Oppo unveils new Reno phone in China as it seeks to better compete with Apple – but there is no 5G
- Oppo, which competes closely with Huawei and Vivo, has five smartphone series which cover the low-end and the mid-to-high-end market
Oppo, one of the top three smartphone vendors in China, unveiled its latest flagship smartphone for the domestic market on Tuesday, slightly ahead of Apple’s latest iPhone launch in California and as it bids to take a greater share of the market for well-equipped but more affordable handsets.
The Oppo Reno 2, priced at 2,999 yuan (US$420) in the domestic Chinese market, has a host of hi-tech features but does not feature 5G support, even though the Chinese company launched a 5G handset for European markets four months ago.
“We are trying to release the most suitable product at the most appropriate time,” Oppo Vice President Brian Shen said in a media briefing in Shanghai on Tuesday.
Other leading smartphone vendors in China are set to release new phones in September, with Vivo scheduled to release its high-end flagship Nex 3 series with 5G support next week.
Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the stage at the company’s California headquarters on Tuesday to unveil the company’s new iPhones. Apple announced two high-end iPhones – the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max – with four-figure US dollar price tags, as well as a cheaper iPhone 11. The models replaced the similarly priced iPhone XS, XS Max and XR, respectively.
The US technology giant plans to hold off until at least 2020 before offering an iPhone that can connect to 5G services, according to a previous Bloomberg report.