Oppo Reno 10 Pro+: Great camera performance, smooth overall performance, but the out-of-the-box experience remains a glaring miss. Oppo's Reno flagship series of smartphones brings the latest and greatest the company has to offer every year. The Reno 10 Pro+ is its latest high-end device that's big on camera technology among other things. Priced at Rs. 54,999, it competes against the likes of the Google Pixel 7, OnePlus 11, and iQoo 11. Let's explore where it excels and where it might lag behind.
WHERE IT SHINES
Design: The device comes in two colors – Silvery Grey and Glossy Purple, the latter being the one I tried. The phone has a 6.74-inch curved display, making it convenient to grip. The back carries the big camera setup with the MariSilicon branding and has a smooth, glossy finish, which catches fingerprints and smudges but not too quickly.
Display: Featuring a 6.74-inch curved OLED (2772x display), it's one of the better parts about this Oppo smartphone. It's a sharp and bright display, usable under direct sunlight, showing vivid colors when viewing photos and videos. The Natural Screen color mode provides softer colors and truer contrast for a better viewing experience. The Eye Comfort feature is well-implemented for full-day use, which is often overlooked by other companies. HDR output is pretty decent, though it only works on the Amazon Prime app. Overall, this is a good quality display that handles minor splashes well.
Camera: The camera performance is impressive. The phone's triple camera system – a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera, a 64MP (f/2.5) telephoto camera (both with OIS), and an 8MP ultra-wide camera – delivers excellent results. The telephoto camera is a significant upgrade, taking well-stitched portrait shots and performing well in low-light conditions. Zooming in up to 3x provides usable and decently detailed shots. The photo processing has improved compared to earlier models, with better shots from all cameras and less oversharpening of skin tones. The 32MP (f/2.4) front camera takes detailed shots with good exposure and color reproduction, although some may not like the filters and retouches.
Battery: The phone features a 4,700mAh battery with a 100-watt SuperVooc charger in the box. It usually lasts nearly a day and charges from 1% to full in about 30-32 minutes, which is remarkably fast. Importantly, it doesn't heat up much during charging.
WHAT'S A BIT OF A MIXED BAG
Performance and software experience: Equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and 256GB UFS3.1 storage, the phone boasts top-of-the-line internal hardware. However, the software experience out of the box is where things slide down a bit. Running on ColorOS 13.1 based on Android 13 with the June security patch, the phone comes with around 20 pre-installed third-party apps, which you might not use and may need to uninstall. Customizing ColorOS is easy and highly customizable, but it might take some time, especially for users not familiar with the OS. The phone handles day-to-day tasks and games well, but it tends to heat up after intense gaming sessions.
Verdict: The Oppo Reno 10 Pro+ excels in hardware performance and camera capabilities, making it a worthy Android contender if you're willing to tweak the software to your liking. However, the out-of-the-box software experience could be improved, especially for a phone priced around Rs. 55,000. If you prioritise the software experience and regular OS updates, the Google Pixel 7 might be a better option.