Oppo Reno 6Z Review : When Design Matters More than Function

Specs

The Works

“Glittery Gradients with a soft scratchy surface “

The Oppo Reno 6Z is one hell of a looker at first glance, showcasing a very unique back cover design. You get a multi-gradient back that shines iridescently at any angle, but isn’t reflective because of the matte consistency that it has. It’s a slippery matte, but a scratchy one. Think sandpaper, but way softer. It was weird at first for me but I ended up finding it likable as it provided a rugged grip for me to hold the phone without a worry.

Sweaty palm gang, this ones for you!

The main screen is a 6.4″ AMOLED panel with a 60Hz refresh rate. It’s the usual FHD+ resolution and the viewing experience was decent. Colors are what you’d expect from a good AMOLED panel, producing good blacks and accurate tones.

There’s a pre-installed screen protector and an in-display fingerprint scanner. It’s a tall, long device and the placement of the scanner is on the lower bottom so it will take a bit of time to get used to that position.

“Mid-range performance that can tackle games and work for those long days“

The MediaTek Dimensity 800U is quite an energy-efficient chip, and paired with a 60Hz refresh rate, I was able to push through 2 heavy-days of phone use without the Reno6 Z breaking a sweat. The 4310 mAh battery can be fully charged in under an hour using the provided OPPO VOOC Flash Charger and cable.

Coupled with 8GB of RAM, the Reno6 Z is able to make light work of whatever non-gaming activity you throw at it. If you insist on testing its gaming prowess however, then you should know that the chip will be able to play your 2D games like Plants vs Zombies or Fun Run 4 with absolutely no stall and heat. Mobile Legends ran smoothly too, but with a gradual build up in heat since it is a network intensive title as well. If you’re up for games like Genshin and COD Mobile, then I suggest toning down the graphics for better frames, as going towards medium-high the device started to throttle with the high-heat buildup.

Newer Oppo devices such as the Reno6 Z allow you to increase your RAM (virtually) in the settings, allowing up to 5GB of additional memory which will be taken from your internal storage. We’ve tried it ourselves to see if there’ll be a difference in responsiveness and found it to be minimal at best. In this case I think it’s better to just leave the feature as it is as 8GB of RAM is already more than enough to run things well on the Reno6 Z.

Passable Camera Performance

The Reno6 Z has a triple rear-cam setup, and here’s my breakdown of each of them.

The 64MP main wide shooter takes pretty good shots in my opinion. For a device that’s under RM1700, it’s nice to see that we’re treated with a sensor that delivers good detail, dynamic range and color accuracy. In brought daylight, the Reno6 Z’s main lens can definitely be relied on.

The 8MP Ultra-wide can’t out-do the main sensor, but it does capture a respectable amount of detail while retaining dynamic range and contrast. When I say respectable it just means decent with some flaws. The ultra-wide shooter on occassion does let you down in finer details, especially once you start zooming away from the center focus to other points of interest in your shot. Like other smartphones, the sharpness is seemingly overcompensated here, and we believe it’s more of a software thing compared to the hardware.

Keep that in mind if you want to take close shots of subjects with a lot of pattern and need for detail (like trees, bushes, and some fabrics)

The 2MP macro is just like any other smartphone’s we’ve seen with a similar setup. It can close in on details when you dial-in the focus, but definitely lacks in depth-of-field and seperation.

Oppo’s tend to have high pixel selfie cameras as it’s their speciality. It’s no different here, as the Reno6 Z is equipped with a 32MP front-facing shooter. It takes really nice portraits with very little ghosting effect around edges (the fingers in the photo) and the details are well pronounced. With a little touch-up, it’ll be good enough for the ‘gram.

A Well-balanced device that’s easily outpaced by competition

Oppo’s Reno6 Z bring a lot to the table in terms of style and cameras. It’s a good looking phone that can take good photos and run the day with you on a good screen. For RM 1,699, it falls short in performance but compensates with good battery life and fast recharging. It can be a workhorse of a phone, but it certainly won’t be able to win the race (with other competitors).