Oppo Reno 8T 5G First Impressions: A Worthy Refresh?

Oppo's Reno smartphones have typically had good cameras, along with some quirky features to woo customers. Oppo launched the Reno 8 series last year and for 2023, the brand has chosen to refresh the Reno 8 (Review) with the new Reno 8T 5G first, instead of the Oppo Reno 9 which has already launched in China. The new Reno 8T 5G is priced at Rs. 29,999, which is exactly the same as the Reno 8 but lower than the Reno 8 Pro 5G (Review). Does the Reno 8T 5G live up to the hype that usually surrounds the Reno series? Here's our first impressions of the device.

The Oppo Reno 8T 5G is available in a single variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It comes in two colour options, Sunrise Gold and Midnight Black in India. It will be available from February 10 in offline and online stores, such as Flipkart. The smartphone will compete with the likes of the Realme 10 Pro+ (Review) and Redmi Note 12 Pro+ (Review) in India.

Oppo Reno 8T 5G weighs 171g and is 7.7mm thick

The Oppo Reno 8T 5G features a polycarbonate body and chrome side rails that surprisingly does not attract a lot of fingerprints. On the right side of the smartphone is the power button, while the volume buttons are on the left. The USB Type-C charging port, speaker grille, microphone and SIM tray are all located at the bottom of the smartphone.

On the top, we have another microphone for noise cancellation and an additional speaker for stereo sound. The smartphone uses a hybrid SIM slot, which means you can either use a second SIM card or a microSD card. The Oppo Reno 8T 5G's back panel is made of polycarbonate. It feels a little flimsy as there's noticeable flex when you apply pressure, which is unappealing. The back panel has a superb finish though, that does not attract fingerprints. The coating also changes colour depending on which angle you look at it. 

The Oppo Reno 8T 5G has a triple-camera setup at the back. There's a 108-megapixel primary camera, a 2-megapixel depth-sensing camera, and a Microlens camera with magnification level of 40X. The latter is by far the best feature of this smartphone according to me. I've used a lot of smartphones with macro cameras, but this one is on a different level altogether. 

Macro shot of a silver chain using the Microlens camera on the Oppo Reno 8T 5G

Here's a sample photo of a silver chain and you can see the scratches on it which are otherwise not visible to the naked eye. The main camera does a decent job in daylight but struggles in low light, from what I have observed. Sadly, you don't get an ultra-wide camera.  

The smartphone cannot record videos in 4K, which is a bummer. I found videos recorded at 1080p to be a little over-processed but it is stabilised well. For the front camera, the Reno 8T 5G uses a 32-megapixel sensor. The clarity is great, portrait mode works well and the number options to enhance your selfie are an added bonus.

Oppo Reno 8T 5G camera samples: (Left to right) Low light, daytime, selfie

The Oppo Reno 8T 5G is equipped with a 6.7-inch curved-edge AMOLED display, which has a 120Hz refresh rate. I found the screen to be quite colour accurate and bright enough to be used in almost any environment. The curved-edge of the display did not cause any accidental touches and it's not very prominent to be a distraction. Watching content on this display combined with stereo speakers was a good experience. The display also houses an in-display fingerprint sensor that is quite fast at authentication.

The Oppo Reno 8T 5G sports a 4,800mAh battery which offers a decent standby time, considering I didn't have to charge it for an entire day with mixed usage. Even when you need to charge it, the bundled 67W SuperVOOC power adaptor should be able charge the device fully in under 45 minutes, according to Oppo. 

The Oppo Reno 8T 5G is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 695 5G SoC. We've seen this SoC in many lower-priced phones such as the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite (Review) in the past. It is decent for light multitasking and gaming, but not great with graphics-intensive games. The 8T 5G runs Oppo's ColorOS 13 which is based on Android 13.

The Oppo Reno 8T 5G comes with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage

The Oppo Reno 8T 5G is a new contender at Rs. 29,999 in India. This could be a decent option for somebody who wants a slim smartphone with a curved-edge display and enjoys taking selfies. However, for the performance-oriented user, I feel there are better alternatives in this segment.

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