With regards to premium smartphones, there’s loads of alternative today within the sub-Rs. 40,000 phase. There are smartphones like Oppo’s Reno 10 Professional, which was purposefully designed to suit into this phase or price range, after which there are extra premium smartphones that had been launched within the sub-Rs. 50,000 phase, however have obtained value cuts over time or are continuously obtainable at a a lot cheaper price tag. This would come with units just like the Nothing Telephone 2 and the like, which had been launched at a better price ticket, however at the moment are obtainable beneath Rs. 40,000. And these are particularly the smartphones Oppo’s latest contender within the sub-Rs. 40,000 phase, referred to as the Reno 11 Professional, must be nervous about.

With a brand-new design, improved cameras and an upgraded processor, does Oppo’s Reno 11 Professional stand an opportunity within the cutthroat premium phase in 2024, which consists primarily of smartphones launched in 2023? I’ve used Oppo’s newest Reno smartphone, and here is what I believe.

Oppo Reno 11 Professional Overview: Value in India

The brand new Reno 11 Professional is priced just like final 12 months’s mannequin, at Rs. 39,999. Under it sits the Reno 11, which is priced from Rs. 29,999. Oppo hasn’t introduced the Reno 11 Professional (from China) to India, which is supplied with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor this 12 months. So, it is unclear whether or not final 12 months’s Reno 10 Professional+ will see a substitute or whether or not we must be anticipating some Discover X sequence motion later this 12 months to make up for Oppo’s gaping void in its premium phase.

The telephone is on the market in two finishes, Pearl White and Rock Gray. Within the field, Oppo supplies a USB Kind-C to Kind-A charging cable, an 80W charger and a clear TPU case.

Oppo Reno 11 Professional Overview: Design

Identical to the mannequin it replaces, the Oppo Reno 11 Professional makes use of a mixture of polycarbonate and glass to realize this new Pearl White 3D-etched end, which appears and feels so much like marble. The 3D curved glass across the again has a novel texture, which appears very premium, together with the polished digicam island, which protrudes fairly a bit from the flat rear floor.

The Oppo Reno 11 Professional’s 3D-etched rear panel certain appears and feels premium

The marble-like end feels good to the touch and does a high-quality job of resisting mud and fingerprints, conserving the rear panel clear and smudge-free always. I additionally just like the flat textured insert on the high fringe of the system, which additionally homes the seen secondary mic and infrared port.

There is a 3D curved show glass on the entrance with an AMOLED panel which additionally curves into the perimeters by a bit. It has a skinny bezel and curved edges on the left and proper sides that make the borders seem thinner than they really are.

Utilizing a polycarbonate body additionally helps cut back the load of this smartphone. Weighing in at simply 181 grams, the telephone is sort of slim, with a thickness of simply 7.66mm (in the event you do not embrace the digicam bump). This skinny and light-weight mixture, together with its premium marble-like glass again, the 3D curved sides of the rear panel and the show, all lend this smartphone a really luxurious hand really feel.

The frequent draw back of a matte or delicate end is the shortage of grip, and this telephone isn’t any completely different. The system can get actually slippery, so it is advisable to connect the packaged delicate TPU case to the field to keep away from any injury from unintentional drops.

The Oppo Reno 11 Professional has an IR port on its high edge which is ready in an identical plastic insert

 

The telephone nonetheless lacks an official IP score however appears to have the mandatory seals in place across the SIM card tray. This can be a bit disappointing, conserving its value in thoughts and the truth that different premium units just like the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G supply a correct IP67 score. Even Xiaomi’s upcoming Redmi Word 13 Professional+ 5G additionally has a correct IP68 score and is priced decrease. Whereas an IP score doesn’t assure that the producer will service your drenched system freed from value (all of it is determined by the corporate’s phrases and circumstances), it does convey some peace of thoughts that your system can survive a little bit of rain or perhaps a drop in a pool, relying on its licensed IP score.

Oppo Reno 11 Professional Overview: Specs and software program

Not like final 12 months’s mannequin, Oppo has switched to MediaTek silicon for its Reno 11 Professional. The telephone has a MediaTek Dimensity 8200 SoC, which is constructed utilizing the 4nm fabrication course of and is obtainable with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. There is no room for reminiscence enlargement, however you do get area for 2 nano SIM playing cards with twin 5G standby.

