INTRODUCTION
Realme's 9 Series dual has finally arrived, and we're excited to see not one, but two Pro versions - the original Realme 9 Pro and a Pro+ variant. The Realme 9 Pro is the focus of this review, which the manufacturer claims is a direct successor to the Realme 8s 5G, making the Pro+ a successor to the 8 Pro from last year.
And, in some ways, that makes sense, given the 9 Pro appears to be a step down from the 8 Pro from last year in many ways. However, when compared to the 8s 5G, the 9 Pro appears to be a significant upgrade. It replaces the previous LCD panel with a brighter, 120Hz display, upgrades the CPU to the Snapdragon 695 5G, adds an ultrawide camera, and removes the somewhat superfluous depth sensor. Both charging and battery capacity remain unchanged.
We can't talk about the Realme 9 Pros without highlighting the distinctive Light Shift design. When exposed to UV radiation from the sun, the Sunrise Blue hue of the Pro+ we received in our workplace changes colours (or any other UV light for that matter). We'll go over this in more detail in the next section because it's one of the 9 Pro family's notable features.
Surprisingly, Realme chose an unconventional feature segmentation for the 9 Pro and 9 Pro+. The latter is more photography-focused, with a better camera configuration, quicker charging, and a more responsive CPU. It makes more sense because it's the most costly of the group, doesn't it?
The plain vanilla Pro has its own attraction, which may make it the more reasonable pick. For starters, the Snapdragon 695 CPU is more than enough; it features a larger 6.6-inch display that is also quicker at 120Hz; and the larger battery will undoubtedly last longer. So, if you want a more fluid experience and a longer battery life, the regular Realme 9 Pro could be the one for you. As long as you don't mind the LCD display.
Join us in the following pages as we put the new Snapdragon 695 5G SoC through its paces, do our standard battery tests, and evaluate the heat dissipation characteristics of the vapour chamber cooling system. Yes, you read it correctly: Realme anticipates that users will play games on the 9 Pro, therefore 60fps+ support in games would be ideal for making the most of the 120Hz display.
The Realme 9 Pro Is Unboxed
The gadget is packaged in a conventional box with the typical user instructions, a 33W charger, a USB-A to USB-C connection, and a SIM ejector tool.
HRR control is better on the 120Hz LCD.
Realme chose a higher refresh rate for the 9 Pro rather than a 90Hz OLED, for example. It's debatable if this is a wise option, but the improved image clarity, brightness, and deeper blacks are likely more important than the HRR function. Especially on low-cost phones, where games are rarely supported at more than 60 frames per second. But there's more to that latissimus dorsi.
The LCD panel here isn't awful at all. It has a 6.6-inch diagonal with a resolution of 1080 x 2412px. It operates at 120Hz and has a low-latency touch sampling rate of 240Hz, as previously stated. The latter is particularly effective in competitive games when response speed is critical.
In any case, the display performed admirably in our tests, reaching 461 nits with the brightness slider set to maximum manually, and 567 nits in Auto mode. Pretty normal for inexpensive IPS screens, and just enough to give a comfortable outdoor reading experience. The contrast is likewise rather strong at 1601:1.
Color accuracy isn't great, as usual, with whites and greys having a significant blue-ish hue. The natural colour setting does not correct the blue-ish whites, but it does tone down the other hues.
Let's discuss about refresh rate management now. According to Realme, depending on the circumstance, it has incorporated granular refresh rate management. Static graphics should be displayed at 30Hz, movies and videos at 48Hz (which makes sense because they are normally at 24fps), TV play (whatever that means) at 50Hz, games at 60 or 90Hz, and anything else at 120Hz. On paper, it all sounds terrific, but in practise, we had a very different experience.
We used the built-in Android FPS counter in the Developer settings, as well as our own software that displays frames per second. When you are not engaging with the display, the refresh rate drops to 60Hz; video playing also causes the refresh rate to drop to 60Hz (YouTube, Netflix, and the default gallery), but the majority of the apps and browsers we tested ran at 120Hz. Most of the system menus, including the Home screen, operate at 90Hz in automatic mode, which we found intriguing. It will most likely save you some battery power along the road. Forcing everything to run at 120Hz will keep all system menus running smoothly at 120 frames per second, but video players will still be dialled down to 60Hz.
