Realme announced its new Realme 9 Pro on February 16, the Realme 9 Pro is a sub 20k rupees mid-range smartphone that offers 5G capabilities at a decent price.
With the hype of 5G, the smartphone brands are bound to cater to the needs of customers who want a future-proof device. Since the hardware required for 5G isn’t cheap, the inclusion of it in a mid-range smartphone implies that cost cutting is sure to be done in other areas.
The Realme 9 Pro runs on Android 12 that’s topped up with the layer of Realme UI 3.0. In this article we will be going through all the specifications in detail and will be trying to find out the strengths and weaknesses of this particular phone and whether it is a value for money product for you or not.
Realme 9 Pro Specifications
| Model | Realme 9 Pro |
| Dimension | 164.3 x 75.6 x 8.5 mm (6.47 x 2.98 x 0.33 in) |
| Weight | 195 g (6.88 oz) |
| Rear Camera | 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), PDAF 8 MP, f/2.2, 119˚, 16mm (ultrawide), 1/4.0″, 1.12µm 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) |
| Front Camera | 16 MP, f/2.1, 26mm (wide), 1/3.09″, 1.0µm |
| Display | 6.6 inches, 104.6 cm2 (~84.5% screen-to-body ratio) |
| Display Resolution | 1080 x 2412 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~400 ppi density) |
| RAM & Internal Storage | 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM |
| Processor | Qualcomm SM6375 Snapdragon 695 5G (6 nm) |
| OS | Android 12, Realme UI 3.0 |
| Price in India | Rs 18k – 6/128GB variant, Rs 21k – 8/128GB variant |
| Battery | Li-Po 5000 mAh, non-removable |
| Charging Speed | Fast charging 33W |
Design and Ergonomics
The Realme 9 pro is a phone that is slightly on the heavier side as it weighs around 190g, however, since the weight distribution has been done well, weight will not be a huge factor.
Apart from this, the phone carries an elegant form factor, it is good to hold, the buttons are well placed and in reach. The fingerprint scanner is integrated on the lock button and sits to the right, the volume rockers are present on the left.
Towards the down side, we have the 3.5mm headphone jack, the charging port and a single speaker, this phone doesn’t features stereo speakers so if you are someone who likes consuming media through phone speakers, you might not be very satisfied.
At the front is the IPS LCD display which also integrates the selfie camera towards the left side with thinning bezels running across its sides. The build quality is average with plastics being used all around.
Display and Performance
The Realme 9 Pro comes up with a 6.6” FHD+ IPS LCD display that offers an impressive refresh rate of 120Hz and a high touch sampling rate at 240Hz.
Being an LCD panel the color accuracy isn’t as great as AMOLED panels and the whites and greys have a bluish hue to them although the contrast and brightness levels are just about adequate.
The maximum brightness that this panel can achieve is 567 nits. The 9 pro runs on the Snapdragon 695 chipset with the 5G modem, this is a relatively new processor and while it is a 6 series processor, it is more powerful than even some 7 series chipsets, this naming convention from Qualcomm is kind of confusing but we can do nothing about it.
The SD695 is based on the 6nm architecture and carries 2 faster Cortex A78 cores and 6 Cortex A55 cores. The performance from this chipset is apt enough for day to day usage, with its Adreno 619 GPU, you can expect it to be quite good at gaming as well.
This is paired with a 128GB UFS 2.2 storage while the RAM available can be 6GB or 8GB depending on the variant you choose. Heating issues have not been observed with this processor in the past and therefore it is rather safe to recommend it for the long run.
Cameras
The Realme 9 Pro carries a total of four lenses, three at the back and one at the front. The rear camera setup comprises of a primary 64MP lens with an f/1.8 aperture, an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide angle lens with 119deg of field view and a 2MP macro camera.
The phone clicks good photos from its primary lens in the daylight with adequate details, the contrast and brightness levels are good, however the dynamic range isn’t as satisfactory and the colors seem to be on the warmer side.
In low light, the lens suffers quite a bit due to the lack of optimization required and churns out photos that have washed off details and quite a bit of noise, things do turn around a bit when you switch on the night mode, this improves the brightness and contrast levels, and the pictures seem more pleasing to the eyes.
The secondary 8MP ultrawide lens clicks decent photos but the colors aren’t as accurate and there is a loss of dynamic range, however the photos aren’t distorted.
The videos from the primary as well as the ultrawide is capped at 1080 30fps which is a downgrade over the older generations, the color accuracy in videos is even more worse and the lack of optimization is quite evident.
The selfie camera is a 16MP shooter with an f/2.1 aperture, you can click decent selfies with it but do not expect something great.
Battery and Charger
The Realme 9 Pro features a 5000mAh battery which should be adequate enough for daily usage, even if you are a heavy user the phone will last for a day and you will face no interruptions.
Realme bundles a 33W fast charger in the box which will be able to top up your phone in just about an hour or so making it decently fast.
Realme 9 pro AnTuTu and Geekbench scores
The Realme 9 pro when put through the test scored 401894 on Antutu and 2020 on Geekbench (multi-core) which is good considering the segment this phone belongs to.
Pros
- Offers a great performance for the price that it is offered on.
- The display is good and the 120Hz make the phone a lot snappier to use.
- The 5000 mAh battery will give you a good battery life.
- The phone offers as many as 13 5G bands making the phone future proof.
- Although it doesn’t get stereo speakers, the bottom firing speakers are adequately loud.
- The UFS 2.2 storage adds to the performance and makes the phone even faster.
Cons
- The color accuracy of the display isn’t top notch by any means.
- The cameras are pretty average and there is no major improvement that has taken place.
- The 2MP macro camera is pretty useless and makes no sense at all.
Price in India
The Realme 9 pro that’s priced at Rs 18k for the 6/128GB variant and Rs 21k for the 8/128GB variant is a good pick for those who are looking for a decent phone for their daily usage and 5G capability.
Conclusion
Since 5G isn’t rolling out as of now, buying a 5G phone is reasonable only if you are someone who uses a phone for more than 2 years. If this is not the case, we would recommend you to go for other phones available in the market that offer more value rather than just 5G.
These are our thoughts on the latest offering from Realme, do let us know what you think about it in the comments.