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Content

1. Contents of delivery
2. TECH SPECS
3. Positioning
4. Design, dimensions, controls
5. Display
6. Battery
7. Memory, chipset, performance
8. Communication capabilities, sound
9. Камеры
10. Software
11. Competitors
12. Impressions, results

Contents of delivery

• Smartphone
• 20w charger
• USB Type-C cable
• Silicone Case
• Wired headphones
• SIM card tray eject tool
• Protective film (already glued on)
• User manual, warranty card

Positioning

As part of the spring update of the Oppo Reno line, two models saw the light on the Russian market – Reno3 and Reno3 Pro, which Eldar Murtazin told about in his review. It’s time to get acquainted with the younger model. This year, the manufacturer in our market again decided to limit itself to two models. Before that, in the first generation there were three smartphones (Reno Z / Reno / Reno 10x Zoom), in the second – two, Reno2 Z and Reno2, the Reno2 F version on MediaTek P70 and with a retractable camera did not reach Russia, as well as the very curious flagship Reno Ace with fast charging and Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus processor.

This year, the Russian market has so far bypassed the flagship gaming model Reno Ace 2, apparently in order not to confuse the user. It is strange that the title of the review hero does not contain the letter Z, because the list of characteristics just brings the smartphone to the role of the younger model in the line. The reason for such a move could be a possible transitional stage to a new design, which is already flickering in the leaks. Or maybe Oppo Reno3 is a dark horse, the first opinion about which is deceptive, or is Reno not the same?

Design, dimensions, controls

In anticipation of the new Reno devices, I recalled the visually unusual models of the first two generations. It was this aspect of smartphones that distinguished the models on the market and won over with their novelty and uniqueness. The unusual solution with the front-facing camera moving out of the Reno2 case added some peppercorns – on the original mechanism a la “shark fin”, and in the Reno2 Z – on the vertical mechanism. The main camera blocks were recessed into the body, which for me personally is the best implementation of this element, I have repeatedly mentioned this in my materials, and in the second generation there were no cutouts in the screen. For some reason, this design concept did not carry over into the third generation of the Reno, to my regret. This move is not entirely clear to me, it seemed that the series had formed its own design language, but, apparently, the market decided otherwise. I agree with the opinion expressed by Vladimir Fokin in one of the issues of Saturday Coffee: although the new exterior is close to the trends, it does not look so original and bright.

The gradient of the plastic back expresses disagreement: its color changes from violet-blue to aqua from bottom to top. It looks nice, but there is no play of textures and light refraction on them. For those who do not need any color transitions at all, there are white and black versions that are quieter in terms of design. The vertical camera block is located closer to the upper left corner of the backrest, and it is still raised above the main body. In the case of Oppo Reno3, the backlash when pressing the display of a smartphone lying on a solid surface is not very significant, but it is felt, it does not interfere with input.

In terms of dimensions and weight, the smartphone feels light and elegant, the relatively thin body and the use of plastic affect. The assembly is monolithic, not a single crunch and creak could be squeezed out of the case with a reasonable effort. Oppo Reno3 is hardly felt in the jeans pocket. During the entire testing period, I put the phone in the case exactly once, and then when unpacking: yes, the case is slippery, but not to critical situations with unexpected falls on the floor at any suitable opportunity. The fingerprint scanner is located in the screen, it works quickly and clearly, with minimal errors. You can switch to face recognition, which is also pretty smart. If you are on the street and hid your face under a mask, then the sensor in the screen reads prints well, even if your hands are in vinyl gloves.

Display

Omitting the fact of the presence of an intrusive cutout for the front camera and the impossibility of hiding it by software means, it can be argued that there is practically no fault with the AMOLED display in Oppo Reno3. A confident margin of brightness, deep and correct black, adequate color rendition – it’s nice to use. The color temperature is still adjustable, from the options we can note the activation of the OSIE visual effect, which improves the image in third-party applications, as well as the flicker reduction mode at low brightness. It protects the eyes, reduces eye fatigue, but makes the image a little more grainy. Optionally, you can display the time on the off display, Always-On “at minimum”. Every minute the position of the numbers changes, the pixels will not burn out, the activists of the anti-AMOLED movement need not worry.

