Oppo Reno6 5G First Impressions: The Good, The Bad, And The X-Factor

The X-Factor

Exquisite Design & 65W Fast-Charging

The Reno series is well-known for its premium and distinctive-looking smartphones. For the Reno6-series, Oppo has created two different design schemes. While the Pro variant has the tried and tested curved display and curved back, the Reno6 uses a flat screen, flat sides, and a flat back panel that's very reminiscent of the Apple iPhone 12-series. The near bezel-less front, chamfered edges, and the boxy feel of the handset is something you won't find in any other handset in the Android world.

The matte finish back panel has a smooth texture that stays smudges-free and has a glittering effect to it with a unique gradient shade. The handset is available in two color variants. If you find the Aurora variant a bit too glittery, you should go with the Stellar Black color option. Overall, a few smartphones manage to create an identity for their design, and the Reno6 is one of them. Even though the design is not original, it feels refreshing and will surely turn eyeballs.

Moving on, the handset ships with Oppo's crazy fast 65W fast-charging technology that can refuel its 4,300mAh battery in just 36 minutes. Once you become accustomed to such crazy fast charging speeds, there's no going back.

 

The Reno6 5G is the first smartphone in India to be powered by the all-new MediaTek Dimensity 900 chipset. The 5G-enabled 5G SoC has two ARM Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.4GHz and six ARM Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 2GHz.

The graphics performance is handled by the Mali-G68 GPU. The SoC is paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage. Additionally, the handset also features RAM expansion technology, which introduces a virtual RAM (vRAM) to further enhance the handset's processing and multitasking performance. The Reno6 5G gets up to 5GB virtual RAM for a performance boost.

We did not experience any lags or performance hiccups in our brief testing. The Reno6 5G smoothly sails across all light and heavy tasks, and can even run the most demanding games without any performance drops. Running day-to-day tasks such as web browsing, social media apps, calling and camera usage is entirely lag-free. Similar to its premium sibling, the Reno 6 5G also runs on the ColorOS 11.3 based on Android 11, which is visually appealing and comes loaded with useful software features.

Feature-Packed Camera System

The Reno6 5G comes equipped with triple-lens camera hardware comprising a 64MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide lens, and a 2MP macro camera. Similar to the Pro variant, the Reno6 5G's camera also offers AI-enabled features such as Bokeh Flare Portrait Video, AI Highlight Video, Dual-Video mode, Movie mode, etc. These features can come in handy to shoot some creative videos with high-end DSLR camera-grade effects.

The Bad

While the Reno6 5G looks and feels stunning, it isn't very ergonomic. The flat profile of the device and the slippery back panel make it a bit tough to use with one hand. You must buy a good case if you are planning to purchase the handset. Moving on, the handset is not IP-rated and perhaps cannot resist any form of water damage. You must use it carefully. It also lacks a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card slot for storage expansion.

For audio, the Reno6 5G has Dolby Atmos support but the lack of a stereo speaker setup is a bummer. The handset has a bottom-firing mono speaker, which isn't very powerful and fails to impress with the clarity and loudness.

And while the Reno6 5G offers a pretty good OLED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate, you can find some handsets offering 120Hz refresh rate and even up to 480Hz touch-sampling rate in the same price-point. The Poco F3 GT is one such handset. You should keep it in consideration if you are planning to buy a smartphone for under Rs. 30,000.

Should You Consider Buying The Reno6 5G?

The Reno6 5G seems like a good choice in the sub-30K price point, especially for anyone looking for a handset with a stunning design and the most trending features. The 65W fast-charging, vibrant edge-to-edge OLED display, and a feature-rich camera are some features that make this handset worth considering.

We will spend some more time testing the device to come up with our final verdict in the Reno6 5G's comprehensive review. The handset is available in the lone 8GB RAM + 128GB ROM variant for Rs. 29,990 on Flipkart.com.