Oppo Reno 11 Pro Review

When it comes to premium smartphones, there is plenty of choice these days in the sub-Rs. 40,000 segment. There are smartphones like Oppo’s Reno 10 Pro, which was purposefully designed to fit into this segment or budget, and then there are more premium smartphones that were launched in the sub-Rs. 50,000 segment, but have received price cuts over time or are frequently available at a much lower price tag. This would include devices like the Nothing Phone 2 and the like, which were launched at a higher price tag, but are now available below Rs. 40,000. And these are specifically the smartphones Oppo’s newest contender in the sub-Rs. 40,000 segment, called the Reno 11 Pro, should be worried about.

With a brand-new design, improved cameras and an upgraded processor, does Oppo’s Reno 11 Pro stand a chance in the cutthroat premium segment in 2024, which consists mainly of smartphones launched in 2023? I’ve used Oppo’s latest Reno smartphone, and here’s what I think.

Oppo Reno 11 Pro Review: Price in India

The new

Photos from the primary camera pack good detail but show clipped highlights in contrasted settings (Tap images to expand)

The primary camera shoots vibrant photos with good detail and mostly accurate colour reproduction. While the details in the shadows are quite good, I found areas with a lot of clipped highlights when the settings had contrasted lighting, even in daylight. In low light or street-lit scenes, the camera manages to hold it all together, producing natural colours and bright photos with good dynamic range.

Photos from the telephoto camera (in Photo mode) could have been a lot sharper (and better exposed) (Tap images to expand)

Photos from the 2X telephoto camera definitely pack less detail compared to the primary. The lack of OIS can be felt here and results in flattened textures and reduced detail. The digitally cropped 5X samples lack detail with textures appearing like a painting. While daylight photos come out just fine with average detail, this camera needs plenty of light to deliver good results, so its low-light performance isn’t great in general.

Switching from Photo mode to Portrait mode results in dramatically better photos (In the image L-R: Shilpi Oberoi, Sujith Gopinath, Ankita Garg) (Tap image to expand)

Switch to Portrait mode, and things improve drastically. Oppo’s HyperTone Imaging Engine ensures that these photos have good separation and come out quite detailed as well. Whether I was shooting in black and white or colour, these photos surely come out well, provided you stick to the native focal length (1X or 2X).

I honestly wished that all of this enhanced processing was also applied in the regular Photo mode when using the telephoto camera. However, in low light, the results aren’t all that great with faces that lack texture and detail and also appear quite flat. In short, the telephoto camera is best reserved for daylight shooting.

Something else that I noticed is that typical poses and hairdos posed no challenge for the Portrait mode’s edge detection. However, I did find several flaws with the Portrait mode’s edge detection when tackling slightly complicated hairdos, where the camera often gave my subjects a haircut.

Selfies from the front-facing camera have good detail, but the edge-detection was not always accurate (Tap image to expand)

Low-light selfies lacked detail and were not too bright either (Tap image to expand)

Since the selfie camera has a similar sensor as the telephoto, the results too were similar. And even here, it did not take much effort for the aggressive edge detection to fumble.

The ultra-wide camera is just average in terms of overall image quality, managing passable photos in daylight and noisy photos in low light. There’s also a noticeably different colour tone (warmer) compared to the primary and telephoto cameras and also plenty of purple fringing along and barrel distortion. The phone lacks a macro camera or even a macro mode, but it is possible to shoot close-ups from as close as 10 centimetres.

As for video, the selfie camera finally gets a 4K 30fps video recording mode. The rear camera only offers 4K 30fps video recording (no 4K60 fps), and its quality is quite average. Stabilisation isn’t great overall, and videos appear a bit contrasted like a filter has been applied to them. The frame rate is also quite shaky in general. Low light video appears very noisy and also lacks basic stabilisation, the same applies to selfie videos. Full-HD video also appears quite grainy and noisy and lacks detail and texture in low light.

Oppo Reno 11 Pro Review: Verdict

The Oppo Reno 11 Pro is essentially the same phone as last year’s Reno 10 Pro with subtle improvements. Its design and texture treatment have changed, but apart from the notable performance and battery life improvements, there’s really no need to upgrade to the new model if you are already using the Reno 10 Pro. While camera performance has improved (primarily in Portrait mode), it’s once again no reason worth upgrading to as these are mainly qualitative upgrades and not exactly feature additions.

Oppo continues to ignore the need for an official IP rating, avoiding something as basic as a stereo speaker setup while maintaining its high price, which did not work well last year and appears to meet a similar fate this year as well.

The Oppo Reno 11 Pro is a well-built smartphone, but it will appeal to a very specific set of buyers as it does not offer good value. Making things worse for the Oppo Reno 11 Pro is the everchanging competition.

We have devices like the Nothing Phone 2 (Review), which offers premium features like an official IP54 rating for dust and water resistance, wireless charging, a unique stand-out design (Glyphy notifications) and a powerful processor at Rs. 39,999.

Then there’s the iQoo Neo 7 Pro (Review), which from Rs. 32,999 may not offer a camera setup that’s as flexible as the Reno 11 Pro’s but definitely offers a very capable primary camera and rock-solid performance along with an IP54 rating and faster 120W charging.

If you are willing to spend a bit more, there’s also the Google Pixel 7a (Review), which offers incredible value at Rs. 43,999. It will be the first to get software updates (sans any bloatware) and offers really good imaging chops, along with an IP67 rating and wireless charging.