Ah excellent, Reno thread. I have switched over to the Reno 10x as my daily driver (!) and have some initial thoughts. This is hands-down, no-contest, the best OPPO phone I have ever used and an option well worth considering.

Base specs:

• 6.6" 1080p OLED display, notch-free
• Snapdragon 855
• 8GB RAM + 256GB storage
• Dual SIM with hybrid slot for micro SD expansion
• 4000mAh battery with VOOC 3.0 20W charger
• ColorOS 6.0, Android 9.0 Pie, May security patch at launch
• Triple camera with 8MP ultrawide, 48MP standard (12MP effective), 13MP 5x periscope zoom module
• 16MP front camera + rear flash mounted on motorised pop-up shark fin
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Dual speakers
• NFC
• USB-C, no headphone jack
• NZ RRP $1299

Misc. thoughts:

• Historically I have not been a fan of ColorOS. It previously deviated too far from established Android interactions and paradigms and was difficult to wrestle into a state I was satisfied with. All phones need a bit of taming, some more so than others. Serious credit is due here because the new global ColorOS 6.0 flavour that's making its debut in NZ on the Reno 10x has fixed 95% of my complaints and I like it much more than I expected to. Very pleased to be able to recommend this software, another credible competitor in the high end is most welcome.
  

   

  • OPPO tell me that ColorOS 6.0 is due to start rolling out to select other devices in their range beginning in August.
  • While I would prefer the ability to add a fourth soft key to drop down the notification shade ala Huawei and LG, as a swipe on the homescreen brings up on-device search, the floating ball can do this (or you can install a third-party launcher).
  • This is to my knowledge the only device other than LG's which allows double tap to sleep on the lockscreen, which is welcome, although I would of course prefer that also be available on the homescreen. Quickly check for notifications with a double tap to wake and then double tap again when you're done.
  • OPPO have the largest variety of navigation options and gesture available from any smartphone vendor at this point, offering traditional three-key nav (reversible), a Google pill-style gesture/button hybrid, and four different gesture navigation systems, effectively mirroring what's available from Apple, Xiaomi, and Samsung all in one place. No matter what you're coming from, you'll find something familiar here. Nice.
  • My only major complaint at this point is that the calendar icon is static. it is always the 31st of the month, and I am on a quest to install OPPO's Chinese calendar app to correct this.
• The phone is extremely fast, one of the first Snapdragon 855 devices to hit NZ (after Mi9 and OnePlus 7 Pro), and has excelled at everything I've thrown at it.
• Memory management is excellent and the device's generous 8GB of RAM will hold apps in the same state for a very long time indeed - I have noticed none of the Huawei-style background app crushing or missing notifications.
• In-display fingerprint reader is excellent, these are finally at a level where they can comfortably replace capacitive scanners after ~12 months of rapid generational improvements. The Reno is on par with the best, up there with the P30 Pro and OnePlus 7 Pro, while I consider all generations prior to be an unsatisfactory experience. No such fears here.
• Haptics are great, a massive improvement, it is pleasant and fast to type on. I'd still give LG the crown for this in Android-land, but it is a very welcome feature that consistently doesn't get much coverage. I liken good haptic hardware to the difference between a standard and mechanical keyboard.
• The pop-up front camera is charming. After initially being a little concerned about pop-up cameras, they too have seen massive generational improvements and are now a legitimate and interesting point of differentiation. Out of the way when you don't need it, there when you do. The shark fin is neat.
• Camera is solid so far. This is a very versatile system, most similar to what we've seen in the P30 Pro this year, with a periscope zoom + standard + ultra-wide. The camera UI defaults to 1x and cycles through the following when tapped: 2x (standard sensor cropped), 6x (periscope cropped), 10x (periscope cropped), and ultrawide. There is also a dedicated ultrawide button at the top. Worth bearing in mind that the periscope is natively a 5x zoom, so the 6x is a bit unfortunate as manually zooming back out is finicky. It will also allow digital zoom to 60x which is occasionally useful.
• Included charger is 20W with the tech branded as VOOC 3.0, which while not up there with the 40W Huawei supercharge or indeed OPPO's own 50W SuperVOOC as found in the Find X and R17 Pro, is still fast enough. 
• A very good case is included in the box, along with surprisingly good USB-C in-ear headphones known as O-Fresh.
• The device is delightfully designed, beautiful glass back, neat ceramic bump on the back to prevent the cameras hitting the table when using it caseless. Solid clicky buttons, nice green accent on the power button.
• It is a large phone, and a little on the heavy side, which doesn't bother me but may merit a tinker with a demo device to be certain it's for you.
• Battery life is TBC as I've only used it for a handful of abnormal days. FWIW GSMArena rated it very highly in this area. ColorOS' battery management is a little light on info so hopefully there won't be any errant app diagonosis required here.
• Dual speakers are good and very loud.
• It does not seem to support the AAC codec for Bluetooth audio, which is a little disappointing as it results in increased latency for the likes of the Galaxy Buds / Bose / Beats kit which don't support AptX or LDAC.
• The screen is good, bright with reasonable colour reproduction. 1440p would of course be welcome, but a 1080p panel + SD 855 + 4000mAh should be a great combo.
• At this point the only missing factors to consider are headphone jack (as with everyone except Samsung and LG, I've had to make my peace with this), wireless charging, and full IP68 water resistance.

Looking forward to hearing others' thoughts on the Reno 10x, it has been a pleasant surprise so far.

