Oppo eyes 5G market with new Reno5 smartphones

Chinese tech company Oppo is scrambling to increase its presence in the 5G smartphone market with its latest Reno5 series, featuring greater video shooting capabilities.

Priced from 2,699 yuan ($412), the new 5G smartphones aim to meet consumers' growing enthusiasm for videos. With the wider commercialization of 5G wireless technologies, videos are expected to see a further boom in people's daily lives, the company added.

Qiao Jiadong, product manager for the Reno series smartphones at Oppo, said the Reno series smartphones are the company's flagship products tailor-made for the era of videos, which continues Oppo's understanding of portrait shooting in the photo age.

"In the 5G video era, we hope that the Reno5 series can help users discover and record the truth, nature and confidence of themselves and those around them, and record every luminous moment," Qiao said.

The Reno5 series consists of three devices, the standard version and Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G and another supernatural version, Oppo Reno5 Pro Plus, but it will be unveiled later in a dedicated event.

The new smartphones came as Oppo has made progress in securing a bigger 5G presence in China. In the third quarter of 2020, Oppo grabbed 16.2 percent of China's 5G smartphone market, second only to Huawei Technologies Co, according to data from the market research company International Data Corp.

Ethan Qi, senior analyst from the market research company Counterpoint, said in a research note that stimulated by efforts from these industrial players, 5G smartphone sales in China continued to surge. In Q3, over 50 percent of the smartphones sold in China were 5G enabled, compared to 33 percent in Q2 and 16 percent in Q1. "With 5G iPhones lining up across channels in Q4, we expect this share to rise to near 70 percent by the end of 2020."