OPPO Reno 3 might not run on a Snapdragon 765, looks like a Redmi K20

OPPO made a big splash in the mobile industry during its OPPO INNO WEEK 2019 earlier this month, most of it focusing the company's ambitions to grow beyond smartphones. It did, of course, also tease its upcoming premium phone, the OPPO Reno 3 that's scheduled to debut next week. While OPPO did drop that the Reno 3 Pro would be running on Qualcomm's shiny new Snapdragon 765, it now seems that the non-Pro Reno 3 will be different from its sibling inside.

A pair of photos appeared on Weibo claiming to be the OPPO Reno 3 and one thing immediately stood out to netizens. It looked eerily too similar to the Xiaomi Redmi K20 that was launched earlier this year, at least as far as the back design is concerned. That involved a fractal-like gradient that seemed to congregate at the sides rather than the entire back of the device.

The photo also revealed that the phone would be running Android 10 out of the box, specifically OPPO's ColorOS flavor of it. The most important spec, however, may be hidden from view and comes from benchmark tool maker AnTuTu. And that is the fact that the Reno 3 will run on a MediaTek processor instead of a Snapdragon.

Given the photo does indicate that the OPPO Reno 3 supports 5G networks, this could very well be the new Dimensity 1000 chipset that the company just announced. This is its first to come with a 5G modem, competing against the Snapdragon 765. Since OPPO already name-dropped the latter, it is probably that the chipset will be the one difference between the Reno 3 and the Reno 3 Pro.

These are, of course, all based on unofficial sources and the final product may be very different. Whichever way it goes, it's pretty clear that OPPO will be playing the 5G tune when it unveils the OPPO Reno 3 on December 26.