First Impressions: OPPO Reno3 Pro

OPPO has gone back to a more traditional design with the Reno3 Pro. It no longer uses a pop-up front camera, and the rear camera module is now on the left side, and protrudes. The curved sides on the rear panel adds to a more natural feel when using the phone with one hand.

The device uses a glossy metallic finish which makes it look premium, despite becoming more prone to smudges.

You get the typical button layout – Power on the right, volume rocker and SIM Slot on the left. It retains the headphone jack, along with a microphone, speaker, and a USB-C port at the bottom.

Moving on to the display, there’s a 6.5-inch FullHD+ Super AMOLED panel with a punch hole that houses two front cameras. Quite a change from the Reno2’s full-screen design. Speaking of quality, you’d expect no less from an AMOLED panel – punchy colors, and good levels of brightness and detail.

Unlike its 5G variant, the 4G version of the Reno3 Pro packs the new Helio P95. While we haven’t pitted the numbers against its predecessor, it clearly is a good performing chip as far as gaming is concerned. CoD Mobile runs well on High + High FPS setting.

You get 8GB of RAM, which is more than enough even for heavy multitasking, and 256GB of storage, expandable with a microSD card.

For its rear cameras, Reno3 Pro uses a 64MP main sensor, along with a 13MP telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom, an 8MP ultrawide, and a 2MP depth sensor.

While our sample photos show plenty of detail and good levels of texture, it does tend to miscalculate the exposure level in some scenarios.

The Reno2 was one of the best we’ve used for selfies, and we’re happy to say that it’s the same or even better with the Reno3. It’s not perfect, of course, thanks to inconsistencies when using Portrait Mode.

The camera is also able to shoot 4K 30fps video, which is a good addition for a mid-ranger. The quality isn’t mind-blowing, but is decent.

Like the Reno2, this device also has Ultra Steady Video 2.0, and an amped-up version, Ultra Steady Pro for smooth looking videos despite jittery motion. While effective, the limitation is that you can only use any of the two in 1080p resolution.

Reno3 Pro runs on ColorOS 7, which brings some nice features such as a system-wide dark mode. It still retains the ones I find to be more useful, such as Game Center, which also benefits from a new look. There’s also smart sidebar, which also helps you take screenshots and even record what’s happening on the screen.

Lastly, the device packs a 4,025mAh battery with support for 30W VOOC Flash Charge 4.0 technology. As always, we’ll make sure to do a battery test to see how long this phone can last.

Specifications

Emman Tortoza

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Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.