OPPO Reno3 Pro review – Six Shooter Surprise

The OPPO Reno3 Pro is the more powerful upgunned variant of the Reno3 with a slightly more powerful processor, double the onboard storage, a more powerful rear quad camera and faster VOOC 4.0 flash charging.

There’s another variant floating about with a Snapdragon 765G processor for certain markets but for Malaysia, the Reno3 Pro that we’re getting is the one packing a MediaTek Helio P95 octacore processor along with 30W Vooc 4.0 Flash Charge support. Where the prior A91 and A92 that we tested were primarily entry level phones, the Reno3 Pro is novel in that it has features akin to a flagship phone but keeps the price and most of its hardware above a midrange yet below a flagship phone, making it akin to a super medium or a low-end flagship, if such a designation exists.

What’s in the box with the OPPO Reno3 Pro?

OPPO can be counted to kit their hardware out in a comprehensive fashion and the OPPO Reno3 Pro comes with a generous array of extra gear. Out of the box, they’ve thrown in a soft, form-fitted TPU casing, the usual SIM ejector pin, a pair of hard wired ear buds of fair quality and a UK-style 30W VOOC 4.0 Flash Charge charger along with the paired USB cable to charge the phone. 

Where other brands need you to fork out extra dosh for a charger this powerful, OPPO has bundled it with the phone itself which is a very pleasant bonus. Don’t lose it and the cable though as you will only be able to charge the phone at normal, slower speeds without it.

They have also judiciously applied a screen protector on the Reno3 Pro beforehand  which allows for immediate deployment straight out of the box.

OPPO Reno3 Pro design and specifications

The OPPO Reno3 Pro is OPPO’s latest phone in Malaysia though it’s still a notch below their flagship uber phone the Find X2 Pro. In build, design and aesthetics, the Reno3 Pro does justify its rather lofty price tag to some degree. 

Under the hood, the OPPO Reno3 Pro for Malaysia comes with the following hardware:

Specifications
Price RM2,399
Display 6.4-inch Super AMOLED, 1080 x 2,400 pixels
Processor MediaTek Helio P95
Memory 8GB RAM/256GB storage + microSD card
Camera 64-MP F/1.7 + 13-M w/ 2x optical zoom + 8-MP ultra wide angle + 2-MP mono sensor (rear)/44-MP + 2-MP (depth sensor) (front)
Battery 4,025mAh w/ 30W VOOC Flash Charge 4.0
Size/Weight 158.8 x 73.4 x 8.1 mm / 175g

This ensemble of specifications puts it squarely in the upper midrange category with several notable bonuses including a vibrant Super AMOLED display and VOOC 4.0 Flash Charging support though it lacks a few other niceties like stereo speakers, a crisper display and optical image stabilisation for the cameras.

Externally, the phone comes with the usual lashings of contemporary design with rounded corners, super slim bezels all around and a shiny finish. The backplate itself and the sides all come in the same reflective trim which lends it a certain uniformity. In the case of our test unit, it’s a dark shade of Midnight Black though it can also be found in what they have designated as Aurora Blue.

The finish itself, in keeping with others of its ilk, looks rather premium and shiny though it’s also a fingerprint magnet that needs frequent wipedowns. The backplate itself also has a pronounced camera bump like the A91 and A92 which lends it the risk of scratching if placed face down on a surface though the bundled casing resolves both problems nicely while adding a fair bit of grip to the phone to prevent it from slipping out of your hands when in use.

The left side of the phone comes with a volume rocker and a SIM card tray with the right packing a power button. The base itself has a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB Type-C port and a grille for the mono speaker.

Up front, the Reno3 Pro sports a perfectly flat 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display from Samsung with 1080 x 2,400 pixel resolution and the ability to dial up to 50 nits maximum brightness though it can bump itself up automatically to 800 nits if needed under outdoors sunlight conditions in Max Auto mode. 

Super AMOLED panels offer more luscious colours, are brighter than competing panels and are typically used in Samsung’s own hardware, which makes its inclusion in the Reno3 Pro quite a fait accompli. The touchscreen also has an in-display fingerprint reader for fast unlocks. 

