OPPO Reno 2 Z Review

Not every phone is going to have a defining characteristic that puts it in the “amazing” or “terrible” category. The OPPO Reno 2 Z is neither amazing not terrible, but that doesn't matter considering the $599 price tag. Some times all a phone needs to do is represent great value. 

Look and feel

The Reno 2 Z's feature set starts with a generous 6.5-inch display that's completely edge-to-edge. With Gorilla Glass front and back the handset feels surprisingly light and well balanced in your hand. Normally I shy away from larger phones simply because my hands are small, and single-hand usage is near impossible in plus-sized handsets. With the Reno 2 Z however, the slightly thinner screen ratio and curved rear make it sit much easier in my hand than other large phones.

With a notchless display, small bezels, and an on-screen fingerprint sensor the 2 Z makes the most of its sizeable screen. And since it has a pop-up selfie camera, you get a genuinely all-screen display. You don't have sacrifice any screen real-estate for an in-screen selfie camera or a notch. 

While notchless design wasn't especially noticeable at first, after shifting back and forth between a trusty iPhone XS and the Reno 2 Z, the difference becomes palpable. A camera notch isn’t the end of the world, but it does disrupt your viewing experience when streaming or gaming. Minimising the camera notch is a recent trend among smartphone manufacturers, but removing it all together on the Reno 2 Z makes watching videos on Quibi or Netflix an all-encompassing experience.

On the reverse side, the quad camera lies flush under the Gorilla Glass, sparing us from the substantial camera bumps we’re seeing more often than not these days. This leads to a slightly thicker handset, but in my opinion the trade off is well worth it.

Thanks to the lovely nothcless display and glass on both the front and back, the Reno 2 Z definitely feels like a more expensive phone than the price-tag would lead you to be live.

Photo finish

Let’s address the elephant in the room The front facing, pop-up camera first appeared in the original Reno and is back again in the 2 Z. Apart from a noticeable but non-invasive mechanical drone, selecting the front facing camera is the same as any other handset. There is an ever-so-slight delay as the camera emerges, but nothing substantial.

Using apps where camera access has been enabled, like Instagram or Snapchat, the little guy will sometimes just pop up of its own fruition. While this isn't a problem, it’s a bug that I hope gets fixed up. Equipped with fall detection, the camera slides back into place if you happen to drop the phone - testing that was terrifying but it works.

The picture quality is great too. As is the norm with OPPO devices, there's an inbuilt AI beauty mode, which ultimately allows you to modify parts of your face in a somewhat natural way. You can thin your face, make your nose smaller, smooth your skin, and an array of other little tweaks - which has really lulled my self-esteem into a sense of security, so thanks OPPO.

As far as rear-facing cameras go, you get four: a 48MP primary lens, an 8MP ultra-wide lens, a 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth lens. You'll mostly be using the primary 48MP lens, and for the most part, the results are great. Part of this is thanks to computerised camera features like night mode and portrait mode.

What I, an incredibly amateur but hopeful phone photographer, love is that the settings will automatically adjust based on what you’re shooting - provided you have HDR enabled. No need to switch between macro modes, or change the aperture in Expert (actual name of a camera option), the software does it for you. This has resulted in some pretty great shots using the Reno 2 Z, and while a more expensive smartphone might do better, they still look excellent on my 'gram. 

While the photography is impressive for the most part, especially for such an affordable handset, it can be touch and go. Shooting moving objects doesn't always fare well, and the automatic modes have made some of my fluffier subjects blur too much around the edges. 

My peeves with the cameras on the Reno 2 Z are really outweighed again by the price. These tiny pain points are more like boo boos, all which I would happily suffer through again and again.

Battery Life and Performance

The Reno 2 Z is powered by Android 9, with OPPO's ColorOS skin on top. While ColorOS used to be quite heavy-handed in how it modified Android, it's far gentler these days - mostly small visual differences. You get everything we love about the Android operating system with some OPPO flair. 

In terms of performance, the Reno 2 Z just runs really well. While the OPPO isn’t Apple grade fast, the performance is smooth enough to put it in the ‘good’ category. There is the slightest touch of delay in opening and switching between apps, but it’s nowhere near sluggish enough to dissuade me from using it.

Most impressive of all is the battery life. OPPO has a reputation for a solid charge, but the Reno 2 Z blew me away. After using it from 6am to 10pm daily for close to a month, I never encountered a ‘low battery’ warning. That's an impressive feat, even with my lower phone usage. When crawling into bed at 5:30am after a rather large night, when I was, the handset had just clocked to 10% - giving me almost 24 hours of active use before that stage. For most, the Reno 2 Z should comfortably last two days per charge, assuming you're not pulling all nighters like myself.  

And thanks to fast charging, you can from flat to about 50% battery life in 30 minutes. By the time I pop the 2 Z on charge and read a few chapters, the handset is usually back to 100% before I’ve even closed my eyes.

OPPO Reno 2 Z - Final Thoughts

The OPPO Reno 2 Z is, for all intents and purposes just a phone, but it’s a good one. For an affordable price you get some advanced photography features, a solid battery life, a novel front facing camera, and a massive screen. Hell, there are some small nuances that I prefer over my usual iPhone XS, like the almost bezel-less display.

You’re getting far more phone than you’re paying for, and there is no reason why I wouldn’t recommend this phone, for pretty much anyone. It’s not a flagship, but it doesn’t have to be. When you nail the basics and add some fun additions to it, there’s no need to throw your money around just to get a fruity logo.

Reno Z 2 Camera Samples

Anula Wiwatowska

Offsite Editorial Lead | Instagram

Anula is the Off-Site Editorial Lead for WhistleOut Australia, and an award winning tech journalist. She has been writing about the Australian telco industry, and consumer technology for over five years, and has been known to tell her Uber driver which phone they should upgrade to next.

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