2021 saw a lot of smartphone manufacturers jump into the mid-to-high flagship territory,
at least for China marketing.
The main reason of course is the Huawei banning.
Every manufacturer wants to take the share that Huawei leaves behind.
Xiaomi has been pretty insane in the past two or three months by releasing numerous
Mi 11 series, Poco phones, and even a foldable phone.
And now, we have Oppo.
Actually, I’ve had the Oppo Reno 6 Pro for over a month, and I was even invited to the
Oppo Reno 6 launch event, it was a big event on the beach, and it was extraordinary.
I met numerous interesting people there.
I just love how organized things are here.
With that being said, I don’t want to do a sloppy and fast phone hands-on video like
I normally do with other phones, because with lots of people watching thanks to you guys,
I just don’t feel very good.
So here is my in-depth review of the Reno 6 Pro after one month, hope you like it.
And please subscribe if you haven’t, let’s get started.
The packaging is, as always, minimalistic and elegant.
Open the box, the first thing we see is a small rectangle box.
There is a slogan on it, it reads “You are shiny in my eyes”.
Oh, that’s sweet.
I thought I’m only shiny when I got my hair shaved.
Anyway, inside the small box it has some paperwork like a warranty card, a manual etc.
Then is the phone.
The one I got is the “Summer Sea” blue color one, not sure what’s the official
English name for it, I just translated it from its official Chinese name.
And to be honest I like it!
Based on the ambient lighting, it gradients between white and blue with specks of glitter throughout.
It looks fairly classy and a little ostentatious.
It’s lightweight and has a really good finish to it.
We’ll get to the design more in a second.
Moving on is a pin and a transparent case.
Lastly, is the type-c cable and a 65W fast charger.
Basically, that’s what we all got in the box.
The Oppo Reno 6 Pro is the lightest smartphone in its segment.
Given that its competition – the Mi 11 series, Galaxy S21, or the OnePlus 9 – are quite
heavy, the Reno 6 Pro feels like heaven after using those.
This, along with its slim 7.6 mm waistline and 177g weight give it an excellent hand-feel,
which is unheard of in this 5G era.
The “Summer Sea” unit I received for review looks quite unique with its shimmery blue glass back.
According to Oppo, the Reno6 Pro is inspired by the sparkling sea in Summer.
In order to create a more desired shining wave visual effect, they upgraded to the latest
crystal diamond 3.0 technology, which gives a 30% increase in the fineness of the phone
and also a better wear resistance capability.
I must say, the shining wave finish felt quite sturdy and did not scratch, nor gather any
fingerprints whatsoever.
The slim and light design is also possible because of the plastic frame.
It helps bring down the weight of the device, and also lets Oppo’s designers experiment
with the top end of the frame by including a cool-looking glass insert.
It’s all in the details, and you can tell that Oppo took its time to deliver something
special for this segment.
Moving to the display, we get a 6.5-inch OLED curved display with a 20:9 aspect ratio, 800
nits of peak brightness, HDR10+ certification and more.
Gamers will appreciate the jump to 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch response rate.
There’s nothing to complain about here either: the display is pretty sharp and vivid, with
great viewing angles and ample brightness for outdoor visibility.
The interface has been well-optimized to make use of the higher refresh rate to seem smoother.
Towards the bottom, there’s an optical in-display fingerprint scanner that works perfectly well.
For others, there’s 2D face unlocking which was instantaneous too.
The downsides of going slim and light are inevitable.
There’s no 3.5 mm headphone jack and the phone also skips on a stereo dual-speaker setup.
The single speaker is quite loud and if you are wondering how does it sound, here it is,
let me know if you like it.
Another downside of going slim and light is heat.
The natural enemy of any flagship smartphone, it’s the sole reason why most manufacturers
are willing to sacrifice design over performance in this price bracket.
Still, things are not as bad as I expected them to be.
The Oppo Reno 6 Pro is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 1200 processor.
The version I got has 12gigs of RAM, what’s more, is that comes with RAM expansion!
When enough storage space is available you can use part of it to expand your RAM.
How good is that?
In day-to-day use, performance is top-notch and I did not face a single hiccup or stutter.
You might guess that there was a Snapdragon 870 inside if Oppo didn’t tell you otherwise.
If you are curious to know the benchmarks, here is it.
Definitely one of the best in this price range.
While I’m not a gamer and I’m really not good at gaming so I unloaded this immediately
to my colleagues to test when I got the unit.
We tried several games there.
The Reno 6 Pro lets us run the game smoothly at the default ‘High’ graphics and ‘High’ framerate.
The device warmed up a bit but did not interfere with the gaming experience.
Thanks to its full-size liquid cooling VC, it has improved a lot compared to its predecessor
the Reno 5 series.
The Oppo Reno 6 Pro on the rear packs a 64-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide snapper,
and two 2MP modules for macro shots and depth data.
The biggest highlight for the camera, in my opinion, is the filters, which Oppo teamed
up with make-up guru Bobbi Brown to offer specialized filters that apply natural-looking
make-up on the spot.
Unlike those so-called AI beauties that we normally see, especially on Xiaomi phones,
they almost make you feel like a ghost, the Oppo Reno 6 Pro looks so natural.
For every girl or even boy I handed the Reno 6 to, they just like it.
You can check out some of the photos we’ve taken.
For video one feature I really like is the light spot background effect, it makes your
videos way more vivid than ever before.
I like it.
After my one month with the Reno 6 Pro.
I think the Oppo Reno 6 Pro has done an exceptionally good job!
It's managed to carve out its own niche in the mid to high-end flagship segment.
The Oppo Reno 6 Pro has no major cons that make it a difficult phone to recommend.
If you are tired of bulky phones and just want a good-looking phone – I’ve got to
say the Reno 6 Pro is amongst the best-looking smartphones of the season,
just check out the shimmering effect.
It looks fairly classy, sleek, and premium - while at the same time doesn’t fall behind
on performance and has a decent camera.
The Reno 6 Pro is for you.