Oppo’s Reno5 smartphone is many things to many people.
It can be the perfect camera companion, it will impress you with its built-in quick-charging tech when you want to dash out in the morning and have no time left to wait for another hour for your phone to top up, among many other things.
For gamers and the not-so-hardcore gamers, the device strikes a good balance between what it offers, the impressive performance that it carries over from the last generation, and the price. Whereas we are now almost in agreement that “cheap phones are getting good and good phone are getting cheaper”, that still isn’t applicable as cut and paste when it comes to the gaming world.
Don’t get us wrong, the Oppo Reno5, at Kshs 42,000, is not a cheap phone, per ce. Neither is it an overly expensive one. It’s somewhere in between. In a sweet spot that starts all the way from where the impressive Oppo A93 sits to where the Reno5 is. Somewhere below there is where we can find the Reno5’s capable small sibling, the Reno5 F.
The Oppo Reno5 has a few things going for it that suitably place it as a go-to device for gaming on the go without necessarily breaking the bank.
1. Under-the-hood specs
Here, there is nothing out of this world. Oppo manages to blend the device’s hardware specifications, an 8GB RAM chip and a Snapdragon 720G chipset from Qualcomm, with good software. The end result? A device that feels, and actually is, faster. What that translates to, in addition to having the spare space needed to hold larger games in memory and, obviously, take advantage of the chipset to have them as responsive as possible, is that playing games is a breeze.
You can harness the device’s power to do other things on the go like photo editing or jumping between a Zoom call, emails and Office documents but, there’s also gaming, which demands a great deal of power. As outlined above, when you run low on juice, you don’t have to worry about that kind of power as you’re able to top up and continue with your assault on PUBG in no time.
2. Software enhancements
The above-mentioned software enhancements come in many forms but the one we’ll focus on is Game Space.
Game Space, an app that tunes a device’s performance while also adding several features that make it convenient to use it during gameplay, is not necessarily new to us. It can be found on lots of other Oppo smartphones including ones that we have looked at in the past.
Through Game Space, one can launch any of the game apps installed on their device. It will also kick in as soon as the game is launched – even from elsewhere like, say, the app drawer/home screen.
Courtesy of Game Space, one has access to a “Game Assistant” that can be pulled from the left side to quickly access features like turning off all calls during gameplay, performance modes and more. Heck, one can even increase or decrease the screen’s touch sensitivity during gameplay. Maybe you need your taps to be registered much faster than they would when you’re doing ordinary stuff like typing.
3. 90Hz display
Talking about taps being registered faster during gameplay, that is exactly why the Oppo Reno5 is the device to go to even though you can find, and use, Game Space on other devices.
The 90Hz refresh rate, which is enabled by default (right out of the box), can be turned on and off from the device’s display settings. It provides for a faster and smoother user experience. How fast? How smooth? Well, this is hard to describe or even capture on video but it can be demonstrated very well in person so, if you can, visit a shop near you and test the Reno5 you find on display.
A higher refresh rate on a display when gaming means faster response times when interacting with the same in an environment that is fast-paced, like that in a game.
4. PUBG partnership
Since 2019, Oppo has partnered with the makers of Player Unknown’s Battleground (PUBG) to sponsor several mobile tournaments around the world. Specifically, as was the case in North Africa 2 years ago, the sponsorships have been done with the aim of promoting Oppo’s Reno smartphone series to which the Reno5 and the Reno5 F belong.
What this means for buyers of the device is that they can rest assured that the devices are optimized for the intensive PUBG Mobile Hundred Rhythms game they can get off the Play Store and, given the sufficient storage space on the device, they don’t have to think twice about getting it or consider getting PUBG Lite. This is in addition to the already-highlighted guarantees on performance on the device.
Is the Oppo Reno5 the gaming device for you?
