Realme 9 5G Review: A Worthy Upgrade?

The Realme 9 5G and the Realme 9 5G Velocity Version are new additions to the 9 sequence. These launches are slightly shocking because the firm has launched three different smartphones in the identical sequence over the previous two months. The Realme 9 Collection spans a wider worth vary than earlier generations, with much more choices to select from. That is good nevertheless it may additionally trigger some confusion for potential patrons. I will likely be focussing totally on the vanilla, Realme 9 5G on this assessment to see the way it compares to different smartphones in the identical worth vary.

Realme 9 5G worth in India

The Realme 9 5G is priced at Rs. 14,999 in India for the bottom variant which has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The opposite variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage is priced at Rs. 17,499. This smartphone is accessible in two colors, Stargaze White and Meteor Black, and I had the previous for this assessment.

Realme 9 5G design

The Realme 9 5G has a well-known design and it jogged my memory of different Realme telephones I’ve used up to now. The massive show has a digicam gap within the top-left nook. It has skinny borders on the prime and the edges whereas the chin is bigger. It is not distracting and is appropriate on a telephone at this worth. Realme has used plastic for the body and again which helps hold the load all the way down to 188g.

The ability button on the proper has an built-in fingerprint scanner whereas the quantity buttons are on the other facet. The buttons are all positioned in the direction of the centre of the body and are simple to succeed in even with one-handed use. The telephone is noticeably slim, measuring 8.55mm in thickness.

The Realme 9 5G is slim and packs in a 5,000mAh battery

On the underside, the Realme 9 5G has a 3.5mm headphone jack, major microphone, USB Kind-C port, and loudspeaker. The highest of the telephone is totally clean. The again of the Realme 9 5G is flat with curved sides that makes it comfy to carry. It has three cameras positioned in an oblong module that juts out barely. This causes the telephone to rock about on a flat floor, which I did not like.

The Stargaze White end has patterns on the again that shift in color when seen below gentle. The again panel does choose up smudges however these aren’t simply seen. Realme features a clear case within the field.

Realme 9 5G specs and software program

The Realme 9 5G sports activities a 6.5-inch LCD show with a full-HD+ decision and 90Hz most refresh fee. Realme has picked the MediaTek Dimensity 810 5G octa-core SoC. This telephone has a 5,000mAh battery and helps 18W quick charging. You additionally get a appropriate charger within the field. The tray on the Realme 9 5G has two nano-SIM slots and a microSD card slot for storage growth. This telephone additionally helps Bluetooth 5.1, dual-band Wi-Fi, and 6 satellite tv for pc navigation techniques.

When it comes to software program, it runs Realme UI 2.0 based mostly on Android 11. My unit was working the March 2022 Android safety patch. The UI is easy and straightforward to get round, which is nice particularly should you’re a first-time Realme person. You may toggle between the standard three-button structure or swipe gestures for navigation. It additionally has options similar to a wise sidebar, which is a floating carousel of shortcuts to your favorite apps and actions.

The outlet within the show homes the 16-megapixel selfie digicam

Realme UI 2.0 does supply personalisation choices for altering the icon fashion, color scheme, fonts, and icon structure. Contained in the settings app, the Realme Lab part has experimental options so that you can attempt. One such function is Sleep Capsule, which stops you from utilizing apps after a specified time that will help you sleep with out distractions.

I did discover an enormous quantity of bloatware preinstalled on the system. A few of these apps similar to FinShell Pay and Theme Retailer despatched spammy notifications through the assessment interval. On the upside, third-party apps could be uninstalled to reclaim cupboard space.

Realme 9 5G efficiency and battery life

The Realme 9 5G gives first rate efficiency and I by no means observed any slowdowns with common utilization. The show switches between 60Hz and 90Hz relying on what you might be doing. You can too lock it at 90Hz which makes scrolling very clean. You may select between Vivid and Mild color modes, relying in your desire.

Watching movies was pleasing however the single speaker did not produce very participating sound. The Redmi Be aware 11 is a direct competitor at this worth, and gives an AMOLED show in addition to twin audio system, so not having them on the Realme 9 5G was slightly disappointing. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner on the Realme 9 5G was fast to learn fingerprints and by no means wanted a number of makes an attempt to unlock the telephone. Face recognition was additionally fast.

The fingerprint scanner is embedded into the ability button and is straightforward to succeed in

My assessment unit had 6GB of RAM, and allowed me to reassign as much as 5GB of storage as RAM. Multitasking was a breeze and I may soar between completely different apps with out ones within the background needing to be reloaded. App loading instances have been additionally first rate.

