OPPO Reno 8 5G was unveiled in China in May 2021. In July, OPPO announced the Reno 8 5G alongside other products, such as the Reno 8 Pro 5G, the OPPO Pad, and the Enco X2 TWS earbuds. It has now also arrived in Europe along with its other siblings, like the Reno 8 Pro 5G and Reno 8 Lite. In Europe, early buyers of the Reno 8 trio will get a free pair of Enco X2 buds worth 199 euros and an extended 3-year warranty.

The Reno 8 5G is priced at Rs 29,999 (~$376) in India, £419 in the UK, and 599 euros in other European countries. It rivals similarly priced smartphones, such as the OnePlus Nord 2T 5G, POCO F4 5G, iQOO Neo 6 5G, and Nothing Phone (1). Here is a full review of the Reno 8 5G to see how it stacks up against its rivals.

What’s in the box

OPPO Reno 8 5G what's in the box
OPPO Reno 8 5G what’s in the box

The retail package for the OPPO Reno 8 5G comes with the phone, an 80W SuperVOOC charger, a USB-C charging cable, a SIM ejector tool, a clear plastic case, and some paperwork.

Design and Display

One of the major attractions of the OPPO Reno 8 5G is its design. As you can see in the images, I received the Shimmer Gold colour variant of the Reno 8 5G from OPPO. The Reno 8 5G has an attractive design, but readers should be aware that it has a polycarbonate back and frame. Some may think that the company should have offered a glass chassis on the Reno 8 5G considering its price.

But in my opinion, the Reno 8 5G’s color-changing rear shell is simply eye-catching and boasts a premium look. It shows different shades of gold, pink, blue, and green when viewed from different angles. I believe that the brand really knows how to make good-looking smartphones. Another good thing about the phone’s back is that it is resistant to fingerprint marks and smudges. However, it does appear a bit slippery.

The Reno 8 5G has flat edges and a unibody design, meaning it does not have a separate camera module. The top edge of the device has a microphone, its right edge has a power button, and the volume buttons are placed on the left edge. The bottom edge has a SIM card slot, a microphone, a USB-C port, and a speaker grille. It lacks a 3.5mm audio jack and a second speaker for stereo output. These features were also unavailable on the Reno 7 5G.

The illuminated accent ring in the camera bump of the Reno 7 5G functions as a notification light. Sadly, there is no notification LED light on the Reno 8 5G.  Weighing 179 grams, the Reno 8 5G is one of the most lightweight smartphones on the market in its price segment. It measures only 7.67mm in thickness. Apart from Shimmer Gold, it also comes in Shimmer Black.

On the front, it has a 6.43-inch punch-hole display with an in-screen fingerprint scanner. It is an OLED panel, which comes with Gorilla Glass 5 protection. The screen supports a Full HD+ resolution, a 20:9 aspect ratio, a 90Hz refresh rate, and up to a 180Hz touch sampling rate. I used the device on a daily basis, and I did not find any issues with viewing the display in bright sunlight. The screen supports a peak brightness of 800 nits and the adaptive brightness feature works fine outdoors.

Users can navigate to Settings to access Light / Dark mode, Always-on Display, automatic brightness, eye comfort mode, options to select 60Hz or 90Hz refresh rate, and adaptive sleep function, which prevents the screen from going to sleep or auto-dimming while viewing the screen. There is O1 Ultra Vision Engine, which produces optimal colours while watching videos on the device.

The screen is integrated with an optical in-screen fingerprint scanner, which is quite responsive and rarely misreads. The device comes with Widevine L1 certification for viewing content on Netflix and Prime Video. So, what’s the downside of the display? It does not support a 120Hz refresh rate, and it has a thick-sized bottom bezel. While I can live with the latter, other users might not.

The sound output through the Reno 8 5G’s single speaker is quite loud and is almost equivalent to the sound output of the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which features dual stereo speakers. It supports SBC, AAC, aptX HD, and LDAC audio codecs.

