Gadgetory

A portion of today's video is sponsored by LastPass. Today we're going to be taking apart the Oppo Reno- the one with the little triangular motorized pop up camera in the top. And we're going to see how it really works from the inside. Huge thanks to LastPass for sponsoring this video. LastPass is a totally free app that takes away the hassle of remembering all your passwords. It generates super long secure passwords and auto-fills the user name and password for any app or website you want to visit, so you don't have to write down, remember, or keep resetting your passwords when you forget. Used by millions of people, LastPass allows you to keep track of your passwords, whether on a computer or a cellphone. There is unlimited password storage and free cross device sync, so switching between computers or cellphones is super easy. And now you won't have to be like your grandparents using the same simple password for everything. All of the passwords are encrypted and stored inside of the LastPass app. It simplifies your life. The app itself is 100% free, but if you want a few extra perks, like 1 gigabyte of encrypted storage, it's just 3 bucks a month. Click the link below in the description to learn more, and huge thanks once again to LastPass for sponsoring this portion of the video. Let's get started with the teardown. [Intro] A smartphone with moving parts, like this Oppo Reno, can be slightly more intimidating to take apart, but we're going to dive in anyway. There is no water resistance rating so the back panel just needs to be warmed up until it's almost too hot to touch. Then I can lift the glass sheet off with my suction cup while slicing through the thin strip of adhesive surrounding the outside. The green colored back panel can lift off... [Zack's conscience] It's blue! [Zack]...with no ribbons holding it to the body. Remember that little ceramic O-Dot that Oppo added to keep the camera lenses from rubbing up against stuff? Well it's actually just a super tiny little guy, recessed with a bit of adhesive into the back panel. Pretty unique. Taking a look inside the phone, we have eleven normal Phillips head screws holding down the top plastic portion to the body. Once those are out I can lift up the random black battery flap and remove the top plastics and NFC coil. As far as a clear phone goes, this Oppo Reno might actually be super cool. We can already see the motor contraption over here on the left and the gold ribbon extensions add a nice accent to the circuitry. I'll unplug the battery like a little Lego, and then unsnap each of the three gold extension ribbons from the bottom of the motherboard. The long ribbons are still in the way of the battery, so I'll remove the 11 Phillips head screws holding down the bottom loudspeaker plastics. Then I'll pop off the speaker. It has the normal two rectangular gold contact pads that allow it to communicate with the phone. I'll unplug the under screen fingerprint scanner, and the charging port ribbon basically falls out at this point. The USB-C port is attached to the end of the long gold ribbon and it's probably the easiest charging port replacement of all time. Nice work, Oppo. It does have a red rubber ring around the tip to help cushion the constant unplugging and plugging in of the charging cable. But keep in mind this phone is not water resistant. The other two extension ribbons unclip easy enough, then the bottom circuit board can come out of the phone with our little buddy, the headphone jack. Remember, only the less expensive of the two Reno phones comes with a headphone jack. The more expensive 10x optical zoom Reno does not have a headphone jack, so you got to pick and choose which features you want these days. Luckily, there are plenty of phones out there to choose from. I'll pop the optical fingerprint scanner out from under the screen. You can see the light shining through the screen from the flash on my Galaxy S8. Optical fingerprint scanners are pretty cool. Want to know what else is cool though? Battery pulls tabs. Thumbs up for that. The Oppo Reno is using a 3765 milliamp hour battery. Let's get a closer look at the mechanical pop up camera operation up here. We've run into all kinds of pop up cameras this year. The standard little rectangle that pops up, then there's the flip up camera, and we've seen whole phones shift up. Now we have this weird triangular version. I'll have to remove the regular rear cameras first. It's a 48 megapixel standard camera with a 5 megapixel depth sensing companion...neither of which have optical image stabilization. I'll remove the two long wire cables from the right side of the board, and then unplug the triangular pizza looking front camera. Then I can remove the dual SIM card tray. The motherboard can lift out of the frame. It has some normal thermal paste on the back which helps transfer heat to the metal frame of the phone. Now for the fun stuff. The small internal motor of the Oppo Reno has 3 tiny black Phillips head screws holding it to the body. I'll gently lift off the 4 square contact pads that power the motor, then check this out. The way this whole thing works is pretty similar to all the other motorized smartphone cameras we've come across. The miniature stepper motor business is booming right now. The motor on the left turns this threaded shaft, and as the threaded shaft spins, the stationary metal chunk gets screwed up and down the shaft, raising and lowering this piston looking rod, which is attached to the base of the triangular pizza camera, with one little screw. Each time the front camera or rear flash is engaged, the whole contraption motors on up to do it's job, then motors itself back down again. It can also sense pressure applied to the top of the pizza. If the spring on the rod feels any pressure from the top, it can trigger the return of the motor so nothing gets damaged by excessive force. I'll remove the little screw holding the protruder rod to the bottom of the camera unit. Then the whole metal camera contraption can pull right out of the phone. Notice this metal lip that secures the camera on the right side. Incredibly simple, yet efficient design. The built in solid metal lip acts as a super secure fulcrum when the camera is rotating in and out of the phone. The camera motor can pull out of the plastic guiding shaft. And here's another close up look of it in action. It's interesting that the hole for the rod that goes up to the camera has it's own little red rubber ring. It might help keep dust out, and it might help keep the metal rod from grinding on the sides of the phone. Remember, Oppo said that this motor's good for 200,000 camera raises, which is a pretty insane number. If you only use your flash or a front camera once a day, it would last for over 500 years...after which, of course, it might be time to get a new phone. Let's see what's inside this camera unit. The rear plastic layer is held on by a thin strip of adhesive. I'll fold that up, revealing the dual LED flash and two screws. I'll remove those and pull out the 16 megapixel selfie camera from inside the housing. And look at that. The earpiece of the phone is inside the camera unit. Did not see that one coming. The hole up at the top is indeed a microphone hole. You'll be surprised at how many messages I get from people who stick their SIM card removal tool in the wrong hole and are wondering if they damaged anything. The answer is usually always no. The microphones are positioned off to the side of the microphone holes where the SIM removal tools can't harm them. Still super interesting that the earpiece is included inside the pizza camera module. I guess it makes sense though, considering how large the pizza slice is and how much space it takes up inside the phone. The design of the Oppo Reno is much more efficient than I expected, and it's not at all hard to take apart. In comparison, iPhones are way more complex and difficult to repair and they don't even have moving parts. I'll try putting this thing back together in one piece. I do like to keep these things alive. If they survive the durability test, I feel like they kind of deserve it. I'll get the motor back into place inside it's plastic guiding shaft and screw it into the phone. Then I can add the motherboard, rear facing cameras, and make sure the Lego-style connectors are all clipped in tight. I can grab the bottom circuit-board and put that in place, clipping in the under screen fingerprint scanner and the long charging port ribbon. Once the battery's back in it's slot, I can add the last few extension ribbons and start screwing in those 22 Phillips head screws that hold everything together. Overall I'm impressed with Oppo this time around. This Reno phone is built much stronger than the previous Oppo Find X. And amazingly, even after being durability tested, and taken entirely apart and reassembled, the whole thing still works. You know it's a good phone when it can survive both of my reviews: the durability test and the teardown. I'm a fan of motorized cameras. Besides last year's Find X, they've all been built super solid. Let me know down in the comments what other phones you want to see reviewed from the inside. Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already, and come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter. Thanks a ton for watching and I'll see you around.