OPPO brings the Reno 4 and OPPO Watch to Kenyan Market

Smartphone manufacturer OPPO has today officially introduced its latest device, the Reno 4 to the Kenyan market. The recommended retail price is set at KES. 39,999. The new phone is the successor to the Reno 3 – which came to the market earlier this year. OPPO Kenya says the Reno 4 builds up on the Reno 3 with new features, new specs, giving users a new experience.

The company is also introducing its first smartwatch to the market, the OPPO Watch running Google’s WearOS.

Muthoni Wachira, Head of Communications & Projects at OPPO Kenya said, “[The] Reno 4 introduces fun and new ways to be in with the latest trends and fully express creativity through OPPO’s innovative imaging technology. This means that Reno 4 will make it easy to capture creative portraits at any moment or imaginative videos that are designed to give every user a chance to “Clearly Unlock the Best You.”

“The Reno Series has always been one of the pioneers in smartphone camera technology and with Reno4 we’re proud to continue innovating with new portrait shooting and videography features that empower our users to truly stand out. From innovative imaging technology to the futuristic touch-free interaction, and from stunning designs to VOOC Flash Charging, we’ve walked the extra mile,” added Muthoni Wachira.

Unboxing:

A full review video will be up on our YouTube channel in a few days time, so subscribe to YouTube.com/TechishKenya to see thoughts on cameras, battery, performance and everything else. Also subscribe to get that giveaway.

Design:

OPPO says the Reno 4 strikes a delicate balance between a slim and sleek design. Equipped with a 6.4-inch Dual Punch-hole Display, the device is 7.7mm thick so that it fits in the hand and pocket easily. It is also very lightweight at 165g, ensuring that your hand won’t be fatigued while holding it. This is one of the main things we’ve loved while reviewing the device.

The device comes with two colours: Galactic Blue and Space Black. OPPO is also introducing a new design technique dubbed ‘Reno Glow’. This is an innovative back cover design that combines a matte fingerprint resistant texture with subtle glittery details, which gives the Galactic Blue colour a more vibrant and glossier look. Reno Glow adds a shimmer to Galactic Blue’s silver and blue colour gradients when reflected under the light, achieving a dazzling effect. Together with looming OPPO monogram at the bottom, OPPO says the design choices they’ve made bring about a sense of mystery giving the devices a premium feel.

Camera:

Continuing to strengthen its foothold with smartphone imaging technology, the Reno 4 brings in what OPPO calls exceptional portrait shooting and videography capabilities. The Reno 4’s rear camera features a 3 + 1 four-shot matrix including a 48MP Main Camera, 8MP Ultra Wide-angle Camera, a 2MP Macro Camera and a 2MP Mono Camera, while the 32MP Front Camera captures clear selfies.

With AI Colour Portrait, both the front and rear cameras of Reno 4 can capture portraits that use the AI Colour Portrait effect. With AI Colour Portrait Photo, only the person in the shot is highlighted in natural colour, while the background colours are muted black and white. This feature is also available for taking videos. Furthermore, Monochrome Video is made of three kinds of video filters, which adds an effect that only retains the red, green or blue colours of objects in the video, while also turning the others black and white.

The phone can also take amazing night-time portraits with Night Flare Portrait. It automatically superimposes a mix of transparent and bright blurred light spots on the background and brightens the face of the subject of the portrait shot, to create a clear and bright night portrait with vibrant bokeh effect. In addition, Ultra Night Selfie Mode and Ultra Dark Mode improve night-time photography capabilities as both features enable users to capture clearer and brighter night shots using both the front and rear cameras.

The Reno 4 also brings in a first to the series, now offering Ultra Steady Video 3.0 which has three different stabilisation modes:

• There’s now an Electronic Image Stabilisation algorithm in the front camera bringing Front Steady Video.
• The Main Rear Camera, and the Ultra Wide Camera both support Ultra Steady Video Pro Mode which bring stable videos even when having shaky hands.

AI-enhanced Smart Sensor:

The phone is also equipped with an AI-enhanced Smart Sensor to perform functions like Smart Spying Prevention, Smart AirControl, Smart Rotation and Smart Always-on Display. The AI-enhanced Smart Sensor can leverage a smart recognition algorithm and automatically detect whether the owner and only the owner of the phone is watching it when there is a notification on the phone. If a notification pops up as a stranger is peeping at the phone, the detailed content in the notification, including drop-down notification drawers and banner notifications, will be hidden.

Also, the AI-enhanced Smart Sensor offers an intuitive and futuristic way to control your phone touch-free and can adapt to your habits. With Smart Air Control, you can pick up a phone call or scroll through social media apps like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok all with just a wave of your hand. When the phone and the user’s face is rotated simultaneously, Smart Rotation, enabled by the AI-enhanced Smart Sensor and pose-recognition algorithm to intelligently detect the orientation of the face and the phone to help determine whether to rotate the screen.  This feature provides users with convenient viewing experience while visiting websites lying down. In addition, with Smart Always-on Display the AI-enhanced Smart Sensor can detect whether you’re looking at your phone and keeps the screen “On”, so you won’t be interrupted while you’re browsing your phone.

Performance:

The device is feature packed. There’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB UFS 2.1 storage.

You get a 30W VOOC 4.0 Flash Charger to power up the 4015mAh battery. The fast charger can fill up 0-50% battery within 20 Minutes, and achieve a full charge within 57mins. Moreover, Superpower Saving Mode gives the Reno 4 an extra kick to keep the phone running longer. It gives 1.5 hours of messaging on WhatsApp or calls for more than one hour with just 5% of battery, according to test results from OPPO laboratory. At night, Super Nighttime Standby is designed to learn the sleep schedule and optimizes the battery life so that only 2% of battery is used throughout the entire night for about 8 hours. 

ColorOS 7.2:

ColorOS 7.2 is already available on the Reno 4. It brings a more user-friendly experience, which OPPO says helps you get tasks done faster, and also enhances your mobile gaming experience.

In this updated version of ColorOS, Quick Return Bubble minimizes a game mid-way and enables one to switch between multi-tasks as a floating bubble, with crucial information to remind the user when to come back. To add a bit of flair and entertainment within your Reno 4, ColorOS 7.2 also brings the OPPO Lab, a new test app of fun and innovative features being built by OPPO where one can interact with the different products and offer feedback by liking or disliking a certain feature.

Availability in the Kenyan market:

OPPO says pre-orders are now open, running from today September 21, 2020 til September 28, 2020. The colour options are the Galactic Blue and Space Black variants.

OPPO Reno 4 Specifications:

OPPO Watch Review