. Both crop from the center of the main camera, of course.
Default camera app
Some additional controls over HDR and the AI mode can be found on top of the viewfinder. The Settings menu gives you the standard set of options along with a so-called AI ultra-clear mode for bokeh shots.
Daylight samples
Main camera
The daylight photos taken with the main camera are good, with little to complain about. Just for the record, we left the AI switch on since it was on by default. We've provided a couple of non-AI photos below to see the difference for yourself. The AI adds a little bit of brightness and color to the images but nothing too major. If you are more into the natural look, keep the AI switch off. In both cases, you will be getting lively colors, though.
Main camera 16MP samples
Sharpness is okay, and detail is far from impressive too, but the overall quality of the images is good if you don't zoom too much, and we would argue that this is often the case. Some fine grain can be observed in uniform areas. Dynamic range is also on par with the competition, meaning there are no underexposed or clipped areas in the images. They look well-balanced, with plenty of detail in the highlights and shadows. Keep in mind that the AI may, in some rare situations, produce rather bright, overexposed-looking shots, especially if direct sunlight is shining onto the subject.
Main camera 108MP samples
To our surprise, there's no way to take native 64MP pictures with the main camera. Instead, Oppo has opted for upscaled 108MP photo mode to keep up with the similarly-priced competition that already offers 108MP cameras. It's needless to say that the results are sub-par. The 108MP images are soft and noisy despite the marginal gain in detail compared to the binned 16MP images.
2x zoom
A toggle for 2x and 5x zoom is available, but since it crops from the main camera and there's no proper telephoto snapper, we suggest that you stick to 2x zoom at most. And even then, prepare for grainy and soft images - oftentimes unusable and blurry. Otherwise, expect pretty much the same rendition as standard photos.
2x zoom samples
Ultrawide camera
Perhaps to no one's surprise, the ultrawide camera doesn't perform as good as the main one but it seems to be slightly better than the competition, mostly in terms of contrast and sharpness. The latter isn't stellar, but it's much better than what we are used to seeing from this popular 8MP sensor.
Ultrawide camera samples
And mostly due to its low resolution, images don't come out as detailed as they should too. Edge softness is a standard with all ultrawide cameras, no matter the class, along with some color fringing that doesn't really get in the way. Expect a narrower dynamic range with a tendency to go for a lower exposure. On the other hand, the lens distortion algorithm seems to be doing an impressive job, and as you get closer to the subject, you may get a pretty good level of detail. Don't get too close, though, as this ultrawide unit doesn't support AF.
Low-light samples
Main camera
The night shots are just about average for the price range struggling mostly with contrast, highlights, light sources and sharpness. We've also noticed that it goes for a tad brighter exposure, which explains why the highlights are clipped, and the shadows look well-exposed with plenty of detail. Noise isn't missing, but it's mostly visible in the dark areas.
Main camera low-light samples
Switching over to Night mode improves things drastically. The biggest downside is that you have to wait quite a bit for each shot. It takes roughly 5-7 seconds for a single picture, and that's way slower than most midrangers we've tested. But it's definitely worth it.
Night mode samples
The shots are slightly brighter without clipped highlights, cleared up noise and considerably sharper. The added sharpness brings out more fine detail from the shadows too. Highlights are no longer clipped, and contrast is adjusted accordingly. Light sources, while not ideal, look a lot better too.
So despite the longer wait times, we strongly recommend using the Night mode after dusk, no matter the scene. Some of the scenes may come out a bit over-processed for the liking of some, but the difference between the Night mode samples and the standard Photo mode images is night and day. No pun intended.
2x zoom
Zooming at night would just reveal the imperfections of the nighttime photos taken with the main camera. The issues we described above are amplified, and the Night mode can do so much to fix them. We suggest that you use the 2x magnification with Night mode to get better results.
2x zoom samples: Normal • Night mode • Normal • Night mode • Normal • Night mode
Ultrawide camera
We weren't impressed by the ultrawide camera's performance during the day so we doubted it would be good at night. And we were right to assume it for the most part. With standard Photo mode, the ultrawide images are murky, lack detail, contrast and have plenty of noise in them.
