OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Edition review: A serious HUAWEI P30 Pro rival

It’s easy to say smartphones have more or less become the same. This is often true, but OPPO has continually been able to reinvent the wheel in fresh and exciting ways. The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Edition has a rear-mounted, triple camera system with zoom capabilities that rival the HUAWEI P30 Pro and a unique shark fin style popup selfie camera.

As its name suggests, the camera system is the phone’s main highlight, but there’s more to the story than just the camera. The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Edition rounds out the package with high-end hardware — but as we all know, no smartphone is perfect. Where does it fall short? And is the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom the new smartphone camera to beat?

This is Android Authority‘s OPPO Reno 10x Zoom review.

OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Edition: The big picture

The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Edition is part of a new product series that continues OPPO’s efforts to push smartphone boundaries. The Reno brand is being marketed towards a more youthful audience. This phone’s high-end specifications, large battery, sleek design, and sizable AMOLED screen should draw attention to general consumers, but this phone’s triple rear camera system and 10x zoom capabilities will likely attract many smartphone photography aficionados. 

Based on the cameras alone, the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Edition’s most obvious competitor is the HUAWEI P30 Pro, but it has all the right hardware and specifications to go toe-to-toe with many other major flagships.

The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Edition launched alongside the standard OPPO Reno in China and Europe. A 5G version of the 10x Zoom Edition was also announced for Europe. Pricing starts at 499 euros for the OPPO Reno, 799 euros for the 10x Zoom Edition, and 899 euros for the 5G version. The standard OPPO Reno shares the same main camera but lacks the 10x zoom functionality and is also smaller and less powerful.

What’s in the box

• VOOC 3.0 fast charger and cable
• USB-C earbuds
• TPU shell style case
• SIM card tool

Aside from the standard accessories, OPPO bundles the Reno with a case and a pair of earbuds. The included case provides decent protection and has some nice touches, such as the soft inner lining, to prevent scratches. The bundled earbuds look much nicer than most thanks to its black and green colorway, but they aren’t anything special outside as far as performance goes.

Design

If you’ve used or seen any of OPPO’s recent crop of smartphones, such as the OPPO F11 Pro or OPPO R17 Pro, the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom Edition will look and feel very familiar. This particular design is currently OPPO’s signature look, and I’m a pretty big fan of it. The rounded corners and curved sides are modern, sleek, and make the phone feel comfortable to hold. You’ll also find the same crescent arcs that OPPO has used on previous smartphones on the top and bottom edge of the phone.

Build quality on the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom is par for the course. Like most smartphones nowadays, the 10x Zoom uses a glass back and metal frame. The phone feels sturdy. It is available in two colors: Jet Black and Ocean Green. I have the Ocean Green model, which looks great. It’s different from the standard black and white, but still very subtle in appearance. This is a nice change of pace from OPPO’s flashy gradient color schemes.

At 215 grams, the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom has some significant heft. This is heavier than both the OnePlus 7 Pro (206g) and the HUAWEI P30 Pro (192g). It’s also a very large phone. It’s slightly taller than the Pixel 3 XL and over 1mm thicker. I don’t find either the weight or size to make the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom unbearable to use, but you may not like it if you prefer smaller, lighter phones. The best part about the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom’s extra girth is that it allows for a completely flush camera module — something we don’t see often in smartphones anymore.

The front of the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom is all display with no notch or punch hole. This is achieved by its use of a popup selfie camera. Popup selfie cameras have cropped up on a handful of smartphones, but the one on the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom has an unconventional approach. Instead of the usual rectangle shaped popup, the 10x Zoom has what OPPO calls a “Pivot-Rising” structure. This has been dubbed the shark fin popup due to its unique shape. Because of the popup’s larger size, it also has room to hide away the earpiece and a front and rear flash. 

OPPO claims the pivot structure only takes 0.8 seconds to rise. I didn’t actually clock it, but it does feel fast. Like most other popup mechanisms, it will automatically retract to protect itself in the case of a drop. It isn’t without its downsides. Since the shark fin is much larger than most other popups, I noticed that it’s more prone to gathering dust. This hasn’t seemed to create any issues yet, but could be a point of concern in the long term. The other downside is the phone isn’t resistant to water. This is usually the case with any phone that features moving mechanical parts and the OPPO Reno 10x zoom is no different.

