As with most smartphone launches nowadays, the probability of a Pro variant is almost inevitable; and OPPO’s newly launched Reno 3 series is no exception. While the more affordable option undoubtedly hosts some familiar (and dated) designs, the Reno 3 Pro, on the other hand, does carry a few premium elements up its sleeve to set itself apart. However, are these features worth the upgrade?
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
Off the bat, the OPPO Reno 3 Pro’s looks and feels very similar to its non-pro counterpart. With a display size of 6.4-inches and a metallic-looking finish around its edges, this sleek looking device weighs in at just 175 grams with a thickness of 8.1mm, which is relatively lighter than most smartphones in this category thanks to its poly-carbonate finish.
Looking at the front, the Reno 3 Pro is clean, with barely any bezels taking up the space of the screen. It also has a slightly higher screen to body ratio compared to the Reno 3, but not by a noticeably large degree. Although the Reno series is initially known for its pop-up cameras and flush design language, the latest iteration of its lineup seems to take a different approach. It has now adopted the dual punch-hole camera set-up found in other devices.
At the back, you can find the OPPO logo at the lower right, and the rear main camera module at the top left which houses a quad-camera set-up along with the flash module.
The Reno 3 Pro comes in Midnight Black, Sky White, and Auroral Blue (our current unit), which is the most eye-catching one among the three with its vibrant gradient finish and holographic-like reflection when exposed to different lighting conditions.
On the left side are the standard volume rocker keys and a dual SIM card tray paired off with a dedicated MicroSD card slot for expandable storage, while on the right sits the power button and nothing else. While both sides are easily accessible with your fingers, I find having the volume and power keys on opposite sides to be less efficient compared to having them on just either side. This may cause unintentional button presses and is something you should consider, especially if you often prop your phone on a table when watching videos or even when playing games in landscape mode.
At the top sits the secondary noise-canceling mic while at the bottom, you can find their standard USB-C charging port, the primary mic, single firing speakers, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is always a great thing to have still.
Display and Multimedia
When it comes to the display, the Reno 3 Pro sports a 6.4-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED screen, with a refresh rate of 60Hz, a pixel density of 405ppi, and a maximum screen brightness of 800 nits, making this device easy to view even under harsh lighting conditions. The panel is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5, which isn’t precisely scratch resistant but helps keep your phone’s screen from shattering, especially for those who have butterfingers.
Heading to audio quality, the Reno 3 Pro is a decent performer, but nothing fantastic. It’s loud enough to fill up a room, but don’t expect much from it. With a bottom-firing speaker, you can end up accidentally covering the grilles whenever you’re holding the phone horizontally, which is almost unavoidable with this type of layout.
Camera
As for the camera, Reno 3 Pro comes packed with a quad-camera main shooter at the rear: featuring a 64MP primary sensor, a 13MP Telephoto lens, an 8MP Wide-angle lens, and a 2MP Mono lens to top it all off. Unlike previous Reno models with their rear cameras sitting flush against the panel, there is a little bit of a bump on the Reno 3’s camera module, but it was not enough to bother me even when placing the phone on a flat surface.
Putting it to the test, I was impressed to see how well the camera performed. Taking a photo in ‘Auto mode’ keeps images nice and compressed to save on storage space without removing too much noticeable detail. Turning the 64MP mode does take up a considerably large amount of space (up to 15MB of space per image) but makes for a cleaner, more detailed picture, which is well worth the trade if you ask me.
Ultra Dark Mode works like a charm and can capture decent images even with poor lighting conditions. Trying to take pictures of the city is great as colors popped more and had better lighting compared to shooting in normal mode. They also have a ‘tripod’ option that you can activate when your phone is propped up, making images even more stable and crisp.
Among the main highlights of the OPPO Reno 3 Pro is the capability to take poster-sized images of up to 4.3 x 3.2 meters with its Ultra Clear 108MP feature. It gave pretty impressive results, allowing me to zoom in and capture images from far distances without losing any of the important detail. And although ‘clear’ might not necessarily be in the picture when it comes to long-range shooting, it does a superb job at moderate distances with ample lighting. And with a pretty commendable resolution size (12032 x 9024), it makes a great companion for when you do decide to start printing those photos in a sizable format.
Heading over to the front camera, we get a dual punch-hole camera set-up that houses a 44MP primary shooter and a secondary 2MP depth sensor. Although a swiveling camera would have been sweet to have, the stationary design leaves me confident knowing that there won’t be any mechanical problems in the future that will cut this device’s life short. The camera’s borders also feature a ring of light that activates whenever the front camera is being utilized (i.e., unlocking your phone, starting video chats, etc.). Sadly, there is no option to simultaneously use this as a notification light, which would have been a cool feature to have.
When it comes to selfies, the Reno 3 PRO performs very well; picture quality is bright with natural colors under ambient lighting. Turning off all beauty enhancements (which are set to on by default), hairs and blemishes were detailed, and the adjustable bokeh option is a nice touch to have for extra control.
