For a performance enthusiast or a gamer, it’s easy to stop writing by looking at the Reno4 Pro special sheets. But for the average user, the Reno4 Pro can still offer some interesting features, which is enough to make it the smartphone of choice, if you have the budget for this smartphone. The Renault 4 Pro is rather expensive for the core hardware underneath the hood, but then again, it’s not much about specs compared to the experience that makes a smartphone worth recommending. Is the Renault 4 Pro worth buying? We’ll find out –

Performance

The Oppo Reno4 Pro is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G, the same chipset that powers a bunch of smartphones below Rs 20,000, and it can arguably be called a popular mid-range chipset. The price of smartphones, however, is in the high-end flagship region. It’s hard for power users to justify this choice, but for anyone looking for an affordable handsome smartphone for the basics, the Reno4 Pro should work just fine. Options like the OnePlus Nord, Realme X3 SuperZoom and iQOO 3 surpass the Reno4 Pro in almost all respects except design. But that’s thematic. However, performance gaps aren’t something that anyone can really know unless they’re constantly switching between apps, or gaming, or benchmarks.

Benchmark results clearly show how far behind the Renault 4 Pro really is, compared to its peers in this price range.

The performance gaps we see in benchmarks are rarely noticed in everyday use. Of course, this isn’t the smooth experience of butter from a Snapdragon 855 or an 865 processor, but it’s not easy for an average user to measure. I picked up the Reno4 Pro after using the OnePlus Nord for a week, and a small delay became apparent as normal activities seemed as smooth, small things like launching the app, or switching the camera, or unlocking the screen. Things that won’t really bother a vanilla smartphone user, from habitual to mid-range performance.

Reno4 Pro is not going to impress gamers either. The Snapdragon 720G can only play popular games with moderate graphics We played a few rounds of PUBG Mobile and COD: Mobile and none of them allowed Reno4 Pro to run in the highest graphics settings. However, CoD Mobile has managed to hit 60 FPS as we mentioned in Realme 6 Pro and Redmi Note 9 Pro, both running games at 60 FPS. Presumably, the Adreno 618 makes the most of games running on low graphics, as CPU usage is about 20 percent when gaming.

PUBG Mobile also hits only 30 FPS in the gamebench and also in HD graphics. So the draw distance, texture and other details are much less than the smartphone that Reno4 Pro competes with. Having said that, the gameplay of both PUBG Mobile and COD: Mobile is quite smooth, but no understandable frame drops. Nothing like the Touch Response flagship, and the 90Hz screen doesn’t really work here, but you’ll get a dedicated gaming mode where you can set a separate profile for each game and turn on what Oppo calls “tournament mode”. Apparently boosts performance.

Software

ColorOS 7 software is part of what makes this mid-range smartphone quite usable. With the rollout of ColorOS 7, until recently Oppo smartphones were not known for the smooth, minimalist UI – which manages to offer both personalization and minimalism in the Reno4 Pro. You can choose what your icons will look like from settings, wallpapers and app layouts and much more, and even apply a variety of pre-made themes available in the theme store. There is also a capable Dark Mode and a Nifty always-on display as well as great watch style.

Annoyingly enough, the Reno4 Pro still has some apps that were banned by the Indian government. It is still harmless because they do not work and can be uninstalled The thing that bothered me was that despite paying Rs 34,999, there was nothing special to write in the software. Almost all the features are the same that you will find in any other Oppo smartphone at a much lower price.

The camera

The Reno series started with a nicely tuned camera on the Reno 10X Zoom, but over the past few repetitions, the camera has been quite disappointing. Reno4 Pro’s quad camera setup evokes the same feeling. The 48 + 8 + 2 + 2MP setup is common for mid-range smartphones priced below Rs 20,000, and it’s normal to expect some level of difference to motivate the buyer to consider paying more. The camera is different from most OEMs, but not the Reno4 Pro 7 Its performance is strictly average, and far more than the pictures that Renault 10X Zoom took.

