Oppo announced Reno7 series last week and the trio went on sale in China this Friday. There’s no official schedule for when the new models will be available globally, but it should happen early next year (leaked prices for India suggested a January launch). By that time reviews of the phones should have come out.
But the first impressions aren’t so hot, especially for phones without “Pro” in their name. Even that one has some tough questions to answer regarding pricing. Let’s have a closer look at the results from last week’s poll and what commenters had to say.
Earning a third of the overall vote, the Oppo Reno7 Pro 5G stands out as seemingly the only viable option of the trio. While their displays are mostly similar, the Pro is the only model with a large sensor (with 1.0 µm pixels instead of 0.7 µm) and the only one with stereo speakers.
We haven’t seen what the Dimensity 1200-Max can do, but the vanilla version of the chip edges out the Snapdragon 778G in graphics performance, while their CPUs are mostly even. Also, the Pro has UFS 3.1 storage (the other two use UFS 2.x), so it should be the faster phone of the three.
We’re surprised at how poorly the vanilla Oppo Reno7 5G did. We already mentioned several advantages of the Pro, but the screens and batteries are mostly the same, while the price is nearly 30% lower. And its not like the Reno7 Pro is a camera powerhouse, even the Snapdragon version of the Reno6 Pro had a telephoto camera (and the same main sensor).
Oppo Reno7 Pro with a 50 MP 1/1.56″ (1.0 µm) sensor • Reno7 with a 64 MP 1/2.0″ (0.7″ µm) sensor)
The sensor in question – a Sony IMX766 – is quite popular and has been used in Oppo’s Reno6 series, vivo’s X70, several Realme GT models and a couple from OnePlus (9RT and Nord 2). Some of these also use the Dimensity 1200, so would be buyers have plenty of models to choose from.
Speaking of sensors, the Reno7 and the Pro are the first to use Sony’s new IMX709 sensor, which has been dubbed “cat’s eye” for its ability to see in the dark. It is an RGBW sensor (meaning that some pixels don’t have a filter, allowing them to capture more light). This is combined with hardware DOL-HDR and an in-house system developed by Oppo to process RGBW imagery. However, commenters were unconvinced by the marketing around this new camera, so it will need to prove itself in a review.
This brings us to the Oppo Reno7 SE 5G, the cheapest and least capable of the three. It seems that people were more concerned with having the right specs and not saving a few bucks. Unfortunately for the SE, most people would rather have an older Reno6 model instead of the SE (well, the series only six months older).
The Oppo Reno7 Pro will find success, but the outlook for its siblings isn’t so good. The vanilla Reno7 might do okay in the right market, but there seems to be a disconnect between what people want and what Oppo put together. Also, the rapid fire release is starting to wear people out, especially when the new model isn’t clearly better than the old one.