Review verdict: The OPPO Reno7 refines what worked with its predecessor that arrived in the Philippines last year. Tweaks like a bigger battery and storage and the return of the headphone jack and MicroSD card slot does justify the Reno7 being better than the Reno6–while maintaining the same SRP.

Pros

• Better optimization than Reno6 especially with games
• Headphone jack and MicroSD card slot is back
• Double the internal storage

Cons

• Frame is now plastic instead of aluminum
• No change in the cameras
• Pricey

OPPO Reno7 Review Philippines Specs

• Dimensity 900 processor
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB storage
• 6.4-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display, 20:9 aspect ratio, 90hz refresh rate
• 64-megapixel f/1.7 main camera with PDAF, 8-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera, 2-megapixel f/2.4 macro camera
• 32-megapixel selfie camera
• 4G, LTE, 5G
• WiFi, Bluetooth 5.1, in-display fingerprint scanner
• 4500mAh battery
• 65w fast charging
• Android 12, ColorOS 12

Even if the Reno7 appears to be almost similar to last year’s Reno6 on paper, OPPO added a few features to the Reno7 to make it more appealing to prospective buyers. Armed with the same SRP as the Reno6 at launch, should you skip that model and go for the Reno7 instead?

Design

The Reno7 still goes for OPPO’s Reno Glow design language with its use of a brushed AG glass for the back panel. Unlike its predecessor, the Reno7 has a curvier body and swaps the Reno6’s aluminum frame for plastic. While that does feel like a downgrade, the Reno7 still looks and feels premium, especially with that brushed finish on its back panel.

The shift to a plastic frame is not that all bad, as OPPO did bring back the headphone jack and dedicated MicroSD card slot to the Reno7, which should make fans of wired earphones and memory cards very happy. its curvier design may also be a step back from the trendier boxy look of the Reno6, but the Reno7 does feel more ergonomic to the hand.

The Reno7 has a rectangular camera module that has two large camera modules for the 64-megapixel main camera and 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera. The 2-megapixel macro camera is placed beside the large module of the main camera, emphasizing how these 2-megapixel cameras are useless and are more of spec sheet fillers.

Display

Like what we mentioned in our quick review, the Reno7 uses practically the same AMOLED panel found on its predecessor–down to the 90hz refresh rate and punch-hole location. While we wished for a higher refresh rate, 90hz is fine; the difference between 60hz to 90hz is more noticeable for day-to-day use, and there’s barely any app that can make full use of refresh rates higher than 90hz.

Like with our impressions on the Reno6, the Reno7 has an equally good display: viewing angles are great, and it delivers vivid colors and excellent contrast ratios for you to enjoy watching videos in Full HD (or even at 4K with YouTube). The slight upgrades in maximum brightness and DCI-P3 coverage do help in justifying the Reno7 having a better display than its predecessor.

Like with its predecessor, we feel underwhelmed that you still get a single bottom-firing speaker. Considering more affordable phones are getting stereo speakers, we hope OPPO does follow suit in its future Reno phones.

Cameras

You’ve probably guessed it: the Reno7 uses the same camera setup used on the Reno6–and is practically the same setup used on the Reno5 5G sans the useless mono camera. Since both the Reno7 and Reno6 use the same processor (more on that later), overall camera performance is the same.

That being said, the 64-megapixel main camera does a good job in capturing photos thanks to the processing power of the Dimensity 900, and the ultra-wide-angle manages to be consistent as far as color accuracy and white balance are concerned.

The same can be said for the 32-megapixel selfie snapper, as selfies have plenty of detail and good colors thanks to this tried-and-tested sensor.

Considering OPPO has been using the same setup for 3 generations, we hope that they finally let go of the 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera and use a newer sensor–or at least add OIS on the main camera.

 

Internals and Battery Life

OPPO still uses a Dimensity 900 processor on the Reno7 that’s paired with 8GB RAM. We’re sad that the Snapdragon 778G variant of the Reno7  is not coming to global markets–especially if you consider benchmark results showing that it performs better than the Dimensity 900. Thankfully, OPPO doubled the storage of the Reno7 at 256GB–on top of having a MicroSD card slot–giving you plenty of room to store your apps, games, and media files compared to the 128GB internal storage found on its predecessor.

It has been several months since the Dimensity 900 officially arrived locally, and OPPO did make the processor more optimized on the Reno7 than on the Reno6. While the difference cannot be seen in benchmarks (the scores we got on the Reno7 is almost the same as the Reno6 if you factor margin of error), the ColorOS implementation on the Reno7 feels more fluid and stable.

This is much felt with gaming, as GameBench results show that the Reno7 was able to run Genshin Impact at medium graphics settings and with vastly improved stability compared to the Reno6. To prove OPPO’s software optimization, we even tried running the popular RPG at high graphics–with the game giving an overclocked warning–and the Reno7 delivered stable overall gameplay with the phone barely getting warm.

These optimizations are also greatly felt with battery life, as the Reno7 was able to do 18 hours of battery life with PCMark’s battery test with its 4500mAh battery. It has been a common association that MediaTek processors fall short when it comes to battery life, and the Dimensity 900 is an exception to that–especially now that it has proper optimization.

Like its predecessor, the Reno7 also comes with OPPO’s fast 65w charging that should be able to fully top up the battery in around 40 minutes in ideal temperature conditions.

Wrap up and Conclusions

A shift to a plastic chassis is not a bad deal, as OPPO brought back things like the headphone jack and MicroSD card slot on the Reno7. Together with a bump in internal storage and battery capacity, the Reno7 offers better value than its predecessor despite having the same launch SRP.

OPPO Reno7 Review Philippines price

The OPPO Reno7 has a price of Php 26,999 in the Philippines. Those who will pre-order today and during Shopee Super Brand Day (March 22 to 23) and Lazada Birthday Sale (March 26 to 27) will get a Q11 Smartwatch.