- Oppo has announced the new Reno 13 series of midrange handsets
- The Reno 13 Pro sports a 3.5x telephoto camera and IP68 / IP69 water and dust resistance
- Oppo seems to suggest a combination of these new features with a new underwater photography mode
As our Oppo Reno 12 Pro review details, a telephoto lens is a rare and valuable addition for a midrange handset. The Oppo Reno 13 Pro comes equipped with a 3.5x telephoto camera, nearly doubling the optical zoom reach of its predecessor, the Oppo Reno 12 Pro.
As far as we’re aware, the Reno 13 Pro’s 3.5x snapper gives Oppo’s latest leading mid-ranger more optical zoom reach than any other phone of its price.
Telephoto cameras are becoming more common on midrange handsets: we recently saw the launch of the Nothing Phone 3a and Phone 3a Pro, which respectively carry 2x and 3x telephoto cameras.
The 50MP 3.5x telephoto camera is joined by a 50MP main camera and 8MP ultra-wide camera, in an arrangement that follows Oppo’s track record of taking – let’s call it inspiration – from a certain Cupertino-based phone maker.
Design lineage aside, the Oppo Reno 13 Pro is also rated to IP69, and Oppo says the phone is resistant to being submerged in fresh water as well as heated jets of water – it’s as waterproof as a phone can get right now.
With these two features – an upgraded camera system and the best possible water resistance – Oppo has done the natural thing and devised a way to make the most of both at the same time. The Reno 13 Pro comes with a new underwater camera mode that utilizes the volume rocker to operate the camera when submerged.
This new mode allows users to take photos with the volume-up button, and start and stop video with the volume-down button, which I must admit is a reasonably intuitive control scheme – even if the idea of hopping in the pool, phone in hand, does still freak me out a bit.
We’ve seen phones with IP69 water resistance before, but it’s very rare that a phone maker actively encourages its users to take a dip with their device – let alone for the sake of a photo shoot.
The Oppo Reno 13 Pro, and its two siblings the Oppo Reno 13 and Reno 13F, have not yet received a release date or pricing – we’ll update this article when the details are confirmed. For now, be sure to check out our guide to the best Oppo phones and let us know what you think about the Reno 13 Pro in the comments.
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