OPPO Reno 2F Review

OPPO Philippines has finally unveiled its latest series, the Reno2 lineup, in the country. Included in that lineup is the Reno 2F, with a pop-up front camera that strays away from the Reno 2’s shark-fin design. Check it out!

Design and Construction

At first glance, the Reno 2F looks similar to the Reno 2. It comes in two colors, namely Lake Green and Sky White. The unit we have here takes on the latter colorway, and it changes hues, depending on how the light hits it. Upon closer inspection, there’s a ridge pattern all over the rear. You don’t get to feel its texture, though, as the Reno 2F’s back is protected by Gorilla Glass 5.

Similar to the standard Reno 2, the Reno 2F’s cameras are stacked vertically on the center rear. The ceramic O-Dot is also present, but instead of sitting below the cameras, it’s now located above them.

Upfront, the Reno 2F also has a full-screen, notch-less display. The chin on this device is slightly thicker than that of the Reno 2, however. Despite that, it’s not much of a distraction. Similar to the rear, the display is also protected by Gorilla Glass 5.

The Reno 2F also has a pop-up camera module, but it doesn’t adapt to the shark-fin design of the original Reno and the Reno 2. It’s your standard pop-up camera, and it lights upon rising and falling back into place. The light effects can be changed into several colors, or it can also be randomized if you can’t choose a particular hue.

On the left, one can find the volume rocker, while the right side houses the dual SIM tray and the power button. The power button is highlighted with a green strip. Like the Reno 2, the buttons are clicky and easy to reach.

Housed at the bottom of the device are the 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone, USB-C port, and single downward-firing speaker.

The Reno 2F looks somewhat identical to the Reno 2, especially at first glance. Just like its sibling, the 2F is also sleek, and premium and its curved glass back makes it comfortable to hold.

Display and Multimedia

The Reno 2F comes equipped with a 6.5-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, with a resolution of 2340 x 1080. Just like its sibling, media consumption on the 2F is also immersive, as there’s no notch to obstruct the full view. The colors are accurate and punchy, as is the experience with AMOLED panels. Using the smartphone under direct sunlight is also manageable.

Audio-wise, the sound produced by the Reno 2F is surprising in a pleasant way. There’s no distortion when set at the maximum volume, and the highs and mids are also there. Lows are nowhere to be found, however. Like the Reno 2, we recommend using earphones to amp up your listening experience with the 2F.

OS, UI, Apps

As with the standard Reno 2, the 2F also has ColorOS 6.1 based on Android 9 Pie as its operating system. App arrangement is similar; users have the choice of the standard mode or a drawer mode. The Smart Sidebar feature is also present, and it sits on the right side of the screen as a slim grey bar.

The usual Google apps come with the 2F out of the box, as well as OPPO apps like ORoaming, App Market, Clone Phone, Game Center, and Game Space. Lazada, Opera, and Webnovel are some third-party apps included in the 2F. Storage-wise, the Reno 2F only has one offering in 128GB, but users may expand it up to 256GB via the microSD card slot.

Cameras

The Reno 2F boasts a quad-rear camera setup comprised of a 48MP primary, 8MP ultrawide, 2MP monochrome, and 2MP depth lenses. Meanwhile, located inside the pop-up mechanism is a 16MP shooter.

With selfies produced by the 2F, we didn’t find anything stand-out with them. Highlights look overexposed in any lighting condition. In portrait mode, the subject-background separation is either a hit or a miss. But that also depends on the lighting.

As for the rear cameras, the colors come out a little more saturated than real life. The dynamic range is good as well, and contrast is decent too. In ultra-wide mode, the colors turn slightly colder than the images taken with the primary camera. Low light shots give us pictures with a ton of noise, but in Night Mode, there’s less noise and overall more balanced. In portrait mode, subject-background separation is similar to selfies in the way that it’s a hit or miss, depending on the lighting.

For videos, the Reno 2F can shoot up to 1080p at 30fps. Quality isn’t the best, but stabilization is indeed present. Check out our sample below:

Performance

For hardware, MediaTek Helio P70 runs as the 2F’s chipset, paired up with Mali-G72 GPU and 8GB of RAM. We tested it through our standard benchmarks, and here are the results:

• AnTuTu: 148,130
• Geekbench: 293 (Single-Core), 1,442 (Multi-Core), 5,772 (RenderScript)
• PC Mark: 7,796 (Work 2.0)
• 3D Mark SSE: 1,273 (OpenGL ES 3.1), 1,255 (Vulkan)
• AndroBench: 474.1 MB/s (Read), 190.56 MB/s (Write)

The Reno 2F executed basic tasks well, whether it be taking photos, browsing social media, navigation, messaging, and the like. When it comes to gaming, however, frame drops happened from time to time. Even so, it’s not bad enough to ruin the gaming experience.

An in-display fingerprint scanner and face unlock recognition are the 2F’s biometrics options. They’re both quick, but there’s a slight delay with the face unlock. You would need to wait for the camera module to pop-up first before it can scan your face and unlock the device.

Connectivity and Battery Life

4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the like, are the usual connectivity options that can be found in the 2F. Searching locations and pinning them were hassle-free, too. Like the Reno 2, the 2F has a gyroscope sensor, allowing AR-based apps and games to be used without issues.

Juicing up the 2F is a 4,000mAh cell with 20W VOOC 3.0 Flash Charging support. The PCMark battery test gave the 2F 10 hours and 40 minutes, while in our standard video loop test, the 2F totaled 22 hours and 8 minutes of playback.

Conclusion

Just like any smartphone out there, the Reno 2F has its highs and lows. The 2F has an eye-catching colorway, a notch-less display, pleasant audio, has video stabilization, and pretty good battery life. But as expected, it has its imperfections. The pop-up mechanism looks average, frame drops happen here and there during gaming, selfies come out average-looking, and the photos produced turn out to be modest. For its price tag of PHP 19,990, it’s still a capable mid-ranger worthy of consideration.

OPPO Reno 2F specs:
6.5-inch Full HD+ (2340 x 1080) AMOLED on-cell display, 394ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 5 (front and back)
MediaTek Helio P70 octa-core CPU
Mali-G72 MP3 (900MHz) GPU
8GB RAM
128GB
microSD up to 256GB
48MP F1.79 (main) + 8MP F2.2 (ultrawide) + 2MP F2.4 (mono) + 2MP F2.4 (bokeh) quad-rear cameras, Ultra Night Mode 2.0
16MP F2.0 center rising front camera
Dual-SIM (nano)
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.2
GPS, A-GPS, BDS, GLONASS
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
Face Unlock
3.5mm audio port
USB-C
ColorOS 6.1 (Android 9 Pie)
4,000mAh battery w/ VOOC Flash Charge 3.0
161.8 x 75.8 x 8.7 mm
195 g
Sky White, Lake Green

What we liked:

• Colorway
• Pleaseant audio quality
• Video stabilization
• Good battery life

What we didn’t:

• Average pop-up mechanism
• Frame drops during gameplay
• Average-looking selfies