OPPO Reno6 5G Review - Android's new trendsetter?

We share our experience with the new OPPO Reno6 after two weeks of use as our daily driver.

The new Reno6

Teased to arrive in early July, the newly announced Reno6 5G has finally arrived in the Philippines. 

To recap, the new smartphone comes with a large 6.4-inch AMOLED display with 750 nits peak brightness, a 90Hz refresh rate, a 180Hz touch sampling rate, and 410 ppi.

Inside is the new MediaTek Dimensity 900 5G SoC, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 4,300mAh battery with 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 charging.

What is different from its peers and predecessors is the new blocky design that was recently repopularized by Apple's iPhone 12 series. OPPO calls this the OPPO Reno Glow and Ultra-Slim Retro Design.

In the Philippines, it is priced at only PHP 26,999.

Let's dive in!

Unboxing and Accessories

Unboxing inclusions

The Reno6 5G comes in a similar teal and black colored box with the OPPO Reno branding, specs, and regulatory information.

Inside the box is the Reno6 5G, SIM ejector tool, 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 wall charger, USB Type-A to Type-C cable, USB-C earphones, clear silicone bumper case, and documentation.

We applaud OPPO for including earphones, wall chargers and a silicone case in the box as these are becoming harder to find inside the box with higher-priced smartphones.

Build Quality/Design

The boxy design with textured glass back panel

As expected, the Reno6 5G is made out of premium materials. It comes with a metal frame, glass back, and glass front. It even has Gorilla Glass 5 in front for extra protection against scratches and accidental drops. While it doesn't have an IP rating, OPPO added a red gasket in the SIM tray suggesting that it can prevent some sort of water splashes.

Large display with slim bezels and a punch hole

As mentioned earlier, OPPO has redesigned the Reno6 5G. It has moved away from the curved sides and back to the retro boxy or blocky design that the Apple iPhone 12 series repopularized.

iPhone 12-like design, premium body, anti-fingerprint!

What stands out from OPPO's take is the frosted glass back texture but with glitter-like reflections. OPPO calls this "Reno Glow". This adds a unique and interesting look depending on how the light hits the phone. In my two weeks with the phone, I never once felt bored with the design because of how different the phone looks each time.

In front is the display with a curved glass panel. Around the display are super slim top and side bezels. The chin bezel is slightly thicker than the rest. Above the display is the super slim earpiece while on the top left corner of the display is the punch hole and the selfie camera. It has a 91.7 percent screen-to-body ratio. This is higher than the Reno6 Z 5G.

Top and bottom

On top are the antenna lines and a microphone port while at the bottom are more antenna lines, SIM tray, microphone port, USB-C port, and speaker grills. The SIM tray can house up to two Nano-SIM cards only. There is no slot for expandable storage.

Left and right

On the right side are the volume buttons while on the left is the power button with a teal painted depression to let users identify it right away. On both sides are more antenna lines.

The phone measures 156.8 x 72.1 x 7.59 mm and weighs 182 grams. The boxy frame makes the phone easier to hold but the frosted glass panel is and feels slippery. We recommend wearing the included silicone case right away. 

One of the great things about the boxy frame is the phone can stand on its top/bottom or on either side.

Multimedia Experience

Display panel

As mentioned above, the phone features a 6.4-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with 750 nits peak brightness, a 90Hz refresh rate, a 180Hz touch sampling rate, sRGB coverage of 100 percent, and a 410 ppi. Images produced are sharp, detailed, vibrant, and contrasty. Basically, pictures just pop off the screen.

Great display!

OPPO claims that the display passes the Netflix and Amazon HD streaming certification and SGS Eye Care Display. This means that content consumed from the aforementioned two streaming services should be up to high standards while being easy on the eyes.

It supports 10-points of multitouch that are responsive, accurate, and quick. We did not notice a delay, misread taps, or gestures. We love this display.

There is no 3.5mm headphone jack included.

The single bottom-firing speakers produce sound with decent maximum volume. At 80 percent, the sound is full, clear, and pleasing to the ear. At maximum volume, the audio becomes tingy and somewhat distorted. If users want to improve the audio experience, there is an included USB-C earphones or maybe get any of OPPO's Enco line of earphones.

The microphone recording of the Reno6 5G is good up to a meter away from the phone. The noise cancellation is good enough that our callers never complained about voice quality.

Cameras

Rear cameras

At the back of the Reno6 5G is a 64MP f/1.7 main camera, 8MP f/2.2 120-degree Ultra-wide angle camera, and a 2MP f/2.4 macro camera with LED flash and color temperature sensor.

Capable camera specs!

