OPPO Reno 5 5G REVIEW: Picturing life together never looked this good
The pandemic has really made people appreciate the simple joys in life and fuelled the desire to preserve memorable moments. It has also unleashed a whole slew of digital creators who have found new hobbies and want to share their passion and creativity to the world.
Young couples are keen to show-off their babies’ first steps, home-cooks want to highlight their latest creations at home, newbie bikers are eager to document their everyday rides, while travelers are finding joy in rediscovering familiar destinations after months in lockdown.
These days, everyone wants a versatile tool to help capture life’s meaningful moments. And the simplest and easiest way to record, edit and share these online is through your smartphone.
Last February 2021, OPPO launched their much awaited ultimate smartphone videography powerhouse, the OPPO Reno5 4G and Reno5 5G which is packed with the latest camera technologies that allows users to "picture life together" better than ever with their family and loved ones.
“We are thrilled to officially introduce the new OPPO Reno5 4G and Reno5 5G in February. With the steady growth of 5G in the country and our cutting-edge camera technologies, we promise to equip young Filipinos with a Reno smartphone that can inspire them more to creatively #PictureLifeTogether with friends and family in this highly digital-driven lifestyle,” said Raymond Xia, OPPO Philippines Marketing Director.
I had the opportunity to test out the OPPO Reno 5 5G for PhilSTAR L!fe for a couple of weeks and here’s what I can share about their latest smartphone.
Design and specs
The OPPO Reno 5 5G comes in two color options: a classic “Starry Black” and “Galactic Silver.” The smartphone's Ultra Slim Body is slender, making it very light to carry and easy to hold. You can easily slip this in a bag or a pocket without having to worry much. The phone measures 7.99 mm in thickness and weighs 172 to 180 grams.
It’s a sophisticated looking smartphone that boasts of an 8GB RAM + 128GB ROM, whichis pretty hefty considering the amount of photos, videos, and apps you can load on your Reno5 5G.
A phone that adapts to your lifestyle
The OPPO Reno 5 5G takes into account the demands brought by the 5G era. With the pandemic forcing people to shift their work and spend most of their time online, we all know content is king and the faster you can deliver high quality content, the better.
In keeping with the Reno series’ goal of providing a superior video and photo experience, OPPO has developed a more advanced and more comprehensive imaging system for the new Reno5 4G and Reno5 5G, namely through the OPPO Full Dimension Fusion (FDF) Portrait Video System.
In technical terms, the OPPO FDF Portrait Video System is “based on top-end imaging hardware, innovative image processing algorithms, and user-centric software.”
Not everyone has the right tools and skills to shoot and edit videos, but the OPPO Reno 5 5G can cater to the diverse video creation needs of users in almost any situation, “empowering anyone to capture the joy of life in every moment with easy-to-create professional-quality video content.”
Clear and crisp images
Based on my personal experience, I found that the OPPO Reno 5 5G smartphone manages to capture clear and crisp photos in almost any situation. The phone comes with 4 rear cameras, namely a 64MP Main Camera in the rear, an 8MP Ultra Wide-angle Camera, 2MP Macro Camera and MP Mono Camera and a front facing 32MP camera.
During this review, I traveled to Boracay for my first post-pandemic vacation and was amazed at the quality of the photos and videos the phone captured. In fact, I ended up not using my mirrorless camera much, because whipping out the OPPO Reno 5 was much easier for instant capturing and sharing on social media.
The smartphone’s camera captures amazing landscape photos with its standard setting, but sometimes you just want to show a different perspective without having to change lenses, so it’s great that the phone can also capture ultrawide shots for those wider and more dramatic establishing shots and can stabilize scenes from afar with the 5X Zoom setting.
Even from a moving boat, I still managed to capture a clear shot of Boracay’s famous sunset while enjoying the view. The zoom setting helped a lot in getting close-up shots from the exact same spot without having to crop the original photo.
The smartphone has a bunch of different shooting modes on the main rear camera, including Photo, Video, Panoramic, Portrait, Night, Time-Lapse, Sticker, Dual-Video, Text Scanner, Movie, Expert, Extra HD, and Slow motion.
Night shots are notoriously difficult to capture, but the OPPO Reno 5 5G delivered detailed and atmospheric shots that captured the buzz of Boracay’s nightlife compared to photos from my old smartphone and mirrorless camera.
According to OPPO, their original, industry-leading AI Highlight Video now uses new generation technology capable of detecting light levels in a scene, and intelligently and optimally adjusts brightness, color and clarity in videos resulting in smooth video from frame to frame, vibrant colors, and reduces noise.
This is reportedly the first time OPPO has united Ultra Night Video and Live HDR under one feature, which is available on both the front and rear cameras of both devices.
I also tested out the phone around the neighborhood, a few weekend rides and a camping/hiking trip and found that the camera is very versatile for taking a range of shots from the same perspective, from very wide to extreme close-ups, giving creators a powerful tool to get creative with.
