Viewing an image or video on the Oppo Reno 4 Pro is like diving  into the infinity pool
By Anand Parthasarathy
August 21 2020:  Once smartphone makers  have decided on the processor and the memory, most other features more or less fall into place. It is a fine judgement to  balance a sensible  basket of hardware ( primarily camera) and software  offerings with  good looks and aesthetics.
With the Reno 4 Pro, Oppo  hazs struck a nice balance between sense and sensuality:  the quad rear camera   has 4 lenses – a 48 MP main, an 8 MP for ultra wide angle, and two 2 MP lenses for macro and mono. The last is an interesting design choice;. It allows the user to shoot a photo where the subject in the foreground is in colour, while the rest of the image is monochrome.  This can make for a dramatic shot or a  stunning video clip  that  some of the world’s greatest artistes  pioneered. You may be old enough to remember Steven Spielberg’s  1993 Oscar  winning, ‘Schindler’s List’. If so you may recall the shots where the whole frame,  showing Polish   Jewish prisoners (like the entire film) is in black and while, but  one  little girl’s dress is in bright red.  You can achieve a similar arresting effect with the Reno 4.
The quad rear combo camera also allows a degree of slo-mo that is rare in phone cameras,  slowing the action from a normal  30 or 60 fps to  240 fps – 960 fps. The selfie camera is fairly standard for this price band  -- 32 MP, but there are a lot of AI tricks you can invoke to “beautify” the  portrait.  Oppo has included  a made-for-dummies   Solop video editor that  those of us who are not professional photographers will appreciate.
The 6.5 inch super Amoled 25400 x 1080 display is better than HD quality and Oppo’s design has the image area  oozing into  very thin bezel area: the only anology I can come up with is the infinity pool in some  star hotels.  The 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage is adequate  but  you can’t add external storage.
One interesting  fact: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G  the fuels the Reno 4 Pro is one of the first anywhere to support the Indian NAVIC  navigation system, our own alternate to GPS. However, the phone's spec sheet list GPS, Glonass, Galileo and one other system but NAVIC. I am guessing  Oppo could include this by an software upgrade once NAVIC is fully functional.
If the charging unit appears  bulky, that is because Oppo offers its proprietary Super VOOC 2.0 technology  with the 65 watt charger  that  makes very short work of charging the 4000 mAH battery. One of the fastest recharges I have seen in similar-spec phones.
The overlay of Oppo’s Color OS 7.2 over Android 10 is  a first for India  and brings  some smart ergonomic features that  will take some time to discover  but that will  make a real impact on usability.  The basic look and feel is kept simple which is a blessing.
Oppo legacy users  will need no convincing  about the Oppo Reno 4 Pro , if they plan to upgrade  but I am guessing  the phone will also scoop in new users looking for a mid priced model. It is selling  in India for Rs 34,990