It’s that time of the year again – we’re getting a new generation of OPPO Reno smartphones. This time, we have the Reno13 series with us – and this is the Reno13 Pro 5G.
Design
One of the main highlights of this phone is the design. You see, the Reno 13 Pro has an aerospace-grade aluminium frame that is just super solid, and the back of the phone has this unique plume texture and butterfly shadow effect.
That plume texture gives it a matte finish with some sparkles. As for the butterfly shadow effect, well I thought it was weird when I saw the phone only. But then when I put the phone beside the box, ah – that’s where the butterfly comes from. I mean, it certainly is unique – but most of us will put a phone case on it and cover it up anyway.
Also, this effect is only available in the Plume Purple color that we have here. Graphite Grey is just a basic grey color with no special texture.
One thing that I like a lot about the Reno 13 Pro is the camera bump. It’s surprisingly modest compared to many other phones in the market right now, and OPPO makes good use space.
Cameras
We have a total of 3 cameras here, with its specs listed on the screen here. I thought that tiny camera is a depth sensor – but no, it’s the ultrawide angle camera with autofocus too – and that’s for macro.
To have a look at all the pictures taken with the OPPO Reno13 Pro 5G, watch our review at the top of this review.
Software
The software is actually really similar to what we experienced with the Find X8 Pro. It’s running on the latest ColorOS 15 on top of Android 15, and all the features from the Find X8 Pro are found here.
We have the Aqua Dynamics as well as the super fluid animations and responsive UI, alongside all the AI features too. I still really like the AI Summary feature that just summarizes everything shown on the website and bypasses all the ads – and also the AI Speak feature that reads the entire website’s content word for word, even when the screen is locked or while we’re doing something else on other apps.
However, the Reno 13 Pro is also filled with ads. It has a lot of random apps installed that we have to clean it out manually, and both Hot Games and Hot Apps are still very… unnecessary. Oh, Fineasy is still the only app that makes use of the double-tapping of the power button gesture. We cannot configure this gesture to do something else – which is a big deal for me.
Performance
Surprisingly, the performance is going to be more towards a premium mid-range level as the it is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8350. Now, from what I can find out, this Dimensity 8350 is pretty much the same as the Dimensity 8300 but with a new game engine called StarSpeed.
There isn’t really anything concrete on what was changed, so we decided to do a gaming test instead. On Genshin Impact on medium graphical settings at 60fps, the Reno 13 Pro can indeed get 60fps consistently. However, it does thermal throttle eventually at 44°C and the frame rate drops to around 30-40fps. There are no sudden frame dips, so the frame drops aren’t jarring at all.
However, some more intensive games like Zenless Zone Zero is going to be tough on this phone. Again at medium graphical settings, the Reno 13 Pro can achieve 60fps at first, but when the phone heats up over time, it can drop down to around 20fps.
Still, if we lower the graphical settings a bit more or put a cooler on it, this phone would also be a good phone for gaming as well. We have tested quite a lot of games – so if you want to watch the entire gaming test, then the link is down in the description below or the top right corner.
Battery life
As for the battery life, this phone comes with a rather big 5,800mAh battery or 22.74Wh capacity – watch our video at the top right corner in the description to know why Wh is a more superior way to measure battery capacity.
Anyway, using our standardized battery life test, the Reno 13 Pro can last for around 14 hours and 30 minutes. It’s actually quite good and can comfortably last through a full day’s usage.
Charging speed
The charging speed though, is an interesting one. OPPO included their signature 80W SuperVOOC charger in the box and we can charge the phone from 15% to completion in around 46 minutes.
Then, we can head into the settings menu and turn on the fast charging option and it will charge a bit faster but not by a huge margin. Honestly, it’s not worth turning on the fast charging option as it will heat up the battery a lot more with very little improvement to the charging speed.
I’m disappointed by the lack of USB-PD support on this phone. When I plug the Reno 13 PRo into our USB-PD charger, it only takes 13W maximum, and it takes a really long time to charge completely. I was hoping that OPPO would bring USB-PD PPS support to the Reno lineup as well because the Find X8 Pro had that.
Screen
Now, let’s talk about the screen. It’s using a 6.83-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2800×1271 pixels, and goes up to 120Hz refresh rate. The maximum brightness of this screen is at around 1200 nits, which is actually very good even if we use the laptop outdoors.
Now, this phone has a total of 3 different color profiles. My eyes can instantly see that the default color profile is not as saturated, and hence it will have a not-so-good DCI-P3 color gamut coverage but great sRGB coverage. Our colorimeter confirms that as well.
As for the Pro color profile, it desaturates the colors even more and lowers the color gamut coverage across the board. No idea who this color profile is made for, but here are the results from our colorimeter.
The vivid color profile will enhance the color gamut coverage, making it look a lot more saturated than before. If you want more vibrant colors, then use the vivid color profile. Do note that saturated colors can tire the eyes a bit more.
A few more things to mention
Now, there are a few more things to mention. The OPPO Reno 13 Pro comes with a USB 2.0 port at the bottom and does not support display output – no microSD card support, but it does have dual SIM card slots and an IR blaster at the top.
We can use the IR remote app to control various different things with the phone, and that’s really handy.
Should you buy the OPPO Reno 13 Pro?
So, should you buy the OPPO Reno 13 Pro? I honestly do think that this is a great phone. The cameras are actually good and the telephoto camera is especially great but the auto lens switching is holding it back. It ultimately boils down to the price – which is RM2,499 for the 12GB RAM + 512GB storage version. This is a really high price, honestly.
And this price is where – I think – the biggest drawback is. The price is a big hike over the previous generation. However, if you can get it at a good deal, then this is a good phone after all.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
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