Remember when the Huawei P30 Pro hit the headlines with its fantastic zoom lens that does up to 5X optical zoom? Well, its Chinese home rival, OPPO, has the same camera trick in the name of OPPO Reno 10x Zoom that just went live in the Kenyan market.
OPPO has been doing a remarkable job as far as camera prowess is concerned, and the company is known for dipping its toes into new technologies that other manufacturers shy away from. It has performed admirably in a market that is trying to kill the notch for an all-screen phone, and does so fashionably with pop-up front snappers or an in-display selfie cam that should be the future of taking selfie portraits – and currently, a pop-up system that is in the shape of a shark fin.
While the phone has been selling in other markets, we did not think OPPO Kenya would bring it here, at least not this fast. It is a good move, and the device, which also packs the best specs you can find in 2019, is as premium as they come, and hopes to fill the pace set by last year’s Find X that wowed the world for its neat slider trick that tucked cameras away from visible parts.
To recap from this spec sheet, the Reno sells in two variants; the ordinary Reno and the Reno 10x, although the latter is the one that will grace our shop shelves. Both have the same screen resolutions at 1080 by 2340 pixels but on different screen sizes. Reno’s display stretches to 6.4 inches, and the 10x takes it further to 6.6 inches. Both have two memory configurations at 6/8GB of RAM and 128/256 GB of internal memory.
While camera numbers and megapixel count are different (a dual 48 MP and 5 MP setup for the Reno against a triple setup with 13 MP periscope lens for 5x optical zoom and 10x hybrid zoom alongside an 8 MP ultrawide angle lens and the famous 48 MP module), they maintain the 16 MP shark fin pop-up selfie camera.
Since these are OPPO devices, they will top up quite fast with VOOC v3.0 (20W) for the 3765 mAh and 4065 mAh juicers in the Reno and 10x Zoom respectively.
Both models are equipped with an in-display fingerprint sensor, and coming from OPPO that is one of the pioneers of the technology, we are confident the readers are going to be snappier than the ultrasonic replacements found in the Galaxy S10 series of phones.
The final difference between the two is based on performance, where the Reno runs S710, Qualcomm’s newest upper mid-range chip against the S855 in the 10x. These are very capable CPUs, and day to day performance should be more than enough for most people, although the latter packs more oomph.
To note, the non-zoom is not coming to Kenya.
And now to the exciting part: price. The 10x’s (8GB/256GB) asking price is KES 90000, which puts it in the same ballpark as other high-end devices selling in the local market that include the likes of Huawei P30 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S10. You can preorder your unit from Jul7 23 to July 28.
