Last February, OPPO introduced their Reno 5 5G model, and it’s been two years since the year 5G becomes a reality for OPPO Reno Series. For the present, the Reno series is updated every half-yearly, and this day, we got our hands on the latest OPPO Reno 6 5G.
The device still uses the traits from its predecessor, but the significant increments are the design, chipset, and build. Reno 6 5G now uses a Mediatek chipset rather than the 7nm Snapdragon 765G. Well, it’s been almost two years since Mediatek showed us impressive capabilities, and consumers liked it. They are famous especially on budget to some midrange devices. Inside this device is a powerhouse, but what else can you get?
Pros
Cons
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Starting with the improved design, OPPO Reno6 5G has a plain and very aesthetic design. The camera module has a boxier feel than its predecessor while the lenses are less protrude. I am more comfortable with the camera module’s redesign. The OPPO branding is on the lower right and nothing fancier, making it plain and simple.
There are two colour variants for the OPPO Reno6 5G–Stellar Black and Aurora. Both have a sandblasted looking texture. The aurora variant reflects a dual-tone colour when hit by a light source which the company called “OPPO Reno Glow“. Unfortunately, we only got our hands on the Stellar Black, but the effect of the Reno Glow design is still on the back’s surface. It is a clever design technology that makes the back of the device fingerprint-proof while having a lovely glowing effect like on glass. And that’s the technology I am fascinated with since the problems are pretty fixed–the matte looking texture together with the glow effect. However, it still has a smooth feeling that makes you think it will be slippery in your hands, unlike the surface of the glass, which can be sticky especially when you have sweaty hands.
But to give the OPPO Reno6 5G a handful grip, they also improved and put a different built to it. It now has a squared flat shape build or what the company called a “Flat-edge” design similar to the 2012’s iPhone 5 and last year’s iPhone 12 Pro. You can actually imagine the iPhone 4 because of its non-curve frame when looking sideways and a reminisce sensation when you touch its sides.
Speaking of the frame, the OPPO Reno6 5G has visible antenna bands around and on the right, is the signature power button with a green accent. The volume rocker is on the left while the dual sim tray with no expandable storage slot, microphone, USB Type-C port, and down-firing speaker is at the bottom. There’s also a secondary microphone up top. There’s no headphone jack if you’ll ask, which is a shame, but all buttons are very clicky and well placed.
Besides the premium design, its build also have premium feel thanks to the solid and sturdy body. It didn’t get bent when I tried to bend test it, which may be due to the boxy type build. It weighs 182 grams which is pretty lightweight, and the best feeling is the 7.6mm thinness of the device. Not to mention it also has excellent haptic feedback that feels very similar to flagship phones.
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Moving on to the display, OPPO Reno 6 5G boasts a 6.43 inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. The front panel is quite durable thanks to the Gorilla Glass 5 protection. It’s not a groundbreaking spec and it is relatively similar to its predecessor. And they could have just opted to put Gorilla Glass 6 instead, like on their Reno 2, for better protection. Still, the STB ratio of the OPPO Reno 6 5G is improved, it has a smaller chin and thin bezels compared to its predecessor. It is seamless on the Flat-edge design.
For the display quality, the colours look vibrant and sharp. The blacks are also true blacks. The brightness at peak 750nits–even the display is only AMOLED–is very bright, and it’s excellent for outdoor use and with direct sunlight. Scrolling is smooth thanks to the 90hz refresh rate, but I couldn’t see any settings to auto-switch refresh rate, and I guess it doesn’t have adaptive sync as well. OPPO Reno 6 5G may drain the battery fast, and the ultra vision engine that widens the colour gamut, if enabled, will increase battery usage as well. I guess the what-needed here is to increase the efficiency of the screen. But overall, I’m still impressed at the overall look.
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Heading to the camera department, the OPPO Reno6 5G only has a triple camera setup. 64MP f/1.7 on the primary shooter, 8MP ultra-wide, and 2MP on the macro lens. It has a missing depth sensor from its predecessor but they probably nearly perfected the portrait artificial background blur processing.
The main camera outputs vibrant colours even with AI enhancement off. I like how the OPPO Reno6 5G handles the highlights and exposure balance of the image. And if the shadows and highlights are in wrong values, it can be fixed by turning on HDR mode. With HDR mode on, lifted blacks have no noticeable grains and noise. It output good details on dark areas. Although there’s some misfire on HDR and it shows deep blacks, it is just the Dynamic range reaching its capacity. The colours indoors are okay, and samples are detailed, although sometimes the white balance is inconsistent.
As for portrait mode, subject to background separation is accurate and clean. It is sharp and detailed as well, which is impressive without a depth sensor. However, the skies highlights tend to blow out. Now, I’ve seen phones with a similar portrait mode effect without any depth sensor, one of which is the Realme 6 Pro. The only notable detail is it can process a subject to background separation while having HDR processing for more information in its highlights. This process can be implemented to how Reno6 5G process.
As for its night mode, we tested its capability on ultra low light scenarios. Details and colours are visible and exposure is on point, but white balance is inconsistent again, and sometimes photos come out soft due to noise reduction.
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Heading to its Ultrawide, it outputs good colours but sometimes has a softer and pale-ish look. It has a decent exposure and no visible colour fringing even if the skies highlight is too bright. The details in the shadows are visible, and there’s no visible grains and noise reduction processing.
