realme launched Realme 10 Pro, the company’s latest mid-range. Smartphone in the number series in India last week. It’s a minor upgrade with one major change being the display. Is it the best smartphone to buy for Rs. 20,000 price range? Dive into our review to find out.
Box Contents
- realme 10 Pro+ 8GB + 128GB version in Nebula Blue color
- 2-pin 33W SuperVOOC fast charger
- USB Type C Cable
- SIM Ejector tool
- Protective case
- User Guide and Warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
The main attraction of the phone is the display. It has a 6.7-inch (1080 x 2400 pixels) Full HD+ LCD screen with 120Hz refresh rate. 240Hz touch sampling rate and 391 ppi pixel density. The display is bright as it has a largest brightness of up to 680 nits. It offers good color output as it has 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and sunlight legibility is also good.
You can choose from vivid and natural screen color modes. The phone has software-based dimming technology. The phone also has HDR 10 support, but it doesn’t work for YouTube or Netflix. There is a video color boost option.
As for its variable refresh rate, so the display can switch. Between 30Hz / 48Hz / 50Hz / 60Hz / 90Hz / 120Hz depending on the content, so it’s quite smooth to use.
The phone has 1mm ultra narrow bezels and 1.15mm top bezel. Thanks to the new RAZR technology and InSeal technology. There is a small punch-hole on the left side of the phone which houses a 16-megapixel camera.
Above the display, the top edge houses an earpiece that doubles as a secondary speaker.
In terms of button placement and ports, the power button with a built-in fingerprint. Scanner is present on the right side along with the volume rockers. On the left side is the hybrid dual SIM slot. The 3.5mm audio jack, primary microphone, USB Type-C port. And loudspeaker grill are present at the bottom. The secondary microphone is at the top.
The phone has a polycarbonate frame and back that may feel cheap. But the matte finish models look good and don’t attract fingerprints. The phone is 8.1mm thick and weighs 190 grams.
The design is inspired by the concept of hyperspace tunnels. The refracted light of the design appears as if the light is expanding to the limit at ultra-high speed. And creates a dynamic three-dimensional effect. The classic shape of the twin-lens reflex camera combines. With modern digital images across time and space. Bringing a new street photography trend in image expression, the company said. The phone does not have an IP rating.
Camera
- 108MP rear camera with 1/1.67″ Samsung HM6 sensor, f/1.75 aperture
- 2MP portrait camera with Geco Micro GC02M1 sensor, f/2.4 aperture
- 16MP front-facing camera with Samsung S5K3P9 sensor, f/2.45 aperture
The camera UI of Realme UI 4.0 is also the same as 3.0. It features the QuickShot Acceleration Engine, One Take that uses. AI algorithms to create many photos. With different perspectives in one shot, and new group portraits. These are Pro Mode, Panorama, Film, Slow-Mo, Time-Lapse, Dual-View Video. Text Scanner, Starry Mode and Tilt-Shift.
There are dynamic bokeh and bokeh flare portrait options for photos. The rear camera offers 12MP output after pixel binning and the front camera images are 16MP in size.
Dynamic range is even better thanks to the 108MP sensor, and with Auto HDR. There is an AI mode that recognizes different photo scenes. And automatically adjusts camera settings to enhance colors. 2X is good, but quality degrades once you zoom in because it’s digital zoom. Portrait mode is decent and the 2MP macro camera is useless. So using the 2X zoom with the normal camera is recommended.
Low light shots are also good. Night mode is useful, but it takes a few seconds to process. Night mode also has a Pro mode for manual tuning. The front camera is decent in daylight, but it could have been better. Bokeh shots were decent. The main limitation of the Snapdragon 695. Is that it can record videos up to 1080p at 30 fps resolution. And despite having a 108MP camera, it doesn’t support 4K video recording. It also has slow motion recording at 720p. It uses EIS for video.
Software, UI and Apps
Apart from the usual set of Realme apps and Google apps. It comes with Amazon Shopping, Snapchat, ShareChat, Dailyhunt, Josh. PhonePe, Moj, Public, Spotify, LinkedIN, Moj Lite+ and Paytm. These apps can be uninstalled, but come back when the phone is reset. There are also hot apps and hot games. The company said it is taking steps to remove inappropriate app recommendations.
Out of the 8GB LPDD4X RAM, you get 7.4GB of usable RAM. And around 4GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. It also features DRE or dynamic RAM expansion, which uses the built-in storage as RAM. It has more RAM expansion up to 8GB. Out of 128GB, you get around 105GB of free storage. The phone uses UFS 2.2 storage and we got a sequential read speed of around, 517.4 MB/s. Which is almost half of what we got on the 10 Pro+.
Fingerprint sensor and face unlock
The phone has a fingerprint sensor on the ride side, which is embedded in the power button. It instantly unlocks the phone by placing your finger on the power button so you don’t have to press it. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. The phone also has face unlock, but it’s not as secure as fingerprint.
Music and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default music player. It doesn’t have Dolby Atmos, but has Realme. Sound Technology with customizable Smart, Movie, Game and Music modes. It does not have FM radio support. Audio through the stereo speakers is good with no distortion even at full volume. The company says it is able to bring 200% volume through the software. Audio through earphones is also good.
It has Widevine L1, so you can play HD content on Netflix and other streaming apps. It does not support HDR content on YouTube or Netflix.
Dual SIM and connectivity
Realme 10 Pro has support for n1/n5/n8/n28A/n41/n78 SA and n41/n77/n78 NSA network bands in India. You can also choose between NSA mode, NSA + SA mode or let it select automatically. It has 4G Wi-Fi and VoLTE, with support for carrier aggregation on 4G. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6 802.11. Ax (2.4GHz + 5GHz), VoWiFi / Wi-Fi calling support, Bluetooth 5.2. GPS / GLONASS / Beidou. It has OTG support, no NFC support Running, call quality is good. And we didn’t experience any call drops and the earpiece volume was loud.
Realme 10 Pro’s body SAR is 0.465W/Kg and head SAR is 1.165/Kg, which is below the limit of 1.6 W/kg (over 1 gram) in India.
Performance and criteria
The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 695 6nm SoC, which is the same as the Realme 9 Pro. It has 2.2 x A78 CPUs clocked up to 2.2GHz, 6x A55 CPUs clocked up to 1.8GHz. It has Adreno 618 GPU which promises up to 30% increase. iIn GPU performance compared to its predecessor.
The phone has up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM. We didn’t encounter any issues or frame drops in graphic-intensive games. The company has not mentioned whether it has any cooling. It reaches up to 41°C indoors with Wi-Fi, with about half an hour of intensive gaming.
That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
Battery life
In terms of battery life, the phone packs a 5000mAh (typical) built. In battery with 33W SuperVOOC fast charging. Same as its predecessor. It lasts all day with Wi-Fi, but also with 4G or 5G and dual SIM. I got over 6 and a half hours of screen on time over a day of use on Wi-Fi and at 120Hz. Since the phone has support for 33W SuperVOOC charging. It can charge up to 50% in 30 minutes and 100% in an hour with the bundled charger.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs 18,999, the realme 10 Pro is a decent upgrade. Over the 9 Pro as there are no changes other than the display. It runs Android 13 out of the box, but the ultra-wide camera has been removed. The company can reduce automatically installed bloatware.
Price and Availability
Realme 10 Pro is priced at Rs. 18,999 for the 6GB + 128GB model and the 8GB + 128GB model at Rs. 19,999. It is available on realme.com, Flipkart and offline stores from today, December 16.
alternative
OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite is a good competition as it offers similar specifications. The Moto G71 5G comes with an AMOLED screen and also has an ultra-wide camera.
