OPPO Reno8 5G-Taking Performance to the next level

November 14, 2022
by Kennedy Kachwanya
Comments Off on OPPO Reno8 5G-Taking Performance to the next level

We are in a transition period when it comes to mobile network technology. The move from 4G to 5G is going to be the most consequential yet given how much more can be done with 5G compared to 4G. Higher speed and low latency is the main selling point for 5G among others. It is early days especially in Kenya but when sufficient transition is made, then gone will be the days of people shouting “can you hear me, are you there”, during the zoom meetings. Unstable network connections will be a thing of the past.

So it happens that the great people OPPO gave me Reno8 5G just a few days before Safaricom launched 5G in Kenya. Safaricom has been slow to roll out the 5G though they have been testing it for a while due to the fact that there were not enough devices in Kenya which are 5G enabled. In the last one year or so, however, the 5G enabled phones in the market have risen significantly.

During the Safaricom 5G launch, I tested the speed with the OPPO Reno8 5G and I got 154.57 Mbps. Then there others who reported something close 280Mbps at that time. What has been advertised about 5G is that it can give you up to 10-20 Gbps and that made people question the speeds which were reported from the Safaricom event launch. What people do not understand, which I will try to explain in detail in another post, is that 5G operates in three bands. Lower bands use a frequency range of 600-900MHZ similar to what 4G uses and the speed here is just slightly better than what you can achieve with 4G.

The mid-range 5G band uses microwaves of 2.3–4.7 GHz, allowing speeds of 100–900 Mbps. It is the most commonly used and based on the speeds people have been reporting about Safaricom 5G from different sites in Kenya, I guess it is what Safaricom has deployed. And finally the high 5G band uses frequencies of 24-47 and it is the one that offers maximum speeds of up to 20Gbps

Speed test for OPPO Reno8 5G — Speed test taken during Safaricom event

Back to OPPO Reno8, it comes with the following G5 Network bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41, 77, 78 SA/NSA. What this means is that OPPO Reno 8 is equipped to connect to any 5G frequency bands. Let us talk a little bit about the SA/NSA at the end band specs. There are network providers which are building 5G from scratch as independent infrastructure and that is what is referred to as 5G standalone(SA). The Reno8 5G is enabled to operate in such an environment. While there those which already have an existing 4G core and are just upgrading to 5G and that is what they call Non standalone(NSA). Again OPPO Reno8 5G is on point and is enabled to work within such infrastructure.

When it comes to 5G, OPPO covered all the bases with Reno8. To use 5G on Reno8, the user just needs to enable the Smart 5G setting on the phone. Simply go to Settings> Mobile Network >Advanced Settings and then ensure that Smart 5G is on.

Performance

Because it will take time to get 5G fully functioning in every part of the country, let us look at other features that make Reno8 5G great. The phone is a powerhouse when it comes to performance all thanks to the Dimensity 1300 octa-core CPU. The Dimensity 1300’s Octa-core has one prime core, Cortex-A78 with a 3GHz clock speed; it is paired with three other performance cores, which are also Cortex -A78. The three cores have a speed of 2.6GHz, while the remaining four cores are Cortex-A55 and a speed of 2.0GHz. Be it gaming, multi tasking with several apps, streaming the phone handles them all with unique efficiency.

With gaming I am a simple person, I am only addicted to one game, Chess. I either play against the machine, that is my phone or against others online. When you play against others online, then it is a matter of the internet speed as well as the processing power of your phone but mostly the speed. It is another level for the CPU when you are playing against a phone. To understand how fast the Processor is working you can enable “Show CPU Thinking” . In slower phones the phone takes a few seconds highlighting the moves it’s considering while deep in thoughts. That is not the case with Reno8 5G processor, the moves are so fast that you can’t see with naked eye that it took some time to consider the moves. The whole experience is made better by 1000Hz Ultra Touch Response.

Camera

Back in 2020 OPPO entered into an exclusive partnership with Sony to work on camera sensors and it seems the partnership has thrived with time. And OPPO has gone big on the Reno 8 5G main camera. It comes with a 50 MP Sony IMX766 sensor, with a relatively large sensor size of 1/1.56”. It also supports Omni-directional PDAF and is paired with an f/1.8 aperture. It is true that it provides fast, stable and accurate focusing no matter the lighting.

OPPO Reno8 5G has what can be called standard triple camera setup with 50MP being the main shooter. The other two parts of the trio cover ultrawide and micro photography. 8MP for the wide view and 2MP for the micro photography

For the selfies or the front camera, OPPO did not disappoint. They used another sensor by Sony IMX709 with Image resolution of 32MP paired with an f/2.4 aperture

Display

For me the user experience of a phone is more defined by the Display than any other feature. And So resolution is key here. That is why I am glad that the Reno8 5G has a 6.4 inch display with 1080 x 2400 pixels( ~411 ppi density). Add to that is the refresh rate which in case of this device, is 90Hz. Refresh rate is the number of times the screen updates itself per second. Refresh rate is one area that OPPO needs to improve on as the higher the number, the smoother the screen will appear to the human eye. When you look around some flagship phones of the competitors are already doing 120 Refresh rate.

Battery

The Reno 8 5G is packed with 4,500 mAh battery capacity. Though in actual sense this is smaller than the current average, the Dimensity Chipset design is geared towards extending the everyday battery life. SO that is a trade off that is working well. On the other end, it also provides Smart Power Saving, combine Super Saving Mode and Super Nighttime standby which can be used

Have you ever been in a situation where you do not have time even to charge your phone? Moving up and down at the same time receiving numerous calls. I was in that kind of a situation last week and I appreciated the need and the benefits of having a super fast charging charger. Just put the phone on charge for 5 minutes or less and it has already moved from below 10% charge to over 50% charge. The 80W SUPERVOOC is true to the word super fast

Storage and Memory

The device comes with 256 GB internal storage space and 8GB Memory size. The memory is denoted as 8GB + 3GB. Now this is something interesting. The +3 GB is for the RAM expansion and is possible when the storage space is available. In other words if you have enough storage space, of course 2546 more than enough, then you can use part of it to expand the memory. When you go to the setting for the +3Gb expansion, there are three options 2GB, 3Gb and 5GB.