Great summary, as always. I had setup mine last night to find out the phone clone app doesn't copy apps settings, so I have quite a few to login to - since I was trying to watch a movie this is a task for today.

Because it has a popup camera the screen is actually a bit larger in terms of useful area than the P30 Pro - good stuff when watching movies/TV on Netflix/Prime.

I am still not convinced in regards to the OPPO Messages apps. The clone phone app copied my existing SMS from my P30 Pro to this and shows in the app. I have not tested yet to see if it actually copies as part of the Google backup (in case I want to switch to another phone in the future). What I thought was really surprising is that it's showing messages ordered by Name - and if a sender doesn't exist in my Contacts then they are all together under a single "No name" entry instead of their number. This means the messages from the dental practice, Microsoft Office 365 2FA, other 2FA, medical practice all show up under "No name" and then with their number in each message.

I tried installing the Google Messages app but it doesn't seen to read the SMS database and won't show anything in there. Not a big deal, if I stick with the default SMS app.

Ok, just tested again and Google Messages won't show any of the existing messages - only new ones.

freitasm: So you can see the copied SMS on Google Messages?

I will try again.

mdf: Any thoughts on Reno vs OnePlus 7 Pro? Currently eyeing up a next phone. I'm assuming OnePlus wins on the screen, but anything else set the two apart?

I've not used either Color or Oxygen OS's either. Any thoughts on that? I'm not hugely concerned about cameras, wireless charging, fastest charging or formal waterproofing ratings; software will likely be a big selling point for me (my last 3 phones have been pretty close to stock android).

NikT:

freitasm: So you can see the copied SMS on Google Messages?

I will try again.

Messages is set as default and has all permissions except location. There are extra permissions under Privacy in the phone manager app. My unit is running build 11_A.08 and Messages v4.4.076 for reference

 

Ok, I have changed all permissions and now it works. Thanks.

So far, battery life = awesome with always-on display turned off. Battery life = not awesome with always-on display turned on. Still testing.

NikT:

 

So far, battery life = awesome with always-on display turned off. Battery life = not awesome with always-on display turned on. Still testing.

 

Like roughly how many hours of battery life when the always on display is on/off?

haihaipow:

 

Like roughly how many hours of battery life when the always on display is on/off?

 

Impossible to give any kind of accurate figure right now, both because it's too early in my use of the device to establish, and because OPPO's fairly limited battery stats do not show screen-on time for whatever reason. Third-party solutions to this are unreliable, reporting that the display is always on when always-on display is...on...which it, hey, technically is. So 21+ hours of screen-on time! Amazing! With most of that being AOD. If you see what I'm getting at here.

Meanwhile I've been using the device all day today without AOD on, and am at 81% with 3.25 hours of SOT over a mix of WiFi and 4G with 1.5 hours of phone calls and entirely too many messages and emails for a Monday.

Suffice to say that my anecdotal evidence so far is that you can watch the battery drain with AOD on, complete with rapidly ticking percentage on the AOD itself, and it's thus far posting very impressive endurance results with it off. But of course this is effectively the first full workday it has been subjected to.

I am curious to see if anyone else has the same results with the Reno 10x, from memory the Mate 20 Pro had similarly ridiculous idle drain with AOD on and this was corrected for the P30 Pro. Given OPPO have had AOD in ColorOS 5.2 for the Find X, R17 Pro, and R15 Pro, I had hoped this wouldn't be an issue. That said, it is not the world's most useful AOD anyway as it will not show third-party apps except for WeChat. No matter which phone I use, I miss LG's Big Red Clock.

After several days of continued use I can confirm that the battery life in the Reno 10x is exceptionally good, rivalling or even exceeding the P30 Pro.

Keen to test with AOD on again for confirmation that that's a no-go, I miss it. Also keen to switch to a different case as the one in the box, while great quality, is very bulky.

One small nerdy delight: The "One-tap Lockscreen" shortcut is in fact an app, which means a double-tap or other gesture on the homescreen of a third-party launcher like Nova can be mapped to this, achieving complete double tap to wake and sleep functionality on lockscreen and homescreen without resorting to janky accessibility service or screen timeout workarounds.

I actually never had an OPPO device long enough to see how updates go - any word on this?

freitasm:

 

I actually never had an OPPO device long enough to see how updates go - any word on this?

 

In years past, not so good. Firmly in the camp of the Chinese userbase which cares about features, not Android versions or security patches. The Chinese versions which run a different software stack sans Google apps are quite well supported, as is usually the case with OPPO/Vivo/Meizu/Xiaomi/Huawei et al while YMMV for global. Things have improved significantly however from the release of the Find X onwards. ColorOS 6 includes Android Pie and will be released as far back as the R11s I'm told. R17 Pro and Find X have been getting regular security patches on ColorOS 5/Android 8.1. 

You can view the past history of all of OPPO's updates for the models released in NZ here (and for other countries by swapping out the "NZ" in the URL, e.g. UK, AU, IN, JP, TW, SG etc). Full software builds can be downloaded for manual installation.

Notably the Reno 10x has received a June update OTA in the UK and India this week, hopefully that isn't far away for NZ. I am also hopeful that, like Samsung, it can be sideloaded for the same hardware from different regions and will give that a try should the full package become available for download prior to NZ push. Have successfully installed AU software on NZ OPPO devices in the past, haven't tried other regions

OPPO only just launched in the UK - the NZ launch folks got a transfer and did it, good on them.

any info about the pricing of this phone?