The OPPO Reno11 5G is a striking smartphone. It will certainly turn heads with its polarising design – whether you like it or not is your personal preference but it’s definitely eye-catching. However, the Reno11 just doesn’t feel like a next-generation product – it is a moderately tuned OPPO Reno10, which by itself wasn’t the most impressive smartphone in its price range. OPPO really needs to start paying more attention to the processor and battery of its phones to stand out in the competitive Indian smartphone market since these are key areas of interest. The cameras, which are supposed to be one of the Reno11’s standout features, also are quite inconsistent.
The OPPO Reno11 5G faces off against an array of popular mid-range smartphones in the Indian market. To stand out from the crowd, the company has almost tunnel-visioned on two aspects of their latest smartphones – design and camera. To that end, the OPPO Reno11 features a revamped design and a better 50-megapixel primary camera with OIS capabilities. Apart from these changes, OPPO has opted to retain most of the key specifications of the OPPO Reno10 and port them over to the Reno11. So, things like the display, battery, and processor remain pretty much unchanged. So, is the new OPPO Reno11 5G worth your money, or does it fall short of its competition such as the POCO X6 Pro (review), Realme 12 Pro (review), and Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro+ (review) in 2024? Let’s find out.
OPPO Reno11 5G Review: Build and Design
The OPPO Reno11 5G has a bold design which is quite polarising. Unlike its predecessor, this version opts for a flashier aesthetic that might not be everyone’s cup of tea. The rear panel, though made of plastic, mimics the appearance of glass with its glossy finish. However, this also means the rear panel is prone to attracting fingerprints and smudge marks. Personally, I find the matte finish of last year’s Reno10 more premium-looking.
The revamped camera module, with its two circular housings for three lenses, appears slightly peculiar, especially with the flash placed outside. It seems like there’s ample space within the module to accommodate it.
Aesthetics aside, the phone impresses with its slim and lightweight build. It felt incredibly comfortable to hold for extended periods. Weighing just 182 g and measuring only 8 mm thick, it boasts contours on both the display and rear panel for added comfort. Despite its metal-like appearance, the frame is constructed from polycarbonate, which doesn’t scuff easily but might be a tad flashy for some tastes.
The optical in-display fingerprint sensor is decent, but it’s not the speediest. The absence of an official IP rating could be a deal-breaker for some. Overall, the OPPO Reno11 5G is a lightweight device with a striking appearance. It certainly attracts eyeballs, but whether you like the design or not will be based on your taste.
OPPO Reno11 5G Review: Display
The OPPO Reno11 5G has undergone a significant design overhaul, but its display remains unchanged. Sporting the familiar 6.7-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display from its predecessor, it continues to offer features like HDR10+ support and a 120 Hz refresh rate. With over 1 billion colours, it is a pretty commendable display in its price range.
The viewing angles are impressive, and the colours are vibrant. Its 3D curved screen enhances immersion, achieving an 89.5 per cent screen-to-body ratio. However, my only gripe is its brightness. In a market where even mid-range smartphones excel in brightness, the Reno11 5G’s 950 nits of peak brightness seem somewhat underwhelming.
During testing, I recorded a brightness of 842 nits in Auto Mode under bright sunlight. While respectable, it pales in comparison to competitors like the Redmi Note 13 Pro+, boasting a rated peak brightness of 1,800 nits. I also found the screen legibility on the lower side on particularly sunny days.
How’s the performance?
Historically, OPPO phones haven’t been the fastest on the block. The company focuses more on design and camera, and performance often feels overlooked. The same is true for the OPPO Reno11 5G. OPPO has fitted the Reno11 with the same 6 nm Dimensity 7050 processor as its predecessor, which is disappointing. Alongside, you get 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128 or 256 GB UFS 2.2 storage. In contrast, the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ which costs only ₹2,000 more comes with a much more powerful processor and faster UFS 3.1 storage.
The ramifications of this choice are clear when you put the phone through benchmarking tests. The OPPO Reno11 5G almost always scores lower than its similarly-priced competitors. In AnTuTu, the phone got a decent score of 5,40,116, however, the cheaper POCO X6 Pro absolutely blew the Reno11’s score out of the water, as you can see below. The trend continued across GeekBench and PCMark Work as well.
