OPPO Reno2 Z – adds quad-camera to the top selling mass-market smartphone

OPPO Reno2 Z

OPPO Reno Z has become Australia’s most popular mass-market phone and at $499, why not? The OPPO Reno2 Z adds a quad camera and more storage but at a cost of $100 more.

We have not reviewed the OPPO Reno2 Z yet so we can’t comment on what the quad-camera adds. It has the same 48MP, Sony IMX586 primary camera replete with hybrid optical and electronic stabilisation. It ups the 5MP camera to 8MP, 119° wide-angle and adds two x 2MP cameras – one a mono and one a portrait lens (bokeh). The Selfie camera becomes a pop-up and drops from 32MP to 16MP.

Processor wise the OPPO Reno2 Z and Reno Z use the MediaTek Helio P90, Storage increases to 256GB and the much-missed microSD slot returns supporting an additional 256GB.

OPPO Reno2 Z – new camera and AI

An all-new Ultra Dark Mode, your “Night Goggles” using multi-frame noise reduction (takes a bracket of shots and combines for the best pixels) and NPU acceleration. We suspect that is where the 2MP mono lens comes in adding more detail and capturing light. It also allows for mono images.

Night

The 119° Ultrawide is becoming trendy and allows you to capture those wide holiday vistas as well as group shots.

Camera

Portrait uses the 2MP camera to define the foreground and background better, and for HDR.

There is also a new AI Beauty mode (the old one was excellent) that supports up to four faces in a shot.

Ultra-Steady video mode improves stability at up to 60fps.

The 16MP selfie pop-up means no screen notch or O-hole and has a new bokeh effect on still and video.

OPPO has added SOLOOP – an on-phone smart video editor that automatically adds music to match with the timing and transitions of your footage.

Most of these features are part of Color OS 6.1 which we assume will roll out to OPPO Reno Z owners.

Build

OPPO has always had a superior build quality to the average Chinese phone and has Gorilla Glass 5 front and back. The pop-up camera has free-fall protection. The screen is now 6.5-inch AMOLED.

Add to that a next-gen 3.0 under-glass fingerprint sensor that is faster than the already fast Reno Z.

The 4000mAh battery has VOOC 3.0 fast charge for 51% in 30 minutes. It also supports standard USB-C PD charging (as now mandated by Google).

OPPO Reno Z series

The $499 OPPO Reno Z (reviewed here) is a current model remains a serious choice for the price. It scored 4.9-out-of-5 – amazing specs for a <$500 phone.

The $599 OPPO Reno2 Z (website here) has improved camera functionality, an extra 128GB of storage and the much-missed micro-SD slot. The official model for Australia is CPH1951AU.

It is available in Luminous Black and Sky White from JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Officeworks and Woolworths Mobile.

OPPO Reno2 Z black
OPPO Reno2 Z White