Oppo has a lot of tempting midrange phones, but the real star of the show is the Reno series. These phones are all about style and photography, and they aim to give you a taste of the high-end without breaking the bank. In India, where Oppo’s flagship Find X series is not available, the Reno series is even more appealing. But as the prices of these devices keep rising, we may need to reconsider their value proposition. The Oppo Reno 10 Pro+ costs Rs 54,999, which is almost in the same league as some flagships. Is it still a good deal or should you consider other options? I tested it to find out. Designs as quirky as always The Reno series has always been known for its quirky designs and this year is no exception. The pill-shaped camera module is a bold choice that might make some people do a double take, especially with the way the telephoto camera has been isolated from the rest. That camera module took some getting used to, but it eventually grew on me. But what really stole my heart was the colour of the phone. The rather uninspiring Glossy Purple name for the variant doesn’t do justice to how adorable the phone looks, especially when it catches the sun. It raised some eyebrows from my friends who wondered why I’m rocking a purple phone, but I couldn't care less, especially with the Barbie premiere on the horizon. What better colour to flaunt at Barbie’s cheerful world than lavender? Sure, pink would’ve been more fitting, but good luck finding a phone in that colour these days. Aside from this, the Oppo Reno 10 Pro+ has a design that screams flagship from every angle. It has curves in all the right places, which makes it feel great in your hand and not too heavy either. It also has tapered edges that make it seem slimmer than it actually is. The only thing that gives away its mid-range status is the plastic frame. That's a bit of a letdown considering that some of its rivals have metal frames. An IR blaster to replace your remotes At the top of the phone, I was pleasantly surprised to see an infrared (IR) blaster. It was also present on the recently launched OnePlus Nord 3 so we could be seeing a pattern here. I didn't have time to set up the feature for officially supported appliances using the built-in IR Remote app, but I did try out the Superfan Remote app to control my ceiling fan, and it worked like a charm. I was so impressed that I tossed away my old remote, which was hanging on by a thread anyway. The performance isn’t to be trifled with Powering the Reno 10 Pro+ is Qualcomm’s most powerful beast – the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. Sure, it's not the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but it can easily handle any game you throw at it. The biggest advantage of using a Snapdragon phone is the optimisation – you'd be hard-pressed to find a game that doesn't automatically configure itself to the highest settings. BGMI runs at HDR+Extreme settings just fine and my current favourite racing title Wreckfest runs buttery smooth even after extended sessions. One thing that bothered me while setting up the phone was the sheer amount of bloatware that gets automatically installed. As I restored my apps from Google, the phone decided to sneak in some unwanted guests – a bunch of spammy arcade games that I never asked for. Luckily, I could uninstall them easily. But what I couldn’t get rid of was a couple of spam folders (Hot Apps and Hot Games) on the app drawer, courtesy of Oppo’s App Market. That's a bit cheeky for a phone that costs Rs 55K. Bloatware situation aside, ColorOS 13 is a joy to use. It's designed thoughtfully with a beautiful UI and icons. Plus the range of customisation features is the widest I've seen on any Android skin and they help make the Reno truly your own. Performance is as snappy as it can get and lags are non-existent. Customisability features mean that AOD can be personalised as well. Scrolling through the large catalogue of always-on displays, one option called Insight particularly caught my eye. It offers to show you your "digital life" from a "new perspective." Your day is displayed as a single line corresponding to the time. As you use your phone, that line is replaced with blanks pertaining to the amount of time you've used the phone. You also see the number of times you've unlocked your phone in a day. It’s a clever way to make you think twice before wasting time on your phone. Flagship zooming capabilities on a non-flagship phone It'd be criminal not to include a telephoto camera in a phone costing above Rs 50K and thankfully Oppo has taken that into account. The phone features a 50MP Sony IMX890 sensor as primary, a 64MP OV64B telephoto lens, and an 8MP Sony IMX355 ultrawide. If I had to sum up this camera setup's performance, I'd say “almost flagship, just not quite there.” The primary camera fetches excellent output regardless of the lighting condition and I was happy to see that colours have been tuned to be more on the natural side. But the real star of the camera system is the 64MP telephoto lens that can go from 3x optical zoom to a whopping 120x digital zoom. Sure, that’s overkill, but as long as you stay within the 40x zoom range in bright light, Oppo’s magical software processing makes sure that your shots are clear and crisp. You can even read billboards from a distance. Portraits are another strong point of this lens. You can see blurry DSLR-like backgrounds even without portrait mode on. If you've never used a telephoto lens before, then know that it's a game-changer. You’ll get more flattering shots by switching to 3x and moving a bit away from your subject, rather than just snapping a pic with the main camera, believe me. So, should the Reno 10 Pro+ be your next phone? There's little to dislike about the Oppo Reno 10 Pro+. It's got all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a modern-day upper-midrange device…and more. However, there’s little that the phone offers over handsets like the OnePlus Nord 3 and the OnePlus 11R despite being priced significantly higher. Not to mention the Google Pixel 7 which sells cheaper. Sure, the telephoto lens and the eye-catching design are a nice touch, but they are not really enough to justify the Rs 54,999 price tag. Bottom line: Unless you're really in love with the Oppo Reno 10 Pro+, we suggest you wait for some discounts before buying it.