The phone had low scores in GPU benchmarks such as 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme and GFXBench as well. In fact, last year’s iQOO Z7 Pro which you can buy for just ₹23K scored much more than the Reno11 in these GPU tests. The scores mimicked my experience in real life. I could play Call of Duty: Mobile and BGMI on this phone, but only on Low graphics. If I tried to switch to Medium graphics, I would be faced with a whole lot of lag and stutter, which honestly, isn’t acceptable for a phone costing ₹30K.
If you’re not a gamer and just want to use a phone for simple day-to-day tasks such as social media, WhatsApp, YouTube, and web browsing, this phone handles it decently well. There were very few instances of lag. However, for pro users, there are much faster options in the market.
As for the software, the phone ships with ColorOS 14 which is layered on top of Android 14. OPPO has promised three whole years of OS updates and four years of security updates, which is a step in the right direction. Sadly, the bloatware is still very much an issue in ColorOS 14 on the Reno11. There are a ton of pre-installed apps, many of which cannot be uninstalled.
Are the cameras any good?
The OPPO Reno11 5G’s triple camera array looks impressive on paper. You’ve got an improved 50-megapixel primary camera with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), there’s a 32-megapixel telephoto shooter with 2x optical zoom and an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera. The selfie camera is a pretty capable 32-megapixel sensor.
The photos from the primary camera in ideal lighting look pretty decent. Colours are contrasty and vivid – ideal for direct uploads to social media and the detail retention is solid. The dynamic range, while not the worst in the segment, could be better. The details in the shadows get crushed quite a bit even in good lighting. And this is only amplified in low light conditions, with some noise creeping in as well.
The 8-megapixel ultrawide camera is nothing special – the centre of the picture has good amounts of detail, but the corners lose out on it and the dynamic range is worse here.
As for the 32-megapixel telephoto lens, the colours and detail retention are surprisingly good. OPPO has also done a good job of maintaining similar colour science across its lenses.
Portrait pictures, on the other hand, are a different story. In ideal lighting, both the primary and telephoto cameras click good portrait shots. However, the details on a person’s face are more smoothened over in the primary sample, which gives it an unnatural look. In low light, the telephoto lens clicks very soft portrait images that aren’t really usable, in my opinion.
The 32-megapixel selfie camera clicks some stunning photos in daylight, but in low light conditions, the pretty goes missing once again. Overall, while the OPPO Reno11’s cameras are above average, they are nothing spectacular.
OPPO Reno11 5G Review: Battery Life
Battery capacity and charging speeds remain unchanged on the OPPO Reno11 5G. Just like the Reno10, the OPPO Reno11 houses a 5,000 mAh cell with support for 67 W fast charging. The phone will last most users about a day, but if you’re a heavy user, you may even need to charge up the device before your bedtime.
In our 4K video loop test, the OPPO Reno11 5G lasted for about 13 hours before dying out from a full battery. A mere 15 minutes of playing Call of Duty: Mobile drained the battery by about 6 per cent. These are decent numbers, but nothing path-breaking. The 67 W charger tops the phone from empty to full in just 49 minutes, which is quite speedy.
Should you buy the OPPO Reno11 5G?
The OPPO Reno11 5G is a striking smartphone. It will certainly turn heads with its polarising design – whether you like it or not is your personal preference but it’s definitely eye-catching. However, the Reno11 just doesn’t feel like a next-generation product – it is a moderately tuned OPPO Reno10, which by itself wasn’t the most impressive smartphone in its price range. OPPO really needs to start paying more attention to the processor and battery of its phones to stand out in the competitive Indian smartphone market since these are key areas of interest. The cameras, which are supposed to be one of the Reno11’s standout features, also are quite inconsistent.
Other options in this price range are the POCO X6 Pro, for exceptional speed, and the Realme 12 Pro, for a better camera experience at a cheaper price. You could also spend about ₹2K more and go for the fantastic Redmi Note 13 Pro+ which has a better display, faster charging, and smoother gameplay experience.
Oppo Reno 11 5G Key Specs, Price and Launch Date
| Release Date: | 12 Jan, 2024 |
| Market Status: | Launched |
Key Specifications
Storage
128 GB
-
Battery capacity (mAh)
5000
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Rear Camera Megapixel
50+ 32 + 8
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Screen size (in inches)
6.7
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Dhriti Datta
Perpetually sporting a death stare, this one can be seen tinkering around with her smartphone which she holds more dear than life itself and stuffing her face with copious amounts of bacon. View Full Profile
