Oppo has recently released the latest addition to its Reno series, the Oppo Reno 6 5G.
What makes this one unique and is this an improvement over last years Reno 5 5G? Let’s dive into the review to find out.
Design & Display:
Oppo Reno 6 5G features an interesting design with a flashy back, that’s very similar to its predecessors. It has a smooth matte finish with an iridescent glow, that sparks as light falls onto it. The panel is also fingerprint resistant which enhances the overall appeal of the phone.
The Reno 6 has a flat edge design as opposed to last year’s model that reminds us of the iPhone 12 series. In terms of the build quality, Reno 6 comes with glass on the front and the back, supported by an aluminium frame.
The Reno 6 5G is super lightweight weighing 182 g, with a sleek & attractive look. The panel is slightly slippery to hold and we suggest using the silicon case it’s shipped with.
The display is the same as on the Reno 5 5G. It’s a 6.43-inch AMOLED with a Full HD+ resolution and a fast 90 Hz refresh rate. The display is bright enough to use outdoors & offers good viewing angles. The panel also has a punch hole cut out for the selfie camera on the top left side of the screen. The display comes with a pre-installed screen protector. The phone also includes an under-display fingerprint reader for biometrics.
The phone is available in colors of Stellar black & Aurora.
Performance & Hardware:
In terms of hardware, the phone has a passive cooling system that comes with a graphite sheet & the graphite sheet helps spread the heat across the back of the phone, improving heat dispersion. This helps to combat thermal throttle during gameplay.
Powering the Oppo Reno 6 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G chipset, which is built on the 8 nm process. It provides good performance with 5G connectivity. The device comes with two storage variants. One is the 8 GB RAM variant with 128 GB of internal storage & the other is the 12 GB variant with 256 GB of internal storage. However, the storage isn’t expandable here.
The Oppo Reno 6 runs the ColorOS 11.3 on top of Android 11. Which is fundamentally the same as it was a few months back. However, with this smartphone, you don’t get stereo speakers, it just has a single bottom-firing one. And for some reason, this time around, Oppo has gotten rid of the headphone jack.
Battery:
Like last year there’s a 4310 mAh battery onboard the Reno 6 along with 65 W super VOOC charging. Which is lightning fast. There’s also support for reverse charging.
The biggest benefit here is that this smartphone ships with a power brick, which has become a rare sight with many flagship phones in the market but thankfully not with mid-range phones.
Cameras:
The cameras are quite similar to the Oppo Reno 5. The Reno 6 features a quad camera setup with a 64 MP main camera supported by an 8 MP ultra-wide, a 2 MP macro & a 2 MP mono lens.
The cameras produce decent shots, even in low light conditions. Oppo has improved their image processing software and Reno 6 speaks for that. You also get the same AI-based features that are part of the Oppo Reno 6 Pro, and images have a lot of detail. However, you might notice issues with exposure for some of the images with the Oppo Reno 6. The phone also has a Night Mode for images, which helps to reduce noise in images for low light conditions.
The 8 MP ultrawide sensor, captures clear images with minimal distortion at the edges if you’re far enough from the subject. That said, the primary camera sensor is much superior and captures color better with sharper results. On the front is a 32MP selfie shooter, which captures bright and clear images.
In conclusion, you can take great portraits with this phone. Just this time around you’re missing a depth sensor, unlike the Oppo Reno 6 Pro.
Final Verdict:
All in all, Oppo Reno 6 5G looks like a refreshed version of the Reno 5 5G. It does get brownie points for style, and the new chipset, but the loss of the headphone jack makes for a tougher decision. If you have Bluetooth headphones/earbuds then Reno 6 seems like a reasonable upgrade over the Reno 5.