In-display fingerprint sensors are starting to become increasingly more common, and they’ve seemed to improve vastly in the most recent generations. During my time with the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom the fingerprint sensor was very fast and accurate. It felt every bit as good as a conventional sensor and rarely ever failed to unlock for me on the initial attempt.

Display

Big, bright, and beautiful are three words that best describe the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom’s display. The colors from the OLED screen pop, and it gets plenty bright. I had no issues viewing it in direct sunlight. Text is crisp and sharp and the large size is especially great for videos.

The default settings looked fine to my eyes, but there are a couple of tweaks that you can make to change the screen’s appearance. There’s a fairly basic slider to change the display’s color temperature from cool to warm. You can also change the screen’s color mode. It’s set to Vivid by default, but there’s a Gentle option that makes colors look flatter and less contrasty. Unfortunately, there’s no always-on display. Considering this is an OLED panel, it seems like skipping the always-on display is a major oversight for OPPO. You’ll have to wake the phone up to glance at the time or notifications like a caveman.

Performance

Given the high-end specifications, I expected fast performance on the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom and it absolutely delivered. The experience has been seamless and smooth. I’ve noticed no lags or stutters throughout daily use.

As a gaming device, the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom also performs well. Frame rates are consistent and buttery smooth, and graphics look great. In order to prevent overheating, the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom uses three different types of heat dissipation methods: graphite sheets, a cooling pipe, and thermal gel. As far as I can tell, it seems to do the trick. The phone never got hot while I tested it, even when gaming.

The 10x Zoom comes with plenty of storage for those games or whatever else you like to put on your phone. There’s support for microSD, but I doubt most people will need it given that both storage options provide ample amounts of space.

Battery

• 4,065mAh
• VOOC 3.0 Flash Charging
• No wireless charging

Battery life is one of the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom’s best assets. I got two full days out of this phone with around 50 percent battery left to take me into the second day. I used the phone pretty normally. My typical day consisted of reading emails, checking Facebook and Twitter, watching YouTube, and an hour or two of gaming.

Most people, including myself, gauge battery life with screen-on time numbers, but ColorOS doesn’t include this statistic. You’ll just have to take my word for it when I say that it’s able to go the distance.

VOOC 3.0 Flash Charge is OPPO’s fast-charging tech. According to OPPO, it’s 20 percent faster than the previous iteration and the charging time has been reduced by half during the trickle-charging period. I wasn’t able to test or take advantage of VOOC 3.0, however, because our review unit did not have a U.S. wall plug.

Camera

If you’re interested in the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom, odds are you’re most interested in it for the cameras. There are three cameras on the rear, all of different focal lengths. The three cameras combined cover a focal range of 16mm (wide-angle) to 160mm (telephoto), which is where OPPO gets the 10x zoom moniker. The 48MP main sensor is the Sony IMX586, which is being widely used in many other smartphones such as the OnePlus 7 Pro, HONOR 20 Pro, and ASUS Zenfone 6. Images default to 12MP due to pixel binning, but you can manually switch to 48MP in the settings.

The telephoto lens is similar to the one found on the HUAWEI P30 Pro. In short, the sensor sits sideways inside the phone and it uses a prism to refract light much like a periscope. The telephoto lens kicks in when you use the preset 6x and 10x zoom options. You can zoom all the way up to 60x, but anything beyond 10x is purely digital zoom (i.e., cropping). You’ll never need to zoom in this intensely, but it is nice to have from time to time. The preset 6x zoom option might lead you to believe that the camera offers a 6x optical zoom, but the optical switch to the telephoto lens actually happens at 5x. The 6x and 10x zoom options are both hybrid zooms that mix optical and digital techniques.

Image quality overall is quite good. Details are crisp and sharp, dynamic range is good, and exposure is usually even across the entire frame. Colors have a nice amount of punch, but it isn’t overdone. White balance can be inconsistent at times, even when switching from one lens to another. Images tended to be a little warm or a little cool, but never swung too far in either direction.

Having various focal lengths at your disposal makes this camera extremely versatile. Landscapes and group photos are much easier to take with the wide-angle, and the telephoto zoom is impressive. At 6x, photos are still tack sharp with plenty of color and detail. The 10x zoom isn’t too shabby either, but if you look closely you will notice some degradation. It’s still great for a 10x zoom and much better than the results that you’d get from pure digital zoom. Photos taken at the maximum 60x zoom are usable but they aren’t super sharp or detailed. It’s also extremely difficult to frame subjects without a tripod or other support the further you zoom in.

