OPPO Reno13 F 5G Full Review: Style, Stamina and AI Smarts

OPPO makes incredible midrange smartphones for the Kenyan market, especially with their Reno series. This year, it brought the F series under the Reno lineup by launching the OPPO Reno13 F 5G and the 4G version. This is our review of the 5G version.

The Reno13 F 5G is great. It builds on previous Reno smartphones’ brilliance with a refined formula to deliver a winning balance of style, stamina, and smarts, savvily positioning itself against the competition.

Enamoring Design

Reno13 F 5G features what OPPO calls an Urban Avant-garde aesthetic, which makes the phone look stunning, especially my unit in Plume Purple. It is slim enough for one-handed use and light enough for comfortable use for long periods of time. Other colour versions include Luminous Blue and Graphite Grey. My unit is even slimmer at 7.76mm, weighing 192 grams.

My unit, as denoted by its name, has innovative plumes that create a swirling mix of light and shadow in an eye-catching design and will attract the eyes of onlookers.

Besides the looks, the OPPO Reno13 F 5G is built to withstand any environment. It comes with an IP69 water and dust resistance certification. It can withstand water at high pressures and temperatures. It has survived the occasional splashes when I’m in the Kitchen cleaning dishes as I was busy binge-watching the new season of Love is Blind – it actually fell inside the sink and still survived.

The main reason this feature is amazing is that you can now dip the phone in the swimming pool for underwater selfies, photos, and videos, which the phone can capably handle. But OPPO warns that the phone is not designed for professional diving. and limits the phone to a depth of 2 meters and not for longer than 30 minutes. The phone emits a loud sound to expel any water that might have entered it.

The Reno13 can also survive the occasional drops, thanks to its innovative bionic cushioning and advanced technologies in glass, metal, and shock absorption. that protect each essential component inside the phone. For extra protection, there’s a transparent case provided inside the box.

The phone comes with dual stereo speakers located at the bottom and top with additional dual microphones.

Reno13 features a 6.67-inch OLED screen rocking a 120Hz refresh rate for a smooth screen experience even with wet hands, thanks to the phone’s Salsh Touch. The screen offers 16.7 million colours at FHD+ resolution, offering up to 2100 nits peak brightness. It is also protected by Asahi Glass AGC DT-Star2.

If you are craving a bright, vivid, and colourful screen use without compromise, you will be well catered for with the Reno13.

The screen is gorgeous – multimedia content looks really good – I enjoyed watching my favourite shows even when outdoors, and this includes browsing the web or scrolling social media. The fast refresh rate is also handy when gaming, which the phone handles really well.

Consuming content is a delightful experience when paired with the stereo setup, as the speakers can get up to 300% with the Ultra Volume feature. Something I loved when I was having my sing-along sessions in the shower. A lot of you will appreciate this feature and the Holo Audio feature when you’re at a picnic and have forgotten your Bluetooth speakers.

I’ve been impressed by the design and build quality of the Reno13

OPPO Reno13 F 5G Performance: Heaps of Power

Performance is something a lot of consumers really consider before purchasing a smartphone – actually, it’s the number one feature people check. Reno13 has that under wraps as it offers stellar performance across the board – whether you are a just a light user or a power user.

The phone comes powered by a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor paired with 12GB RAM and 512GB of onboard storage. The phone supports RAM Expansion up to 12GB plus external storage through a microSD card expansion.

The phone comes with Android 15 and ColorOS 15 straight out of the box. You also get access to Google’s Gemini, keeping the phone competitive alongside OPPO’s AI features like AI Livephoto, AI Editor that gives you access to AI Unblur, AI Clarity Enhancer, AI Reflection Remover, AI Eraser, AI Studio and AI Reimage.

Other AI features enhance productivity, including AI Toolbox 2.0, AI Linkboost 2.0, and BeaconLink. AI HyperBoost makes sure your gaming experience is smooth all day, allowing for lag-free gameplay while keeping the phone cool in conjunction with the phone’s AI Multi-Cooling system that combines AI algorithms and the large Vapor chamber to leverage heat dissipation.

ColorOS 15 brings with it new icons and shadow elements across the interface powered by the new Luminoous Rendering Engine for faster app animations when multitasking between apps and the Trinity Engine for efficient performance.

Overall, the OPPO Reno13 F 5G is no performance slouch thanks to the combo of hardware and software with the added AI features from OPPO and Google.

OPPO Reno13 F 5G Cameras: Exemplary

OPPO Reno13 F 5G has a 50MP main camera with OIS, an 8MP ultrawide-angle camera, and a 2MP macro camera. For selfies, you get a 32MP front-facing camera. The rear camera can shoot 4K video at 30fps, while the selfie camera is limited to 1080p.

There are various modes to play around with, including Pro, Photo, Video, Portrait, Pano, TimeLapse, HiRes, Slo-mo, Night, Macro, Dual Video, and Underwater. The latter takes advantage of the phone’s IP69 rating for underwater photography, and this mode blocks touch control and moves controls to the buttons to take a photo, record a video, or turn the screen off or on.

Photo and video quality are decent as expected with increased sharpness, colour vibrancy, high resolution, processing, and dynamic range, making for a solid camera experience.

I have used the Reno13 F’s cameras extensively, giving it a wider range of daylight, lowlight and nighttime shooting opportunities, and these are some of the photos it managed to take:

Battery Life: Superb Longevity

The OPPO Reno13 F 5G lasts way longer than expected, going almost two days with light to moderate use, thanks to its 5800mAh battery. It charges up in minutes with the included 45W charger – an hour can juice up the phone from empty to 84%. A quick 30-minute top-up will get you from empty to around 52%.

Its large capacity and support for reverse wired charging can also come in handy to top up your other device or accessory like wireless buds or your friend’s phone if they run low on charge.

Verdict

Reno13 F 5G offers a beautifully balanced experience in a redesigned package, promising heaps of power, superb longevity, and exemplary camera performance with added AI features. It nails the basics and then some more, taking it on top of the midrange smartphones to consider buying in the Kenyan market.

OPPO Reno13 F 5G Availability and Pricing

Reno13 F series starting price is Ksh.37,999 for the 4G version while the 5G version goes for Ksh 57,999 and is available nationwide and in all OPPO shops and e-commerce platforms.

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