Today in China, top 5 smartphone company Oppo launched its latest flagship smartphone. The new Oppo Reno Ace goes above and beyond the Oppo Reno launched earlier in the year by jamming in some quite impressive specifications into a device that retails around USD $420.

The key point to the Ace comes in two parts: the display and the charging technology. The display comes as a 6.5-inch teardrop AMOLED display, with a 2400 x 1080 resolution (20:9 aspect ratio). That in itself isn’t anything special, but the Reno Ace supports a 90 Hz refresh rate, a 135 Hz touch response rate, and Oppo is proud of the color reproducibility of 100% of DCI-P3. The screen is color calibrated to a delta E of 3, aiming at accurate representation of colors, and Oppo states that the Reno Ace can deliver 700 nits in bright sunlight as well as 1000 nits when displaying HDR photos and HDR10+ video content. We still need to wait for Android to natively support HDR, but Oppo says that it is good and ready.

On the battery, the 4000 mAh capacity is not ground breaking, but for a few generations now Oppo has been keen to push the boundaries of charging technology using a dual-cell design. Its latest update enables the Reno Ace to support 65 W fast charging with the supplied adapter, or in Oppo’s own words: ‘two hours of gaming on a five minute charge’. Naturally this sort of fast charging technology can play havoc with the battery capacity and cyclability, so it will be interesting to hear what Oppo has done to mitigate the issue in its latest battery technology update.

At the heart of the smartphone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+, which is currently the premium SoC of choice for high-end smartphones and especially for devices aimed at gaming. According to various sources, three DRAM/storage configurations will be available: 8/128, 8/256, and 12/256, with that $420 price point likely being for the 8/128 version. The phone will come in ‘ Starry Blue’ or ‘Psychedelic Purple’ colors, and a special Gundam limited edition (30k units) will be available from November 11th at a slightly higher price (3599 RMB).

Other features on the Ace include its quad-camera design on the rear. The top camera is a 48MP f/1.7 ½" 0.8 micron design with OIS, followed by a 13MP f/2.4 telephoto camera, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, and a 2MP f/2.4 black and white lens. Video recording is supported up to 4K60 or 1080p120. The front facing camera is a 16MP f/2.0 design.

The Reno Ace also has dual speakers, active noise cancellation, dual band 802.11ac support, a 3.5mm jack, a USB-C connector, and an in-screen fingerprint sensor provided by Goodix. The unit will ship with Android 10.

Oppo Reno Ace
SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ 
1x Kryo 485 (Cortex-A76) @ 2.96GHz
3x Kryo 485 (Cortex-A76) @ 2.42GHz
4x Kryo 485 (Cortex-A55) @ 1.80GHz

Adreno 640
DRAM 8 GB or 12 GB LPDDR4X
Display 6.5" AMOLED
2400 x 1080 (20:9)
90 Hz + 135 Hz Touch

100% DCI-P3
Delta E < 3
Size Height 161.0 mm
Width 75.7 mm
Depth 8.7 mm
Weight 200 grams
Battery Capacity 4000 mAh
Wireless Charging -
Rear Cameras
Main 48MP 0.8 micron w/PDAF
f/1.7 26mm 1/2.0" OIS
Telephoto 13MP 1.0 micron w/PDAF
f/2.4 1/3.4"
Ultrawide 8 MP 1.4 micron
f/2.2 13mm 1/3.2"
Extra 2 MP Black/White 1.75 micron
f/2.4 1/5"
Front Camera 16 MP, 1 micron
f/2.0, 1/3.1"
26mm
Storage 128 / 256GB UFS 3.0
I/O USB-C
3.5mm headphone jack with ANC
Wireless (local) 802.11ac Dual Band Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 5.0 LE + NFC
IP Rating none
Other Features Dual Speakers
Under-Display Goodix Optical Fingerprint
Front: Gorilla Glass 6
Rear: Gorilla Glass 5
Dual-SIM 2x nanoSIM
Street Price: 3199 RMB

Current pricing for the Reno Ace is listed at RMB 3199, which we believe is for the cheapest version. At present the Reno Ace is limited to China, though we have been offered a review unit, which typically suggests that it will be coming to, at the very least, European markets in due course.

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  • Kishxda - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link

    Oppo phones come with a highly customized flavor of Android called ColorOS. Overall speaking, they're not known for delivering quick OS updates.
  • Teckk - Friday, October 11, 2019 - link

    Oh .. I really don't prefer such heavy skins over Android (or any OS for that matter). Looked like a good piece of hardware though. But not a great track for updates and skin is a no-go. OnePlus 7 seems like a good alternative.
  • mrvco - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link

    Interesting phone, especially if the price stays <= $500, but as it is with most non-Pixel Android phones, my interest level hinges on software.
  • unclevagz - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link

    Put OxygenOS on it and this would be the Oneplus 7T we deserve....
  • Alistair - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link

    Yeap! Also, you know we've reached peak phone when the cheap phones have 5 cameras in total. Would love to see that money go to 2 higher quality ones.
  • Samus - Friday, October 11, 2019 - link

    Isn't Color OS basically just a port of Oxygen OS?
  • LtGoonRush - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link

    I wonder if this is using the same SuperVOOC tech as earlier Oppo luxury models, which works by using two batteries in series and charging at ~10V instead of ~5V. So rather than charging a battery at 13A, it's charging two batteries at 6.5A each, which sounds a lot more survivable as a peak charge rate. They also put the charge controller in the power adapter rather than the phone, so the only heat generated in the device is from the internal resistance in the battery.
  • 5080 - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link

    I have Wi-Fi 6 routers at home and work so why would I want to take advantage of that? If everyone thinks like that we would be still stuck with 802.11b.
  • 5080 - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link

    I have Wi-Fi 6 routers at home and work so why would I want to take advantage of that? If everyone thinks like that we would be still stuck with 802.11b.
  • Rοb - Thursday, October 10, 2019 - link

    > "We still need to wait for Android to natively support HDR, but Oppo says that it is good and ready." - I can watch HDR10+ on my year and a half old phone using the YouTube APP, example: https://youtu.be/TN1tuGn8t0Y - I can see the clouds in the sky behind the buildings, despite the neon lighting in the foreground. The S9+ simply punches up the brightness to blinding (in a dark room). --- The BOM for my phone was under $380 yet this will sell for $40 more than that, with a couple more image sensors and a CPU upgrade; nothing is free. The 'cost' seems to be knocking the competition out of the market. Still, I'm happy with my phone, as I expect it to still work some years down the road.

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