Ultrawide low-light samples
Luckily, the Reno5 5G is one of the few handsets around these parts to offer Night mode for its ultrawide camera. In fact, it takes just as long as it takes for the main camera to capture a Night mode photo. Upon close inspection, Oppo may have gone too far with the sharpening, but the end result is excellent.
Ultrawide Night mode samples
We can even go as far as saying that low-light ultrawide pictures are not just usable but look pretty good too. The Night mode clears up the fog of noise and softness and replaces it with a sharp and detailed image. Light sources are well-contained, contrast is boosted, and dynamic range is drastically improved.
Get ready for some more pixel-peeping with our photo compare tool to see how the Reno5 5G compares to its rivals.
Oppo Reno5 5G vs Xiaomi Poco F3 and the Samsung Galaxy A72 in our Photo compare tool
Macro camera
The macro camera is business as usual or, in other words - just about average. Since everyone is using the same old 2MP sensor for this kind of photos, the end results rarely vary. It all boils down to software optimization.
Macro samples
Anyway, the focusing distance is 4cm (the viewfinder kindly reminds us every time we switch to the macro) and it's fixed focus, so capturing moving subjects is a big challenge. Sufficient light is also a must-have. Expect rather sharp photos with colors that may be a bit on the dull side as well as good sharpness.
Portraits
Portraits are looking good and rather convincing, mostly because of the precise edge detection. The faux bokeh effect is looking really good, while sharpness and detail are more than satisfactory. The subject's skin could have been a bit less exposed because it looks pale and hardly captures the natural reddish nuances.
Portrait samples
We were surprised by the indoor performance and even got a pretty nice result in dim conditions. A good example is the fourth photo. Moreover, the subject upfront is blurred out too.
Lastly, the HDR is competent enough to bring out the subject's face even in more challenging conditions and at no point did the background look clipped or overexposed. And expect even better sharpness outside.
Selfies
The selfies aren't binned, they are in native 32MP but don't seem as sharp as one would expect from a 32MP sensor. Only a handful of the photos turned out good for posting, so hitting the right focusing distance is a challenge too. The level of detail is rather good, though, and so are the colors, and so is the dynamic range. Maybe the subject's skin is once again a bit on the pale side.
Selfies: Normal • Portrait
We've also noticed that the portraits are consistently sharper than the standard selfies, and that's due to the lack of HDR. Portrait selfies often skip the HDR, and as a result, you get limited dynamic range (as you can see from the last photo), but you do get some extra sharpness. The edge separation is a bit rough, which is usually the case with selfie portraits.
Video recording
Video recording caps at 2160p@30fps, but there are various modes before that. For instance, an AI Highlight video is a feature that supports only 1080p@30fps recording while proper slow-motion video is at 720p, but 1080p mode is also available at lower frame rates.
Let's start with the standard 2160p@30fps video. It looks pretty good with plenty of detail, natural color reproduction, wide dynamic range (notice how well the trees are exposed without the white building in the background being too bright) and with virtually no noise. Contrast is also on point. To be honest, there's nothing bad we can say about this sample video, especially in this price range.
The AI Highlight video mode caps at 1080p, pumps up the color saturation and goes for a brighter exposure, which ultimately results in clipped highlights. The white and bright-colored cars are easy to spot too. We can't say it's a good alternative to the standard video recording at 4K.
The ultrawide camera also caps at 1080p and the video quality is far from ideal. It's soft, maybe a little noisy, and lacks dynamic range - underexposed shadows and clipped highlights.
When it comes to EIS, the device doesn't support stabilized 4K videos, but there's an Ultra Steady mode that gives you an action camera-like stabilization. The trade-off is that it's cropped, and it's 1080p. So at a reduced quality and field of view, you can get action camera-like videos. And to further solidify that action camera feel, the phone records at 60fps in this mode.
