OPPO Reno7 Z 5G
Price TBC
Pros | Cons |
+ Beautiful Dual Orbits Light design | - Camera performance can be improved |
+ Vibrant display | ​ |
+ Solid battery life | ​ |
Launching today is the OPPO Reno7 Z 5G, which has the same Dual Orbit Lights design surrounding the rear camera units as the one found on the Reno7 Pro. Essentially, the Reno7 Z is the most affordable option among the other members of the Reno7 series.
Design
Like its highest-end sibling, the Reno7 Z features flat edges around its smooth textured back. Compared to the other two members of the family, it offers a more interesting color option, Rainbow Spectrum, aside from the minimalist Cosmic Black. Our review unit is the former, which changes color from a rainbow finish to a light green hue when held at different angles.
OPPO says that the iridescent hue is inspired by silver linings hidden in each corner around us, the coming of a new year, and a fresh start full of aspiration. In any case, it's a unique color variant and somehow feels as if you own 2 different colored devices. Also, it has the perk of resisting fingerprints and providing a comfortable grip, even without a case.
The rear camera bump is removed from this model with two units of the triple camera array surrounded by what OPPO calls the Dual Orbit Lights. Basically, the two rings will blink or light up in electric blue, light blue, cyan blue, or baby blue in the following scenarios:
Power On - Slow Breathing
Charging - Continuous light (until fully charged)
Incoming Call - Blinking
Unread Messages - Slow Breathing
Entering a Game - Steady Flashing
The volume rocker is located on the left while the power button is placed on the right. There's also a microphone and a speaker on the top front. On the bottom edge, you'll find a speaker grille, a USB-C charging port, another microphone, and a 3.5mm headphone jack (Say yay, wired earphones users!)
Overall, it's really lightweight at 173g but still doesn't lose out to its siblings in exuding premium vibes.
Display and Audio
The 6.4" AMOLED display has a 90.8% screen-to-body ratio as the chin is way thicker than the other bezels, as compared to some devices that we recently reviewed. Unfortunately, the screen's refresh rate has been lowered from 90Hz on the other two to a basic 60Hz, which means scrolling and browsing won't be as smooth and snappy. Certainly not the best option for competitive games. Nevertheless, the AMOLED panel still makes binging Netflix a joy. It's also Netflix HD and Amazon Prime Video HD certified.
In the settings, you can choose between a vivid color mode for enhanced colors and a natural color mode for softer hues. Screen color temperature is also adjustable from anything between cool to warm.
When you toggle the dark mode, a dark mode settings section will appear, which lets you select how dark do you want the screen to be. Notably, there's a Dark mode for third-party apps feature, which applies dark mode to apps that don't offer the option by default, such as LinkedIn.
In terms of audio, the bottom-firing speaker is loud and clear, but nothing more beyond that. A Real Sound Technology is available to deliver the best sound effect based on the content you're listening to, including movie, game, and music. There's also a smart mode that can recognize what you're playing in the background and automatically applies the optimal sound effects.
Cameras
For cameras, the triple rear camera module consists of a 64MP main camera, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro camera. No ultrawide camera here from its predecessor so you will struggle with big group photos.
On the front is a 16MP selfie camera. Now if you're familiar with OPPO phones, this one also offers features like Bokeh Flare Portrait, AI Color Portrait, Selfie HDR, and many more.
Portrait mode: main camera vs front camera
OPPO devices are known for their AI beauty enhance features when it comes to selfies since most of us can't post a blemished selfie on Instagram. For one, I'm not a big fan of the feature, personally because it tends to overdo selfies, rendering them a little fake.
When you enable the 64MP mode on the main camera, you'll get results with pretty high clarity and fairly decent details under bright conditions.
Normal mode vs Night mode
At night, its performance falls and the night mode didn't help much either. But still, you can get all the help you need.
During my time of trying, the macro camera takes some time to focus on the object.
As for videos, it can record up to 1080p. There's also a Dual-View video feature, which allows you to shoot using both front and back cameras simultaneously. In this mode, it offers three split-screen modes: split, round, and rectangle.
ColorOS 12
The Reno7 Z boots ColorOS 12 on Android 11, introducing features such as Omoji, O Relax, and Air Gestures.
Basically, Omoji is a 3D animated emoji feature made using OPPO's Face Capture algorithm. It offers more than 200 accessories and dynamic expressions as the front camera detects your face to recreate your facial expressions. The feature comes with a few Omojis by default but you can personalize your own avatars from the shades of their facial features to different types of accessories.
This one will come in handy when you want to use the phone or answer calls but have oily fingers. With Air Gestures, you can navigate the device with hand gestures without touching it. When enabled, flip your hand up to answer calls and down to mute calls. You can also scroll the screen by flipping your hand up and down too. However, this function is only available for Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at the time of writing this article.
Lastly, O Relax is a built-in app with three features to help you destress: listen, unwind, and explore. In the listen section, you can mix up to 6 sounds from several categories including nature, life, cities, ASMR, and other when you select any ambient sound or music. The unwind section offers four stress-relief games, a bubble popper, deep breathing, and coloring. In the explore section, you'll be able to listen to various sounds of different cities, including Beijing, Shenzhen, Bangkok, Tokyo, and Reykjavik. An equalizer is available for you to adjust the tone of the sounds from quiet to lively.
Performance
The Reno7 Z is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G processor, along with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. RAM is expandable by 2GB, 3GB, and 5GB. You can easily perform basic tasks like scrolling documents, social media, and web browsing.
You can still run games at high graphics settings. Even in Apex Legends Mobile, I was able to play with UltraHD at a high frame rate with no noticeable lag. But in Genshin Impact, it's best to set low graphics settings at 30fps if you want to enjoy smooth and stable gameplay.
If you don't like to carry a power bank with you when you're out on a date for a whole day, you can trust this phone to not die on you halfway. The battery bar only dropped 20% on average use with 3 hours of screen on time, something which is quite impressive on a mid-range device. The 4500mAh battery can be fully boosted from 45% using the 33W SuperVOOC charging brick in around 40 minutes.
Buy or no buy
To be frank, if you already own the Reno6 Z, I wouldn't recommend you to upgrade to this one because there are actually not many upgrades onboard. Both generations have the same 60Hz display, 64MP main camera, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. Even the Snapdragon 695 chipset is not a big leap from the predecessor's Dimensity 800U. In fact, OPPO has removed the ultrawide camera (which we mentioned above) and the 32MP on the Reno6 Z is cut down to a 16MP sensor on the current one.
However, if you're looking to change to your first OPPO phone, this would be a decent choice for its relatively affordable price. It also has a beautiful exterior design, looking all the more unique when the Dual Orbits light up, and the latest ColorOS 12.
