OPPO Reno4 First Impressions: A Smarter Refresh

Does OPPO Reno4 make the OPPO Reno3 obsolete?

It was not too long ago when OPPO Philippines announced the Reno3 series in the country. Shortly after it was announced, OPPO’s regional office made Reno4 official, which seemingly sent a signal that Reno3 is now EOL.

Contrary to the case, Reno3 offers a different set of benefits for consumers, which the new Reno4 still cannot offer. On the other hand, there are inherent benefits that only Reno4 can offer.

Let me break things down.

OPPO Reno4 is smarter!

The Snapdragon 720G on Reno4 has variable clock speeds that ranges from 1.8Ghz up to 2.4Ghz. This does not just mean that it is faster, but it can also be more power-efficient than the one on the Reno4. If its smart power management feature kicks in, it can go as low as 1.8Ghz, which should just be enough for low-consuming applications.

Snapdragon 720G is smarter and its raw power is a notch higher than the one on Helio G90. Emphasis on ‘notch’ higher though. It does not mean that Reno3’s Helio G90 is a slouch. It is still one of the best performing MediaTek processors out there, which means you can play Triple A titles at a lower pricepoint.

Reno4 is for creators and a fitting throwback to what OPPO is really good at!

OPPO is known for its smartphones with good camera performance. Over time, camera performance has evolved to an essential part of a smartphone because it’s the most accessible feature that enables consumers to create content.

Reno3 is among the many phones of OPPO to have beyond 40MP front-facing camera. Its 44MP selfie camera is one of the best ones we’ve used recently, and we wanted it to stay that way for Reno4. Surprisingly, it is not the case on this phone because it only sports a 32MP front camera with the same aperture and the same field of view (22mm). However, there’s one additional feature that’s inherent to Reno4 – i.e, the addition of a 2MP lens for depth-sensing. This is a valuable addition to Reno4, which will definitely delight content creators and even proves the point where OPPO really excels.

Take a look at some of the photos we took with this smartphone.

A new addition to keep up with the competition – 960fps Slow Motion

OPPO also added a new slow-motion speed to Reno4 that will allow it to keep up in the competition! I wanted to see how well this works in an environment that can push it to its limit. I took a video of my brother-in-law while he was playing drums in a non-well lit room. I used the fill light, which you can enable while taking slow-motion videos. It is surprisingly good despite being noisy, which I somehow expected.

There are also other worth mentioning features, which we hope to further test for our full review. There’s Ultra Steady mode, which OPPO made available in their previous flagship smartphones. There’s Night Flare and Ultra Night Selfie Mode, which can still useful despite being locked up at home because of the pandemic. Since OPPO still has Monochrome camera on the Reno4, you can still take photos and compose art black and white photos with this device.

It’s coming!

This is just your first look at this device. Details of OPPO Reno4 will soon be announced by OPPO Philippines. Be sure to bookmark our website for our full review soon!

Giancarlo Viterbo

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Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.