The OPPO Reno7 Z 5G is the brand’s newest take on the mid-range segment with good-looking hardware and some software tricks up its sleeve. But, will these justify its asking price? Let’s find out in our full review.
OPPO Reno 7 Z 5G specs:
- 6.43-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display
- 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 695
- 8GB RAM
- 128GB storage
- Triple rear cameras with LED Flash:
64MP f/1.7 PDAF
2MP f/2.4 depth
2MP f/2.4 macro - 16MP selfie camera
- 5G, Dual SIM
- WiFi, Bluetooth 5.1, in-display fingerprint scanner
- 4500mAh battery
33W fast charging - ColorOS 11.3 ( based on Android 11)
- Colors: Rainbow Spectrum, Cosmic Black
Design: Now were talking
I have no complaints here, it’s just simply good-looking and it is slim and lightweight I must say. Upfront, we’re greeted by a 6.43-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display (with a huge chin, ugh), an in-display fingerprint scanner (which is quite fast), a call speaker, and a 16 MP front-facing camera in a punch-hole setup.
On the right side is a lonely power/lock/unlock button that also works as a Google Assistant button, on the left side is the triple SIM tray that can house two SIM cards and a microSD card as well as the volume buttons.
The good thing here is that all buttons are easy to press. Not too hard, not too soft. It will give you nice tactile feedback when you press them. The buttons are also made of the same material as the frame – metal-ish plastic I can say, with a matte texture as well which is good so there are no visible fingerprints here.
Up top is the second microphone unit for noise cancellation. While at the bottom is the headphone jack, the primary microphone, USB-C port, and the mono loudspeaker (no stereo here boo!).
Its sides are flat out or squared out, whatever you want to call it. It reminds me of the OPPO Reno6 as well as the iPhone 13 models where the sides give you a good grip and a nice party trick: making your phone stand on its own.
Okay, let’s move to the main event: the backside. Fortunately, our review unit is the Rainbow Spectrum color, so we’re able to show off and flex to everyone that we have a cool phone at our disposal. True to its name, the Rainbow Spectrum color is like a rainbow with so many colors and changes at different angles.
Can I just say, the back has a matte-textured feel? Fingerprints are nowhere to be found on this phone, really (except on the display of course). Although the part where the cameras sit has a glossy finish to it – a nice contrast though.
And here’s the exciting part, whenever the phone is charging, receives an incoming call, or has unread notifications, the dual camera rings glow and works as a notification light, which OPPO calls Dual Orbit Lights. This also has a triple camera set-up with an LED flash at the back with an “AI Portrait Camera” text below it and an OPPO logo at the bottom.
Display: Better stay indoors
The Reno7 Z 5G’s 6.43-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display produces great colors for my taste. The contrast and sharpness are good and decent but don’t compare this to those with HDR10+ certification or QHD displays, you won’t win any display battles with them. Brightness is great at any level, auto-brightness works well too. The downside though, it can’t keep up with outdoor lighting, it’s struggling to brighten – better stay indoors to enjoy the full brightness.
Other display features include eye care protection which is good and can be scheduled to turn on any time of the day, dark mode is a plus, and you can also tweak the display colors: natural or vivid – I went with the natural.
An always-on display is a bonus here. It’s a nice touch if you want to see notifications and the clock at a glance, but there’s not too much customization like changing the clock style from digital to analog.
Audio: Scream if you may
The single down-firing speaker is loud, but don’t crack it up to the highest level because the sound will crack a little. It’s good for listening to music, watching movies or YouTube videos, and the like. Bass is almost nowhere to be found, mids, and lows are decent too. But not until you put your finger on it and it gets muffled because it’s just a mono speaker.
If you wish to listen to tunes privately, you can still use a pair of earphones through the 3.5mm headphone jack or via Bluetooth. Calls also sounded good on the call speaker and the voices are clear with the built-in microphone.
Cameras: Make it or break it
The OPPO Reno7 Z 5G has triple cameras on its back with LED flash: a 64MP main camera, 2MP depth, and 2MP macro. Some other features that make up the camera set-up are super-resolution that combines several images to make up for a higher resolution image, night mode, panorama, portrait, and macro, among others.
