 "OPPO Reno10 Pro Plus 5G review: An imaging-centric phone full of surprises")
The Reno10 Pro Plus 5G is a new entrant in OPPO’s smartphone line in India. For the uninitiated, the Reno-series is the Chinese smartphone maker’s flagship line in the country with premium smartphones focused on imaging-centric capabilities. The Reno10 Pro Plus 5G is no different, but there is more about it than just the imaging capabilities. Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 system-on-chip, the Reno10 Pro Plus 5G boasts thin-and-lightweight construction, 10-bit two-side curved OLED display of 120Hz refresh rate, and 100W superfast SUPERVOOC charging. On paper, the OPPO Reno10 Pro Plus 5G seems to be an all-round premium smartphone. Is it? Let us find out:
Design
The Reno10 Pro Plus 5G impresses with thin-and-lightweight construction. It measures 8.2mm at its thinnest side and weighs about 194g. On the face of it, however, the phone does not look any different from its peers from brands like Realme and Vivo. It is because of the two-side curved profile of the front and the back glasses. Sandwiched between the glasses is a plastic frame, which wears the same colour theme as the rest of the smartphones.
Speaking of colour, the Reno10 Pro Plus 5G has a dual-tone design on the back cover. Made of Gorilla Glass 5, the back cover has glossy purple colour (review unit) mated with black colour on a portion of camera island for the dual-tone design. The camera island protrudes significantly from the body and makes the phone wobble on flat surfaces. Thankfully, it is made of aluminium for protection against serious damage.
Display and audio
The front profile of the OPPO Reno10 Pro Plus 5G is dominated by its display, flanked by thin bezels on the top and bottom sides and no bezels on the right and left sides since the display has two-side curvature. OPPO has used the AGC Dragontrail Star 2 glass for protection. According to OPPO, this glass provides up to 20 improved drop resistance compared with Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
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Design details aside, the phone sports a 6.74-inch 10-bit OLED display of 120Hz refresh rate. It is not an LTPO panel, but supports five-step dynamic refresh rate settings. The display is bright, vivid, and responsive. It is HDR10+ certified for high dynamic range content. The display’s two-side curved profile makes it easy to use with gesture navigations. Besides, the two-side bezel-less profile and thin bezels on the top and bottom sides make it a perfect fit for multimedia content sans distractions.
Lifting the visual experience is the audio delivered through dual-stereo speakers. The speakers are loud and clear, but not balanced. Nevertheless, the speakers are Dirac-tuned for wide soundstage. Besides, there is Dolby Atmos with support for spatial audio available for supported audio accessories such as the OPPO Enco Air3 Pro wireless earbuds.
Imaging
The Reno10 Pro Plus 5G is a camera-centric smartphone with an interesting camera system, which includes a dedicated 64-megapixel periscope telephoto lens for up to 3x optical zoom capabilities. The other two sensors in the triple-camera array on the rear are noteworthy too – there is a 50-megapixel main camera sensor (Sony IMX890) with optical image stabilisation and an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera sensor of 112-degree field-of-view (FoV). On the front, the phone has a 32MP autofocus camera sensor.
Details aside, the camera system is versatile and full of value-added features. Though the focus here is on portrait photography, the cameras impress on other counts too. The primary camera sensor is a consistent performer and it works without a hitch even in low-light conditions. The large sensor type enables shallow depth-of-field, which looks natural. Therefore, it works well for portrait-like imaging on subjects that are not recognised by the sensor in portrait mode such as coffee mugs, flowers, motorbikes, etc.
Since the sensor is capable of creating natural shallow depth-of-field, it works even better in portrait mode. Adding zing to the portraits is the built-in filters, which includes AI colour portrait filter that turns the frame into monochrome while retaining colours on the subject for it to pop out. Likewise, there is bokeh flare portrait filter, which makes the subject stand out by adding a dramatic blur on the bokeh.
The main sensor enables full-body portraits, but there is an option to move to 3x zoom if you like the classic half-body portraits. Like the main sensor, the periscope telephoto lens is good in terms of details, colours, and composition. However, it is not as bright in the low-light settings. The sensor boosts the ISO to compensate for light loss due to narrow aperture in low-light conditions, but it still is no match to the quality delivered through the primary sensor. Therefore, on occasions, the phone auto shifts to primary camera sensor and uses in-sensor zoom in portrait mode.
Coming to the ultra-wild-angle sensor, it is good for cityscape shots but not for landscapes since the FoV is narrow. Nevertheless, it is good in terms of capturing details. There is no colour symmetry between the three sensors but that is true for most other smartphones with multi-camera sensors of different configurations.
As for the front camera, the addition of autofocus here makes for noticeable improvements in clarity, details, and colours. Like the main rear camera, the front camera supports in-sensor zoom. It starts at 0.8 and goes all the way up to 2x with limited deterioration in picture quality. And portrait filters are available here too for one to explore and experiment with.
Performance
Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 system-on-chip, paired with 12GB RAM and 256GB on-board storage, the OPPO Reno10 Pro Plus feels snappy in use irrespective of the task you put it at. Importantly, the phone does not heat up or throttle the performance after extended usage. Power-and-graphic intensive workloads in hot and humid outdoor conditions make the phone go warm after extended use, yet the thermals remain in control for comfortable use.
Matching the performance is the Android 13 operating system-based OPPO ColorOS 13.1 interface. There are no inconsistencies in the system and the interface is optimised to make the most of the high refresh rate screen for smooth user experience. Besides, there are tons of value-added features such as infrared remote control, lock screen widgets, large folders, theme colour customisation, etc.
The interface, however, is not perfect. The phone asks permission to install lesser-known apps during the initial set-up. A little oversight and rush to set-up the new phone would land you in a pool swarming with apps you barely heard of. Moreover, there is bloatware and there are instances of ads scattered all over the interface. OPPO said it will remove the apps recommendation window from the initial set-up to provide a better phone experience. Moreover, the company said it aims to make the interface more user friendly with its next software version. How these promises pan out is to be seen though.
Battery
The OPPO Reno10 Pro Plus is powered by a 4,700 mAh battery, which is well optimised to deliver a day’s on-battery time on a full charge. The on-battery time based on usage may be modest, but the battery impresses with the stand-by time. Charging with the 100W fast charger (in-box accessory) is another impressive feat.
Verdict
The Reno10 Pro Plus is an impressive smartphone with notable features, particularly in the imaging and charging departments. While it lacks an official ingress protection rating for water-and-dust resistance, its thin-and-lightweight design compensates for this. The superfast wired charging capability is a significant advantage, even though wireless charging is not supported.
Priced at Rs 54,999, the Reno10 Pro Plus offers a premium smartphone experience without compromising on core features. It delivers a well-rounded experience across various aspects, which is quite surprising considering its competitive price point.