The telephone has a 6.7-inch AMOLED panel with a 120Hz dynamic refresh fee and a full-HD+ decision specified by a tallish 20:9 side ratio. There’s an in-display fingerprint reader, and I discovered its efficiency to be dependable through the evaluation interval. Connectivity requirements embrace Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, an IR blaster and assist for the same old world positioning programs.

Given its slim design, the telephone nonetheless manages to pack in a 4,600mAh battery. It can’t be charged wirelessly, however Oppo does supply an 80W wired charger within the field.

The Oppo Reno 11 Professional has a single bottom-firing speaker

 

The Reno 11 Professional runs Oppo’s freshest serving of Android 14 within the type of ColorOS 14. Whereas it seems just about the identical because the earlier model of this software program. There are just a few minor adjustments that customers who’re acquainted with the software program will discover in some locations.

There’s a very iOS-like world search bar that’s now situated simply above the docked icons on the backside of the house display screen. It is nonetheless not as helpful as Google’s search (which may discover contacts, chats and extra) as it might solely discover apps put in on the telephone or in Oppo’s App Market. One other seen change is the separators for every merchandise within the Settings menu.

Among the many new software program options, Oppo has launched a helpful new one referred to as File Dock. It capabilities in a fashion that’s similar to the OnePlus Open’s Current Folder (which can also be obtainable within the Good Sidebar), letting you drag and drop gadgets from a choose variety of supported apps by first deciding on an merchandise after which long-pressing it to mechanically summon the File Dock drawer.

As soon as dragged into the File Dock, the merchandise might be accessed when wanted after which dragged into any supported app. The characteristic works as anticipated and I might drag all kinds of photos and information between apps, however not all apps will assist this gesture.

File Dock will want the Good Sidebar characteristic to be activated first and in addition works nicely throughout units in the event you occur to have one other ColorOS 14-powered smartphone or pill, making the information magically seem on different units, supplied you will have logged into it utilizing the identical Oppo account.

File Dock is a helpful new characteristic and works nicely throughout supported apps

 

One other cool characteristic that works with File Dock is Good Contact, which mainly makes use of the three-finger swipe-down screenshot gesture. As soon as in screenshot mode, one has to faucet on the ‘Extract content material’ button, after which the system mainly scans the screenshot for content material, which may then be pasted onto File Dock for future use in different apps.

Good Picture Matting is one more characteristic which may choose up cutouts of individuals or objects from the photographs within the Pictures app that may then be pasted into File Dock (or elsewhere) for future use.

Whereas it is good to see some helpful new options in ColorOS 14, I used to be a bit disillusioned by the variety of preinstalled apps. Whereas most of those might be uninstalled, FinShell Pay can not, and the identical applies to various native apps from Oppo. To make issues worse there are a number of app doubles current within the app drawer, like two messaging apps (Messages + Messages), two file managers (Information + My Information), and two net browsers (Web + Chrome), which may get overwhelming to these unfamiliar with a lot bloatware.

Oppo Reno 11 Professional Overview: Efficiency

Bloatware apart, common software program efficiency on the Oppo Reno 11 Professional is sort of good. Multitasking isn’t an issue, and apps stay in reminiscence for some time as nicely. As for benchmarks, the telephone did carry out so much higher than its predecessor which was powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G SoC.

The telephone managed a commendable rating of 9,26,665 factors in AnTuTu, together with 1,093 and three,406 factors in Geekbench’s single and multi-core exams, respectively. Graphics efficiency was additionally fairly good, however Oppo appears to cap it at 60fps for all the three GFXBench check suites we tried out, which included T-Rex, Manhattan 3.1 and Automobile Chase.

Given the noticeable efficiency enhancements over the earlier mannequin, I anticipated essentially the most demanding 3D video games to work simply high-quality with none hiccups, even at excessive graphics settings, which was an issue with the earlier mannequin.

