Chinese smartphone maker Realme launched its latest smartphone, the Realme 3 Pro. The smartphone was launched at an event in New Delhi on Monday at a starting price of ₹13,999 for the 4GB/64GB variant and will go on sale starting 29 April at 12 noon exclusively via Flipkart. The 6GB/128GB variant of the Realme 3 Pro is priced at ₹16,999.
The Realme 3 Pro is the top offering from the ex Oppo sub-brand and offers several category leading features including a Snapdragon 710 chipset paired with up to 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, 4,045mAh battery with VOOC 3.0 fast charger and a 16MP+5MP dual rear camera setup.
Offers on the Realme 3 Pro include flat ₹1,000 off on HDFC Bank debit and credits and Jio benefits worth ₹5,300.
The Realme 3 Pro is deeply pitted against the Redmi Note 7 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy M30.
Realme 3 Pro: First Impressions
For the untrained eyes, the Realme 3 Pro is very similar to the Realme 3, which was launched in a couple months ago. It carries forward the same design, be it the teardrop notch, button placement or the curved polycarbonate resin back. The colour scheme we received was also pretty much the same, sans the glitter.
The device is easy to hold, thanks to its curved back, although it's on the heavier end. The additional heft can be owed to the massive 4,045mAh battery.
The Realme 3 Pro sports a 6.3-inch Full HD+ LCD display, which is marginally bigger and better than the Realme 3. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. In my limited time with the device, I found out that the display is adequately bright but lacks the general punch of colours.
Powering the Realme 3 Pro is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 AIE processor paired with an Adreno 616 GPU. It comes with up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It runs Oppo's revamped ColorOS 6.0 based on Android Pie.
During my time with the smartphone, I found out that the device was reasonably snappy, only with a few stutters. It handled casual surfing and social media browsing with ease with minimal problems. PUBG was tackled with ease with absolutely no frame drops at high graphics for about 15 minutes of play time. It did heat up a bit, but it wasn't uncomfortable to hold. Fortnite, however, ran on low graphics settings and although it ran smooth, the graphics were just too offputting to play on.
HyperBoost 2.0, the gaming mode by Realme, kicks in every time you start a game. It does offer quite a few meaningful gaming features including muting notifications and hotkeys for screenshots and screen recordings.
Realme (read Oppo) has really upped its game in terms of software. Gone is the confusion of pulling the notification bar from the top and frequent settings from bottom — it's all arranged on the top, like most Android UIs. They have also ironed out other annoyances by including a search bar in the settings and have added an app drawer.
In terms of optics, the Realme 3 comes with a dual rear camera setup with a 16MP primary and 5MP secondary sensor. At the front, it has a 25MP selfie camera. Realme has packed super slo motion, nightscape and speed shot modes in the camera app. The rear facing camera produced good results indoors and outdoors. The camera doesn't seem to gravitate towards lower shutter speeds indoors to compensate for low-lighting, which is great for a smartphone at this price point. The Qualcomm Spectra 250 Image Signal Processor does a great job of post processing images after they are clicked. So if you are a person who to clicks photos of documents, you are in luck, as it automatically sharpens them up for you.
It is too soon to gauge the smartphone against the Redmi Note 7 Pro's camera, so you'd have to wait for our full review of the device.
The Realme 3 Pro packs a 4,045mAh battery and comes with a VOOC 3.0 charger, which reminiscent of OnePlus' dash charger. Realme claims it can offer 5 hours of talk-time in 10 minutes of charge. We are yet to verify the battery life and charging times of the Realme 3 Pro.
