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OPPO Reno Z—A Very Good Mid-Range Phone
November 11, 2019 The OPPO Reno Z is a solidly mid-range device released earlier this year and on paper, it’s not really something to write home about, but OPPO has followed the philosophy of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. While not everything about the Reno Z is good, for budget buyers, it’s certainly worth a look. The OPPO Reno Z’s box is a little like the OnePlus 7T Pro’s in that it’s strangely long, because it’s got a lot of stuff in it. There are the requisite charging cable and brick, and the phone itself. On top of that, there’s also an included soft-ish case and a pair of headphones. Absent from the box is a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter dongle. OPPO excuse: the OPPO Reno Z comes with a headphone jack. This $400 phone comes with something $800+ phones no longer have. The OPPO Reno Z has a striking purple-to-blue gradient, which looks a lot better than it sounds as shown in the picture below. |
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Figure 1: The Stunning Aurora Purple Reno Z
Source: XDA
While Samsung has proven that it’s possible to create amazing reflective designs on plastic, OPPO decided to use glass for the Reno Z, which has a premium feel (even though glass is arguably one of the worst material options from a pragmatic point of view).
Table 1: OPPO Reno Z Specifications
Table 1: OPPO Reno Z Specifications
Source: XDA
It also adds to the weight of the phone, making it feel solid when held.
The Reno Z’s design is oddly slightly thicker at the top versus the bottom. There’s also this weird “O-Dot” bump below the camera, When the phone is placed on a flat surface, the O-Dot slightly raises the phone, so the cameras don’t touch the surface.
OPPO Reno Z Camera
It’s got three of them: two on the back and one up front. The main rear shooter is the IMX586, a 48MP sensor, and in this configuration, it’s paired with an ƒ/1.7 aperture lens. The secondary sensor is a 5MP, ƒ/2.4 depth sensor. The front camera is in the notch, like with most phones that have a notch. The photos the OPPO Reno Z takes are nothing to write home about, they’re good, and there’s an AI scene detector that actually functions well, so contrast and such are automatically adjusted to make the subject look better. While there are dual rear cameras, there’s only one hardware shooting mode. The secondary camera is a depth sensor and not a telephoto or wide-angle lens. In low-light, the Reno Z still produces usable images, although they aren’t as detailed as what you might get from the Honor 20 Pro or Google Pixel. Night Mode has gotten really popular lately, with implementations from Google and Huawei showing just how incredible it can be when done right. Unfortunately, but OPPO does not do it right, and the results are sometimes worse than just using Auto Mode.
Figure 2: OPPO Reno Z
The Reno Z’s design is oddly slightly thicker at the top versus the bottom. There’s also this weird “O-Dot” bump below the camera, When the phone is placed on a flat surface, the O-Dot slightly raises the phone, so the cameras don’t touch the surface.
OPPO Reno Z Camera
It’s got three of them: two on the back and one up front. The main rear shooter is the IMX586, a 48MP sensor, and in this configuration, it’s paired with an ƒ/1.7 aperture lens. The secondary sensor is a 5MP, ƒ/2.4 depth sensor. The front camera is in the notch, like with most phones that have a notch. The photos the OPPO Reno Z takes are nothing to write home about, they’re good, and there’s an AI scene detector that actually functions well, so contrast and such are automatically adjusted to make the subject look better. While there are dual rear cameras, there’s only one hardware shooting mode. The secondary camera is a depth sensor and not a telephoto or wide-angle lens. In low-light, the Reno Z still produces usable images, although they aren’t as detailed as what you might get from the Honor 20 Pro or Google Pixel. Night Mode has gotten really popular lately, with implementations from Google and Huawei showing just how incredible it can be when done right. Unfortunately, but OPPO does not do it right, and the results are sometimes worse than just using Auto Mode.
Figure 2: OPPO Reno Z
Source: XDA
The OPPO Reno Z Rigid OLED Display is the standard “Boundless Horizon Waterdrop” screen, there’s no hole-punch, effectively taking up more room than the Pixel 3 XL‘s notch, there are no curves. It’s nothing fancy, and that’s why it’s good. The OPPO Reno Z’s display is 6.4-inches with a high screen-to-body ratio and a resolution 1080x2340.
OPPO ships the Reno Z with a pre-installed plastic screen protector. This screen protector isn’t just some thin layer of plastic that is removed as soon as possible. Instead, it’s actually pretty high quality.
OPPO ships the Reno Z with a pre-installed plastic screen protector. This screen protector isn’t just some thin layer of plastic that is removed as soon as possible. Instead, it’s actually pretty high quality.
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Barry Young
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