Moving on to Macro, results are acceptable, nothing fancy about its sensor, but it gives us decent colours and good details. Unlike other midrange devices with lower prices, the only noticeable difference is the autofocus system, which I wish they include for satisfaction and versatility of its price. We get softer images sometimes due to hit and miss.
Switching to its 32MP selfie camera, as usual, OPPO still manages to impress the user with their selfie’s AI processing. The colour and contrast are excellent. It has a vibrant image and flattering selfie quality. The shadows aren’t deep and the highlight still has details. It is also sharp and has a true-to-life skin tone with no drastic change in white balance. It has reasonably good colours indoors as well and no visible grains and noise. I am flattered with my selfie indoors as my face still glows up and with clean, sharp, and detailed output. Eyes have good exposure thanks to the beautification feature OPPO has to offer.
As for video recording, It can shoot up to 4k@30fps,1080p@60fps, 1080p@30fps and a 1080p on selfie camera. Ultra steady mode is only available on 1080p@60fps and below for the selfie and rear cam. It also offers video bokeh, AI highlight video, and some content creation features like Movie mode with Pro settings and UIS on both main and ultrawide–just like its predecessor. It also has nice gimmicky filters and I love how Bokeh Flare Portrait adds an artistic vibe to the shot. Bokeh Flare Portrait can be found on the filters and the AI colour portrait OPPO used last year. However, I found a few bugs on the camera app, one of which is the AI colour portrait which shows nothing but black, also the Ultra steady feature, when enabled, introduced noise and grains everywhere. I hope they will fix it soon with a software patch.
For the camera features, the pro mode for pictures can shoot up to 6400 ISO and 32-second shutter, and like I mentioned there’s even a Movie mode. OPPO Reno6 5G still has the Dual-view video and a slow-motion with up to 960fps@720p and 480fps@1080p, which is nice. Other midrange features are also available like the Extra HD, SoLoop templates, sticker, and Ultra Dark Mode plus Tripod mode for the ultrawide and primary camera.
Overall, it still has impressive camera performance and content creation features, just like its predecessor.
Under the hood, Reno6 5G is now equipped with a Mediatek Dimensity 900 5G and compared to the predecessor’s Snapdragon 765G, there are many improvements while maintaining the 5G capability. This includes a 20% higher GPU frequency from 750mhz to 900mhz on the Dimensity 900 5G. It also has a smaller transistor six versus the 7nm from the predecessor. The smaller nanometer can compensate for the battery efficiency of the display. Lastly, the numbers from benchmarks show 50% higher in Antutu and 8.7% higher in multicore rendering in Geekbench 5.
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Our review unit’s configuration is 8GB of ram and 128GB of storage. It has a new technology called ram expansion, where you can choose how much ram you want to add from the storage–from 2, 3, or 5GB. It is a nice feature and this could reduce the frame drops in gaming and add stability to ram eating games. It can make multi-tasking much more manageable.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXp-WzaRhqg?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]
As for gaming, again, the chipset has a more significant GPU frequency. This means more favour in playing triple-A titles and other graphic demanding games. We tested its gaming performance, and if you want to watch all of it, click here. Meanwhile, we tried all games, including PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, Mobile Legends, and Wildrift, which gave us impressive performance with better stability, especially on Honkai Impact 3 and Genshin Impact. But it is quite a bummer for a mid-range smartphone to have limitations on its graphics quality in some games.
Now Heading to the software department, OPPO Reno6 5G runs on the latest Android 11 with ColorOS 11.3 on top out of the box. OPPO’s ColorOS 11.3 is improving from time to time, and with the extent they have this underlying technology built-in the system, they call it “anti-stuck engine“. Basically, it’s the AI background process happening inside your phone. It’s a background process that includes faster pre-loaded apps, touch response optimization, IoT interconnection, and Quantum Animation Engine 2.0. Usability-wise, I did notice the improvement of the OS. There are no stuttering, it has smooth animations, better launch time, and the UI feels calm, smooth, and responsive, thanks also to the 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate. Fingerprint and face unlock both works fine without obstacles, and they are fast and reliable.
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Now unto its battery performance, OPPO Reno6 5G is backed with a 4300mAh battery with a fast 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 charging. A lot is going on with its battery. You can choose a bunch of battery optimization in the battery settings, including power-saving mode and super power-saving mode, as well as a high-performance mode. It also has a more efficient chipset but sacrifices the display quality to extend battery life. For heavy usage, it endured 6 hours of pure gaming and almost past 7 hours with browsing. It can last up to 2 days with regular use, and I can’t say it’s terrible, but I can’t say it’s impressive either. It will depend on your usage as well as how you want to use its optimization.
As for charging, according to OPPO, the Reno 6 5G can be fully charged for only 35 minutes. As for our charging test, using the 65W charging brick took us around 33 minutes only, which is more than expected. So if you happen to be constantly on the go, this charging power works best for you.
Overall, for P26,999 (8GB/128GB), OPPO Reno 6 5G is an ideal Overall Phone with an eye-catching design and solid build. It offers a striking look, fast charging, and balanced performance for both camera and gaming. It is a worthy competitor on the market, though the price is relatively high for a mid-range device and imagine, a new Reno smartphone will be released after six months. On the other hand, if you want a more affordable Reno6 with 5G, you can opt for the Reno6 Z, priced at P19,999 with almost similar performance to the Reno6 5G. But you will lose the better design and better gaming chipset.
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