Lowlight photography aside, here’s what else I appreciated about the OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G

I’ve been an iPhone user for some years now and never had any thoughts of switching teams, even in an Android-majority office.

While I’d say I belong to the school of thought that iPhones are superior (for the jokes, if nothing else), I’m always game to fiddle with new tech that land in our office. Including the new OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G.

We’ve already taken great extents to test the phone’s photography capabilities, but how does the phone perform as a daily driver?

A for aesthetics

Coming in the Glazed Green colourway, my first impression of the OPPO Reno8 Pro is its impeccable visuals. Rather than green, though, I found the colour to be more of a blueish seafoam hue.  

Beyond the colour, I also found the seamless design of the phone to be quite beautiful. OPPO calls it the Seamless Unibody Design, whereby the back of the phone uses just a single piece of glass.

As a result of that, the side profile of the phone has an elegant curve to it. The slight bump around the camera is sleek and subtle, extending all the way to the edge of the phone.

I personally found this design to be much nicer than OPPO’s Find X5 Pro 5G, which we’ve reviewed previously, that also features a subtle slope around the camera bump.  

The squarish edges in width immediately reminded me of Apple’s phones. Thickness-wise, it measures at 7.3mm and bears resemblance to my iPhone 12 Pro, but the OPPO Reno8 Pro exceeds in length at 161mm.

Despite that, the OPPO Reno8 Pro is relatively lightweight. At 184 grams, the phone feels quite premium and solid, especially with the glass material.

The one downside of the glass for me though is that it leaves a lot of fingerprints, but that’s easily solved by using the clear phone case that comes in the box.

Geared for daily use

Exterior design aside, the phone’s hardware also appears to be equipped to handle everyday tasks. Here’s a rundown of the specs:

The phone is boxed with OPPO’s 80W SuperVOOC charger and a type A to type C cable. This allowed us to conveniently utilise the fast-charging capabilities of the phone, where my colleague was able to fully charge the Reno8 Pro in around 34 minutes.

The battery life is also quite reliable. I used it for around two days to take photos and play games without having to charge it at all. This might be in part due to the fact that it’s a new phone with a new battery, but regardless, it’s still impressive.

One downside is the fact that the phone does not have a water and dust-resistant rating—a troublesome thing for a clumsy person like me.

Light and dark

Previously, we’ve tested the phone’s lowlight photography capabilities by taking it into the caves. To find out how that went, you can read our article here.

As great as the night photography the OPPO Reno8 Pro is capable of, I’m admittedly much more of a daytime photography kind of person.

I took the phone out for a spin at Farm Fresh @ UPM on a sunny day. With its 120Hz FHD+ OLED screen, the phone was bright and vivid enough that I never had to squint or shield it from the sun.

As expected, the 50MP wide camera works great in natural sunlight, giving crisp photos and videos alike.

The 2MP, f/2.4 macro and 8MP, f/2.2 ultrawide cameras also work decently, but I did wish the latter performed better without desaturating my photos.

The selfie camera wasn’t my favourite. Perhaps I was a little jarred by the beauty filter, which seemed to be turned on by default. Turning it off was simple enough, so I can’t be too mad about it. Plus, the selfie camera seems to work well in low-light settings too.

Decent gaming phone

Being an iPhone user, I found the OPPO Game Assistant to be quite fascinating, though I hear it’s quite a common feature on other Androids. The Game Assistant slides out from the corner to show the time, battery percentage, and temperature of the phone. It also allows you to access the performance settings and the game focus mode.

The game focus modes let users block the game toolkit, gesture navigations, quick settings, notifications, calls, and alarms.

Meanwhile, the performance settings give you access to low power mode, balanced mode, and pro gamer mode.  

I tested out the phone’s gaming capabilities by launching Genshin Impact. Travelling around Liyue, the phone’s temperature went up to 39 degrees, which is a normal range to heat up to. The game ran smoothly, giving Genshin the quality graphics it deserves.  

Enough to change my mind?

In general, I felt like the OPPO Reno8 Pro does what it’s supposed to do. It honestly had a lot more features than I needed, such as the Air Gestures, which I honestly could not figure out how to use—I just ended up looking like an idiot waving at my phone.  

I at least had fun with the Omoji, though. Omoji is basically the ColorOS version of Apple’s Memoji, ColorOS being the mobile operating system created by Oppo Electronics. ColorOS is based on the Android Open Source Project, and the OPPO Reno8 Pro runs on the 12.1 version of it.

I quite enjoyed the UI of ColorOS in the sense that it didn’t get in my way. It was simple, clean, and easy to navigate. What more could I ask for?

The one issue I had was connectivity to my AirPods, but that’s more of my AirPods’ problem than the phone’s.

I suppose that’s one of the main reasons why I haven’t considered straying away from Apple, despite having a great experience using Android phones. I’m just too invested in all the lifestyle (and accessories).

If it weren’t for that, I could honestly see myself making the jump, and the OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G makes for a worthy option.

Ultimately, I found the OPPO Reno8 Pro to be at best, beautiful with a solid battery. At RM3,499, it’s a mid-range phone with great camera capabilities and an aesthetically pleasing exterior.

• Learn more about the OPPO Reno8 Pro 5G here.
• Read more VP Verdicts here.