Switching between lenses is simple. You can zoom in and out granularly by pinching to on the screen or use the presets by tapping the indicator on the viewfinder. The camera app is pretty straight forward. The app defaults to photo mode and you can switch between video, portrait, panorama, night mode, expert mode, time-lapse, slow motion, and Google Lens. Anything that you’re looking for is usually just a couple of taps or swipes away.

The differences are easy to spot. The biggest improvement in Ultra Night Mode is the increased dynamic range. Highlights are more tamed and you can see a ton of extra detail in shadowy areas. It takes a couple of extra seconds to capture an Ultra Night Mode image.

The front-facing camera works perfectly fine for selfie purposes. It doesn’t over-soften details and skin tones are natural. There’s also a front-facing flash that helps with low-light selfies.

Software

• ColorOS 6.0
• Android 9 Pie

If you’re a fan of OPPO’s take on Android, you’ll feel right at home on the Reno 10x Zoom. It runs ColorOS 6. We saw this version of ColorOS on the OPPO F11 Pro. I personally don’t mind ColorOS. It does somewhat mimic iOS, but it isn’t overly bright or offensive in its appearance. I also like that the shortcuts and brightness slider in the notifications panel are nice and large.

The UI may not be to everyone’s tastes, but it does offer some nice features. You have the option to use gesture navigation to enhance the full-screen experience or stick to traditional Android softkeys. There’s also a Smart Assistant panel that lives on the left-most home screen. This provides information at a glance, such as the weather and your calendar, and quick access to your favorite apps. It is easy to find your way around the UI and any setting that you need to tweak is in a logical place.

Audio

• No headphone jack
• Stereo speakers

The OPPO Reno 10x Zoom has a primary speaker on the bottom and uses the earpiece as a secondary speaker to create stereo sound. Sound quality is quite good, and remains crisp and clear at max volume. The biggest issue here is that the stereo effect is imbalanced because the bottom-firing speaker is much louder than the earpiece. This creates a lopsided experience that’s particularly noticeable when you hold the phone sideways to watch videos. 

Dolby Atmos is on board to let you tweak your listening experience, but you won’t really notice much of a difference between the audio modes when listening from the phone’s external speakers. You’ll get the most out of Atmos by plugging in a proper pair of over-the-ear cans.

OPPO Reno 10x Zoom specs

Value for the money

• OPPO Reno 10x Zoom: 8GB RAM and 256GB storage – 799 euros
• OPPO Reno 10x Zoom 5G: 8GB RAM and 256GB storage – 899 euros

For everything that you’re getting, the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom is priced fairly. It isn’t cheap, but it undercuts the HUAWEI P30 Pro (999 euros), which is arguably its main competitor. This is the only other phone on the market that can rival the HUAWEI P30 Pro in terms of zoom functionality. Everything else about the 10x Zoom, from performance, design, battery life, and display, are all top notch. It doesn’t have wireless charging or IP certification, so you’ll have to ask yourself if these are features you can live without. Otherwise, the 10x Zoom has pretty much everything to compete with the Galaxy S10 or LG G8.

If you want the OPPO Reno experience for less money, the standard OPPO Reno is worth a look. It starts at 499 euros and you get mostly the same experience, including the 48MP camera. The only thing you’ll really be missing is the 10x zoom feature.

The 5G version of the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom is up for pre-order in the U.K. on the EE network. Pre-orders are also up in India, and the phone goes on sale starting June 7. The 6GB variant is available on Flipkart at 39,999 rupees and the 8GB model is on Amazon for 49,999 rupees.

You won’t see the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom come to the U.S anytime soon. Expect to import it if you really want one. The OnePlus 7 Pro is a great alternative for U.S. buyers. OnePlus phones are largely based on OPPO phones, so they tend to offer similar hardware and features.

OPPO Reno 10x Zoom review: The verdict

Smartphone photography enthusiasts should be attracted to the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom’s camera capabilities. Not many current phones can challenge it. The 10x Zoom is extremely versatile and takes great photos, but this phone has more to offer than advanced photography. It checks all the right boxes thanks to the great screen, great battery life, and high-end performance. It’s an excellent phone all around.

Notable features that are missing include the headphone jack, water resistance, and wireless charging. If those are considered must-haves for you, you’re better off looking elsewhere. Otherwise, the OPPO Reno 10x Zoom is a great buy.

That concludes our OPPO Reno 10x Zoom review. Let us know in the comments if this is a phone you would buy.