The phone ends up being a bit expensive and not the best value for money.
Highlights
- The Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G clearly looks like a premium smartphone.
- It is lightweight, fashionable and feels premium even at a price of Rs 45,999.
- There is no competitor in design and build quality.
Oppo's Reno 8 Pro 5G is the company's most expensive Reno smartphone in India, priced at ₹45,999. The phone looks good, but a quick look at its specifications suggests it's a mid-range phone. Is the Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G merely a cosmetic offering, or does its overall performance and camera truly warrant such a high price?
This phone matches the Realme GT Neo 3 and OnePlus 10R in many respects, but does it suffer from the same shortcomings as its competitors? I used the Reno 8 Pro for several weeks, and here's everything you need to know before buying it.
Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G Price
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G comes in a single variant in India, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The phone is priced at ₹45,999. It comes in two finishes: Glazed Green and Glazed Black. I had the Glazed Green unit. The Realme GT Neo 3 and OnePlus 10R 5G start at a lower price and offer similar specifications. However, the Reno 8 Pro 5G's single variant means it's only competing against premium smartphones.
Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G design
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro's design is striking at first glance. Compared to other smartphones in this price segment, it's quite attractive. At 7.34mm, it's not overly thin, but it's not exactly thick either. The phone weighs 183g, which is surprisingly light, considering its aluminum alloy frame not only looks good but also feels premium. The back features a glossy glass panel with Gorilla Glass 5 protection, making it easy to spot fingerprints.
Its cameras are a key distinguishing feature of its design. The lens cutouts for the camera module fit perfectly. The camera module is essentially an extension of the rear glass panel. There's a slight slope at the bottom of the module, allowing my index finger to fit under it, making it quite comfortable to handle the phone with one hand.
The phone's display is flat, but the edges are slightly curved, blending into the sharp corners of the frame. I haven't seen such thin bezels at this price point. The display has extremely thin bezels at the top and bottom, but the left and right sides have even thinner bezels, measuring barely 1.48mm. This gives the phone a modern and sharp look.
This time, Oppo has taken a more mature approach, opting for the Reno series' fancy design, such as a shark fin selfie camera, and has included an IP54 rating for dust and water resistance. The Motorola Edge 30 Pro is the only smartphone in this segment that comes with a nearly identical IP52 rating.
Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G specifications and software
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G features a MediaTek Dimensity 8100-Max SoC, along with a MariSilicon X NPU, which the company says is primarily used to assist with video recording. The MariSilicon X NPU isn't new; it was first announced with the launch of the Oppo Find X5 Pro, a premium smartphone that wasn't launched in India.
The Reno 8 Pro 5G doesn't offer expandable storage, but it does have dual-SIM slots for dual 5G. The phone supports dual standby and both standalone and non-standalone 5G bands. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and NFC. You get a USB Type-C to Type-A cable, an 80W charger, and a transparent TPU case in the box.
In terms of software, the company has reserved certain parts of ColorOS for its own smartphones. The phone's customization features include the ability to choose which color to use for a selected wallpaper. Additionally, its unique font and Oppo's O-Haptics (vibration system) are features I didn't see on the OnePlus 10R 5G Endurance Edition or the Realme GT Neo 3 (150W). The
Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G's O-Haptics system uses an X-axis linear motor, which provides very precise feedback. It also works well when used for the phone's 3D ringtone feature, which is also an Oppo exclusive. Oppo has also introduced a floating window feature that lets you open multiple apps in small floating windows for sharing. The Reno 8 Pro 5G runs on ColorOS 12.1 which is based on Android 12. The company promises two years of Android OS updates and four years of security updates which is a good thing.
One thing I didn't like about it was the daily notifications from its theme app. It kept prompting me to download a new wallpaper or buy a new Oppo smartphone. Even smartphones priced above Rs 40,000 had a lot of pre-installed third-party apps like Dailyhunt, Josh, Moj and PhonePe etc. But the good thing was that many of these could be removed. Apart from this, Oppo also had a lot of apps like Soloop Cut, O Relax, DocVault etc. These were useful but could be removed if needed.
Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G performance
The phone performed as expected in terms of benchmarks. On AnTuTu, the phone scored 901 points and 3,532 points in single and multi-core tests respectively. The software performance of the phone is also good. It has Dimensity 8100-Max SoC with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. The phone is quite fast in multitasking and launching multiple apps. Its 120Hz refresh rate display makes the software experience smoother. Going with a flexible AMOLED display proved beneficial for the company as it made it possible to make the bezels extremely thin.
Its 6.7-inch FullHD+ display is quite bright. Colors are vibrant, and viewing angles are excellent. Compared to the Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) and OnePlus 10R Endurance Edition, its display is significantly better. It comes with HDR10+ certification, making it a pleasure to watch content on apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Its stereo speakers are quite loud and deliver clear sound even at full volume. Their output is quite balanced.
