OPPO Reno Ace | Charges fully in 30 minutes and it’s under $500

Oppo has launched the Oppo Reno Ace in China, the fastest charging phone on the planet. The Chinese brand says the Reno Ace which is the company’s latest flagship featuring top-of-the-line specifications like a 90Hz refresh rate display and Snapdragon 855+ processor, has a 4,000mAh battery that can be fully charged in just 30 minutes.

Reno Ace features a 6.5-inch Full HD+ curved AMOLED display and unlike previous Reno devices, the Reno Ace features a water-drop notch at the top for the front camera. It also appears that some of the headlining aspects of the OnePlus 7T have also made a way across to the Reno Ace, including the 90Hz AMOLED display (6.5″), UFS 3.0 storage, and stereo speakers.

The Reno Ace’s display supports HDR10+ and 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut and there is an in-display fingerprint scanner for unlocking the smartphone.

On the rear of the device, Oppo Reno Ace serves up a 48MP primary camera (IMX586), 8MP ultra-wide lens (116-degree field of view), a 13MP telephoto shooter with 5x hybrid zoom, and a 2MP monochrome sensor.

For selfies, there is a 16MP front camera with an f/2.0 aperture. Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C, GPS/A-GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack. 

When it comes to the battery, the 4000 mAh capacity is not groundbreaking, but for a few generations now Oppo has been keen to push the boundaries of charging technology using a dual-cell design.

From its latest update, Oppo enables the Reno Ace to support 65 W fast charging with the supplied adapter, or in Oppo’s own words: ‘two hours of gaming on a five-minute charge’. Naturally, this sort of fast charging technology can play havoc with the battery capacity and cyclability, so it will be interesting to hear what Oppo has done to mitigate the issue in its latest battery technology update. The company also claims that the new proprietary charging technology would provide two hours worth of juice or zero to 27% of charge in five minutes.

At the heart of the smartphone is an Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ processor with up to 12GB RAM and 256GB internal memory. This is currently the premium SoC of choice for high-end smartphones and especially for devices aimed at gaming. For better gaming performance, Reno Ace also comes with Frame Boost 2.0 and Touch Boost 2.0.

According to various sources, three DRAM/storage configurations will be available: 8/128, 8/256, and 12/256.

But there’s also a pretty special-looking limited edition of the Reno Ace, one that pays tribute to the hugely popular franchise, Gundam. The Gundam Edition comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage and pays homage to the Gundam RX-78-2. Although only 30,000 units of the Gundam Edition will be produced, which marks the 40th anniversary of the famed Gundam series. It will be available from November 11^th at a slightly higher price.

The Reno Ace also has dual speakers, active noise cancellation, dual-band 802.11ac support and the unit will ship with Android 10.

The Oppo Reno Ace will be available in Psychedelic Purple and Starry Blue and it’s pricing starts at $450 for the 8GB/128GB model, $478 for the 8GB/256GB variant, and $534 for the 12GB/256GB option. Currently, the Reno Ace is limited to China, although it will be coming to other markets in due course.

OPPO Reno Ace specifications