Of course, after “talking” with a smartphone with a 90 Hz screen, the display in the tested smartphone looks less advantageous, however, opinions differ regarding this parameter. Personally, I’m already used to the increased screen refresh rate, smartphones without 90 or 120 Hz do not look very advantageous against the background of their more advanced colleagues. Someone does not notice the difference at all, focusing on other characteristics – resolution, geometry, etc. I would still like to see at least 90 Hz in such a smartphone. I think that increased screen frequency in 2020 will be one of the ways to differentiate smartphones from the middle segment and above.

Battery

From the 4025 mAh battery installed in the device, you can safely expect good autonomy. The smartphone can easily withstand up to a day and a half in mixed use mode with 4 hours of screen, synchronization with mail and instant messengers, and about an hour of shootouts in the “royal battle” for testing performance in games. In the cyclic video test, I reached the result of 20,5 hours, generally good, but I saw a more confident result.

However, VOOC 3.0 easily eliminates this aspect. Reno3 is one of the prime examples of how fast charging can change habits. It’s about how users put the phone on charge all night before going to bed. In the case of this smartphone, this approach is redundant and illogical, because the smartphone charges from 0 to 100% in 57 minutes. Accordingly, in half an hour you can get 50% of the charge. At the same time, this is not the fastest indicator on the market, for example, Super VOOC is almost twice as fast, but the available result is quite adequate. Fast charging will definitely not let you get bored in self-isolation and part with your smartphone for a long time.

Memory, chipset, performance

In our market, only one Reno3 modification is sold – 8/128 GB. The smartphone has not the fastest memory, both operational and permanent, its characteristics fit exactly into its segment, but nothing more. The choice of the processor can cause certain questions. MediaTek Helio P90 was presented already at the end of 2018, both Oppo Reno Z and Reno2 Z worked on it. In terms of performance in benchmarks, the processor shows results of the level of Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, sometimes swinging at 855. One of the processor’s “chips” is an advanced neural processor responsible for AI and everything related to it. The AI ​​benchmark still produces excellent results, which is to be expected. By the way, in the ranking of the Reno3 utility on Mediatek Dimensity 1000L and with 12 GB of RAM, it takes 12th place after a host of Huawei and Honor devices.

As for the performance in “heavy” games, everything is pretty tolerable and playable. I was ready to wrinkle my nose, but the system automatically launched PUBG at high settings, and then during 92% of the game session (about 20 minutes) PerfDog recorded a stable 29 frames per second with an average processor load of 41% and a peak temperature of 45 degrees. The gaming experience itself did not cause significant complaints, the textures were loaded evenly, smoothly, the interface worked without jerking or slowing down.

Apparently, the manufacturer did not want to raise the cost of the smartphone, therefore, a relatively old, but still adequate in terms of performance, processor was chosen. And only then the well-known events intervened, which negatively affected the exchange rate and, apparently, the final cost of the smartphone. But these are just my guesses, especially since Chinese smartphone manufacturers do not always surprise with the adequacy of price positioning, which we will discuss in the conclusion to the review.

Communication capabilities, sound

The smartphone has one speaker, I would like to see a stereo pair. The volume margin is confident, when the volume rises to close to maximum values, the sound starts to “wheeze” a little. The speaker will definitely not allow you to miss a call, the vibration is accentuated. The hearing speaker transmits speech clearly, be it a call or an audio message from Telegram, its average volume is quite sufficient. To the spoken, too, do not find fault, the interlocutors did not notice any interference in the conversation, it was not necessary to speak louder. GPS on the street starts quickly, from 2 to 5 seconds, there is an NFC module on board, in the context of ubiquitous contactless payment, it will definitely come to the spot.

Камеры

The hallmark of Reno smartphones is the emphasis on cameras and their capabilities. In the case of Reno3, the trend continued: the main module has a resolution of 48 megapixels, 13, 8 and 2 megapixel modules are in the company. The smartphone shoots very, very well, in this it is helped by the already mentioned processor with advanced AI capabilities. Artificial intelligence takes part in the recognition of shooting scenarios and the processing of the resulting frames. I liked the color rendition, it is rich, but without compression, only sometimes there are flaws in this aspect.