The stock camera app comes with the following modes: Photo, Video, Portrait, Night, Dual-View Video, Slo-Mo, Time-Lapse, Movie, Expert (Pro), Movie, Extra HD, Pano, Text Scanner, Macro, Sticker, and SoLoop Templates.

The Expert mode allows for control of ISO (100-6400), Shutter Speed (1/8000 to 32 secs), White Balance, exposure compensation (+-3 stops), and focus. There is no control for metering modes. Users can also switch between 1x, 2x, and 5x zoom.

Rear Camera Samples

Rear main camera daylight

Rear 2x camera daylight

Rear 5x camera daylight

Rear 10x camera daylight

Rear ultra-wide camera daylight

In daylight, the images from the ultra-wide, 1x, 2x and 5x cameras produced sharped and detailed images with vibrant color. What is impressive is that even though the sun is shining brightly, the Reno6's cameras managed to not over-expose the sky. 

Only the 10x digital zoom looked soft and muddy. We recommend not using the 10x unless absolutely necessary.

Rear main camera indoors

Rear 2x camera indoors

Rear 5x camera indoors

Rear camera 10x indoors

Rear ultra-wide indoors

Indoors, the Ultra-wide, 1x, 2x, and 5x managed to produce sharp and detailed images with vibrant color. The 5x however has some noticeable increase in grain or noise which may half soften the image to a degree. The 10x zoom like in daylight is soft and muddy but this time, there is more noticeable noise.

Low light 1x camera

Low light 2x camera

Low light 5x camera

Low light ultra-wide camera

In low light, the ultra-wide, 1x, and 2x images are impressive. Even though the image was taken in low light the noise levels are minimal. The result is images with decently sharp, detailed images with vibrant colors. Only the 5x zoom image has severely deteriorated with a muddy image and inaccurate color temperature.

Rear camera 1x Night Mode

Rear camera 2x Night mode

Rear camera 5x Night mode

Rear camera ultra-wide Night mode

Night mode is available for the Ultra-wide, 1x, 2x and 5x cameras. OPPO's version of the Night mode has significantly improved over the years and the images from all cameras prove this. The images from the ultra-wide, 1x, and 2x in Night mode produce sharper, more detailed, and more vibrant images when compared to the low light images in auto. 

The 5X zoom Night Mode image is still somewhat soft but it is sharper than the low light images. The color accuracy also got better when compared to the low light images on auto.

Selfie camera

On the punch hole is a 32MP f/2.4 front-facing camera. The stock camera app can use Photo, Video, Night, Portrait, and Dual View Video.

Selfie Camera Samples

Selfie daylight

Selfie indoors

Selfie with portrait mode

Selfie low light

Selfie Night mode

The front-facing camera is able to produce sharp and vibrant selfies in daylight, indoors, and in low light. The phone's colors and quality are consistent across all three cameras. It is only in low light that the noise and grain appear. The Night Mode selfie managed to recover the 'studio' at the back instead of an overexposed light source.

In fact, the selfie camera is one of if not the best cameras on the Reno6 5G for stills. 

The rear can capture up to 4K at 30fps and 1080p 60fps without stabilization or up to 1080p 60fps with stabilization. Users can switch between the ultra-wide, 1x, 2x, and 5x digital zoom in both photo and video modes. While the front-facing camera can capture up to 1080p at 30fps with stabilization. The selfie video does not have the option to select frame rates.

At this price point, we expect that the selfie camera can shoot 4k at 30fps or at least 1080p at 60fps but this is not the case this time.

Note: We will upload our video samples here. Stay tuned!

Performance

AnTuTu and GeekBench scores

The MediaTek Dimensity 900 5G SoC, LPDDR4X RAM, and internal storage managed to score 425,322 in AnTuTu, 698 in GeekBench single-core tests, and 2089 in GeekBench multi-core tests.

Respectable performance for the price!

Temperatures during the run are well controlled with only a 1-degree Celsius increase while the battery drain was significant at 3 percent.

3DMark and CDPT

In the 3DMark Wild Life benchmark, the phone managed an impressive 2018 overall score and an average frame rate of 12 fps.

While the internal storage managed to get a result of 452.21 MB/s in sequential write speeds and a score of 419.08 in sequential read speeds. These scores are expected in the price point but there have been some smartphones that outperform this phone in this department.

Genshin Impact graphics settings

It is in the gaming graphics department that game developers and MediaTek need to improve upon. The Dimensity 900 is powerful but could only get a Low graphics settings as the default in Genshin Impact. We also managed to play on the lowest with 60fps. Either graphics settings are smooth and playable. Temperatures are also well controlled. We played for an hour and the phone never got uncomfortably hot.

