Oppo Reno 10x Zoom Camera Test

Digital Camera World Verdict

The Oppo Reno 10X Zoom undercuts the Huawei P30 Pro, making it the most affordable superzoom smartphone around. With a max zoom range of 130mm, it as well gets you that fleck closer to your subject and captures excellent images for the nigh part. We would still selection the P30 Pro's camera given a option - the Reno 10X Zoom has its quirks and isn't as potent when information technology comes to video. If yous can get past its shortcomings, withal, you won't observe a more than versatile, harder working stills camera on a smartphone for the price.

Pros

+
Versatile camera arrangement
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Excellent zoom for photos
+
Gorgeously immersive screen

Cons

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Optical zoom inaccessible in video
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Plenty of bloatware
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Selfie camera collects dust

The Oppo Reno 10X Zoom's camera features a mighty optical zoom, with an equivalent focal length of 130mm. It's in good company, with the likes of the Huawei P30 Pro, our current best photographic camera phone able to accomplish its 125mm telephoto range with a similar periscopic tech to that Oppo uses.

The phone is the first mainstream flagship from Oppo in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland. That said, information technology's been a big player in Prc for years, and is the company behind OnePlus and Realme.

Trying to suspension into a new market is never easy - merely can the Reno 10X Zoom act as Oppo's quantum device, competing with the likes of Google'south Pixel 3, Apple's iPhone XS, the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the Sony Xperia 1?

Oppo Reno 10X Zoom specs and features

(Image credit: Digital Camera World )

Out now, the Oppo Reno 10X Zoom can be picked upwardly for £699 SIM gratuitous for the 256GB version in the UK with 8GB RAM (and at a subsidised price with an airtime contract); a US release appointment has still non been announced.

The Reno 10X Zoom is a well put together phone; made of metal and Gorilla Glass 6, it feels premium, has a soft bend to the back, and a frosted stop that repels fingerprint smudges nicely. That said, the phone is large, and so be warned if you accept small-scale easily or tight jeans.

The Reno's likewise a flagship through and through, with a Snapdragon 855 chipset coupled with 8GB RAM. It's got an immersive 6.6-inch screen features AMOLED tech and no notch, thanks to a nifty popular-up camera, which feels pretty secure when compared to the likes of the flip camera on the Asus Zenfone 6. The under-display fingerprint scanner is a nice touch, is fast and responsive, and with a 4065mAh battery under the hood, it lasts for over a twenty-four hours with pretty heavy utilise. It also charges quickly too - under 90 mins from 0-100%.

Non quite packing every flagship feature we'd like to meet, the Reno 10X Zoom isn't waterproof and doesn't offering wireless charging. While it runs Android 9, with Oppo's custom UI over the top, there's a fair bit of bloatware that you'll have to disable to get the most enjoyable experience out of the phone from a UI point of view.

The Reno 10X Zoom ticks near every flagship checkbox, and information technology's a joy to use one time you lot go past the size. App back up is excellent, the under-display fingerprint scanner works well, in that location's a 5G version for extra speed and futureproofing, and it also has a large, 4065mAh battery that lasts all mean solar day. This is also combined with 25W VOOC 3.0 fast charging, so you can go from 0-100% in less than xc mins.

Camera specs
The Reno 10X has a triple photographic camera around the back and a single selfie pop-up camera. This pop-upward module packs ii flashlight LEDs, i for the front and i for the rear cameras. The main camera array features a primary 48MP photographic camera (f/1.vii, 26mm lens, one/2.0" sensor) and a 13MP telephoto camera (f/3.0, 130mm), which both pack optical paradigm stabilization (OIS) and phase detection/laser autofocus. The boosted 8MP ultrawide camera (f/ii.2, 16mm lens) and the 16MP selfie camera (f/2.0, 26mm) however don't feature either.

Shooting modes
Before yous even take a flick on the Reno 10X, the shooting modes ready you lot up for success. In addition to automatic, video, and portrait modes - staples for flagships today, in that location's a dark, panorama, expert, fourth dimension-lapse and slo-mo fashion.

The 10x zoom in action…

Ultrawide lens (Image credit: Basil Kronfli/Digital Photographic camera World)

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2x zoom setting (Image credit: Basil Kronfli/Digital Camera World)

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6x zoom setting (Prototype credit: Basil Kronfli/Digital Camera World)

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10x zoom setting (Image credit: Basil Kronfli/Digital Camera World)

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Camera performance

When shooting stills, despite its 48MP sensor, the Reno 10X Zoom shoots 12MP images, grabbing detail from 4 pixels and creating one 'super pixel'. This technique works to great issue - broadening tonal range and reducing noise in tricky environments, simply you can override it if you just want that extra bit of detail, and the lighting is on your side.