The bezels are impressively thin and stretch all the way to the edges of the phone with a tiny pill-shaped punch hole in the corner framing a 44-MP selfie camera with a secondary 2-MP depth sensor to create bokeh for both stills and portrait mode.

Taken as a whole, the Reno3 Pro looks the part of a premium phone, has decent build quality and packs a comprehensive selection of accessories to go with it.

OPPO Reno3 Pro performance and benchmarks

The hardware powering the OPPO Reno3 Pro is a MediaTek Helio P95 processor of recent vintage with an improved AI Processing Unit (APU) for better computational based AI photography and performance enhancements all around. Unfortunately, the phone is limited to 4G LTE and lacks 5G support though it does support Bluetooth 5.0 and WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac connectivity. 

The paired 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage are substantial indeed with the size and capacity exceeding most midrange phones and able to match many flagships too. You can also augment the memory via a microSD card slot in case you need more.

In terms of synthetic benchmarks, the OPPO Reno3 Pro scored the following:

GeekBench 5.1.1 Single Core score 397 Multi-Core Score 1501
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Open GL ES 3.1 1252
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Open Vulkan 1549
PCMark Work 2.0 9135
GFXBench 380.4 frames

On pure benchmarks alone it’s noticeably better than the Snapdragon 665 processor in the OPPO A92 and the Helio P70 seen in the A91 by several notches. It also compares favourably with competing phones in its weight class though it’s a tad slower in some benchmarks compared to other midrangers like the Galaxy A71. 

Benchmarks aside, the OPPO Reno3 Pro performs in a generally competent fashion with little lag when puttering about the menus or various apps. Performance for day to day tasks proved to be pleasantly smooth with easy switching between multiple Chrome browser tabs, Google Docs, YouTube and Gmail.

Of note is that the phone has Widevine L1 certification, allowing it to run Netflix at Full HD resolution without issue though it lacks HDR playback capability.

On the gaming front, it manages to handle all the usual staples like Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG and the like on high settings without cooking off. The Super AMOLED display serves up punchy colours and good detail with great clarity under sunlight on Max Auto mode though this drains the battery like mad – it’s best you only employ this for short periods of time. Frame rates are capped at 60fps but it’s generally not a major issue unless you’re a hardcore gamer.

The sole mono speaker on the phone does a decent job but is otherwise unremarkable. It has understandably poor sound staging but is sufficiently loud and clear enough for listening to mainstream music and for gaming. It’s a missed opportunity here to put in stereo speakers to give it a truly decisive edge to the competition.

Like other OPPO phones of this current generation, the Reno3 Pro runs their Color OS 7.1 user interface and it’s still chock full of bloatware. There’s a separate OPPO App Market, a ton of web wrappers to Lazada and other sites, a bunch of additional apps and their own browser all crammed into the phone so you may have to do a bit of digital housekeeping before you start using it. If you’d like to explore more on the quirks of ColorOS, swing by our prior OPPO A92 review where we cover it in more thorough detail.

The provided 4,025mAh battery has enough endurance with an average use case just short of a day’s worth of battery life though its saving grace is its fast 30W VOOC 4.0 Flash Charge that can charge it from zero to 50% in 20 minutes. 

On a purely performance front alone, the Reno3 Pro is fairly competent, edging out over the competition on account of its vibrant Super AMOLED display, 256GB storage and VOOC 4.0 Flash Charge tech.

OPPO Reno3 Pro cameras

The OPPO Reno3 Pro has a vertically arrayed quad camera array on the rear that consists of a primary 64-MP F/1.8 camera with a large 1/1.72″ sensor, a secondary 13-MP telephoto camera with a 2x optical zoom lens and the ability to offer 5x hybrid zoom and up to 20x digital zoom, a third 8-MP 119-degree ultra wide angle lens and a fourth 2-MP mono lens. Only the first three cameras are used in photography while the fourth is only used to capture depth details.