Unfortunately, we were unable to locate any instances in which the display was reduced to 30, 48, or 50Hz. We also couldn't locate a single game that could go beyond 60Hz, despite trying one of the most popular. We know they can go higher than 60Hz, but not on the Realme 9 Pro. Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile, 1945 Air Force, Real Racing 3, Asphalt 9, and a few others are on the list. They were all set to 60Hz.
Battery Life
The battery life is excellent, representing a major improvement over the Realme 8s 5G and Realme 8 Pro. We are testing the Snapdragon 695 5G for the first time, and it looks to be a highly efficient processor. We also have to pay tribute to the large 5,000 mAh battery.
The 134-hour total endurance rating is mostly due to the great online browsing and movie playback runtimes. The 3G conversation time and standby ratings were equally good, but the screen-on circumstances deserve special mention. It's worth noting, however, that we were unable to conduct the web surfing test at 120Hz because the system defaults to 60Hz when you don't touch the display, even though the refresh rate is set to 120Hz in the Display settings. As a result, the real browsing score should be slightly lower.
Charging Speed
The Realme 8 Pro has the same DartCharge 33W charging technology as the Realme 8s 5G from last year. It's a low-cost option, and Realme doesn't go very much explanation about it. Surprisingly, it's not as quick as the normal 30W Dart Charge, and it's nowhere near as fast as Xiaomi's competitive 33W option in the same price bracket. A 30-minute charge returns 52 percent of the juice, while a 1 hour and 14-minute charge returns up to 100 percent. The suitable charger, rated at 5V—11V @3A, is, of course, included in the retail box.
Speaker
Because the Realme 9 Pro just has a single bottom-firing speaker, don't anticipate much in terms of volume and quality. Even still, -25.3 LUFS is regarded "Very Good," thus chances are you'll hear the ringtone from away.
As previously said, the 9 Pro does not stand out in terms of quality. At lower volumes, it's clear enough, but turning it up results in distorted highs. The lows aren't particularly forceful, and the entire musical experience is quite bland. It does, however, operate as intended.
Realme UI 3.0 is built on Android 12.
Unlike other mid-range options from early 2022, the Realme 9 Pro and Pro+ both ship with Android 12 out of the box, modified with Realme's own UI on top. So congrats to you for that.
Visually, the operating system hasn't altered much. Realme UI offers a colourful UI with customisable UI components and its own iconography for the notification shade and the Settings menu in general. The app drawer hasn't been changed, however there is some inconsistencies with the swipe up and swipe down movements on the Home screen when opening/closing the drawer. A minor nuisance that would not disturb the majority of users.
Realme maintained the so-called Icon pull-down gesture as well. Swiping down the left or right edge of the screen crams icons into the bottom half of the screen, making them conveniently accessible with your thumb. The gesture is also quite dependable. The slide down gesture on the Home screen by default opens the so-called global search, but you can always change it to open the notification shade instead.
The majority of Android 12-specific features are under-the-hood tweaks. However, Google's privacy-focused initiatives have been transferred into Realme UI 3.0. One example is the so-called Privacy dashboard. It provides a centralised view of all your rights and user data settings. It tells you which applications are accessing your data and how frequently they request various permissions. It has the appearance and feel of the Digital Wellbeing dashboard introduced with Android 10.
In addition to these privacy protections, Android 12 allows you to choose the precision with which your location is shared with certain applications. Assume you want to share your approximate position with some applications rather than your precise location. When an app accesses your microphone or camera, a green dot will show in the upper-right corner of the screen to let you know what's going on.
We recommend reading our entire Android 12 review for a more in-depth look at Android 12, as we will aim to focus on the Realme UI itself in the following paragraphs.
