OPPO Reno 2Z - India this one's for you!
**Oppo Reno 2Z Unboxing and Hands-On Review: A Comprehensive Look**
Earlier this year, Oppo launched a new line of smartphones called Reno, featuring a shark fin pop-up camera and 10 times zoom. Reno redefined what Oppo was all about—a fresh new look that cemented its own identity and exciting new tech that gave it gravitas as an innovator. However, their new flagship came with a flagship price tag. Enter the Oppo Reno Z, which began its global rollout around the globe in July, launching almost everywhere Oppo was sold, except one very important market—India, a market close to my heart and one I recently visited.
Thankfully, the wait is over, and it was worth it. Oppo took the Reno Z and made it better, launching it first in India, which makes this intro even more justified. This video is brought to you by MediaTek. Earlier this year, I traveled with them to India to meet many of you folks, and they’re thrilled to bring you India’s first smartphone powered by the MediaTek Helio P90 system-on-a-chip. If you don’t live in India, don’t worry—sources tell me that Oppo is planning on rolling out this smartphone to other markets very soon.
Let’s dive straight into our unboxing. Like every other Reno, you get an extra-tall box with a reticent shimmer. One more thing worth noting: this phone is also made in India. Alright, let’s peel off this plastic and dive in. First up, an intro packet with warranty information inside. Next, the phone itself—the wrapper highlights some of the phone’s features: a 48-megapixel wide-angle camera, a notch-free AMOLED display, and RukCharge 3.0. The phone comes with 8 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage. Let’s set the phone aside for now—okay, what else is in here? A case—not the typical jelly case; this one is plastic with a full leather finish up top, complete with stitching details. Up here, there’s a cutout for the top-up camera to slide through. Also inside the box: an Oppo Luke charger—this is an India plug (if you haven’t seen one before), USBC cable, and notice the insides are green—to note, it’s part of the Luke charging system. Last but not least, wired headphones also with green accents.
Okay, with that out of the way, we can now take a closer look at the phone. Slide this off—this is the Luminess black model; the Reno 2Z is also available in sky white. Our unit here has a glossy black finish, and when hit by the light, its sides light up with a neon blue glow. So does the halo around the logo. The shape and size of the Reno 10x zoom and the Reno 2Z are almost identical—if not so unlike the original Reno Z, which was shorter. It’s got the same curved back elements arranged horizontally from the Oppo logo to the front camera array that’s flushed against the back case—and this Oppo calls it in O-DOT, which protects the camera from getting scratched when you place it down on a table for example.
Volume buttons are on the left; on the right, the power button with a green accent and a triple card slot for two nano SIM cards and a micro SD card. Up top: a pop-up selfie camera and microphone. And on the bottom: speaker grills, USB-C port, another microphone, and a headphone jack—which is something the flagship Oppo 10x zoom doesn’t have.
When you power on the phone, you’ll find that unlike the original Reno Z, there’s no notch—plus it’s full HD plus AMOLED display and stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support, making it the perfect device for watching your favorite Bollywood film on Netflix and playing your favorite games. MediaTek’s top-of-the-line Helio P90 is designed to harness the power of AI to optimize gaming performance—it can plow through resource-hungry titles like Asphalt 9 and PUBG, which distracted me for a full hour while I was shooting this video.
Up was also built-in its own game booster called "Game Space." You can play in balance mode, which preserves battery life, or go all out and go competitive for no-holds-barred performance. The Reno 2Z has a built-in under-display fingerprint scanner, which Oppo says is 11.3% faster than the original Reno lock times. But still not the kind that allows you to just tap and release—unlike the Reno 10x zoom, the Reno 2Z doesn’t have the shark-fin pop-up camera instead it has the more traditional kind. The module glows when it pops up or blinks when using the selfie timer—you can change the color of the light in settings or turn it off completely. The module will also automatically retract when it senses the phone being dropped.
Here are samples taken with the phone’s 16-megapixel shooter—with and without beauty effects applied—and here’s a sample using the camera’s selfie bokeh video mode: "How do I look?" On its back, the Reno 2Z has four cameras: an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, a standard lens with a 48-megapixel sensor, and two other portrait cameras used only on two of its new portrait modes—this one is for monochrome portraits, the other is for photos with a more retro feel. Overall, the 2Z takes good photos, but you be the judge.
Before we go, some software features worth talking about: ultra-dark mode, which harnesses the neural processor of the Helio P90 so you can shoot in complete darkness and still produce images like this—and ultra-steady video to reduce shakiness even at 60 frames per second. The Reno 2Z comes with a four-thousand milliamp-hour battery using the bundled Luke fast charger 3.0, which allows you to top up from 0 to 50 percent in just 30 minutes.
And that was our Oppo Reno 2Z unboxing and hands-on in India. The phone retails for just under 30,000 Indian rupees. The phone is also slated for its European debut starting October 16th in London—Gadget Match will be there. So to make sure you don’t miss any of that coverage, subscribe to our YouTube channel, hit that Bell icon so you get notified every time we post a new video, follow us on social media for all the behind-the-scenes fun stuff, and as always, make Gadget Mash your daily habit until the next video. I’m Michael Josh—thanks for dropping by!