The main camera with a resolution of 48 MP allows you to get clear and bright images in daylight or sufficient artificial lighting. Shots in low light or at night are straightened by the Ultra Night mode, but in it you need to hold the phone extremely still, and even better – on a tripod, the software has a dedicated mode. When shooting with an ultra wide-angle lens, there is no feeling of stretching of the picture and the fish-eye effect that can sometimes be seen in smartphones. At the same time, there is no obvious color distortion that is found in some smartphones. A telephoto lens occasionally blur with focus, you have to correct the situation by pressing the screen. The rest of the experience is very similar to that of the realme 6 Pro, the similarity of the camera software affects. For video shooting, two ultrastabilization modes are available – UIS and UIS Max, in each of them the shooting goes to a separate camera module, I liked the usual UIS more.

The front camera, like in previous generations of Reno, pleases with excellent frames and shooting speed. The settings for improving the face are still in place, the bokeh is applied almost without errors, this aspect is affected by the same level of illumination. Despite the capricious night mode, it is the front camera that is at its best here, no joke, 44 megapixels.

An interesting software feature is the Ultra Clear mode. It is activated via the XHD option available in Pro mode. The essence of the technology is to combine many frames into one in order to obtain a picture equivalent in size and detail to shooting with a 108 megapixel camera. Shooting in this mode can be carried out on any of the main cameras, I would recommend the main one, the rest noticeably “wash”. In fact, you get something like a cropped image (crop), which actually has clearer details. According to the manufacturer, this mode will help to improve the clarity of faces or text, and subsequently such a frame can be printed on a large poster. Of course, good lighting and a built-in gyroscope are required. In practice, there is a difference, here are examples of frames with and without Ultra Clear, as well as their comparison.

Software

The smartphone out of the box works on the basis of the new ColorOS 7, I have long wanted to look at this version. In the update, the design of the settings menu was redesigned, the icons were redrawn, and the system dark theme was finally added. The list of preinstalled apps has been added to the Netflix Android client, otherwise unchanged. It so happened that I got to know the updated realme UI earlier than with the new shell from Oppo, but I didn’t lose anything, since the shells are almost identical. To understand what to expect from the interface, you can check out the realme UI 1.0 review.

Competitors

By and large, as an alternative, you can consider the predecessors of the model: Reno Z and Reno2 Z. They can now be bought for 25 and 990 rubles, respectively (cost on the official website). In fact, from generation to generation the amount of RAM, the number of megapixels in cameras has grown, and the design has also changed. I would choose the second generation for the lack of cutouts in the screens, although the difference in the increase in the resolution of the front camera is impressive.

Without going far from realme, one of the new competitors can be identified: realme 6 Pro will be sold for 21 rubles until June 990, its features include a screen with a refresh rate of 2 Hz, a camera system with a 90 MP main module and quite suitable pictures , including a double front module, a beautiful and memorable backrest gradient and an unusual location of the fingerprint sensor. As you already understood, the interface is parity.

In the BBK camp, there is another alternative to the hero of the review: Vivo V17 in the official store costs 22 rubles, while it has a more capacious battery, but the camera system is a little simpler. In any case, it will not be possible to go far from the Chinese manufacturers, so we will add the Xiaomi Mi 990T and Honor 9 Pro to the mentioned smartphones. The device from XIaomi in the maximum configuration (20/6) costs 128 rubles and offers quite a good set of cameras, which, according to Roman Belykh, give good photos. A quality camera phone Honor 22 Pro (990/20) when purchased on the official website will cost 8 rubles, including two gifts

Impressions, results

The indicated cost of the global version of the smartphone was $ 405, the ruble equivalent at the current dollar rate according to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation at the date of writing the review corresponds to the retail value in Russia. For this money, a potential buyer will receive advanced photo capabilities, albeit not top-end, but stable performance, in fact, fast charging and a pleasant interface. The design compared to the previous generation of Reno has become less bright and curious, visually the smartphone can only catch on with a multi-colored gradient of the back. The designer of the first two generations of Reno is urgently wanted!

In my opinion, this smartphone should cost around 25 thousand rubles, even taking into account the cool pictures and camera capabilities. It is clear that the average user does not care what processor is in the smartphone, it does not slow down – and good. However, despite all the AI ​​charm of the processor, it is perceived as slightly outdated. Does this mean that its performance is not sufficient for modern scenarios? Not at all, the smartphone coped with all the tasks that I loaded it with during testing. Of course, you can’t count on the top-end gaming experience, but the test rates in games are at the level of other devices with similar characteristics and price positioning. In general, the impressions are varied, but a slight advantage is still a plus thanks to the cameras.

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