Phone Review: The OPPO Reno8 T 5G

There’s nothing I love more than an aesthetically pleasing phone. When I was unboxing the new OPPO Reno8 T 5G I couldn’t help but marvel at the beautiful design of the phone. The phone gives off a sleek and stylish design that will have you admire it for a while before switching it on. Aside from the design it also has numerous features that you will love if you are in the market for a new smartphone. Let’s dive into these features, shall we?

Design and Build

The OPPO Reno8 T 5G has a completely different design language from other phones in the Reno Series. Immediately I picked up the phone from the box and noticed the back panel which has a glowing design. It gives off different hues under the sun/light. According to OPPO, the back panel is made up of millions of pyramid-shaped crystals that are etched at a microscopic level. These crystals give the phone its glow design. The other impressive thing I noticed with the back panel is that it is smudge and fingerprint-proof. So, no fingerprint marks will be visible no matter how long you spend scrolling through your phone.

OPPO Reno 8T back panel against the light

On the right side of the OPPO Reno8 T 5G phone is the power button while the left side has the volume controls. Unlike most phones, the SIM slot is at the bottom along with the type C charging port and speaker grille. At the top is the microphone for noise cancellation and an additional speaker for stereo sound. Like most smartphones today, the phone has no headphone jack. The only downside of the design is the plastic frame. However, the phone still looks superb.

In terms of the screen, I love the curved design. The OPPO Reno8 T 5G has a curved 6.70 inches 120 Hz AMOLED display which is new in the Reno series. If you love watching movies then this is the phone you should invest in. It has a screen resolution of 1080 x 2412 pixels. It is also lightweight; the device is 171 grams so even if you use your phone for 1- 2 hours it won’t hurt your fingers or wrist.

The OPPO Reno8 T 5G comes in two exciting colours, sunrise gold and midnight black. For the review, we got the sunrise gold.

Inside the Box

The OPPO Reno 8T comes in a white box that has a silver-greyish design at the top. If you look closely, you will notice the colours of the sunrise gold phone. Inside the box you will find:

Oppo Reno 8T 5G handset.
Adapter.
Type C USB cable.
Safety guide.
Quick guide.
SIM ejector tool.
Protective case.

OPPO Reno 8T handset, adapter, type-C USB and phone case

Performance and Software

The OPPO Reno 8T is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G Octa-core chipset with up to 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. The phone uses a hybrid SIM slot which can be used for a second sim card or a microSD card to expand your storage. There’s nothing more annoying than a lagging phone but you will be happy to know that the processor for this Oppo makes the device fast and efficient. The only time you will experience lag is when playing games with high-quality graphics. However, if you are mainly on social media apps then you will be able to move through apps easily.

The OPPO Reno 8T runs on Android 13-based Color OS 13 which comes with different customizations and options to help enhance your experience. Once you switch on the phone you will find pre-loaded apps like Spotify, Facebook, Netflix, LinkedIn and a few others. I always have a habit of doing dishes while listening to music or watching a series and so the stereo speaker setup also impressed me. If you are like me then you will love the sound quality.

In the settings, you will also stumble upon some key features. The first is the eye comfort feature which helps to protect your eyes while retaining the original display colours. You can also adjust the screen colour mode from vivid to natural as well as the colour temperature. The other feature I noticed is the animated Omoji which resembles the Bitmoji on Snapchat. You can create your own Omoji to look like you and use it alongside emojis which is cool.

Camera

If you love to create content, then this is usually the first feature you look at when deciding to buy a new phone. You will be glad to know that the OPPO Reno8 T 5G was designed to suit content creators. The phone comes with a triple camera setup at the back. The 108MP main camera, a 2MP depth camera and a 2MP microscope camera.

