Design and Build Quality
Even in the past, I’ve always liked OPPO’s design choices especially for its flagships, and it’s good to see it in its mid-range phones as well. The OPPO Reno8 T in Orange Sunset colorway, for example, uses leather-like material for its rear panel, which significantly adds to a more premium look and feel.
I also love how that they added a frosted case instead of the usual transparent one. It even has a dedicated section that highlights the camera module. I would’ve preferred flat sides, but the glossy gold finish gives a good contrast to the rest of the device.
Sure, they could’ve shaved off a millimeter or two from the bottom bezel, and it would’ve been nice if the front camera was in the center, but hey, you still get a headphone jack.
Remember when notification LED’s were a thing? well the top camera ring of the OPPO Reno8 T lights up for notifications and calls. If you’re one of those people who puts their phone face down when not in use, this is a good way for you to get notified when something comes up. I don’t, so it’s more of a gimmick to me. Plus, there’s Always-On-Display and Edge Lighting that do exactly the same thing, only better.
OPPO Reno8 T has a 6.4-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, which is great for media consumption thanks to rich colors and deep blacks. On the flipside, you only get 90Hz refresh rate, which is odd if you consider that a lot of the competition in this price range have 120Hz screens. If you can’t tell the difference, that’s good. Otherwise, it’s a letdown.
Performance
OPPO Reno8 T packs a Helio G99 processor for a balance of performance, efficiency, and cost. You also get 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage. There’s a microSD card slot if you want to add more.
The device gets through typical day-to-day tasks with ease, and delivers an enjoyable gaming experience with games like Call of Duty Mobile running well at Medium Quality + High Framerate, Diablo Immortal at Low to Medium settings, and of course, Mobile Legends which supports High Frame Rate.
Camera
OPPO Reno8 T is equipped with a 100MP main camera, along with a pair of auxiliary units: a depth sensor and a 40x Microlens, which allows for extremely close up shots of up to 40x magnification. Think of it as a macro lens on steroids. Is it useful? well, if you’ve ever wondered what your mousepad or that coin in your pocket looks like up close, like really really close, then yes, this is for you.
In daytime, photos look sharp and offer plenty of detail and good color reproduction. There’s no ultrawide lens, which can really be a pain when you’re shooting city and landscape photos. Night shots are also okay as long as you don’t zoom in to notice the smudging and lack of details in some areas.
Selfies from the 32MP front shooter show decent edge-detection and a convincing depth-of-field effect. There’s visible noise in some areas, but I’ll take that over exaggerated smudging any day.
On the video side, OPPO Reno8 T can capture up to 1080p 30fps with no feature to stabilize shots. In low light, videos show decent quality, though the lack of stabilization means you’ll need to have steady hands to get usable shots.
Software
At the time of writing, OPPO Reno8 T was running ColorOS 13 on top of Android 13. The brand’s newest take on Android introduces visual and functional features like Shelf, which houses important information and can be accessed with a swipe down from your home screen, and Large folders which gives you access to apps without having to open folders while still keeping them grouped.
There’s also Smart Always-On Display, which shows important information like food delivery updates and lets you access your Spotify playback controls and playlists without having to unlock the device. Bitmojis also reflect what you’re doing on the Always-On Display.
Insight AOD lets you view how many times you’ve unlocked and locked your phone throughout the day, while Auto Pixelate blurs out important information from a screenshot with a single tap. The Enhanced Private Safe which uses Advanced Encryption Standard lets you safely store your most important photos, videos, and other files.
Battery
ColorOS 13 also introduces the Dynamic Computing Engine, which in the simplest terms, allows the phone to achieve a good balance of performance and efficiency.
Playing a 1080p 60fps YouTube video continuously, the OPPO Reno8 T managed to run for around 16 hours in a single charge, which is an impressive number. With support for 33W SUPERVOOC fast-charging, zero to full took close to 1.5 hours, which is decent.
Verdict
To be honest, I like many things about the OPPO Reno8 T. It looks ands and feels premium, the processing package offers good performance, the cameras are great in day and decent at night, and the battery life is insanely good, not to mention ColorOS 13 offers some really nifty features.
On the downside, unless you have really stable hands, you can forget about video, the camera module that lights up is a welcome attempt at doing something new, but unless you’re one who puts the phone screen face down when not in use, it’s basically a gimmick.
There’s also a 90Hz screen, which really doesn’t make sense given its price, and the fact that it has a micro-camera/macro camera instead of an ultra-wide. Those are all pains that add to the equation.
With a price tag of PHP 18,990, which is way up there, I feel like they should’ve focused on things that are actually useful, instead of putting in stuff that the average user won’t even bother using.
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