Turning on the Ultra Steady mode will reveal a switch on the viewfinder, which in turn will activate the so-called Pro Ultra Steady mode. It's still 1080p video but cropped even more aggressively for even better stabilization, and the framerate is dialed down to 30fps. The con of using this mode is the floating objects around the edges of the video. Notice the buildings in the distance that are near the left edge of the video.
Here's a 4K video without EIS for reference.
Once you are done with the real-world examples, take a closer look at our video compare tool to see how the Reno5 5G stacks against the competition.
2160p:Oppo Reno5 5G vs Xiaomi Poco F3 and the Samsung Galaxy A72 in our Video compare tool
Competition
The Oppo Reno5 5G is a solid phone with quite a bit of well0executed features. However, in a typical Oppo fashion, the company wants to position its mid-range handsets as the premium offerings in their respective segments, which is the case with the Reno5 5G/Find X3 Lite. It's challenging some considerably more powerful handsets, but that's not to say Oppo's contender doesn't bring something to the table.
Let's just assume that you didn't come here because the Reno5 5G fits your size. You are here because it fits your price range. If that's the case, then the just-announced Xiaomi Poco F3 is a must-have on your list, priced at €350. The only real advantage of the Reno5 5G is the camera performance, especially at night and the extremely fast charging. Sure, you don't get a 3.5mm audio jack or a microSD card slot, but the F3 boasts a brighter 120Hz OLED, a bigger battery, a more powerful Snapdragon 870 SoC and stereo speakers.
And if by any chance you feel hesitant to use Xiaomi's MIUI or you have your own niche reason not to go for the Poco F3, consider one of Motorola's latest additions to its portfolio - the Motorola Moto G100. It runs on a much speedier Snapdragon 870, it challenges the Reno5's Night mode on the main camera (except for the ultrawide, though) and offers a clean Android experience Moto phones are known for. This comes at an extra €50 on top of the €450 that Oppo's contender asks. Sure, you give away the OLED screen, and you settle for slower charging but the phone's performance is top notch.
Samsung Galaxy M12 (India) • Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro 5G • Motorola Moto G100 • Samsung Galaxy A72
The 4G version of Samsung's Galaxy A72 is another viable option despite its slower Snapdragon 720G. The phone excels in other aspects such as battery endurance, display, camera, build and speakers. Note that the Galaxy A72 has a solid 64MP main camera with OIS aided by a 3x telephoto camera while its body is IP67-certified against water and dust.
Released back in October 2020, the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro 5G may not be the newest offering from the list, but it's pretty darn relevant. Running on a last year's flagship Snapdragon 865 SoC, rocking probably the best LCD panel we've come across in a while (144Hz at that) and excelling in pretty much every way, the Mi 10T is still a great value proposition sitting a few bucks shy of €400, and undercutting the Reno5 5G. The latter may only compete with the Mi 10T Pro in terms of camera quality and charging speed.
Verdict
It's light, it's compact, it charges fast, and it shoots well in the dark. But it's still no match for the cut-throat mid-range market where even stereo speakers are a standard feature. Oppo's mid-range devices have always had some trouble competing with the rest price-wise. It's hard to argue with the likes of Poco F3 and the Mi 10T Pro as they both offer better price/performance ratio while asking less than the Reno5 5G.
In a parallel universe where the Reno5 5G's price was lower, it would have been an easy recommendation. The handset employs a capable SoC that proves to be energy-efficient too, it has a bright HRR OLED, and it's an excellent shooter that's hard to match even by the supposedly more capable Poco F3. Despite his price, we are sure the camera quality and the compact nature of the phone will win over some users, even if they are just a few.
Pros
- Light and compact build.
- Good 90Hz OLED with tiny punch-hole.
- Surprisingly good battery life despite the 4,300 mAh capacity.
- Great main camera across the board, ultrawide way above average.
- One of the fastest charging around.
- Customizable and smooth ColorOS.
Cons
- Considerably more powerful alternatives.
- Not competitive price-wise.
- No stereo speakers and no microSD card slot.
- Plastic build.
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