I’ve had the OPPO Reno5 as my daily driver device for a while now. Of course, I am using it with the intention of sharing my thoughts about it with you guys in a full review article and video later on. So I am definitely looking at many things to ensure I am as comprehensive as possible when I finally publish my review.
One thing that has stood out for me with the Reno5 is that it supports 50W Super VOOC fast charging. Apart from the 61W charger that comes with my laptop, this is the fastest charger in the house. Actually, the charger is rated 10V–6.5A (Max) which means it is a 65W charger, making it faster than my laptop’s charger. However, only the Reno5 Pro supports that speed. This is the normal Reno5, so it will charger at 10W–5A (50W). And I don’t know about you, but for me, the thought of a phone charger being this powerful is just crazy!
With a charge time of just 48Mins from 0% to 100%, and 30mins from 0% to 80% this is one of the fastest charging devices in the market, if not the fastest. And from my usage, the numbers are even crazier in real life!
OPPO has been serious about fast charging for a long while now. While other smartphone makers have focused on things like weird hardware, and extra camera lenses, we’ve seen OPPO consistently better its fast charging technology. Currently, almost all their devices enjoy a form of fast charging at whatever price point. The company has applied for over 2,900 patents across the world concerning fast charging, and already has over 1,400 granted.
Just last week, the company decided it will be bringing its fast-charging technology to every appliance on earth – from powerbanks, vacuum cleaners, to cars. This will be part of what OPPO is calling ‘The Flash Initiative’ which seeks to reduce the time it takes to charge appliances significantly while maintaining the longevity of the batteries.
OPPO Reno5 Flash Charging in real life:
Before the Reno5, the fastest charger I’d used on a phone was a 30W charger. Funny, I thought that to be super fast. Looking back, it is now clear that that was a joke. Yes it was fast, but the speeds with which the Reno5 charges changes everything! Which makes me wonder what the 65W charger on the Reno5 Pro is like!
After unboxing the Reno5, I expected that whenever I’d plug it in, it would get significantly warm or even quite hot when charging. I expected not to be able to use it when charging, and to perhaps sometimes opt to using the normal 30W and 25W chargers I have in the house. Well, that has never happened to date. The phone never heats up, neither does the charger. And I find it very crazy that a charger pumping 10V–6.5A is not only not bulky, but also quite safe to carry around, use and not fear that it would affect the battery life of your device. I can’t help but ask myself, “If we are here now, where will be in just a few years?”
The Reno5 has a huge 4310mAh battery. Which means it is almost impossible to drain it to zero, I’ve tried. As you can see in the tweet below, you should get very good battery life with normal to heavy use, thanks not only to ColorOS optimisations, or to the Snapdragon 720G processor, but also to the AMOLED display that isn’t demanding.
Now, with already good battery life, the SuperVOOC fast charger makes it an even sweeter experience because plugging in the phone for just 15 minutes boosts you more than you can imagine. Which means if you wake up at 7am, and your phone is at 20%, you can plug in the phone, step in to the shower, have breakfast and your phone will be at over 85% in that short period of time.
In a 5 minute test while writing this article, the phone charged from 64% to 77%. That’s crazy! In 11mins the phone was sitting comfortably at 86%!
That’s something I can’t get with practically all the other phones I’ve reviewed before. And remember this is without having any heat issues, and without worrying that the battery will degrade faster thanks to OPPO’s battery design.
With this level of super fast charging, on most handsets, you won’t be able to do anything on your phone because of the way the device will overheat. With OPPO, your phone will continue fast charging even during use. That means even when gaming, or watching content.
What is SuperVOOC?
VOOC (Voltage Open Loop Multi-step Constant-Current Charging) is a fast charging technology, first introduced in 2014. SuperVOOC is an improvement to that standard. While most high-end smartphones today take around 2 hours to fully charge, and can only fast charge up to 75%, SuperVOOC can already do 100% in 35 minutes or less in different conditions.
For me, the confidence that my device can not only last me more than a day on normal use, but also charge to full in a very short period of time, is more than I can ask for on all my devices. I wish all my battery powered appliances would be this quick.
For me, I think I will keep using the Reno5, and demanding fast charging on all phones I use after this. I don’t think I will be comfortable with slow charging devices going forward. Especially slow charging devices that don’t last long.
The good thing with the OPPO Reno5 is that it is not only good in battery life, and fast charging. It also has really good cameras, as you will see in my camera review that will be up next. So wait for that soon.
OPPO Reno 5 (4G) Specifications and Price in Kenya:
| PRICE | RRP. KES. 41,999 Buy from Jumia |
| Display | 6.43 inches 1080 x 2400 pixels, 20:9 ratio AMOLED, 430 nits (typical), 600 nits (at peak) Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Rear Camera | Quad Setup: 64 MP, f/1.7, 26mm (wide), 1/1.73″, 0.8µm, PDAF 8 MP, f/2.2, 119˚ (ultrawide), 1/4.0″, 1.12µm 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth) |
| Front Camera | Single: 44 MP, f/2.4, 24mm (wide) |
| Chipset | Qualcomm SM7125 Snapdragon 720G (8nm) |
| GPU | Adreno 618 |
| RAM | 8GB RAM |
| Storage | 128GB Storage (Dedicated microSD card) |
| Operating System | Android 11, ColorOS 11.1 |
| Battery | Li-Po 4310 mAh, non-removable SuperVOOC Fast charging 50W 65W charger included in the box Reverse charging |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot Bluetooth 5.1, A2DP, LE, aptX HD GPS with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS USB 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go |
| Colour options | Fantasy Silver and Starry Black |
| Others | Under-display Optical Fingerprint Scanner |
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