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OPPO Reno3 Pro Long Term Review - A good selfie phone, but not that impressive overall

OPPO
Infinix
We share our thoughts after using the OPPO Reno3 Pro after three months of extensive use.    
OPPO Reno3 Pro Review - 3 Months after
OPPO Reno3 Pro

In our first impressions, the OPPO Reno3's ColorOS 7 and design stood out as both deliver refined and well-thought-out physical and software design.

How does it stack after several months of use?

Here's our review and let's see if it is the new affordable smartphone to get.

For our review part 1: OPPO Reno3 First Impressions

Multimedia Experience

Display
Display

In front of the Reno3 Pro is the 6.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED display with an FHD+ 2400 x 1080p resolution at 402 ppi that produces one of the most accurate colors we've seen in the price range. Texts and images are crisp and the maximum brightness allows the display to be readable even under direct sunlight.


Dynamic AMOLED goodness!

It supports 10 points of multi-touch and has been quick, responsive, and accurate with every tap or gesture we make on the display.

Reno3 Pro comes with the OSIE Vision effect that OPPO claims improve the picture quality of the display by adding saturation and contrast. Personally, after using it, I turned it off because I prefer the color accurate look.


Other features like system-wide dark mode, eye comfort, and the ability to manually select the screen temperature from cooler to warmer are present. There is even a low-brightness flicker-free eye comfort mode which reduces eye fatigue from screen flickering at low-brightness.

Bottom speakers
Bottom speakers

At the bottom of the Reno3 Pro is a single down-firing speaker that gets relatively loud enough to fill a small room. At maximum volume, the sound quality presents some distortion. We recommend staying at 80 to 90 percent volume for a fuller a sound.


With the included stock OPPO earphones, the sound quality improves with stereo and with a larger sound stage. Like the rest of the stock wired earphones from OPPO, the sound signature favors the bass with decent mids and trebles. It also has Hi-Res audio certification.


The Reno3 Pro supports Dolby Atmos and a headphones Monitor Mode that offers a real-time karaoke experience. 


Equipped with Bluetooth 5.0, the wireless connection is stable with low latency. When we watch videos, the audio and the mouth movements are in sync. Sound quality will vary depending on the earphones used.


Call quality is good. The earpiece speaker is loud and clear while the microphone recordings can cancel out the ambient sound well enough that it helps to make the speaker's voice discernable.

Camera

Rear camera
Rear camera

At the back of the Reno3 Pro is a quad-rear camera made up of a 64MP f/1.8 main camera, 8MP f/2.2 119-degree ultra-wide-angle camera with EIS, 13MP f/2.4 with 2x optical zoom and 2MP f/2.4 monochrome sensor with LED flash.


The default camera app offers several camera modes like Photo, Video, Portrait, Night, Expert, Sticker, Time-Lapse, Slo-Mo, and Panorama.

The Expert (Pro) Mode allows for manual control of ISO (100 to 3200), Shutter Speed (1/8000 to 32 seconds), AF, EV (+-3), and White Balance.

This is a pretty versatile camera setup that will allow users to shoot in nearly all lighting conditions.

Rear Camera Samples

Rear camera Daylight ultra-wide
Rear camera Daylight ultra-wide
Rear camera daylight 1x
Rear camera daylight 1x
Rear camera daylight 2x
Rear camera daylight 2x
Rear camera daylight 5x
Rear camera daylight 5x
Rear camera daylight 20x
Rear camera daylight 20x

In daylight, the Reno3 Pro's rear cameras all produced images with good sharpness, plenty of detail, strong contrast, and accurate colors using the ultra-wide, 1x, 2x, and 5x lenses.