Results across the iii main cameras impress, but the telephone does have its quirks. Feed the Reno 10X Zoom good light, and it can produce fantabulous shots with a healthy amount of item. It can even handle more challenging conditions, with motorcar-HDR, producing competitive dynamic range when compared to the contest. Skin tones are also more natural on the Reno 10X Zoom when compared to some smartphones similar the Huawei P30 Pro, and photos it takes seem to have less sharpening practical - leaving you lot more scope to edit shots yourself.

When the lights drop, the Reno 10X Zoom too competes with Huawei'southward finest, only in a more than natural way. Rather than ramp up exposure, it takes the Sony Xperia ane approach and keeps darks looking dark. While information technology tin can't pull the level of item the P30 Pro tin, it does keep noise at bay for the nigh role and create a good looking shot. To burnish things up, you can also burn up the long exposure night more. This doesn't work as well as Huawei'southward merely nevertheless helps very night scenes with a scattering of highlights.

Macro shots likewise print, with impactful depth of field, and plenty of item at the focal point - in a direct comparing, the Oppo Reno 10X Zoom shell the OnePlus vii Pro specifically in this respect. Saturation is optimised for the zingy AMOLED screen, so looks punchy on the telephone but more natural when taken off. Y'all can too customise the default saturation and contrast levels in the settings prior to shooting, which is nifty. Unfortunately, RAW shooting isn't an selection though, which is a real setback for anyone who's serious about picking upwards the Reno 10X equally a photography phone.

Image gallery

10x zoom setting (Image credit: Basil Kronfli/Digital Camera World )

Moving onto the zoom photographic camera, and when information technology comes to photos, shooting far away objects is a dream on this phone. The Reno 10X Zoom gets yous closer to your field of study than the P30 Pro, and the 6x zoom that a couple of taps of the zoom button jumps to delivers impressive detail. When going to 10x (hybrid) zoom and across, withal, picture information starts to crumble, so we'd suggest confronting getting too 'zoom happy'.

Dissimilar the P30 Pro, which can focus throughout the zoom range, intelligently switching cameras, the Reno 10X Zoom cannot focus closer than around 1.5-2m, when the telephoto camera is engaged. While its zoom shots take some advantages over the P30 Pro, therefore - more groundwork blur and less sharpening, betwixt this fact, and the lack of RAW support, the P30 Pro edges alee overall.

As for the wide-bending camera, it doesn't perform brilliantly in low low-cal, but for everything else, information technology's a convenient addition that adds versatility. The same tin can be said of the selfie camera, which could take benefited from autofocus, only nonetheless manages to deliver flattering shots with strong detail.

When information technology comes to video, the Reno 10X Zoom falls way backside the P30 Pro, solely because it doesn't engage the telephoto camera when zooming, instead, cropping in on the image generated by the main camera. This makes the telephone a 'superzoom' for stills only. That existence said, the central video quality is good, and the fact it can shoot at upwardly to 4K 60fps is a boon too. Combined OIS and EIS (electronic image stabilization) proceed things steady as well.

Oppo Reno 10X Zoom verdict

The Reno 10X Zoom is a bully phone considering it costs less than near of the main players out there – undercutting the P30 Pro by a meaning sum, for case. Information technology delivers an excellent stills camera with an incredible zoom – though it isn't without its quirks, especially when it comes to capturing video. The screen is cute and immersive, despite non being the sharpest on the block, and it'due south as well well put together, delivering a tremendous in-hand feel – despite its size.

If you lot don't have an unlimited upkeep, and camera power is your priority, the Oppo Reno 10X Zoom is the obvious option, even with its nuances. If screen and design are more of a priority for you, so nosotros'd suggest yous go with the OnePlus 7 Pro.

Finally, if you simply want the all-time camera phone (opens in new tab) around and don't actually intendance about the cost, then spend the extra and pick upwards the P30 Pro.

Read more than:

• These are the all-time camera phones (opens in new tab) you can get right now
• The all-time gimbals for your iPhone, GoPro and camera (opens in new tab)
• These are the best add together-on lenses for iPhone and Android phones (opens in new tab)

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Basil Kronfli is a freelance technology journalist with a number of specialisms. He started his career at Catechism Europe, before joining Phone Loonshit and Recombu as a tech writer and editor. From there he headed upwardly Btekt as a managing director so Future equally a Senior Producer, sharpening his considerable video product skills.

His technical expertise has been chosen on numerous times by mainstream media, with appearances and interviews on outlets like Sky News, and he provides Digital Camera World with insight and reviews on camera phones, video editing software and laptops, on-camera monitors, camera sliders, microphones and much more.