As previously stated, Realme UI allows for extensive customization of the interface by allowing you to select accent colours (or a mix of accent colours), wallpapers, icons, and the form of the interface.
Realme added the Smart sidebar and Flexible windows capabilities to the Special features sub-menu, both of which improve multitasking. When enabled, the sidebar provides easy access to your preferred programmes. The system allows you to move the sidebar, which is important since it may conflict with the back gesture if you use the regular Android gestures. In any case, tapping and holding an app icon activates split-screen mode, whereas a single press launches the app in a floating window, or as Realme refers to it, a "Flexible window." The apps that are supported may be opened in tiny, draggable, and resizable windows.
Screen-off gestures, which enable you to open certain applications or turn on the flashlight by drawing letters on a locked screen, are here to stay.
One feature in the Realme laboratories, where the firm loves to offer experimental features, piqued our interest. Music may be streamed to both a Bluetooth headset and conventional headphones at the same time. If you're travelling with a companion and want to listen to the same music, this is a great option.
Finally, let us discuss the fingerprint reader. It's a power button on the side of the device. It's speedy and dependable, but there's one little flaw: there's no choice to unlock the phone other than just pressing the key. However, there are two methods to unlock the phone: with a soft or hard touch of the sensor. The light touch might occasionally attempt to read your palm or another portion of your skin, resulting in a temporary locked screen. The firm touch, on the other hand, isn't what you'd expect. A stronger press will not unlock the display. To unlock the smartphone, you must first push the power button, then release it, and then touch the scanner again. Certainly not ideal.
Performance
This is the first time we've seen the new Snapdragon 695 5G chipset, which replaces the Snapdragon 690. Despite the incremental number change in the nomenclature, the chipset has been completely redesigned. In addition to the newer, more powerful CPU cores and GPU, the chip supports mmWave 5G connection and is built on TSMC's more current 6nm manufacturing process. This was not available in the previous Snapdragon 690.
The primary two Kryo 560 Gold (Cortex-A77) cores are replaced by Kryo 660 Gold (Cortex-A78) cores clocked at 2.2 GHz, while the six energy-efficient Kryo 560 Silver (Cortex-A55) cores stay unchanged at 1.7 GHz. The only difference is that the product is now known as Kryo 660 Silver. The Adreno 619L GPU was replaced with a full-fledged Adreno 619. The SD695 now supports 2133 MHz LPDDR4X memory as well.
The entire hardware update is expected to increase CPU performance by up to 15% and GPU performance by 30%. In our normal simulated benchmarks, we put it to the test. We also compared it to other competitive SoCs available in comparable priced competitors.
The Snapdragon 695 5G CPU performs admirably in both multi-threaded and single-threaded operations. It even easily outperformed several Snapdragon 700-series and Dimensity 8xx and 7xx competitors. It retains its dominance in combined workloads while behind the Dimensity 920-powered Realme 9 Pro+ and the Snapdragon 860-powered Poco X3 Pro.
The SD 695 performs similarly to the Snapdragon 750G and Snapdragon 480+ in intensive GPU-bound workloads, which is to be anticipated considering that they all share the same Adreno 619 GPU. It even has a little advantage over some of its competitors. However, with its Mali-G68 MC4, the Dimensity 920 on the Pro+ variant remains the more powerful option.
Consistent performance
We did the normal CPU stress test (since the CPU is the major source of heat) for 30 minutes straight to assess how the handset would perform during extended gaming sessions. The Snapdragon 695 5G processor appears to be operating quite cool, and the software detected no thermal throttling, which is fantastic.
Menus for cameras
Realme's updated software did not make it to the default camera app, which appears exactly the same as before. Swiping left or right toggles between the standard camera modes, while the "More" area houses the supplementary modes, including the Expert. The latter allows you to fine-tune ISO, exposure, focus, white balance, and shutter speed.
Samples of daylight
The primary camera
The daylight samples taken with the primary camera appear to be about average for the pricing range. The dynamic range is large, and the sharpness is excellent, even though there are some indications of oversharpening halos visible only while pixel-peeping. The amount of exquisite detail is excellent. When compared to some of the competition, it is even amazing.
