Oppo Reno6 Pro review: There's a lot of goodness inside and out

Oppo Reno6 Pro was recently launched in India as a premium mid-range offering for those who are looking for a balanced phone - that looks great, feels great. Oppo has hit the sweet spot when it comes to pricing, one that is quite popular and highly competitive. At Rs 39,990, Oppo Reno6 Pro brings in several pro-elements but does it really check all the boxes needed to be the most desired phone in 2021. Let's find out.

Here's a quick look at the Reno6 Pro's features:

Display: 6.55-inch Full HD+ AMOLED, 90Hz refresh rate

CPU: MediaTek Dimension 1200 5G

RAM: 12GB

Storage: 256GB

Camera: 64MP+8MP+2MP+2MP

Selfie Cam: 32MP

Battery: 4,500mAh

Given these specs, the mid-ranger Oppo smartphone makes quite an impression. Let's dive deeper into how it performs in the real world.

Design and display

Oppo Reno6 Pro perfectly fuses elegance and bling in a 7.6mm chassis. The sleek glass back has a matte gradient finish, which looks great even with a transparent case on it. The smooth matte keeps fingerprint smudges at bay, which gives a clean look and saves the trouble of cleaning it often. The sleek glass sandwich design, with its metallic sides, gives a comfortable grip and single-hand use is made easy. The smartphone is also non-slippery, but it's better to use the transparent case that comes with it.

The rear panel has a 3D Oppo logo at the lower right hand side and the camera module on the top left, which is a slim profile and doesn't protrude much. The power button is on the right with a green line on it, which looks nice. On the left are the volume controls, which are easily accessible. The bottom part is occupied by the USB Type-C port, SIM card tray and speaker grille. Interesting aspect of the design is the radium on the top side, which glows in dark. This makes finding the phone easy in the dark.

On the front is a 6.5-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display, which is curved on the sides to give a true edge-to-edge form factor but it registered some accidental touches. There's a small punch hole for the front camera, which is barely noticeable and doesn't get in the way. The screen is quite bright and visibility was never an issue, even under direct sunlight.

Overall, the Reno6 Pro brings the best design in the segment and a display that meets the industry requirement.

Cameras

Oppo Reno6 Pro packs four cameras on the back, featuring 64MP primary f/1.7 aperture lens paired with 8MP f/2.2 aperture and 120-degree lens and two 2MP sensors — one for macro and the other for monochrome. On the front is a 32MP f/2.4 26mm wide camera, which takes care of all your selfie needs.

We tested the different camera modes in various settings to see how the phone performed. Overall, the results were satisfactory and met our expectations. In good lighting, the phone managed to capture a lot of detail and the colours retained a natural tone. Even the wide-angle shots were acceptable with a few noticeable warping around the edges.

The macro lens takes a while to focus, and tends to lose details. The night mode did come in handy while shooting in the dark as it managed to retain details and eliminate noise to a large extent. But the primary sensor came out victorious of all the lenses, making it our go-to choice for shooting.

The selfie camera performed extremely well and manages to capture good details and natural colours. There's AI beautification that works as advertised, if that is to your liking. The portrait mode, on both front and rear cameras, manages to add a soft bokeh by blurring the background - even in the backdrop of direct sunlight.

Here are a few camera samples:

Performance

Oppo Reno6 Pro is powered by a 6nm-architecture MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chipset, which comes with 5G support. The review unit we have come with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, which is ample. The on-paper specs are just as good as in a real-world use case.

The Reno6 Pro can handle all the big and small tasks with ease. Running games like Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty Mobile with high graphics settings did not render any issues, but the frames did drop while playing Call of Duty.

The Reno6 Pro might not have the best benchmark scores, but the real-world use-case scenario doesn't reflect that. We did not encounter any crashes or heating issues, even with extended use. Day-to-day tasks like calls, messaging, social media browsing, etc can be done easily. Multimedia consumption is also done with ease and has a good Wi-Fi range. The fingerprint scanner and face unlock work effeciently and they are extremely fast, as they should be.

Battery

Oppo Reno6 Pro packs a sizeable 4,500mAh battery, which comes with a super-fast 65W fast charger. Thanks to this, the smartphone fully charges in under an hour. Even with a 30-minute charging, the phone can last a day of low-to-moderate use. For powerful use, you will need to plug your phone in after a full day's worth of use.

The battery life on the Reno6 Pro might not be the best out there, but the 65W charger sure makes things easy for users.

Verdict

Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G has many things going in its favour. With an incredible design, reliable performance, 65W fast charging, good cameras, 5G support, and a refined UI, the Reno6 Pro balances the offerings. However, the competition in the sub-Rs 40K segment is incredibly tough, making the Reno6 Pro struggle to keep up with the rivals' offerings. The smartphone misses a few features like stereo speakers, wireless charging, and water resistance, and if you're okay with that then the Reno6 Pro is a worthy choice.