Daylight

Oppo Reno4 Pro vs Competition:

Shot on Oppo Reno4 Pro

Shot on iQOO 3 5G

During the day, the Reno4 Pro produces good colors, and pictures with the right amount of saturation and vibration. The dynamic range is downwards, and the details are similar when compared to images taken from phones like the iQOO 3.

A little light

Oppo Reno4 Pro vs Competition:

Shot on Oppo Reno4 Pro

Shot on iQOO 3 5G

The Reno4 Pro comes with a night mode that takes a few seconds to take a low light photo. The result is an image that looks brighter, but doesn’t have too many details when you zoom in.

Portrait

The portrait mode algorithm enhances the natural beauty which smoothes the skin and makes the face more fair. Subject segregation is accurate, however, and you’ll get a sharp image with lots of filters to test.

Macro

Shot on Oppo Reno4 Pro

Shot on iQOO 3 5G

It is better to keep the 2MP macro unused. Yes, you can get close to a subject up to 4 cm, but the color looks completely faded and there are no details. iQOO 3 pushes the Reno4 Pro using a software-induced macro mode.

Video

The video capabilities of the Reno4 Pro are limited to 4K at 30 fps, and while the phone manages to stay focused, the quality of the videos is even sharper on smartphones like the iQOO 3 at the same price. The light weight of the phone helps keep the phone stable, and has a software-assisted Ultra Steady mode, which is quite simple.

Battery

Here’s where things get interesting. Although the Reno4 Pro is strictly average in performance and camera, it is definitely long lasting. Even if it eventually dies, it returns in less than 15 minutes of charging. It has the same 65W fast charger that Realme X50 Pro already offers, and it is a game changer in itself, although this feature alone does not support the price you have to pay. Power draw is quite controlled for Snapdragon 720G and Oppo’s own resource management algorithms to work in the background. If you switch between too many apps, the next one can be annoying, because in my case, the BatteryLog app was running to drain the battery drain and it kept dying every few hours.

Design and display

What really makes Reno4 Pro a consideration is the design. The smartphone isn’t the most powerful, but it certainly looks gorgeous. This is of course a feature borrowed from the Reno4 Pro Reno 10X Zoom. The first thing you notice when you pick up the phone is that it is incredibly light weight and has a frosted matte finish. The way it feels at hand, the design of the Reno4 Pro is a lot like the special version of the Realme X series, which for some reason is called onion and garlic.

What works in the case of Reno4 Pro is the feather-light weight and slim profile. It is just 7.7mm thick and rocks a curved AMOLED display that blends in with the plastic body along the edges. As a result, Reno4 Pro can be easily used with one hand. It is really ergonomic, does not slip and does not attract ugly smudges and fingerprints.

As for the display, it’s decent for general work but lacks features like HDR support for Netflix and other streaming apps like its competitors offer. The 6.5-inch AMOLED panel is still HDR-rated, and supports DCI-P3 color in apps and UI. There is also the OSIE Vision Effect that is present in almost every Realme and Oppo smartphone. It adds a warm glow to the screen when playing a video when turned on. Brightness levels are ideal for indoor use. Using it under direct sunlight will cause the color to fade and make the text difficult to read.

The last row

Overall, the Oppo Reno4 Pro is a strictly average smartphone that looks good and charges instantly. Design and battery life are two things that somewhat justify the price tag, but without the performance to back it up, the Reno4 Pro seems like a half-finished job. It looks like Oppo started by making a premium smartphone – it made the outer shell, but then moved on to making a mid-range smartphone. As a result, the Reno4 Pro can easily be mistaken for a high-performance smartphone with premium camera performance, but in reality, it’s just average.

Buy the Reno4 Pro if you want a smartphone with an ergonomic design and hyper-fast charging. For everything else, there are better options like OnePlus Nord, iQOO 3 and Realme X3 SuperZoom.