Oppo Reno11 Pro review

Oppo is back with a 3D curved glass design, and the Reno11 Pro is available in Pearl White and Rock Grey finishes. We received the Pearl White version, which has a shimmering pearl design,  achieved by a three-layered design, complete with a satin-like texture. Unlike glossy designs of the past, this keeps smudges away. The device is slim at around 7.6mm and lightweight at 181g. If you are used to large phones, the Reno11 Pro would be comfortable to operate with a single hand. The Rock Grey variant has a subtler design without the glaring pearly sheen but with a sparkling grainy sand finish. The camera bump juts out like it’s been glued there, though the chrome-finished ring around it provides a premium feel. There’s an IR blaster on top and the bottom houses a dual nano SIM slot by the side of the USB Type-C port.

The 6.7-inch curved AMOLED display offers 1.57mm thin side bezels almost touching the edges. It provides a 2412 x 1080-dot resolution and 120Hz dynamic refresh rate. The screen offers 950nits of brightness in HDR, and covers 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut. By default, the colours feel a little subdued, leaning towards the cooler side when compared to some other phones. But for a device focused on photography, this is ideal since there’s less chance of heartbreak when you open the images on a calibrated monitor. There are Pro modes for faithful reproduction or to utilise the full gamut and reproduce the most vibrant images. If you are a purist who wants perfect colours across your displays, you can tweak the colours to achieve a visual balance with your digital darkroom. The display works great indoors but it’s difficult to view in bright sunlight.

The Reno11 Pro uses a triple camera system that doesn’t try to play catch-up with the zoom monsters in the market, but has been optimised for the task it has been assigned, which is mainly portraits. The main camera is a 24mm equivalent 50MP module using Sony IMX890 sensor and featuring OIS. It is aided by a 16mm equivalent (0.6x) 8MP ultra-wide camera using a Sony IMX355 sensor. This unit provides a 116-degree field of view. The star of the show is the 32MP telephoto (portrait) camera (2x) with a Sony IMX709 sensor, which provides 47mm equivalent focal length. The front camera is a 32MP module with a Sony IMX709 sensor. 

Oppo’s claim to fame is the HyperTone engine, which is the algorithm previously used in flagships such as Find X6 Pro and Find N3, but has now been further refined. According to Oppo, this combined multiple uncompressed RAW images and utilise the RAW data to create a final image that embeds more colour information. Portrait mode allows you to tweak the depth-of-field after capture. Apart from the usual filters and beautification (retouch) modes, there are a lot of subtle optimisations happening in the background.

The cameras including the front selfie unit are capable of recording 4K 30fps videos, which drops to 1080p 60fps if you enable video stabilisation.

The Reno11 Pro is powered by the 4-nanometre MediaTek Dimensity 8200 SoC. It’s available in a single configuration with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. The device boasts LinkBoost technology and an IR remote. With Color OS 14, the interface has become smoother with several optimisations in the background. With RAM, ROM, and CPU vitalisation, the device gets a performance boost with multitasking capabilities. Features like split view, floating windows and smart sidebar further extend the capabilities for those who use them. Then there are features like Smart Image Matting for cut-outs similar to iPhones.

The device houses a 4600mAh battery and Oppo bundles an 80W SuperVooc charger. Oppo promises three years of software and security updates.

Being a mid-range phone, the Reno11 Pro is not made for extreme gaming, and hence the gaming performance can be considered decent. We didn’t face any lag in our limited gaming sessions, and the device held up remarkably against similar phones in synthetic benchmarking, without throttling. The device did become warm, but the heat dissipation was fast enough to compensate. ColorOS 14 doesn’t feel much different from the previous version. There is still the same amount of bloatware, though many of these can be uninstalled. Battery lasts for a day even with fairly heavy usage, and the bundled SuperVooc charger tops up the battery in no time.

The Reno series relies on superior camera performance and the 11 Pro did not disappoint. In natural daylight, colours were true to the original with good detail in highlights and shadows. The portrait camera was particularly impressive with good skin tones and soft bokeh. The system separated the background in most cases unless the contrast was too low. The camera doesn’t have a Macro mode, but the lenses could focus quite close to the subject. The results were truly remarkable and the images even benefitted from the full sensor engagement, unlike dedicated macro modes delivering noisy 2MP results.

Landscape images in harsh lighting and hazy conditions appeared flat, but had enough data for some post-processing. We did miss a Raw format for the pleasure of post-processing. Night shots were tricky, especially with artificial light sources like neon sign boards. If you like working with Black and White mode, it offers excellent tonal range and gradation with the software accentuating details and texture.

The display is not the best we have seen, but you can enjoy your OTT content without any hiccups. The lack of stereo speakers has been the bane of Reno series, and the 11 Pro is no different.

The Oppo Reno11 Pro is a good mid-priced smartphone if you are looking for a camera-centric phone that can deliver some incredible results. It may not match the utility of more premium devices, but for an average user who is not into resource-intensive games, this phone is a credible option.