Call of Duty: Mobile graphics settings

In the latest version of Call of Duty: Mobile, the Dimensity 900 managed to unlock the Max Frame Rate setting but not the high graphics setting. In fact, if users want to have the Max frame rate turned on, the game lowers the graphics quality to low. If you want a good balance, set the graphics to medium and the frame rate to very high. Either one is smooth, playable, and cool in temperatures. We just wished that at this price point that the High graphics settings would be unlocked or that we can play at max frame rate at Medium graphics settings.

It has both face unlock and In-Display fingerprint scanners. Both are prompted to be set up after the initial startup of the phone. Both the Face Unlock and Fingerprint scanning are instantaneous and accurate 9 out of 10 times. Because of the current situation where masks are required, we mostly used the fingerprint scanner more often. In darker environments, the display can brighten up to aid in the face unlock procedure. 

Aside from that, the phone also features OTG that runs as expected. The WiFi, Bluetooth, 5G, and LTE connections are stable. While the GPS acquires the current location immediately and accurately.

PCMark Battery Benchmark and screen on time

Inside the phone is a 4,300mAh battery with 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging via USB-C. The charging brick is a thicc-boi. There is no wireless charging support. 

It takes the phone under 60 minutes to charge from 0 to 100 percent. This is a massive lifesaver as you can top up and get a massive power capacity boost.

In our usual PCMark battery benchmark, the Reno6 5G managed to endure 12 hours and 18 minutes of the test. This is impressive given that it only has a 4,300mAh capacity. In theory, this battery should get users thru the day.

In our real-world use, where we would be doing our routine tasks where we use the phone to call, text, web surf, e-mail, stream music, and video, play games, and navigate with Waze. 

The phone managed to last a day with 15 to 20 percent of battery left after a 12-hour workday. In one of our heavy workdays, we managed to reach over 7 hours of on-screen time with 25 percent left.

65W charging is love!

It also has one of the fastest chargers at this price point at 65W. Charging from 0 to 100 percent is around 40 minutes.

ColorOS

For software, it is running on the latest Android 11-based ColorOS 11.3. Years ago, we never truly liked ColorOS but in the past few years, it has improved significantly. It has become one of our preferred skins alongside OnePlus's Oxygen OS. 

Now, it has one of the prettier skins but with a unique look. It is responsive and snappy. Our only concern is a large amount of pre-installed apps. These preinstalled apps are composed of a variety of Google app clones and a third party that just add to the bloat. Fortunately, they can all be uninstalled or disabled. This adds to the set-up time but once uninstalled, the experience improves even more.

The Dimensity 900 handles ColorOS 11.3 without a hitch. Navigating thru the OS is a breeze while opening or switching between apps is instantaneous.

Pros - Premium-looking blocky design with eye-catching colors, lightweight, decent performance for the price, great selfie camera, surprisingly good battery for 4,300mAh capacity, 65W fast charging

Cons - MediaTek and game developers need to work together to optimize games, internal UFS 2.1 storage could be faster

OPPO Reno6 5G Specs

Display: 6.4-inch 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5 protected AMOLED screen w/ 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, FHD+ 2400 x 1080 resolution at 411 ppi

CPU: 2.4GHz 6nm Dimensity 900 octa-core processor

GPU: Mali-G68 MC4

RAM: 8GB LPDDR4X

ROM: 128GB UFS 2.1

Back Camera: 64MP f/1.7 w/ PDAF + 8MP f/2.2 120-degree ultra-wide-angle + 2MP f/2.4 macro + color temperature sensor + LED flash

Selfie Camera: 32MP f/2.4

Battery: 4,300mAh w/ 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 Flash Charge

OS: Android 11 w/ ColorOS 11.3

Connectivity: WiFi 6, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2 (SBC, AAC, aptX, LDAC, LHDC), OTG, NFC, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, QZSS, Galileo, dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic

Others: In-Display fingerprint sensor, Multi-Cooling System, Z-axis linear vibration motor, USB-C, Colors: Stellar Black, Aurora

Dimensions: 156.8 x 72.1 x 7.59 mm

Weight: 182 g

Price: PHP 26,999

Verdict

OPPO Reno6

The OPPO Reno6 5G is a good option if you want a phone 5G phone that has decent performance, a great selfie camera, decent battery life while looking beautiful and unique.

Our main gripe with the OPPO Reno6 5G is the UFS 2.1 storage which is just okay for this price. The other concern is that currently, the Dimensity 900 is a good SoC, but software developers have yet to optimize the games like Call of Duty: Mobile for the SoC.

Also, at PHP 26,999, it is in the price category of previous bang-for-the-buck flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE SD865 (PHP 27,990 new SRP) and OnePlus 8T (PHP 26,990 sale price).

What do you guys think?

Build/Design - 4.5
Multimedia Experience - 4.5
Cameras - 4.25
Performance - 4
Average - 4.31/5