The telephone fared effectively in artificial benchmarks, scoring 372,099 factors in AnTuTu. In Geekbench 5’s single-core and multi-core assessments, it managed 609 and 1,830 factors. In 3DMark’s Sling Shot check, the telephone scored 3,475 factors.

Informal video games ran positive with none points. Even Name Of Obligation: Cell ran at ‘Medium’ graphics and ‘Medium’ body fee settings by default, and was playable with none stutter. I performed the sport for quarter-hour which resulted in a 4 p.c drop within the battery stage, and the telephone was barely heat to the contact afterwards.

The Realme 9 5G has a triple digicam setup on the again

The Realme 9 5G gives superb battery life and you may simply use it for a day and a half on a full cost. In our HD video loop check, the telephone managed to run for 16 hours and 38 minutes which is an excellent time. The equipped 18W charger is able to charging it to about 27 p.c in half-hour and about 52 p.c in an hour. Charging the telephone fully takes slightly over two hours.

Realme 9 5G cameras

The Realme 9 5G has a 48-megapixel major digicam with an f/1.8 aperture that pixel-bins pictures all the way down to 12 megapixels by default. You aren’t getting an ultra-wide-angle digicam on the Realme 9 5G which I believe is an enormous miss. The opposite two are a black and white portrait digicam and a macro digicam. For selfies, it has a 16-megapixel digicam. The digicam app is pretty loaded and has quite a lot of taking pictures modes. It has fast toggles for HDR in addition to AI scene recognition. There’s a new Road Mode filter that applies a high-contrast, high-saturation look to the pictures you are taking.

Daylight digicam efficiency was first rate. The telephone was in a position to metre gentle appropriately and enabled HDR routinely in shiny scenes. I discovered the AI to be too aggressive with greens, making vegetation and bushes look synthetic. The output from the first digicam was first rate if seen as is, however magnifying these pictures revealed fairly a little bit of lacking element. An ultra-wide-angle digicam would have given this telephone extra versatility.

Realme 9 5G daylight digicam pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Shut-up pictures have been good and the telephone managed crisp pictures so long as I used to be at an acceptable distance. It additionally managed first rate background blur. Portrait pictures have been sharp and had superb edge detection, together with enough background blur, which could be adjusted earlier than taking the shot. Macro pictures have been common and restricted to 2 megapixels in decision.

Realme 9 5G digicam samples; prime to backside: closeup, portrait, macro samples (faucet to see full-size samples)

Low-light digicam efficiency was strictly common whereas taking pictures within the common ‘Picture’ mode. Photographs appeared gentle, and objects at a distance had a watercolour-like impact. Night time mode didn’t make a big distinction to the output. It did produce barely higher element in darker areas of a scene, however the output had a yellowish tint and regarded like a filter had been utilized. The telephone did not stabilise pictures both, so shakes brought about undesirable blur.

Realme 9 5G low-light digicam and Night time mode digicam samples (faucet to see full-size picture))

Selfies regarded good in daylight in addition to low gentle. In low gentle, the Realme 9 used a display screen flash which helped get higher outcomes. Portrait selfies have been good, however the telephone did apply a beautification filter by default.

Realme 9 5G Selfie portrait samples (faucet to see full-size picture)

Video recording tops out at 1080p for the first digicam in addition to the selfie shooter. The Realme 9 5G doesn’t stabilise footage by default. It does have an ‘Extremely Regular’ mode that crops the body a bit to try to stabilise footage, and this helped enhance video. Low-light footage did have slight grain.

General, the digicam efficiency of the Realme 9 5G was good in daylight, whereas low-light circumstances have been difficult for it.

Verdict

Realme has launched so many smartphones priced under Rs. 20,000 of late, that its fashions and sequence overlap, making it onerous to select the proper one. The Realme 9 5G has a quite simple design and the specs, whereas good, will not make patrons queue up for it, in my view. The Realme 9 5G shares quite a lot of {hardware} with the Realme 8S 5G (Overview) and it seems like the corporate has downgraded a few of that older mannequin’s specs to hit a cheaper price.

The 6GB RAM variant of the Realme 9 5G is priced at Rs. 17,499, whereas an equally spec’d variant of the Realme 8s 5G would value simply Rs. 500 extra. The latter would supply higher worth because it has a higher-resolution 64-megapixel digicam and 33W quick charging.

The bottom variant of the Realme 9 5G is priced at Rs. 14,999 and is healthier worth for cash than the one I examined. If you’re an off-the-cuff person, you might contemplate this, however I might advocate you check out the Redmi Be aware 11 as a substitute because it has an AMOLED show, stereo audio system, and 33W charging. It lacks 5G, however none of the community suppliers in India even supply this proper now, so it won’t be an enormous loss.