It can digitally zoom up to 20x but we don't recommend using it as even in daylight, it is soft and the colors have degraded.
Rear camera 1x close-up
Rear camera 1x close-up
Rear camera 2x close-up
Rear camera 2x close-up



In close-up shots, the detail on the subject is plenty while the color is accurate. If you look at the fall-off (the area where the in-focus area and out of focus areas meet), the transition is smooth and natural-looking.
Rear camera indoor ultra-wide
Rear camera indoor ultra-wide
Rear camera indoor 1x
Rear camera indoor 1x
Rear camera indoor 2x
Rear camera indoor 2x
Rear camera indoor 5x
Rear camera indoor 5x

In indoor situations, only the ultra-wide and the 5x telephoto cameras have decreased sharpness and a minor increase in noise. Otherwise, the images from the 1x and the 2x are sharp with plenty of detail and accurate colors.
Rear camera low light ultra-wide
Rear camera low light ultra-wide
Rear camera lowlight 1x
Rear camera low light 1x
Rear camera low light 2x
Rear camera low light 2x


Rear camera low light 5x
Rear camera low light 5x

In low light, the OPPO Reno3 Pro performed surprisingly well. The images have retained most of their sharpness, detail, and color.

We did notice the shadow areas had very strong and prominent noise while the highlights (light) areas had small and minimal noise. OPPO may need to tweak the post-processing to correct this.
Rear camera ultra-wide night mode
Rear camera ultra-wide night mode 
Rear camera 1x night mode
Rear camera 1x night mode
Rear camera 2x night mode
Rear camera 2x night mode
Rear camera 5x night mode
Rear camera 5x night mode

If your subject is staying still, the Reno3 Pro's Night Mode significantly improves the quality of low light images. Noise has significantly been reduced while the sharpness and color are near the daylight samples.
44MP dual-cam
44MP dual-cam

The Reno3 Pro's dual front-facing cameras are made up of a 44MP f/2.4 main camera and a 2MP f/2.4 secondary camera.


The camera app has Photo, Video, Night, Portrait, Selfie Pano, Timelapse, and Stickers. There is no Expert mode for the selfie camera.

The included Bokeh and Face Beautification suite has 0 to 100 levels with an auto AI mode.

Selfie Camera Samples

Daylight selfie
Daylight selfie
Daylight selfie with bokeh
Daylight selfie with bokeh
Daylight selfie with Face smoothening
Daylight selfie with Face smoothening
Indoor selfie
Indoor selfie
Low light selfie
Low light selfie 
Low light selfie with screen flash
Low light selfie with screen flash
Low light selfie night mode
Low light selfie night mode

In daylight and indoors, the Reno3 Pro's selfie camera performs amazingly good. The selfies are sharp with plenty of detail, while the colors pop and the white balance is accurate.

The Face smoothening at the AI level is surprisingly good with just the right balance of natural smoothening. It does get rid of beauty marks too. While the artificial Bokeh is able to smoothen the background while being able to differentiate difficult hair strands. Overall, the AI Face Beauty and Bokeh to be impressive.


While in low light, the selfie camera was able to compensate for the dark environment but at the cost of significantly more noise where color accuracy and sharpness was lost. There is a screen flash to help with this but the result isn't the best while the other option is the Selfie Night Mode where it is able to remove most of the noise and is able to regain the sharpness and details of the daylight selfies but it will only work when there is a light source that strong enough.

In videos, the rear camera can shoot up to 4K 30fps and 1080p 60fps with digital stabilization.


Footage quality is sharp with accurate colors in daylight but is noticeably shaky when shooting handheld. In low light, the video quality drops significantly because of noise. While the front-facing camera can record up to 1080p 30fps without stabilization.

The footage from the selfie camera is sharp with accurate color but is shaky.

Performance

AnTuTu and Geekbench
AnTuTu and Geekbench

Inside the Reno3 Pro is the 12nm 2.2GHz MediaTek Helio P95 octa-core processor with the PowerVR GM 9446 GPU, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, and 256GB internal storage.

The device scored over 227,310 in AnTuTu and over 429 (single-core)/1577 (multi-core) in Geekbench.

These are decent scores but there are better performing smartphones for the price point.