One bonus point to note with the OPPO Reno3 Pro’s setup is that it’s one of the rare few phones in its price range to pack optical zoom. Unfortunately, like many other similarly priced phones, this quad camera setup lacks optical image stabilisation (OIS) and instead goes with electronic image stabilisation which doesn’t produce results as pleasingly smooth as OIS.

Combined, this setup can capture pixel-binned 16-MP stills on auto mode and you can also fire up an Ultra Clear 108MP mode that captures a single huge 108MP still. The rear cameras can also capture 4K video too. 

Of note with the Reno3 Pro is the addition of a Steady mode that crops the image feed and uses AI to compensate and create judder-free 1080P@30fps video and a Night mode that extends exposure time to capture better lit shots at night with a tertiary tripod mode to capture impressive snaps even in extremely dimly lit settings.

 

As a point-and-shoot camera, the primary 64-MP camera on the Reno3 Pro proves to be quite capable for daytime shots with an excellent macro mode and relatively similar colour rendition for both the wide angle and primary 64-MP cameras. 

Shots under daylight are good at up to 2x zoom, serving up surprisingly good detail and colour accuracy with decent dynamic range but anything beyond that oom level exhibits grain so it’s best used only under dire circumstances. In dimly lit conditions, the primary camera delivers soft but serviceable shots with some loss of detail for social media though zooming in makes it much worse. The wide angle cameras fare somewhat poorer under dim light with noticeable noise and loss of detail.

OPPO’s vaunted bokeh on the front and rear cameras for both video and stills works as it says on the tin in a convincing fashion with the ability to selectively dial how much blur occurs in the background. It works well  for the most part but isn’t flawless especially with subjects that have long hair. It works best in selfies or single subjects but it’s a pretty sweet bonus.

 

The Night mode on the Reno3 Pro actually has two stages. The first stage is designed for quick shots and has a 5-second exposure time which is a notch or two better than what you’d get on Auto mode but with slightly better dynamic range and colours albeit with some degree of softness.

The second stage is an Ultra Night Mode that needs a 30 second exposure and the use of a tripod but which can yield impressive low light shots in scenarios that would even give higher end phones pause. You need to be absolutely still for this to work with best results from the primary camera.

The vaunted 108MP mode does get you bigger, more detailed shots but this works best under daylight conditions. The trouble is that this mode is nested deep in the menus and only vaguely mentioned in passing. If you need to access it, you need to go to your camera and then More>Expert Mode and then select the XHD icon. Be warned that these shots are huge with each snap taking up 30MB but they can be cropped to relatively close distances without turning into a grainy mess.

The front 44-MP selfie camera offers good skin tone rendition and has one of the better background defocus effects we’ve seen in awhile on a smartphone.

Of note is the front camera’s Night mode that uses a combination of AI enhancements and the large sensor to deliver surprisingly good shots under dim light settings. The following test shot was taken in extremely dim settings with only a desk lamp and it still yielded pleasing results without the exaggerated beautification effects that typically befall male subjects.

OPPO Reno3 Pro Price and Verdict

The OPPO Reno3 Pro is an interesting proposition for those looking for something more powerful than a midrange phone as it packs an excellent Super AMOLED screen, a fair amount of power along with 256GB amounts of storage, VOOC 4.0 Flash Charge support and a decent set of cameras too.

 As it stands a bit on the pricey side but you’re getting a phone with few major shortcomings that comes bundled with a full set of extra kit including a charger to take full advantage of that fast charging tech too.

What we liked Vibrant Super AMOLED display, lots of storage, interesting Night and Ultra Steady camera modes, 30W VOOC 4.0 Flash Charging, good Night selfie mode

What we didn’t Finish is a fingerprint magnet, Night mode needs tripod for best effect, ColorOS still full of bloatware

We say The OPPO Reno3 Pro is a bit on the pricey side but comes with a good Super AMOLED display, impressively fast 30W Vooc 4.0 Flash Charge fast charging, lots of storage and a decent camera array.

Review unit courtesy of OPPO Malaysia. Available for purchase at the official OPPO online store.