Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G review

One-minute review

The stunning Startrails design on the back of the Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G and the overall slim profile of the phone are the biggest reasons to get your hands on it. The Mediatek Dimensity 1200 Max processor with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage suffice through daily tasks but isn't a flagship level perfomer. 

The Reno 7 Pro's 50MP triple camera on the back performs well in day light and the 32 MP selfie snapper should keep most happy for their social media needs. Oppo's Color OS is bloated and needs a trim down but the level of customisability is balancing out factor. 

The Oppo Reno 7 Pro is a style-statement in the shape of a smartphone. Unfortunately, if you look at the price-tag the you begin the question the devices capabilities. While the Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G will perform every task you throw its way, the AED 2799 price-tag will leave you wanting more. A higher refresh-rate and a flagship processor being top of that list. 

Price and availability

The Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G is available in the UAE for AED2799. This is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow considering the newly launched Xiaomi 12 flagship smartphone is available for just AED 300 more and Samsung's A53 5G mid-ranger is available starting at almost AED 1000 lesser. 

• Looking for a smartphone under AED 2000? Check this out

Design

The Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G brings about one of the best designs we’ve seen on a smartphone this year. As soon as we got the device in our hands, the device felt luxurious and premium. The Startrails Blue version of the device we have shines beautifully in various colours when you place it in front of a light source, and we love it!

At 7.5mm, the device is great in the hand. Laser-etched lines on the back of the device give a bit of grip and fingerprints are not an issue at all on this device. The most unique design feature on the device though is it’s real notification light. 

Around the camera bump is an LED light which can be programmed in the settings of the device for calls, app notifications and so much more. Not only is it absolutely great to look at, it’s also a very functional feature.

As far as looks are concerned, The Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G is definitely a device that stands out of the crowd.

Display

On the device, you also find a 90Hz 6.5-inch AMOLED which isn’t the best display we’ve seen in this price range, but it’s not a deal breaker either. The lack of a 120Hz refresh-rate on a device at this price level is a bummer but the display does support HDR10+ content. 

During our testing, we did notice that the display does struggle a bit in the UAE’s harsh sunlight but at no point was the display illegible. Streaming Netflix on the phone is an enjoyable experience but the stereo speakers are a bit weak. 

Processor

The unit we have for review comes with the Mediatek Dimensity 1200 Max (an upgraded version of the Dimensity 1200 found in the Reno 6 Pro), 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. 

In our usage, the phone ran extremely smooth and didn’t show any signs of slowing down even when leaving all apps on in the background. We did notice the phone get a little warm after some continuous video consumption but nothing to an alarming extent. Unfortunately, with smartphones like the Samsung S21 FE and its Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor in the market, priced AED 800 cheaper than the Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G, users might go looking for that flagship performance if given that choice.

One unique thing about the Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G’s RAM management system is its RAM Expansion. If you go into the device settings and make your way to ‘About Device’, you’ll find the RAM Expansion settings. Here you can expand the 12GB RAM of the device up to 19GB. Quantifying the necessity for this feature is definitely a tough one. I personally have never seen the need for more than 12GB of RAM on a phone. In the case of the Reno 7 Pro 5G, even when we didn’t have expansion on it handled keeping apps open in its memory pretty well. RAM expansion might be gimmicky but for those of you who might have large games open in the background or maybe video editing apps, this might be a little perk to know about.

Camera

One of the biggest points of focus during the promotion of the Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G has been its cameras. On the back of the device you find a triple camera setup with a 50MP Sony IMX766 wide sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide and a 2MP macro lens. On the front, we’ve got a 32MP Sony IMX709 RGBW selfie snapper. 

The camera on the Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G takes some decent shots. While shooting in broad day-light, pictures come out colour accurate (when the AI enhancer is off and Auto HDR is on) with good dynamic range and with an acceptable amount of detail. If you zoom into images, you can see some noise though. Speaking of zoom, the camera has a 2x optical zoom and up to 20 x digital zoom. Another thing to be noted is that there is very much a difference in colours when shooting on different lenses. 

Portrait mode on the camera is highly customisable with 25 levels of blur adjustment. Here's some images we took using the Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G. 

Image 1 of 19

OS

The one area Oppo needs to genuinely look into improvement is their Color OS. Now in its 12th version, Oppo’s own skin over Android 11 is in need of a seriously spring cleaning. While the company aims to let consumers have the ability to customise the device as much as possible, Colour OS itself is bloated and lags the flare that comes with Samsung’s clean One UI. Animations are slow and jitters while closing apps are very visible sometimes. 

For apps like Contacts, Calendar, Gallery and such, I wish brands such as Oppo would just make Google the standard. But instead they’re going in the other direction where they’re adding more apps of their own. For example, when you set up the phone, you now don’t just have the Google Play Store, you also have Oppo's own App Store as well as the Oppo Store (which doesn’t even work in our region). 

Such app duplications lead to multiple alerts for the same notifications and it’s something really unnecessary which we end up having to dedicate time to switch off anyway. 

Battery

Inside the Oppo Reno 7 Pro 5G, you’ll find a 4500mAh battery and inside its box you’ll find the 67W Super-VOOC charger. The phone definitely stays up to the company’s claim of 0-100% in just over 30 minutes. 

In our usage, which consisted of emails and calls through the day with light gaming and video consumption on Netflix and Youtube, the phone easily took us through a day. That being said, draining it with games and video wasn’t too tough either. So the benefit of its charging is definitely a plus point here. 

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