That's not to imply there aren't obvious flaws. The most noticeable is the yellowish hue that pervades all of the outside samples. We suspect this is due to improper colour temperature metering, which causes all of the stills to seem far warmer than they should. Furthermore, some may argue that the colours are overly vivid, yet others may find them beautiful. Finally, if you look closely, you may notice some noisy patches on uniform backgrounds and shadows. Naturally, it's more obvious indoors.
Macro lens
The famous 2MP sensor designed for macro photographs reappears and, as predicted, delivers mediocre images, which are the norm for inexpensive phones like the Realme 9 Pro. Most of our images were fuzzy since it has a fixed focus distance of 4cm. Because of the low resolution, detail is weak, contrast is low, and colours are faint.
Samples of low-light conditions
The primary camera
The low-light samples obtained with the normal Photo mode don't appear to vary significantly from the competitors. They're a little soft, and the shadows appear to be underexposed. We've also noted that the majority of the light sources and highlights are clipped, implying a lower dynamic range. Finally, colours may need a boost. However, detail is excellent, as is noise control in non-dark regions.
Portraits
The phone takes nice photographs, but they aren't the sharpest on the market. The colours are vibrant, the dynamic range is superb, and the software maintains the subject's face well-exposed no matter how difficult the lighting circumstances are. Only under suboptimal illumination circumstances can noise appear. The bokeh effect, on the other hand, isn't particularly convincing, and it can occasionally miss a location or blur out certain bits of a foreground item. This is demonstrated in the first sample image below.
Selfies
The selfie quality is awful. In terms of clarity and detail, we anticipated more from the 16MP camera, however selfies are crisp enough under the appropriate situations. Noise is visible in practically all lighting conditions, and washed-out colours can make the subject appear anaemic. Portrait mode has a bit too much bokeh and frequently washes away the borders of the image.
Making a video
Unfortunately, the phone cannot record 4K movies owing to the SoC's poor ISP. Despite the fact that the Snapdragon 690 has a 4K-capable ISP. In any case, video recording on the Spectra 346T is limited to 1080p@60fps. We put it through its paces, recording 1080p@30fps footage with both the primary and ultrawide cameras.
Unfortunately, the outcomes are unimpressive. The same warm colour temperature can be seen across the landscape, giving it a golden hue. Sharpness, detail, and dynamic range are also lacking. The white buildings in the background have been visibly cropped. Colors are also bleached away.
Verdict
Our final recommendation to you is heavily influenced by your location. If you are an Indian customer, the Realme 9 Pro is a reasonably reasonable and well-balanced choice that excels in terms of battery life. The visual quality of the stills is particularly noteworthy.
However, the €320 price tag in Europe is just too high. The Realme 9 Pro's current price puts it in an odd position, and it's difficult to recommend above the rest of mid-€300 phones. It's difficult to compete with brighter OLED screens and upper mid-range chipsets when paired with an LCD and a normal mid-range SoC. It is even up against one of its own siblings.
It would have been a simpler suggestion if the device's screen had been OLED, even if it had cost a few hertzes. After all, the claimed granular control over the HRR doesn't appear to operate, and the Auto refresh rate setting prefers to sit at 90Hz the majority of the time.
However, the hardware scarcity may be taking its toll, and Realme's price increase for Europe this year is just temporary. The 9 Pro may become a more profitable alternative as time passes, but for the time being, we anticipate it working well exclusively in India.
Pros
- LCD display that is both bright and quick (120Hz).
- The Sunrise Blue colour choice is very eye-catching.
- Excellent battery life and charging speed.
- Excellent photo quality at any time of day or night.
- On top of Android 12 is the customised Realme UI.
Cons
- An OLED panel would have been nice (almost all rivals run OLEDs).
- There is no 4K video recording, and the selfie quality is poor.
- The granular refresh rate control does not function as expected.
- In Europe, there are more strong and capable options.
