Oppo Reno 15

The Oppo Reno 15 costs Rs. 159,995 for the 12GB + 256GB model. It is one of the most complete new phones at this price for camera and software, but it is not the fastest, and the price has gone up over the Reno 14 as memory costs rise worldwide.

Strengths:

• A versatile camera with a 3.5x telephoto, OIS on both main and zoom lenses, and a 50MP ultra-wide selfie camera
• Better battery life than the Reno 13 and Reno 14, with 80W charging
• Polished ColorOS 16 with five years of major updates and six years of security patches
• Light 197 g aluminium build with IP68 and IP69 protection, excellent haptics and good microphones

Weaknesses:

• The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 is a small step back in raw power from the Reno 14's chip
• The 8MP ultrawide is weak for this price
• No memory card slot and no wireless charging

Alternatives: the Oppo Reno 16F (Rs. 139,495) offers a similar 50MP + 50MP + 8MP camera layout and 80W charging for less, with a slower Dimensity 7300 Energy chip. The Samsung Galaxy A57 (Rs. 165,495) has a larger 6.7-inch screen and promises up to six major OS updates, but a smaller 5000 mAh battery and 45W charging.

Verdict: a strong buy for camera, design and software lovers who want a new boxed phone. Heavy gamers, and Reno 14 owners, have less reason to upgrade.

The Oppo Reno 15 has a 6.59-inch AMOLED display with a sharp 1.5K resolution (1256 x 2760), a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support. It is essentially the same excellent panel used on the Reno 14.

In daily use, colours are rich, viewing angles are very good, and the narrow bezels give the front a modern look. Outdoor visibility is strong, with 1200 nits in high brightness mode.

Other details:

• Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protection
• A fast optical in-display fingerprint scanner, though the wide selfie camera means face unlock works so easily that many people will rarely use it
• Widevine L1 for HD streaming
• Eye-comfort options and an improved Always On Display with customisable lock screen depth effects

The screen is compact compared with 6.7-inch rivals like the Galaxy A57, which suits one-handed use but gives slightly less space for video. Overall, it is one of the strongest parts of the phone.

The Reno 15 switches from MediaTek to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 (4 nm), paired with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage.

In everyday use, the phone feels very smooth. App launches, animations and multitasking are fluid, helped by ColorOS 16's parallel animation processing. AnTuTu scores land around 1.4 million.

Gaming is good. PUBG Mobile runs at Extreme+ frame rate on Smooth graphics and Extreme on HDR, while lighter games such as Free Fire and Mobile Legends support 120fps. Sustained performance holds up well, with no serious throttling, although the aluminium frame gets warm under heavy load.

The trade-off: the Reno 14's Dimensity 8350 has more raw power, so demanding gamers will notice the Reno 15 is not an upgrade there. In return, the Snapdragon chip is more power-efficient, has a better image processor, and often gets game optimisations first.

For most buyers, performance is more than enough; serious gamers should compare carefully.

The Reno 15 keeps the Reno 14's rear setup: a 50MP main camera with OIS, a 50MP 3.5x telephoto with OIS and an 8MP ultrawide. The big change is on the front, where a 50MP ultra-wide selfie camera with autofocus replaces the older lens.

Main and telephoto: photos are detailed with slightly bright exposure and pleasant skin tones. The telephoto is the standout, producing excellent portraits and zoom shots, even in low light. Zoom stays sharp at 3.5x and usable up to around 10x, with digital zoom up to 120x for photos and 18x in video.

Selfies: the ultra-wide front camera fits groups easily at 0.6x and records up to 4K at 60fps, which is great for vloggers. Colours and microphone quality are strong.

Video: the main camera records 4K at 60fps and keeps it even with Ultra Steady mode on.

Weak spots:

• The 8MP ultrawide records only 1080p at 30fps and looks flat in low light
• The telephoto also records video at 1080p 30fps
• The telephoto and front camera show some noise in very dim scenes

AI Portrait Glow can rescue dark or backlit portraits. Among new boxed phones at this price, the camera ranks with the best.

The Oppo Reno 15 has a 6500 mAh battery, up from 6000 mAh on the Reno 14, while weighing only 197 g.

The bigger change is efficiency. With the Snapdragon chip, the Reno 15 lasts roughly 2.5 to 3 hours longer than the Reno 13 and Reno 14, fixing a common complaint about those phones. Continuous video streaming gives about 8 to 10 hours of screen-on time.

Charging:

• 80W SUPERVOOC with the charger in the box
• 0 to 100% in about 50 minutes
• Type-C to Type-C chargers also fast charge, but full 80W speed needs the bundled Type-A charger
• No wireless charging

Battery life and charging are now real strengths rather than weak points for the Reno series.

The phone runs Android 16 with ColorOS 16, one of the smoothest and most feature-rich interfaces at this price. Animations are fluid, and there are new icons, Flux themes, a redesigned Control Center and flexible lock screen customisation.

AI features:

• AI Mind Space: a three-finger swipe saves what is on screen and can add dates such as event tickets to your calendar
• AI Search across the phone and the web, AI Writer and AI Translate, including live call translation
• AI Editor tools in the gallery, including AI Portrait Glow
• Google Gemini integration

Other useful features: AI LinkBoost 3.0 for weak signal areas, Wi-Fi calling, an IR blaster and an app for moving data from an iPhone.

Updates: Oppo promises five years of major ColorOS updates and six years of security patches for the Reno 15 series, which is excellent support for a mid-range phone, though Samsung offers up to six OS updates on the Galaxy A57.

Some third-party apps and games come preinstalled, but they can be uninstalled.