The Realme 9 Pro Plus brings in a new era for the company’s low-cost Android handsets. It’s the first ‘Pro Plus’ device in the line, and it comes with a few extra capabilities that you won’t find on a typical smartphone. This is a truly remarkable device that tells us that ‘Pro Plus’ isn’t just an oxymoron, it’s a promise. It was launched with the Realme 9 Pro. Realme phones excel in the low to mid-range market, as everyone who has used one knows. The Realme 9 Pro Plus is yet another example of this.
What will you see here?
Specs at a glance:
- Design Type : Bar
- Dimensions 160.2 x 73.3 x 8 mm
- Weight 182 Grams
- Waterproof No
- Display Type Super AMOLED
- Size 6.4 inches
- Resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels
- Display Colors 16M
- Pixel Density ~411 PPI density
- Touch Screen Yes
- Features 90Hz, 430 nits (typ), 600 nits (HBM)
- CPU Octa-core (2×2.5 GHz Cortex-A78 + 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55)
- GPU Mali-G68 MC4
- RAM (Memory) 6 GB, 8 GB
- Internal Storage 128 GB, 256 GB
- Memory Card Slot No
- Sensors Fingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
- Operating System Android 12 + Realme UI 3.0
- User Interface Yes
- Rear Camera 50 MP (wide) + 8 MP (ultrawide) + 2 MP (macro)
- Image 2160p
- Video 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120/480fps, 720p@960fps, gyro-EIS
- Flash LED flash, HDR, panorama
- Front Camera 16 MP (wide)
- SIM Nano SIM
- Dual SIM Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
- Wi-fi Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, hotspot
- USB USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go
- GPS Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
- NFC Yes (market/region dependent)
- Wireless Charging No
- Headphone Jack Yes
- Capacity Li-Po 4500 mAh + Fast charging 60W, 100% in 44 min (advertised) + USB Power Delivery 3.0
- Placement Non-Removable
- Video Playback Yes
- Video Out Yes
- FM Radio No
- Ring Tones Yes
- Loudspeaker Yes
- Handsfree Yes
Price and availability
The Realme 9 Pro Plus is priced at £349 (approximately $470, AU$660), putting it in the middle of the ‘budget’ and mid-range of phone categories. The Realme has been available in the UK from March 4th. We will not have available data for the United States or Australia, which isn’t surprising. Realme does not have cell phones in the United States, and while the Realme 8 series is available in Australia, it was not released there.
For a smartphone that looks, feels, and operates like this one, that pricing is rather remarkable. The Moto G200 and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro are two recent competitors that are slightly more costly.
Performance
The Realme 9 Pro Plus is the new phone to include the MediaTek Dimensity 920 processor; the first being the color-changing Vivo V23. It is a mid-range processor that outperforms Snapdragon competitors by a little margin.
To put things in perspective, today’s mid-range CPUs are generally about 1800, while top-end processors are in the low 3000s or even the high 2900s, thus the Realme 9 Pro Plus is rather powerful for its price.
We put the phone through its paces during extended gaming sessions and found it to be a fantastic performer, with titles loading swiftly and high graphics settings running smoothly. Furthermore, the phone took a very long time to reheat during gaming, which is likely due to Realme’s unique cooling technology.
Display
The Realme 9 Pro Plus is pretty medium-sized in the great scheme of Android phones, with a 6.43-inch display and a resolution of 1080 x 2400. It also has a 90Hz refresh rate, which is standard for a phone at this price. As a result, it’s a perfectly serviceable screen, suitable for both gaming and video streaming. It’s also rather vivid, however, the maximum brightness is a touch lower than it might be.
This phone has an in-display fingerprint sensor that also serves as a heart rate monitor, which is one of the phone’s most exciting features. It’s a nice feature that may be beneficial for folks who don’t have a fitness band or other specialized hardware for the purpose, but it’s obviously not as precise as either of those. We’d like to see a start screen widget or a better placement for the feature because it’s a bit is hidden in the phone
Camera: Realme 9 pro plus
On the Reamle 9 Pro Plus, there are three back cameras. A 50MP primary snapper leads the charge, with an 8MP ultra-wide and 2MP macro cohort following closely after. The picture quality from the cameras pleasantly pleased us. Snaps seemed brilliant and vibrant, with clear clarity and prominent contrast, particularly on ultra-wide shots.
The color profile was very comparable across conventional and wide images, eliminating a problem that plagues many multi-camera smartphones. In terms of ‘avoided difficulties,’ ultra-wide images were minimally altered.
Low-light and night photos looked amazing, due to the Sony IMX766 sensor in the primary camera, which is rather big and so takes in more light. Night photography mode shots were rich in detail, crisp, and nicely exposed, with light sources in the frame not blowing out the remainder of the image.
However, the usual Photo mode was no slouch for this type of image. This meant that even when we didn’t have time to hold the camera steady for many seconds, we could still get a good shot.
The street is a new camera mode we haven’t seen previously. It appears to be for street photography, with a few various filters available. In actuality, it provided no additional benefits above regular camera settings and filters. There’s also a tilt-shift option.
Design: Realme 9 Pro Plus
The Realme 9 Pro Plus employs a back design pattern that is as unusual as it is new. While it may not appear that way in the photographs accompanying. This is due to Realme’s ‘Light Shift Design.’ This isn’t simply one of those phones with color-changing backs that flicker between hues when you flip them – it’s more like the Vivo V23.
It’s easiest to compare it to one of those color-changing mugs. When left in the sunshine, the phone gradually transforms from blue to brilliant red, which we found with surprise the first time we exposed it to sunlight. It returns to blue after a few seconds out of the sun.
This is a wonderful trick that we had a lot of fun seeing the first few times we did it. However, we should remind out that the color shift requires direct sunshine, not oblique or artificial light. Hence only works under certain conditions. If you live in the UK, like us, you’ll only be able to utilize this function roughly three times each year.
Aside from that eye-catching quirk, this is your typical Android phone. There’s a USB-C connector and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the right edge, as well as a power button and volume buttons on the left. In addition to the Light Shifting Design model we tested, the phone is also available in black and green.
Software
The Realme 9 Pro Plus is powered on Android 12 with the company’s customized Realme UI on top. This is mostly a design and theme update, however, Realme does include some bloatware including its user interface.
The Material You feature, which allows you to change app icons to match your home screen background, is a significant selling point of Android 12. But it wasn’t available on Realme UI just at the time of the 9 Pro Plus’ introduction, as it is on other Android 12 forks.
Bloatware, as previously said, is a bit of an issue here.
Navigating the phone’s user interface is rather quick: there is little latency when you swipe among menus or open and close apps.
Battery life
The battery life of the Realme 9 Pro Plus, like the display, is about average for a phone of this size. There’s a 4,500mAh battery that lasts for a day of use. Whether it was sporadic social media use or heavy sessions of mobile gaming and movie streaming. You can really push this phone and trust it to stay working. At 60W, the charging speed is rather excellent for a mid-range phone like this. Even some premium phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S22, fall behind.
At that rate, charging the phone from empty to full should take approximately half an hour – but considering the phone’s battery life, you shouldn’t be at 0% all the time.
Conclusion
With its first Pro Plus phone, Realme establishes itself as a mid-range champion. The camera, processing power. Also charging speed outperforms competitors of the same price, and it also sticks out with a unique color-changing back and built-in heart monitor. We had to nitpick to find any flaws – if you’re on a tight budget, this phone is a must-have.
