The advent of AI into our daily lives can be felt strongly with the relentless wave of mobile devices that have been launched so far this year. Personally, I feel that this focus on software recently has lessened the attention towards hardware, thus flooding the market with uninspired mobile phone designs. With the exception of foldable phones, all the slab-style phones I’ve reviewed so far have been uninteresting… until somebody decided to bless my office desk with the new Oppo Reno14 Pro 5G.
What is it?
The Oppo Reno14 Pro 5G is the company’s latest mid-premium device that appears to have its eyes (lenses?) set on being one of the best AI-assisted camera phones in the market. It’s big, it’s subjectively beautiful, and it does some things a little bit extra.
The package comes in two boxes.
Mobile phone launch promotions are riddled with various freebies for pre-orders or early purchasers. The Oppo Reno14 Pro 5G is no exception, but instead of getting the usual earbuds or watch, you get something more interesting. While some people got a Dyson blow dryer with their Reno14, we were sent something more fun: the exclusive Mobile Legends x Oppo gift pack. Not bad.
Now, I don’t really play Mobile Legends that much, but the unboxing of this package is admittedly one of the most fun experiences I’ve had in my short history of unboxing things as a profession. On top of the adorable Kalea cosplay figure, there are gaming sleeves, a phone stand, and an exclusive in-game hero skin.
The Kalea figure actually fits nicely with the theme of the phone, as the Oppo Reno14 Pro 5G comes in two colours: titanium grey, and opal white that sports an iridescent mermaid-inspired design. The latter has what appears to be a fishtail pattern that changes colour depending on the light and angle that you look.
I found myself staring at the shifting colours for some time before remembering to switch the phone on.
The velvet glass used for the backplate gives a matte texture and helps ward off fingerprints from sweaty, gamer hands. We can’t have those spoiling that beautiful fishtail design.
The screen.
At the opposite side of the backplate is a big 6.83” display. Its AMOLED display comes in FHD+ resolution, 600nits brightness, and up to 120Hz refresh rate. All these help to add up to a better gaming experience, which is lost at my noob level skills at playing Mobile Legends.
What it does for me, though, is provide a very nice viewing experience for something I am much more familiar with: Photography.
The AI Camera.
The phone comes with a triple 50MP camera setup that supplies enough pixels and data to help its AI software do its magic. That’s one 3.5x telephoto, and one ultra wide alongside its main camera.
The front camera’s no slouch either, as it also gets the 50MP treatment.
It boasts an industry leading camera flash with its triple flash design which is useful for low light scenarios. Its AI Flash Photography is marketed for people who go to evening events, specifically, parties. I haven’t been to a night party during the short time I’ve had with this phone, but I did try the flash and it’s alright.
That said, my usual photography activities do not fully utilise in-camera flash, as I do more portrait, street, and toy photography.
Doing portrait shots with the Oppo Reno14 Pro is great as the AI enhancement it does to the photos right after taking the shot isn’t as aggressive as other AI-centric camera phones. The same can be said for street and toy photography. I’ve abused the 3.5x telephoto lens in all these cases.
Unfortunately, the AI enhancements that activate as soon as you begin digital zoom leave much to be desired. This isn’t exclusive to this phone though, as most of the other phones with AI telephoto functions suffer the same overly processed images with digital zoom. The results are usually passably functional but not as aesthetically pleasing.
Also, taking a photo of the moon was quite challenging.
It can shoot videos in 4k 60fps, which is more than enough if I want to create reels or tiktok videos. In fact, I did just that and used this to shoot a reel for a client.
But enough about that, let’s get back to something more fun (for most people).
Gaming.
The MediaTek Dimensity 8450 Platform with AI Hyperboost and 12GB of RAM gives the Oppo Reno14 Pro 5G the guts to run all my usual games without any issues. Granted, I didn’t play a lot of games with it, but the ones I did, it ran quite well.
Games like Diablo Immortal, Genshin Impact, or even the less demanding Pokemon TCG Pocket benefitted from the phone’s processing power and game engine. Mobile Legends ran smoothly as it could without warming up the phone.
It’s also a plus that it comes with a massive 6200mAh battery so I can lose even more Mobile Legends rounds on a single charge. It also charges quite fast with 80W wired charging so I can be a disappointment to my party again when it gets fully charged in about an hour.
Other AI phone things.
Like all other mobile phones coming out now, AI is deeply embedded in most of the interactions one would need to do with a smart phone. Oppo’s Color OS has AI VoiceScribe, AI Call Translator, AI Call Summary, and AI Mindspace. It also has Google Gemini if you need someone to talk to, and take your AI game to the next level with free 3 months of Google AI Pro.
The verdict.
The Oppo Reno14 Pro 5G is a nice, capable AI camera phone that also delivers an overall nice experience in gaming and other AI experiences. Its price is a bit on the high side at $999 for a mid-premium phone, but getting the Mobile Legends x Oppo gift box might just make it worth the price tag for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang enthusiasts.
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