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OPPO Reno6 5G quick review: An Android phone in an iPhone 12’s body

Gelo Gonzales

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OPPO Reno6 5G quick review: An Android phone in an iPhone 12’s body

RENO6 5G

Gelo Gonzales/Rappler

The OPPO Reno6 5G is available for pre-order from August 7 to 27, and arrives on August 28.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Reno6 5G is how similar it looks to the iPhone 12. Clearly, the Reno6 is not shy about its inspiration, with its flat chunky frame, precision-cut buttons, flat back and flat display. It looks great, really, so it may appeal to those who want the iPhone 12 but are on a budget or to anyone who just wants a great-looking phone. Purists though may hate that it basically copies the iPhone 12’s design. 

Chinese phones in the past have a history of copying iPhone designs, like vivo. It’s disappointing to see a brand like OPPO do it again, especially after they made great reputational strides after launching the amazing looking OPPO Find X in the Louvre Museum in Paris, no less. The Find X was truly a design of their own, and most OPPO phones released shortly after that – including the Reno 10X Zoom, the first Reno – were building on a design signature: bold and striking.

I commend how near to the surface the screen looks. I’m not sure if it’s an illusion but the display looks as if it’s very near the top, and it adds to the prettiness of the phone. The camera array at the back looks elegant  too, with a more minimal look, blending in with the matte, gradient back, rather than standing out like the oversized camera array on the iPhone 12. 

Viewed from the back, it does look like one of OPPO’s own.

Complementing the sleek look of the phone is the fast 90Hz display. 

Powering the phone is the midrange Mediatek Dimensity 900 chipset, which performance-wise is generally about the equivalent of Samsung’s 2019 flagship Exynos 9820 chipset, which was found then in the Samsung Galaxy S10.

That’s pretty good power to have as the 9820 is still something that can still run modern apps and games pretty smoothly today. The Dimensity 900 is 5G-capable so that’s something to consider for those looking for some future-proofing.

Gelo Gonzales/Rappler

You get your usual triple-camera rear array as well with the Reno6 composed of a 64MP main shooter, 8MP wide, and 2MP macro. On the front is a 32MP front camera. What the phone does to separate itself a little from the pack is a software trick called the Bokeh Flare Portrait Video, which gives your selfie video taken with the front camera a subtle bokeh effect to make you stand out from the background, and focus tracking for enhanced video autofocusing. 

A good addition to the package is the phone’s 65W fast-charging capability, which fills up your phone from 0 to 100% in half an hour. 

Gelo Gonzales/Rappler

One thing to note is that the phone doesn’t have a slot for a microSD card. All you have is the onboard memory is 128GB, which is a lot, but the lack of expandability may be a turn off for some users. Another weakness is the lack of dual speakers. There’s a single speaker at the bottom, which may be an issue for mobile gamers as the hand covers it up when playing in landscape mode.

The phone is priced at P26,999. Other phones in this price range include the OnePlus Nord 2 5G (12GB+256GB) at P25,990;  Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro 5G, which launched at P24,990 in late 2020; the vivo V21 5G at P21,999; and the more recent Samsung Galaxy A52 5G at P23,990 if you’re looking to shift away from Chinese brands as a form of consumer protest. 

Gelo Gonzales/Rappler

The OnePlus Nord 2 5G actually has more RAM (12GB vs. the Reno6’s 8GB) and storage (128GB vs. 256GB). The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro also has a better Snapdragon 865 processor, which is also 5G-capable, and may be cheaper now since we’re nearing a year after its release.

Perhaps closest in comparison to the Reno6 is the vivo V21 5G, which looks even more similar to the iPhone 12. It has the same flat chunky body and a camera array arranged like the iPhone 12’s cameras, with just a slight change in orientation. At least the Reno6 changes its camera array.

The V21 has similar performance specs with the Reno 6, but has the slower Mediatek Dimensity 800U chipset, lower battery (4,000 mAh vs. the Reno 6’s 4,300 mAh), and slower 44W charging. The V21 has extra 3GB of RAM that it can tap from external storage, and is cheaper by P5,000.

The A52 5G meanwhile has a 120Hz display, a quad camera setup, microSD expandability, but has a slower Snapdragon 750G processor, which is the equivalent of the Samsung Exynos 9810 found in 2018’s Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

At this price range, it’s looking at some really tough competition. It does have its looks going for it, and it’s really pretty, although again, it’s very iPhone 12-inspired.

It also has the best-looking fingerprint scanning animation:

via GIPHY

The OPPO Reno6 5G is available for pre-order from August 7 to 27, and will arrive on August 28. – Rappler.com

Save on this new OPPO smartphone using this Lazada voucher code.

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Gelo Gonzales

Gelo Gonzales is Rappler’s technology editor. He covers consumer electronics, social media, emerging tech, and video games.