OPPO’s Vice President Brian Shen revealed a couple of details pertaining to the screen and exterior design of the upcoming Reno smartphone or at least one of them. As per a Pocketnow report, he took to the Chinese social media network Weibo to reveal that the smartphone will have a screen-to-body ratio of 93.1-percent, which would be higher than the OPPO F11 Pro’s 84.4-percent and even the Find X’s 87-percent.
The VP further revealed that the smartphone’s display will not have any holes or notches, which makes sense given the impressive screen-to-body ratio. Unexpectedly, the VP also added that the device won’t have any holes on the back panel either, and assuming this isn’t a machine translation error then this could mean a couple of things, as detailed below.
More than one Reno device coming next month?
Up until now the only official information regarding the Reno design language came in the form of a teaser photo depicting a back panel featuring two circular camera cutouts and an additional rectangular hole. This image which confirmed an April release contradicts the idea that the device won’t have any holes on the back panel.
However, OPPO’s Reno is supposed to represent a new product lineup and not a single device, so perhaps the VP just shared some design details regarding a second Reno model instead of the one he teased earlier this month.
This should also explain why some reports claim that the first Reno device will be a flagship phone equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 chipset, while others suggest that the device will fit in the upper mid-range market and employ the Snapdragon 710 solution instead. Perhaps multiple models with different specs will be released on or around the same day.
OPPO Reno could borrow from the Find X
If one of the upcoming OPPO Reno phones will lack a display notch and holes on the back panel that doesn’t mean the device won’t have any cameras. On the contrary, this bit of details revealed by the VP indicates that at least one of the Reno devices could borrow important design cues from the OPPO Find X.
The Find X was unveiled last summer and sports a motorized mechanism that pops out to reveal both the front and rear-facing cameras. When retracted the sensors are not visible, making the Find X one of the cleanest-looking smartphones on the market.
OPPO has quite a lot of experience with the concept of pop-up cameras and the more recent OPPO F11 Pro has one of its own, but only for the front-facing unit. Judging by the Weibo post, the “hole-less” Reno smartphone sounds more similar to the older Find X but with a considerably higher screen-to-body ratio. Rumors also suggest that the device will have an in-display fingerprint scanner, unlike the Find X which relies on face recognition technology.
The OEM is expected to officially introduce the series next month but it remains to be seen if Reno will debut with a single device or multiple models on the same day.