Oppo Reno 8 Pro review: a reliable smartphone with a long-lasting battery

This Oppo Reno 8 Pro review is for anyone who wants an accomplished smartphone without spending the top-end prices - it’s a strong performer, the design is lightweight and the display looks great. 

Oppo has come out with some of the best phones this year, from killer flagships like the Oppo Find X5 Pro to the much more affordable Oppo Find X5 Lite, this Chinese consumer tech manufacturer is coming up quickly through the ranks and it's an exciting time to watch their handsets progress. 

Focusing on delivering a solid system at a palatable price, the Reno series smartphones are a great option for those who don’t mind making a few small sacrifices. 

In this Oppo Reno 8 Pro review, you’ll be able to find out everything you need to know about this handset from information on its price and what’s new as well as my take on the design, display, camera and performance.

Oppo Reno 8 Pro review: price and what’s new 

You can buy the Reno8 Pro 5G now for $540 in the US, £599 in the UK and AU$770 in Australia. Take a look at the widgets on this page to find out where you can buy it in your region and see the best prices from across the web right now. 

Following on from the Oppo Reno 7 Pro which was released back in 2021, the Oppo Reno 8 Pro has made a few changes to improve on what came before it. The screen has been sized up from 6.55-inches to 6.7-inches with a 120Hz refresh rate, up from 90Hz before. To boost performance, there’s a brand new MediaTek Dimensity 8100-MAX processor and 80W Super VOOC charging as well. 

Oppo Reno 8 Pro review: design and screen 

With Oppo's telltale camera module style for 2022 that curves up from the body of the phone, the Oppo Reno 8 Pro stands out against the rest of the mid-range smartphone crowd. You can't deny that it looks seriously sleek. 

Launching in two elegant colourways, you’ll be able to buy it in Glazed Black and Glazed Green. Both options are glossy and reflective, which looks great but does mean they are prone to fingerprint marks although those are very easy to wipe away. 

The phone itself looks a bit like an Apple iPhone from the front with a square shape and a flat-screen with a centred hole punch style camera. Around the frame, there's a volume rocker and a power button with a small green strip to make it more visible, there’s no 3.5mm audio port here so you’ll need to invest in a pair of wireless headphones if you don’t own some already. 

Measuring 161 x 74.2 x 7.34 mm and weighing about 183g, it’s comfortable to hold even with smaller hands. My thumb was able to stretch across almost the whole width of the handset. My only issue was with the glass backing of the phone, it felt quite slippery and sometimes managed to escape from even just slightly tilted surfaces.

To protect it against the elements, this phone is IP54 water and dust-resistant, but not waterproof, so splashes of rain will be fine but I wouldn't drop it into a body of water if I were you. 

The screen is 6.7-inches and surrounded by super slim bezels giving it an all-glass look. An FHD Flexible AMOLED display with a resolution of 2412 x 1080p, all sorts of content look excellent whether you’re streaming a dark movie or scrolling through an online shop, it's crystal clear and the colours are seemingly quite accurate. Brightness isn’t an issue either, the screen pops and it’s visible under bright lights although you do sometimes get some reflections on it.

A 120Hz refresh rate makes this an excellent choice for gaming as well because each scroll, swipe and tap feel effortless and silky smooth. Most pricey phones come with this feature so it's great to see it dripping down to the more affordable options too.

To unlock the phone, an in-display fingerprint sensor sits towards the bottom of the screen. I thought it was placed slightly too far down, but it still worked well. You will also get the usual choice of a pin, pattern or password as well as facial recognition.

Oppo Reno 8 Pro review: cameras 

The Oppo Reno 8 Pro has a rear camera system made up of a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultra wide-angle camera and a 2MP macro lens, while on the front, there’s a 32MP selfie snapper. 

I found the main sensor to be a relatively good one, it was able to capture shots with bold precise colours and a good level of contrast. I did notice a fair amount of noise within the shots though, and there's not enough detail to blow them up too much. Even so, you'll be able to capture some decent shots on this.

The zoom, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired. At its full 10x zoom, images come out looking seriously grainy and there's no way you'd actually use any of the results. You'll be able to get away with using the 2x zoom but you do lose out quite a lot on detail in doing so. You can see some examples of shots taken on the Oppo Reno 8 Pro below.

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Oppo Reno 8 Pro review: performance and battery 

Under the hood, you’ll find a mid-range MediaTek Dimensity 8100-MAX processor alongside 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There’s no MicroSD card slot to expand it though. 

The running of the phone day to day is perfectly fine, it copes well with lots of open windows and larger apps without heating up or lagging at all. You’ll even get away with a mobile game or two although the most demanding might not run as smoothly as on one of the best gaming phones.  

On Geekbench 5, the Oppo Reno 8 Pro picked up scores of 883 in single-core and 3,571 in multi-core which is about the same as some cheaper but powerful mid-rangers like the OnePlus Nord 2T and the Samsung Galaxy A53 and it actually matches up to other similar handsets like the Oppo Find X5, although it doesn’t quite compete with the top end flagships.

When it comes to battery life, the Oppo Reno 8 Pro does not disappoint at all. Oppo phones often are some of the longest lasting and this one is no different, having lasted me almost two days of casual use at a time. You'll rarely have to charge this phone which means you don't need to carry the charger with you every single day.

To compare it to other handsets, I downloaded and ran a video on full brightness over two hours. The battery percentage dropped by 10% in that time, which suggests that it would have lasted a total of 20 hours, placing it amongst the most long-lasting smartphones in the world.

Using the new 80W SUPERVOOC charger, I got 89% battery in only half an hour, so it would have taken barely any time to hit 100%. Again, this makes day-to-day life a lot easier because if you don't have long to give it some juice, you will still get a full day's charge.

Behind the scenes, the Oppo Reno 8 Pro runs on ColorOS 12 based on Android. While it’s not as nice to use as say Samsung’s One UI, it is still intuitive and well organised. Apps and icons look colourful without being cartoonish although it does come loaded with some unnecessary apps that you may want to delete when you first start it up including a few games and social media apps like Tile Master 3D and Facebook.

Oppo Reno 8 Pro review: verdict 

All in all, the Oppo Reno 8 Pro may not be jaw-dropping but it is very reliable. You'll get solid performance which means even heavier phone users will get on well with it, the camera takes decent shots in the right lighting and the screen is both bright and sharp enough for most types of content.

One thing that will really wow you, though, is the battery life which will last you two days at a time and when it does need juice it'll take just over half an hour to take it from flat to full. If you're someone who regularly forgets to charge your phone then this is the perfect smartphone for you!

Oppo Reno 8 Pro review: also consider 

If it’s a good camera system you’re after, but you don’t want to spend too much cash, the Google Pixel 6 could be worth a look. Google’s AI camera features mean you can snap some seriously impressive-looking shots. It runs on the purest version of Android, which in my opinion is the best, and the design looks a little different to the crowd as well. 

Another phone to take a look at is the iPhone 13. Now that the 14 has been announced, you should be able to find some good deals on its predecessor which was a T3 5-star rated handset with a superb screen and speedy performance.