The OPPO Reno 7 is here with us since official launch on April 26 and I’ve had the pleasure to interact with it since a few weeks before launch. Here are my thoughts and experience with the phone.
What’s in the box?
The box has the OPPO Reno 7 phone, a custom-made back cover, charging brick, USB cable, and literature. This time the phone does not come with earplugs, but users can use any existing ones. The phone has a 3.5mm jack and is also Bluetooth enabled so there is no limitation to sound options. I’m using the OPPO Enco wireless earbuds.
Design
OPPO has since built a name for premium eye-catching design. As such, I knew what to expect as a first impression and the phone did not disappoint. The OPPO Reno 7 has a boxy shape as opposed to rounded corners, light and solid build, and a matte back finish so that it is not much of a fingerprint magnet. My unit came in starry black and combined with the boxy edges, this makes the design eye catching and I fell in love with immediately. The phone also comes in a sunset yellow variant.
Speaking of simplicity, the overall design is minimalist, with only the camera module being prominent. Otherwise, the branding is subtly engraved at the back. The mic, speaker, charging port and 3.5mm jack are tucked away at the bottom. The power button is on the right, and the volume rockers, SIM tray slot and microSD are on the left side of the phone. This overall simplicity gives the phone a premium build.
Storage and performance
With 8GB RAM and 256 GB ROM, this is a phone that can perform any task without freezing or glitching. With that kind of RAM, even the most ardent multitasker will have a smooth run with this one. Content creators will store footage upon footage without filling up the storage and people who use resource hogging apps will not feel any lag.
I usually have a movie or series on phone to watch on the go and high-performance phones gives me the peace of mind to save even more of these with no worry of memory fill ups.
With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 Octa-core chop, Android 12 and ColorOS v12.1, this is a powerhouse of a phone.
Battery
The OPPO Reno 7 has a 4500mAh battery but what excites me even more is the 33W fast charger. What fast charge gives users is freedom. Freedom to never miss crucial communication because the phone died. Freedom to not panic if you are used to charging your phone overnight and you forgot. With OPPO’s fast charge, put the phone to charge when you wake up in the morning and by the time you get ready for work and take breakfast, the phone will be at full charge.
Say you even forgot to charge before leaving home in the morning. At that low battery level, you could pop in somewhere to have coffee and if 10 minutes is all you have, then those 10 minutes will give you a significant and usable battery level.
Battery longevity is not shabby either. As a heavy user who is always on phone for work and sometimes sneaks in a video here and there, the battery carries me for the whole day on a single charge.
OPPO’s philosophy is to make people’s every day lives easier with good device features and for fast charging, I say kudos.
Cameras
The OPPO Reno 7 comes with a 64mp primary camera at the back, supported by a 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro lens. It has a host of options like panorama, extra HD and pro settings which pretty much takes the phone to professional photography levels with tweak options in exposure, white balance, and ISO among others. The camera even has an option in the settings to include a dirty lens and I feel like this was made for me :-D.
I took some photos with the phone and here are a few of them.
ColorOS
ColorOS is an OPPO user interface that is layered on top of the Android operating system. This gives OPPO users creative freedom to tweak their phones to a great level of personalization, not only in terms of look and feel but other areas like power conservation, convenience tools and app optimization. In the end, users have phones that truly reflect their personalities. It makes perfect sense why this is such an important feature. Because as a client, it is you who remains with the phone in the palm of your hands. It better look like you want it to look. Since the OS is Android based, it has the full spectrum of Android benefits for a safe and up-to date phone.
It is courtesy of ColorOS that I’ve been able to customize my phone to a point where I feel it matches my personality. ColorOS is also makes the phone all the more easier to use with features like air gestures, adaptive sleep which means that the phone will not go off as long as you are looking at it, and smart notifications which means that if it’s not you looking at the phone, then notifications are retracted. These are options that will need to be enabled in the settings.
Breathing light
Every phone has that little unique feature that gets my heart and for this one, it is the breathing light. Here, the camera module at the back lights an LED ring light around it as a notification for incoming calls, game launches, charging, and other notifications. It is the small things that bring joy to life, and this is one of them.
Conclusion
I would have no problem recommending the Reno 7 and indeed all the OPPO Reno phones I’ve used and reviewed. At the price of Ksh.42,999/- for the 4G variant and Ksh.59,999/- for the 5G one, I feel that this is a good midrange price given the features that the phone offers.