On the other hand, its 16MP front-facing camera also has essential features such as portrait mode and beauty mode – they won’t be the selfie expert if they don’t have these, right? To give you peace of mind, you can tone down the blur on the portrait mode and you can turn off the beauty mode if you’re not keen on using it.
Photos produced by the main camera are decent in good lighting conditions. They’re not too sharp or high in contrast, the dynamic range is good (thanks to Auto HDR), and colors are a bit vibrant to my taste – or maybe because I let the AI mode turned on all the time, which is a bonus if you want the phone to decide on the right settings for the camera. Portrait and macro mode are also on point but still need some improvement like an auto focus for the macro camera perhaps? Night mode is great with low noise, but you can still use the LED flash to take brighter photos in low light. Selfies are good too thanks to AI mode and Auto HDR which makes up for its lack of sharpness. The good thing about selfies is that when the camera detects that you are shooting in low light, it flashes a virtual ring light on the screen to brighten things up. Though sometimes this also blows up the photo because it’s too bright. Here are some sample shots we took:
The Reno7 Z 5G can shoot videos up to 1080p at 30fps which is good and competitive. But for its price, OPPO could have given this phone up to 4K 30fps to make it on par with the competition. Dual video is present here too, a nice feature if you want to take a video of yourself while taking a video in front. My favorite feature is the zoom. The camera gives you full control of how fast or how slow you want to zoom in and out while shooting. Here’s a sample clip:
OS, UI, and Performance: Smooth like butter
This phone breathes ColorOS 11.3 which is based on Android 11. As a first-time OPPO user, I liked how they went and implemented things on the user interface. It looks really clean, not too cluttered for my eyes, but there are a lot of things to fiddle with to make the phone more personalized. Though I just don’t like the bloatware of apps that comes with it. Good thing there is an option not to install these upon initial set-up.
This has a generous 128GB storage and 8GB RAM onboard as well as an extended RAM function which is common nowadays in the midrange segment. If the internal storage is not enough, the microSD slot can make up for it.
Performance-wise, the phone runs smoothly with virtually zero lags. I’ve put this to its paces by playing my favorite hardcore game: Coin Master. Kidding! Need For Speed No Limits is playable on this phone so there’s nothing to worry about. But I am not satisfied, I want to make this phone hot – literally. So I downloaded the AnTuTu benchmark, 3D Mark Test, and Geekbench 5 to run repeated benchmark tests and see if the phone can handle them. The result: a phone with a warm back and a resounding success!Here are the results we got:
- Geekbench 5: 673 (Single-core), 1,897 (Multi-core)
- 3DMark (Wildlife Extreme): 1,204
- PCMark (Work 3.0): 7,891
An in-display fingerprint scanner of a capacitive type takes charge of biometrics security, complemented by face unlock through the front-facing camera. The fingerprint scanner is surprisingly fast and accurate even with a screen protector. It even has a quick app launch feature which works by placing your finger on the scanner to unlock and wait for a few seconds for the apps to appear and swipe up to launch. The face unlock is super fast but not too secure since it just uses the front-facing camera to look for the face, with no other sensors like the ones from the iPhone’s FaceID technology.
Signal connectivity and coverage are great thanks to its WiFi, 4G, and 5G antennas. The WiFi signal is great and can automatically switch to the best and fastest connection available. While 4G and 5G performed well too, giving full signal bars even inside the house. Call drops? Unsent SMS? That’s a thing of the past now.
Battery: SuperVOOC has got your back
The 4500mAh battery capacity is a tad small compared to others but small enough to make the phone slim, lightweight, and lasts the whole day. In my typical daily use which includes hours of web browsing, scrolling on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and watching YouTube videos over WiFi, the phone lasted around half a day with auto-brightness and high-performance mode turned on. However, things change when using LTE/5G as it drains the battery faster. A PCMark 3.0 Battery test rated the phone at 9 hours and 47 minutes which isn’t bad for its battery capacity.
On the other hand, the supplied 33W SuperVOOC charger on the box fuels the Reno7 Z 5G super fast! Like 0% to 100% in around an hour. The phone does not feel hot when charging, but at times it gets warm. But don’t be bothered because it won’t hurt the battery since OPPO has optimized SuperVOOC to work properly and safely on all of their devices.