As for video quality, the Reno 3 Pro is capable of recording up to 4K at 30fps and 1080P at 60fps. It comes with OPPO’s Ultra Steady stabilization feature, making your shots nice and smooth even for the shakiest of hands. Instead of OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) found on previous Reno models, the Reno 3 Pro is equipped with EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization), which showed promising results. Recording while actively moving was still fluid and can quickly put any average phone gimbal to shame.
Overall, the Reno 3 Pro is a great point and shooter and can even be considered as a decent backup camera for emergencies. I always appreciate a phone that delivers quality images not just at the rear, but at the front as well. My only issue with bezel-less phones is whenever my fingers or palms would accidentally touch the display as I’m trying to capture a photo, which can potentially ruin that picture-perfect moment shot. As a workaround, I usually have my shutter button set to the volume rocker keys to prevent this problem.
OS, UI, and Apps
The Reno 3 Pro runs on Android 10 and is one of the first devices to come Color OS 7.0 out of the box. Apart from the buttery smooth experience, the updated skin enables more customization, including the changing of the home screen layout. It has a system-wide dark mode and a smart assistant section for quick accessibility.
We also get additional features such as OSIE (Oppo Screen Image Engine) Visual Effect for color enhancement, multi-user mode, and P2P sharing features capable of transferring files at high speeds between cross-brands like Xiaomi and Vivo. Another reason why we think Color OS is one of the best Android User Interface skins is that you won’t find much bloatware on this device apart from Google services, leaving more room in your device for additional storage space.
With 256GB of internal storage, the Reno 3 Pro allocates more than enough space for the average user, but If you feel like you need more, we also get a dedicated MicroSD card slot with up to 256GB of expandable storage.
When it comes to biometrics and security, the Reno 3 Pro is equipped with an in-display fingerprint sensor that takes some time getting used to if you’re coming from a phone with a rear-mounted scanner. Fingerprint registration is pretty quick, although it can be a hit or miss at times, depending on how well you registered your fingerprint. Alternatively, turning face unlock on helps resolve this problem as it only takes a second for the device to recognize your face, making me almost forget about that minor in-display sensor issue.
Performance and Benchmarks
As for performance, the Reno 3 is equipped with an octa-core MediaTek Helio P95 (MT6779) processor paired with an IMG PowerVR GM9446 GPU, which performs only slightly faster than the entry-level Adreno 430 GPU found on Qualcomm Snapdragon’s 810 chipsets. We get a generous 8GB of RAM, keeping all your apps running snappy with no hiccups whatsoever.
• AnTuTu V8 – 225,715
• Geekbench 5 – 396 (Single-Core) 1,492 (Multi-Core)
• PC Mark – 9,081 (Work 2.0 Performance) (Work 2.0 Battery Life)
• 3D Mark – 1,247 (OpenGL) 1,552 (Vulcan)
• AndroBench – 510.44 MB/s (Seq. Read) 207.31 MB/s (Req. Write)
Looking at the benchmark results, the Reno 3 Pro sits perfectly in the mid-range category, making it a balanced device for moderate to heavy use. When it comes to gaming, this device can handle the heat even for an ‘entry-level’ GPU. Call of Duty: Mobile, Mobile Legends, and Asphalt ran quite smoothly as I didn’t come across any noticeable frame skipping even when setting the graphics to high. The back panel was relatively cool to the touch, although it does get warm when playing games while simultaneously charging, which is normal.
Overall, I was more than satisfied with the Reno 3 Pro’s performance, excelling in different departments, whether it be gaming, juggling through different apps, or just using it as a daily driver.
Battery
Checking out battery life, the Reno 3 Pro has a 4,025 mAh capacity, which is fairly standard to see at the moment. In our standard video loop test (1080p mp4 video on loop, 50% brightness, 50% volume with headphones, and Airplane Mode on), the OPPO Reno 3 lasted a total of 22 hours and 11 minutes of playback, which makes watching multimedia content on this device a treat.
Although if you plan to run heavier tasks like games or do some live streaming, we still recommend you to have a charger with you as battery life depletes at a faster rate, especially if your screen is always on.
Conclusion
The Reno 3 Pro is an exceptional device that not only has great cameras, but also holds a respectable battery life, an intuitive user interface, and massive internal storage making it superb for day to day use. Although it does not boast any exceptional design construction, this device still packs a punch when it comes to performance and quality, making it the right candidate if you’re looking for something a little long-term.
Coming in at PHP 28,990, the Reno 3 Pro isn’t that affordable, but you do get what you pay for when it comes to having a solid, reliable phone.
OPPO Reno 3 Pro specs:
6.4-inch curved AMOLED display, FHD+ (2400 x 1080) resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, HDR10+ support
Corning Gorilla Glass 5
MediaTek Helio P95 octa-core CPU
8GB RAM
128GB storage
MicroSD card support (dedicated slot)
Quad-rear camera:
• 64MP F1.8 main
• 13MP F2.4 telephoto
• 8MP F2.2 ultra-wide
• 2MP F2.4 mono
Dual-front camera:
• 44MP F2.4
• 2MP F2.4
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 5.0
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
Dolby Atmos speakers
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
USB-C
ColorOS 7 (Android 10) w/ Gameboost 2.0
4,025mAh battery with VOOC 4.0 quick charge
158.8 x 73.4 x 8.1mm
175g