I didn't like the fingerprint scanner built into the display. For some reason, it wasn't able to read my fingerprint. However, I found that with a little more pressure, it recognized it easily.
The phone's gaming performance is quite good. Whether using the camera app or gaming, its graphite-based cooling system kept the phone from overheating. Call of Duty: Mobile ran smoothly even at the highest graphics settings. Asphalt: 9 Legends also ran very smoothly, but surprisingly, it didn't have 60fps mode enabled. The phone has a 360Hz touch sampling rate, which helps with fast-paced games, but there's room for improvement.
The phone's battery hasn't been upgraded. Like the Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G, it has a 4,500mAh battery and supports 80W fast charging. Using this charger, the phone charges from 0 to 52 percent in 15 minutes and fully charges in 34 minutes. In our HD video loop test, the phone lasted 18 hours and 25 minutes. With normal usage, the phone easily lasted a day and a half, which is quite impressive for a slim device. Wireless charging isn't available here, which is a feature found on other smartphones in this segment and below.
Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G cameras
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G features a triple rear camera setup. The primary camera is a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor, but lacks OIS support. The secondary camera is an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, and the third is a 2-megapixel macro camera. For selfies, there's a 32-megapixel front camera with autofocus. Oppo's camera interface will feel familiar to OnePlus and Realme users. The interface is very simple, but advanced options for some modes can be accessed by tapping the ellipsis button.
Photos taken in daylight with the main camera were sharp and clear, with good color reproduction. Results with the ultrawide-angle camera were quite average, with limited dynamic range, meaning details in shadowy areas were lacking. The macro camera seemed to be added solely to pad out the spec sheet, as it wasn't very easy to take photos with, and the focus was fixed. The AI Scene Enhancement makes a real difference on this phone. It provided good dynamic range when taking still photos, especially in daylight.
Selfies were sharp, with good detail and dynamic range. Selfie portrait shots were also good, but the phone wasn't able to expose the background well. Low-light images looked good, provided there was a nearby light source. I was expecting better performance from the 32-megapixel selfie camera with autofocus.
When taking photos in low-light with the primary camera in auto mode, details were good. The lack of OIS was noticeable here, as the camera wasn't able to capture surface grain details well. Dark areas had a splotchy texture. The phone took a second or two longer to capture photos, and in Night mode, this time went up to 3 seconds.
The camera proved quite capable of capturing detail in Night Mode, capturing details I couldn't even see with my naked eye. The noise reduction algorithm is overly aggressive, and the long exposure and lack of OIS meant photos weren't as good as they could have been. Photos taken under strong streetlights were sharp, but textures were somewhat flat.
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G's primary camera uses hardware-level DOL HDR video recording, supported by Oppo's MariSilicon X NPU. This system is claimed to offer improved dynamic range. However, in my experience, 1080p 30fps videos were average and lacked detail. 1080p 60fps videos were quite shaky, and stabilization was severely lacking. 4K 30fps videos were good, with plenty of detail and good dynamic range.
After turning on the AI Highlight feature, videos experienced unstable frame rates and reduced details. Textures remained soft even when shot in daylight, and dark areas showed noise. 4K videos recorded in low light were recorded in the best quality when shot in regular mode. I found it best to leave AI Highlight off, as it was degrading the video quality.
Our decision
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G clearly feels like a premium smartphone. It's lightweight, fashionable, and even at ₹45,999, it feels premium. It's hard to find another smartphone with a similar design and build quality at this price point. Unfortunately, expectations are tempered in the camera department. The camera isn't the best, considering the price. The
Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G stands out as a solid option, offering better hardware and camera performance, along with a good macro camera, at a lower price. It lacks a bit in design, but offers excellent value for money at a starting price of ₹37,999.
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G has evolved significantly from its predecessor, so it now stands shoulder to shoulder with OnePlus and Motorola. There 's also the OnePlus 9RT 5G , which offers good camera performance, is powered by the Snapdragon 888 SoC, has a 120Hz OLED panel, and comes in at ₹42,999. Next up is the Motorola Edge 30 Pro, which features a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, a quality rear camera, a 60-megapixel selfie camera, an IP52 rating, and a near-stock Android software experience.
The OnePlus 10R Endurance Edition and Realme GT Neo 3 (150W) also fall within the same price range, but if fast charging is your top priority, you might want to consider them. Finally, there 's the Redmi K50i 5G , priced at ₹25,999. It features the same processor, a 144Hz display, and a 5,080mAh battery, but the phone is designed with a gaming bent.
The Oppo Reno 8 Pro 5G will appeal to those who are Oppo fans, want a sleek design, an IP rating, and fast charging. Ultimately, the phone proves to be a bit expensive and isn't the best value for money.
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