Color OS experience

The OPPO Reno 8 5G is powered by ColorOS 12.1, which is based on Android 12. The OS experience is generally fast and fluid. I did not encounter any noticeable bugs or lags. One of the major highlights of the ColorOS is the customization options that it offers apart from the stock Android-like experience. There is a “Personalisation” section in Settings, where users can find customisation options for Always-on Display, wallpapers, themes, icons, quick settings, modifications for font and display size, fingerprint animation, and edge lighting.

When it comes to privacy, the Reno 8 5G offers features like Privacy Dashboard, Permission Manager, Camera / Microphone access toggle, and more. Air Gestures is another cool feature that lets users answer/mute calls, scroll up/down (only on Facebook/YouTube), and play/pause videos (YouTube). According to OPPO, “the AI System Booster adjusts automatically to keep your phone running smoothly, even after 3 years!” Only time can tell whether the device is able to keep up to the promise. My Reno 8 5G review unit received the ColorOS 12.1.1 update after using the device for a couple of days. Shown here is a screenshot of the changelog.

One of the less talked about features of ColorOS 12 is the inclusion of support for PC Connect. It allows users to view the Reno 8 5G’s screen on a paired PC. This feature allows users to view notifications, transfer / edit files, copy / paste text across the devices without physically using the Reno 8 5G. Although it does not a very smooth experience, it appears quite stable and sometimes even better than the Phone Link feature available on some of the high-end Samsung phones like the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

OPPO Reno 8 5G Multi-Screen Connect
OPPO Reno 8 5G Multi-Screen Connect

What I didn’t like about the OS is that it’s preloaded with some useless apps (bloatware). Some of the preloaded apps include Amazon, BYJU’S The Learning App, Facebook, FinShell Pay, Hot Apps, Josh, Moj, Netflix, ShareChat, and Snapchat. I found that OPPO’s FinShell Pay (check screenshots in the slideshow above) sends out shady notifications stating your order has been delivered or you have received money, even if you have never used the app. Some of the apps can be uninstalled, while others, like FinShell Pay, cannot be removed, but can be disabled.

OPPO recently unveiled the ColorOS 13 UI recently. The company has promised to begin the ColorOS 13 beta program, which is based on Android 13, in September. And the good news is that the Reno 8 series will be the first ones to receive the latest software upgrade. To be precise, the Reno 8 Pro will get it in September, whereas the Reno 8 will be treated with an update in October. It looks like the Reno 8 and 8 Pro will get ColorOS 13’s stable version about a month after the beta program starts.

Want to know what’s new in ColorOS? Here is our dedicated post on the best new features of the ColorOS 13.

Performance and battery life

The 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 1300 chipset, which slots itself between Snapdragon 778G and Snapdragon 870 in terms of performance, is present under the hood of the Reno 8 5G. The device ships with 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage. There is no microSD card slot on the device.

Moving on to the gaming capabilities of the OPPO Reno 8 5G. Even after playing BGMI continuously for an hour, there was slight heating or thermal throttling issue on the device. The Asphalt 9 also worked fine on the Reno 8G. However, it became a bit warm after playing for nearly an hour. For maintaining the internal temperature and heat dissipation, the device is equipped with a vapour chamber liquid cooling system. The x-axis linear motor does a decent job when it comes to in-game vibrations. Here is a look at the Reno 8 5G’s performance on benchmarking apps, such as AnTuTu, Geekbench, 3D Mark, and CPU Throttle test.

One of my favorite features of the phone is the support for 80W fast charging, which comes with 5-layer charging protection for safety. It took 35:22 minutes to fully charge the Reno 8 5G using the bundled 80W SuperVOOC charger. Subsequent charging revealed that the device took around 35 to 38 minutes to achieve a full charge. Once charged, it can easily last for a day or two, depending on the usage. If the phone is not in use for several hours, the battery does not drain easily. It offers around 7 hours of screen-on time. As can be seen in the screenshot, even at 53 percent battery level, it can last for 20 hours more. According to OPPO, its proprietary Battery Health Engine ensures 1,600 charging cycles (roughly 4 years) of peak battery performance on the Reno 8 5G.