Making an attempt out Name of Obligation: Cell (CODM), the telephone managed clean and lag-free gameplay with graphics set to Very Excessive and body fee set to Very Excessive, however with most results turned off. Turning on all results resulted in random situations of lag, with the telephone struggling to maintain up at occasions. Contact sampling fee was nearly high-quality even when used with Oppo’s Championship gaming mode, so this is not the perfect system for enjoying intensive FPS video games. It was additionally doable to play CODM at Extremely body fee settings, however it’s restricted to 90 fps.

Regardless of the one speaker, I discovered the audio high quality to be sufficiently loud however not immersive or as detailed, particularly when enjoying video games. It is a far cry from the stereo speaker setup obtainable on most smartphones at this value level and infrequently had me reaching from my TWS earphones when catching a present or watching a film.

The Oppo Reno 11 Professional’s curved edge show is not all that distracting when viewing content material and makes its bezel seem thinner

 

The curved edge show helps HDR10+ when streaming video, and the identical appeared as anticipated when watching reveals on Prime Video and Netflix. Whereas it showcases vivid colors at default settings it may be tweaked to point out extra pure color tones. Whereas it carried out nicely indoors, outside efficiency was additionally fairly good with textual content and hues correctly legible in direct daylight.

The telephone presents a most refresh display screen refresh fee of 120Hz and Oppo claims that it is dynamic as nicely. In our testing, the telephone switches between 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz when wanted however usually stays at 90Hz when shopping by way of the software program interface or when utilizing apps. Briefly, the show not often touches the 120Hz refresh fee when utilizing the Auto-select display screen refresh fee mode (which is its default setting). That is extra so since gaming apps are additionally principally capped at 60Hz or 90Hz. Setting the show to the Excessive display screen refresh fee mode forces the show (and the underlying MEMC system) to stay to 120Hz when shopping by way of the telephone’s interface, however it mechanically drops to 90Hz when utilizing any app, making the 120Hz refresh fee a little bit of a gimmick.

The Oppo Reno 11 Professional’s rear digicam setup is just like final 12 months’s mannequin

 

In our commonplace video loop battery check, the Oppo Reno 11 Professional managed a powerful 21 hours and 55 minutes on a single cost. Nevertheless, in real-world utilization, it often lasted me a day with heavy use (about 7-8 hours of display screen time) and just a little over a day with informal use. Which means that it is extra of a one-day smartphone, which additionally implies that it is not superb for energy customers.

Fortunately, charging the smartphone utilizing its 80W charger is fairly fast. It manages a 58 % cost in simply quarter-hour and completes the cost in simply 32 minutes. Wi-fi charging is popping out to be an rising characteristic on this phase, with telephones just like the Nothing Telephone 2 and Google’s Pixel 7a providing the identical. The Oppo Reno 11 Professional, like final 12 months’s mannequin, lacks this characteristic.

Oppo Reno 11 Professional Overview: Cameras

Oppo’s cameras stay principally unchanged in comparison with final 12 months’s Oppo Reno 10 Professional. There’s the identical Sony IMX890 50-megapixel major digicam (OIS enabled), a 32-megapixel (Sony IMX709) telephoto digicam and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle digicam (Sony IMX355). Selfies are dealt with by the identical 32-megapixel digicam as final 12 months’s mannequin, which is embedded into the show and presents autofocus.

What Oppo claims has modified is the way in which it processes these photos, stating that its new HyperTone Imaging Engine delivers higher portrait pictures (with improved color, depth and element) in comparison with final 12 months’s mannequin.

Pictures from the first digicam pack good element however present clipped highlights in contrasted settings (Faucet photos to develop)

 

The first digicam shoots vibrant pictures with good element and principally correct color copy. Whereas the small print within the shadows are fairly good, I discovered areas with a whole lot of clipped highlights when the settings had contrasted lighting, even in daylight. In low mild or street-lit scenes, the digicam manages to carry all of it collectively, producing pure colors and vibrant pictures with good dynamic vary.

Pictures from the telephoto digicam (in Photograph mode) might have been so much sharper (and higher uncovered) (Faucet photos to develop)

 

Pictures from the 2X telephoto digicam positively pack much less element in comparison with the first. The shortage of OIS might be felt right here and ends in flattened textures and decreased element. The digitally cropped 5X samples lack element with textures showing like a portray. Whereas daylight pictures come out simply high-quality with common element, this digicam wants loads of mild to ship good outcomes, so its low-light efficiency is not nice generally.