3DMark and PCMark tests
3DMark and PCMark tests

While in 3DMark the Reno3 Pro scored 1288 in OpenGL and 1,597 in Vulcan tests while the device scored over 9490 in PCMark Work tests. The higher scores in Vulkan means that the OPPO Reno3 Pro may perform better with games that use Vulkan than games that use OpenGL.

Not the fastest phone for the price

In games, we were able to play NBA 2K20 at max settings while in Call of Duty: Mobile, we were able to play at Medium graphics quality at Medium frame rate performance. Depth of field, bloom, ragdoll, and anti-aliasing turned off. Real-time shadows are turned on.


The Reno3 Pro allowed for extended play sessions with consistent frame rates and response times when played in an air-conditioned room. After several hours of play, the Reno3 Pro will warm up and will throttle to keep itself cool.

Overall, we get consistent frame rates and long play sessions with some throttling. 
Good battery life
Good battery life

Reno3 Pro's 4025mAh battery was able to endure 14hours and 20 minutes of PCMark's Battery benchmark. While in real-world use where the phone is constantly connected to WiFi or LTE connection while doing productivity, messaging, gaming, and video and music streaming, we managed to get through a 4 hour and 26 minutes of screen on time with 45 percent left in the battery. ColorOS has made big improvements to Battery optimization and it shows.

The device is equipped with 30W VOOC Flash Charge 4.0 which charges the 4025mah battery from 0 to 100 percent within 60 minutes.

Reno3 Pro connects via WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE,  and Bluetooth 5.0. It also supports OTG, GPS, GLONASS, dual SIM, Hi-Res Audio, and Dolby Atmos.


GPS acquires our location instantaneously and accurately.
ColorOS UI
ColorOS UI

Out of the box, the Reno3 Pro runs on ColorOS 7 based 
Android 10.0 with an updated look and UI design. Icons and visuals look and feel modern while UI elements are easier to find and are intuitive to use.

New Accessibility Features
New Accessibility Features

There are new accessibility features that allow users added options on how to navigate through colorOS like the new SmartSide bar, gestures, and sensor-based automated actions.


There is a system-wide dark mode that forces some apps to use dark backgrounds and easy to read texts.


ColorOS 7 is one of our favorite skins and is a major upgrade from ColorOS 6.


Pros - Beautiful design, 
beautiful Dynamic AMOLED display, long battery life, good rear and front cameras, ColorOS 7
Cons - Weakest chip for the price

OPPO Reno3 Pro Specs

Display: 6.4-inch 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5 protected Dynamic AMOLED screen w/ FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution at 402 ppi
CPU: 2.2GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio P95 octa-core processor
GPU: PowerVR GM 9446
RAM: 8GB LPDDR4X
ROM: 256GB expandable via microSD card slot up to 256GB (dedicated)
Back Camera: 64MP f/1.8 + 8MP f/2.2 119-degree ultra-wide-angle w/ EIS + 13MP f/2.4 w/ 2x optical zoom + 2MP f/2.4 mono + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 44MP f/2.4 + 2MP f/2.4
Battery: 4,025mAh w/ 30W VOOC Flash Charge 4.0
OS: Android 10.0 w/ ColorOS 7
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, OTG, GPS, GLONASS, dual SIM
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, Hi-Res audio, Dolby Atmos, USB-C, dual mic, Colors: Aurora Blue, Midnight Black, Sky White
Dimensions: 158.8 x 73.4 x 8.1 mm
Weight: 175 g
Price: PHP 28,990

Verdict

Verdict
Verdict

At PHP 28,990 the OPPO Reno3 Pro offers beautiful design, long battery life, and versatile cameras. It also has one of the best selfie-cameras around.

It is clear that OPPO made the Reno3 Pro with design and the cameras in focus which may be viable to people who prefer creating and consuming content, images, and video with the camera for extended periods.

But, the performance of its Helio P95 SoC struggled against the competition. There are phones with way faster chips for better overall performance for the same price.

What do you guys think?

Build/Design - 4.25
Multimedia Experience - 4.25
Cameras - 4.5
Performance - 3.75
Average - 4.25/5
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