Photography

The OPPO Reno 8 5G has two flagship cameras: a Sony IMX709 32-megapixel on the front and a rear-facing 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 camera with 1/1.56-inch sensor size and 1.0µm pixel size. The Reno 8 5G is the only phone in its price range with a front-facing camera with a 32-megapixel IMX709 lens from Sony. It is a custom-made lens made for OPPO with an RGBW filter, a 1/2.74 sensor size, a 0.8m pixel size, and an f/2.4 aperture. The selfie camera lacks support for autofocus.

What I miss on the Reno 8 5G is the support for OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). Its major rival, the OnePlus Nord 2T has the same 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 primary camera with OIS support. However, the OnePlus Nord 2T has a Sony IMX615 32-megapixel selfie camera. The Reno 8 5G’s rear camera setup has a 50-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel Sony IMX355 ultra-wide camera, and a 2-megapixel GalaxyCore GC02M1 macro camera.

The photography modes available on the device include night mode, portrait mode, Pro mode, panorama, macro mode, time-lapse, dual-view video, sticker, text scanner, and Soloop templates. The camera app allows users to switch between ultra-wide (0.6x), 1x, and 2x zoom.

The 50-megapixel camera does a good job when it comes to snapping photos in daylight. There is no significant shutter lag while shooting in normal mode. However, it can take a second or two more when snapping photos in low-light conditions. The main snapper is equipped with all-pixel omni-directional PDAF for faster focus and DOL-HDR for better dynamic range. The quality of 2x zoom shots is almost the same as the standard 1x photos. In the Night mode, the Reno 8 5G took long-exposure shots, which came out good only when the subject did not move and when the device was held firmly.

The ultra-wide shots come out similar to the shots taken by the main snapper, but they are captured with fewer details. As far as the macro camera is concerned, it only manages to capture some okayish images when there is sufficient light.

The Reno 8 5G offers features like AI enhancement, background blur, and plenty of filters while shooting 1080p videos at 30 / 60 fps. However, most of the filters work only while recording in 720p quality. When Ultra-Steady stabilization is selected, it can capture stabilized videos, but features like AI enhancement and filters are not available.

Again, AI enhancement, filters, and Ultra-Steady features are absent when Reno 8 5G is used to capture 30fps 4K videos. The device allows users to shoot photos while recording videos. It can shoot up to 960fps (720p) videos.

There is an Extra HD mode, which allows the Reno 8 5G to snap 50-megapixel shots and upscale them to 108-megapixel. However, the result is not that good, and it is always advisable to shoot photos at 50-megapixel for snapping high-quality images.

Coming to the selfie camera, the Reno 8 5G manages to capture impressive selfies in bright environments. The portrait shots come out with amazing background blur and accurate edge detection on the subject. It allows the user to adjust the blur effect. In dim-light conditions or indoors, the Reno 8 5G shot overexposed images while retaining the image quality. The available image editing tools can help in reducing exposure to achieve a more natural-looking result. When there is less light, the Reno 8 5G captures selfies with its screen flash automatically. The handset can shoot stellar selfie videos with background blur.

Verdict

It goes without saying that the strengths of the Reno 8 5G are its flagship cameras, smooth OS experience, fast charging, decent gaming performance, and attractive design. The device certainly misses features like a notification LED, OIS, and stereo speakers. Also, the handset is not suited for people who like to play CPU-intensive games.

However, I feel the pros manage to outweigh the cons of the Reno 8 5G. It is certainly one of the devices to recommend for people who are looking forward to purchasing a phone priced around Rs 30,000 (~$376) in India and £420 in the UK.

WHERE TO BUY

Buy OPPO Reno 8 5G @ OPPO India | Flipkart (India) | OPPO UK | Amazon France

Disclosure: The opinions expressed in the Reno 8 5G review are solely mine based on my experience, and there has been no editorial input from OPPO.

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