Switching from Photograph mode to Portrait mode ends in dramatically higher pictures (Within the picture L-R: Shilpi Oberoi, Sujith Gopinath, Ankita Garg) (Faucet picture to develop)

 

Change to Portrait mode, and issues enhance drastically. Oppo’s HyperTone Imaging Engine ensures that these pictures have good separation and are available out fairly detailed as nicely. Whether or not I used to be capturing in black and white or color, these pictures certainly come out nicely, supplied you follow the native focal size (1X or 2X).

I truthfully wished that each one of this enhanced processing was additionally utilized within the common Photograph mode when utilizing the telephoto digicam. Nevertheless, in low mild, the outcomes aren’t all that nice with faces that lack texture and element and in addition seem fairly flat. Briefly, the telephoto digicam is greatest reserved for daylight capturing.

One thing else that I seen is that typical poses and hairdos posed no problem for the Portrait mode’s edge detection. Nevertheless, I did discover a number of flaws with the Portrait mode’s edge detection when tackling barely difficult hairdos, the place the digicam usually gave my topics a haircut.

Selfies from the front-facing digicam have good element, however the edge-detection was not all the time correct (Faucet picture to develop)

 

Low-light selfies lacked element and weren’t too vibrant both (Faucet picture to develop)

 

For the reason that selfie digicam has the same sensor because the telephoto, the outcomes too had been comparable. And even right here, it didn’t take a lot effort for the aggressive edge detection to fumble.

The ultra-wide digicam is simply common by way of total picture high quality, managing satisfactory pictures in daylight and noisy pictures in low mild. There’s additionally a noticeably completely different color tone (hotter) in comparison with the first and telephoto cameras and in addition loads of purple fringing alongside and barrel distortion. The telephone lacks a macro digicam or perhaps a macro mode, however it’s doable to shoot close-ups from as shut as 10 centimetres.

As for video, the selfie digicam lastly will get a 4K 30fps video recording mode. The rear digicam solely presents 4K 30fps video recording (no 4K60 fps), and its high quality is sort of common. Stabilisation is not nice total, and movies seem a bit contrasted like a filter has been utilized to them. The body fee can also be fairly shaky generally. Low mild video seems very noisy and in addition lacks primary stabilisation, the identical applies to selfie movies. Full-HD video additionally seems fairly grainy and noisy and lacks element and texture in low mild.

Oppo Reno 11 Professional Overview: Verdict

The Oppo Reno 11 Professional is actually the identical telephone as final 12 months’s Reno 10 Professional with refined enhancements. Its design and texture remedy have modified, however other than the notable efficiency and battery life enhancements, there’s actually no must improve to the brand new mannequin in case you are already utilizing the Reno 10 Professional. Whereas digicam efficiency has improved (primarily in Portrait mode), it is as soon as once more no cause value upgrading to as these are primarily qualitative upgrades and never precisely characteristic additions.

Oppo continues to disregard the necessity for an official IP score, avoiding one thing as primary as a stereo speaker setup whereas sustaining its excessive value, which didn’t work nicely final 12 months and seems to fulfill the same destiny this 12 months as nicely.

The Oppo Reno 11 Professional is a well-built smartphone, however it’s going to attraction to a really particular set of consumers because it doesn’t supply good worth. Making issues worse for the Oppo Reno 11 Professional is the everchanging competitors.

We now have units just like the Nothing Telephone 2 (Overview), which presents premium options like an official IP54 score for mud and water resistance, wi-fi charging, a novel stand-out design (Glyphy notifications) and a strong processor at Rs. 39,999.

Then there’s the iQoo Neo 7 Professional (Overview), which from Rs. 32,999 could not supply a digicam setup that is as versatile because the Reno 11 Professional’s however positively presents a really succesful major digicam and rock-solid efficiency together with an IP54 score and quicker 120W charging.

If you’re prepared to spend a bit extra, there’s additionally the Google Pixel 7a (Overview), which presents unimaginable worth at Rs. 43,999. It will likely be the primary to get software program updates (sans any bloatware) and presents actually good imaging chops, together with an IP67 score and wi-fi charging.

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