Oppo Reno 2 – an Affordable Quad Camera Smartphone

Oppo has always pushed itself as a camera-centric company. Now the Oppo Reno 2 is a smartphone at reasonable price which focuses on its four cameras aiming to provide a great photography experience. And the phone is now available in the UK via Amazon and other stores.

At it’s price of under £500, the phone is undercutting the latest OnePlus 7T Pro by around £250. If you choose the Oppo Reno 2z it’s another £120 below that. Of course, the OnePlus 7T Pro has a much faster Snapdragon 855+ processor.

The Reno 2 packs a wealth of cameras, just like the original Reno. The four cameras are:

48MP Ultra-clear Main Camera – Sony IMX586 | 1/2.0” Sensor – F/1.7 Aperture | OIS

13MP Telephoto Lens – 1/3.4” Sensor | F/2.4 Aperture | Auto focus

8MP Wide Angle Lens – 116° | 1/3.2” Sensor

2MP Mono Lens – 1/5” Sensor | 1.75um large pixels | O6 portrait mode

There’s a Sony IMX586 48MP sensor with an f/1.7 aperture lens. That’s a lot of megapixels, which can have a downside as squeezing in more pixels into a sensor means smaller pixels which perform less well in low light situations. But photos come out well, with a balanced colour reproduction and a wide dynamic range.

Check out Tech Spurt’s video test here.

Meanwhile, the Ultra Steady mode provides solid Optical Image Stabilisation for smooth panning and tilting. However, like with other smartphones, any exaggerated movement will cause artifacts and jittering in the video.

There’s a 5x Hybrid zoom, which goes all the way up to a 20x digital zoom (expect digital noise).

Sleek Design

But at least there’s no selfie-camera notch in the screen. That’s down to Oppo’s trademark shark-fin pivoting mechanized selfie camera. The camera slides up smoothly in a way that would have impressed us in a James Bond movie 30 years ago.

The notch-less 6.5-inch AMOLED screen has a 20:9 aspect ratio on the front and a flush-fit four-lens camera on the back. The design is sleek, although a little thicker than other devices at 9.5mm.

Notice how the cameras are embedded beneath the glass of the phone case so there is zero protrusion. This makes for a smooth design and the feature below keeps the lens off any surface to protect from scratching.

Snapdragon 730G and a big battery

The Reno 2 has a Snapdragon 730G processor inside with 8GB of RAM. There’s also up to 256GB storage space and a massive 4,000mAh battery, which can be recharged to 50% in 30 minutes.

The Reno 2 comes with the (now) old fashioned 3.5mm headphone socket, which is good news for those of us who still use these for external microphones. The phone even has a free leather-style case included, which looks a grade above your average smartphone case.

So, if you’re looking for a smartphone which has strong photography and filmmaking potential, but is a bit less painful on the wallet than top tier phones, the Oppo Reno 2 might be worth considering.

Read more: Best Smartphones for Filmmaking

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