The Oppo Reno 11 series is widely expected to launch in India on January 11. Per usual, the Chinese smartphone maker has started revealing the key core specs of the upcoming Reno 11 and Reno 11 Pro. In a press release sent out to the media today, Oppo is going to great lengths to highlight portrait photography strides on these new smartphones fueled by proprietary imaging algorithms and whatnot. And yet in some areas, these India-bound phones are taking a step back, when compared to their Chinese counterparts.
Take the choice of chip for instance. Oppo has confirmed that the Reno 11 Pro will be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8200 in India. While surely a step up from the Reno 10 Pro’s Snapdragon 778G, it pales next to the Chinese Reno 11 Pro with its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 processor. The India-bound Reno 11 Pro in fact is getting the same chip that powers the Chinese Reno 11. And so, if you’re wondering, what’s the Indian Reno 11 getting, well, it’s getting an even less powerful Dimensity 7050, same as the Reno 10 before it. Rumours that the India-bound Reno 11 could arrive with the Dimensity 1080 also stand corrected as the D1080 is nothing but a rebadged D7050.
The Reno 11 series is further said to get a 10-bit display with up to 950 nits of peak brightness. Presumably, this is for the Reno 11 Pro but the peak brightness setting on the India-bound model is same as the Chinese Reno 11 even as the Reno 11 Pro sold in Oppo’s home market can get even brighter at up to 1,600 nits. The Chinese Reno 11 Pro has higher 1.5K resolution, too, compared to the Reno 11 but considering everything that we’re hearing so far, it won’t be surprising if Oppo sticks to 1080p on both phones in India. In which case, the Reno 11 and Reno 11 Pro might end up shipping with the same exact displays as their predecessors.
Coming to the cameras, unlike the chip, here at least Oppo seems to be keeping things consistent at least as far as the Reno 11 Pro is concerned. Like the Chinese Reno 11 Pro, the India-bound model is also getting a 50-megapixel main Sony IMX890 sensor behind an optically stabilised lens, 32-megapixel 2x telephoto, and another 8-megapixel 112-degree ultrawide. The front camera, which is 32-megapixel, is also the same across both the models. On the flip side, the setup is virtually identical to the Reno 10 Pro. The only big change— on paper— is that the Reno 11 Pro’s front camera can record 4K videos (@30fps) whereas in the Reno 10 Pro, this was limited to 1080p. And so, it goes without saying that Oppo will be banking heavily on its “proprietary imaging algorithms” to set its new phones apart from the old ones. We’ll see.
Camera details of the Reno 11 are sketchy at the time of writing, but the version sold in China swaps the IMX890 for a watered-down LYT600— also 50-megapixel— while sharing the rest of the setup with the pro.
With hardware getting more and more commoditised, it is becoming more and more difficult for brands to leave a long-lasting impression in every generation. Some overlap is inevitable. The Reno 10 series had come as a breath of fresh air going back to the Reno’s glory days of pairing exquisite design with class-leading zoom theatrics after years of Oppo running from its origins and destiny for some curious reason. And so, even if the Reno 11 series turns out to be like old wine in a new bottle, that is okay, too. At least it should taste good. But obviously, how well it will fly with buyers, will ultimately depend on how Oppo prices it in India. Stay tuned for more updates.
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