Oppo Reno 10x zoom review: Shark fin pop-up camera & flagship large screen make it a good buy

Rating: ****
Price: Rs 39,990 (6/128GB), Rs 49,990 (8/256GB)

The pairing of optical zooms and smartphones is still a rarity. We remember the Nokia N93i with a 3x optical zoom. But that was 2007 and smartphone makers experimented with form factors a lot more then (N93i was quite like a compact camcorder).


More recently, Huawei has been offering longer telephoto lenses in the Mate 20 Pro and P30 Pro and many phones with dual or triple lenses have a 2x or 3x optical zoom.

Turns out, in all these devices, the term ‘optical zoom’ is a misnomer. By that we mean they don’t actually have moving lenses to create a longer focal length. Instead, they have different lenses with different focal lengths while software algorithms ‘fill in’ the gaps using digital zoom. To a user, it looks like a continuous zooming action.

Specifications:

The Reno 10x from Oppo is similar but with an important difference: the telephoto lens it has is like a periscope and it has a focal length of 130mm, 5 times that of the 26mm primary lens. But that’s 5x optical zoom right? Why is it called the Reno 10x? Simply because the phone will give you good results at 10x too, using a hybrid combination of 5x optical, 5x digital and dual OIS paired with clever image processing algorithms.

In many other aspects, the Reno is very much a flagship phone: Snapdragon 855 processor, premium glass build with frosted finish, beautiful amoled display that stretches out to each corner, stereo speakers, large battery and fast charging. One very visible highlight is the unique front camera. Rather than the standard rectangular pop-up camera (which is very quickly going to be in many sub Rs 20k phones), Reno 10x has a triangular pop-up that looks like a shark fin when raised. But it’s not all about design either. Because the shark fin is large, it houses the front LED flash, the earpiece and rear LED flash. Yes — this means the fin has to rise if you use flash with rear camera. But the company says they’ve tested the fin for 2,00,000 cycles (10yrs + with normal use) so it won’t be a worry.

The camera features are a highlight. The 48MP half inch Sony IMX586 sensor is a capable shooter, especially when paired with OIS and f1.7 aperture. It does pixel binning and gives you amazing results at 12MP, even at night. You can also shoot in 48MP mode. For the best quality while zooming, you will have to stick to 5x — anything under or above that is using digital zoom. The 60x zoom is like a party trick — a cool thing to show off but doesn’t deliver the best quality results. We found the performance to be excellent (especially for gaming — thanks to a 1080p screen) and the battery life is a day and a half with normal use.

If you want the versatility of a periscope zoom lens, the Reno 10x is one of a kind. Huawei’s P30 Pro is very similar of course, but the company has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Plus the P30 Pro still costs Rs 70k+. An obvious competitor is the OnePlus 7 Pro — also a flagship with a large screen and pop-up camera. The Reno has the advantage of zoom range but the OnePlus has a far better screen, faster UFS 3.0 storage, 30 watt charging and a smoother operating system.