While colors tend to become a bit muted when taking wide shots compared to the standard setting, and some noise is apparent when zooming, the rear camera is amazing and is capable of taking 6936x9248 (64MP) of sharp details in case you ever want a billboard at home.
While the camera takes decent landscape photos in natural light during the day, its performance seems more impressive at night and in city settings, making it a good choice for city folk and night owls.
But first, let me take a selfie
Selfies looked pretty good, too. The camera has a built-in beautification filter with a default set at 30 percent, which automatically smoothens skin, erases freckles and wrinkles, and generally makes you look a little bit better than real life.
For ladies, selfies look like you're wearing make-up and lipstick even though you're bare-faced in real life, which is kind of nice, if a tad unrealistic. But hey, that’s social media for you! I'm sure a lot of users out there will appreciate the feature.
At 100 percent, the beautification filter makes you look like a full blown K-Pop star. You get different options including making your face look thinner, your eyes bigger, your nose smaller, your chin sharper, and touching up blemishes, which really tells you a lot about beauty standards these days. But if you think you look too unrecognizable, it’s easy enough to adjust on the slider. There just seemed to be a bug on the phone when taking selfies and the camera kept shutting down so it’s best to just have someone else take photos of you.
If someone else is taking your photo, the Portrait Recognition is pretty handy, as it instantly recognizes the portrait subject in the image and separates them from the image background.
The normal landscape mode takes sharp images, while in portrait mode, the background is blurred and softened with a DSLR bokeh effect, making the subject stand out more in portrait shots. The 2x setting on normal mode also delivers softer looking images which make for more flattering portrait photos.
High quality videos
The high quality in portraits is evident not just for photos, but for videos as well. The OPPO Reno5 5G boasts of an OPPO FDF Portrait Video System which guarantees clear images in any scenario, whether that be day, night, in strong backlight, while in motion or while standing still. The built-in portrait scene detection and portrait feature design results in a great portrait video experience for users.
The Rear camera can take videos in 4K (30fps), 1080P (60fps/30fps) and 720P (60fps/30fps) and can also do Video slo-mo: 1080P (120fps), 720P (240fps); while Video stabilization supports EIS and video zoom.
One of the coolest features by far when shooting videos is the “Dual-View Video” Feature where you can capture videos simultaneously with the front and back camera, and it’s superimposed together.
For vloggers, the Dual-View Video Feature makes it way easier to capture moving shots and the environment and your immediate reaction or on-the-spot narration for minimal editing.
There are several layouts including a split-frame, round and rectangle. For round and rectangle, you can switch between what the focus of the main camera is and have it on the landscape with you shown in a smaller section or point the camera on yourself and have a smaller view of what’s in front of you. For split frame you can have the camera focused on you and in front of you, which is pretty cool.
Scene Design Manager
The OPPO Reno 5 5G also has built-in features that ensures that portrait subjects and the background are clearly and naturally defined. The Scene Design Manager analyzes different scenarios to give the user high quality images wherever they are.
In addition to facial recognition, the phone can also detect and track moving human bodies within a video and extract these portrait subjects with precision from even the most complex backgrounds so you can still be the highlight of a shot even if you’re in a busy environment.
The Reno5 4G and Reno5 5G are new additions to OPPO’s already impressive and powerful technology that will simplify the complicated task of video capture, editing, and sharing off of users’ hands.
For those who want to level up their vlogging game, this smartphone gives you an easy to use yet professional means to record and create your own stories.
Other features
OPPO has also included a host of features such as AI Color Portrait (except in the Reno5 5G), Monochrome Video, AI Mixed Portrait (only available on Reno5 4G) and more which gives users the power to create content with deeper and more creative stories. The phone’s FDF Portrait Video System also includes the Portrait Perception Engine to let users shoot in their style.
Running late or low on battery? No need to worry about your phone running out of juice because the 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 can give it 4 hours of power in just 5 minutes. According to official specs, you can fully charge the phone’s battery to 100% in as short as 35 minutes.
Gamer Mode
The smartphone delivers smooth, silky and seamless display, which makes watching videos on the go and playing games online a visual treat.
Another thing I appreciated is the smartphone's Game Focus Mode, which allows you to temporarily tune out interruptions so you can focus on winning your game. Even if your WiFi is on, you can turn off notifications, alarms and incoming calls when you’re playing a game.
Price
Price-wise, the OPPO Reno 5 5G has an SRP of P23,999, which is not bad for a mid-range phone with all its capabilities.
While I personally prefer writing and photography to taking videos, if I did have a vlog or YouTube channel, I would definitely want this phone in my arsenal. With its fast charging time and versatile camera angles, the OPPO Reno 5 5G makes picturing life together with friends and loved ones easier and better than ever.
For more information about the latest OPPO Reno5 4G, Reno5 5G, and all of OPPO’s exclusive deals, visit the official website at www.oppo.com/ph or via the official Facebook page at OPPO Philippines.
(Banner and thumbnail images provided by OPPO)