The main camera does an amazing job in the daylight, especially with the different camera modes. There are modes like portrait, video, PRO, extra HD, Pano, Slo-Mo, Time-lapse, Sticker, dual view video and microscope. The front camera uses 32 megapixels so you can be assured your selfies will look amazing, especially with the retouch feature and the different filters. What I loved most about the camera is the portrait mode, the clarity is great for both the front and back cameras. I really enjoyed doing a solo photo shoot with this mode.

OPPO Reno 8T photos with the selfie camera

OPPO Reno 8T portraits with the front and back camera

When using the night mode, I realized that it produces great photos for views. However, in terms of objects and nature, the camera overexposes the background a bit in terms of lighting. The microscopic mode was fun to play around with especially with different objects. As a camera lover, I also found it efficient that you can adjust exposure and aperture settings depending on the lighting.

Photo of a leaf using the microscopic camera of the OPPO Reno 8T

You can shoot videos at either 720p or 1080p with the front and back cameras. Hoping with time OPPO will be able to add the 4K feature for videos but the 1080p also works quite well. What I loved most about the video settings is you can choose between two shooting methods, tap to capture and show palm. Tap to capture allows you to tap anywhere on the screen to take a photo. With show palm, once you raise your palm to the front camera the device starts a timer. You can also choose to record videos in high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) format to save space. However, you may not be able to play HEVC videos on some apps or devices. The OPPO Reno8 T 5G also features an orbit light hidden inside the camera module. All in all, the camera app was easy to use with no complicated features.

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Battery

The OPPO Reno8 T 5G has a battery capacity of 4800mAh and a battery health of 100%. You can use the phone for the entire day without having to worry about your phone going off randomly. However, heavy multimedia usage can potentially drain your battery. The good thing is once you notice your battery is draining you can use the power-saving feature. The phone also comes with a 67 W supervooc adapter that can fill up your battery from under 5% to full in 45 minutes. This is especially helpful if you constantly find yourself forgetting to charge your phone at night.

Where to find the OPPO Reno8 T 5G

OPPO Reno8 T 5G comes in Sunrise Gold and Midnight Black colours. Pre-orders will start from February, 17^th to 28^th, 2023 through Kilimall and across all OPPO stores in Kenya for each pre-order, customers will get an amazing gift.

The OPPO Reno8 T 5G is priced at Ksh. 49,999. Alongside the Reno8 T series phones, OPPO is introducing OPPO Enco Buds2 which offers you a strong bass in a small size priced at 2,999Ksh.

Verdict

If you are in the market for a new phone, then the OPPO Reno8 T 5G is worth it. It is aesthetically pleasing in terms of design, lightweight and has efficient software. It is also packed with a powerful battery enabling you to go about your daily activities with ease. The fact that it’s 5G also makes it a future-ready phone.

Phone Specs

	Specifications	OPPO Reno 8T
Body	Dimensions	162.3x 74.3x 7.7mm
	Weight	171g
Display	Size	6.7 inches, 108.0 cm
	Type	AMOLED,120Hz, 950 nits (peak)
	Resolution	1080 x 2412 pixels, 20:9 ratio
Platform	Operating System	Android 13, Color OS 13
	Chipset	Qualcomm SM 6375 Snapdragon 695 5G
	GPU	Adreno 619
Camera	Front Camera	32MP, f/2.4, 22 mm
	Video	720p@30fps 1080p@30fps
	Features	HDR, panorama.
	Rear Camera	108 MP, f/1.7, 24mm (wide) 2 MP, f/3.3, 34mm (macro) 2 MP, f/ 2.4 (depth)
	Video Recording	720p@30fps 1080p@30fps
	Features	LED flash, HDR, panorama.
Storage	Card slot	microSDXC (dedicated slot)
	Internal Space	128 GB 8GB RAM, 256 GB 8GB RAM
Connectivity	Cellular DATA	2G,3G,4G,5G
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11
Battery	Type	Li-Po 4800 mAh non removable
	Charging	67 W wired, PD, 100% in 45 minutes USB Type C
Available Colors		Black Starlight (Midnight Black), Dawn Gold (Sunrise gold)
Price