Chinese handset maker Realme hasn’t been active in the Uk for extensive, but it has created a true splash. The to start with Realme handset I reviewed, the X50 Professional 5G was a true head-turner — a properly specified cell phone at a very good value. Now we have the company’s consider on severe zooming in the form of the six.six-inch Realme X3 SuperZoom. Even with the clear emphasis on camera capability, there is a whole lot a lot more on supply below, together with a high-conclusion processor, a great deal of memory and storage, and outstanding battery existence, all for £469 (inc. VAT).
The X3 SuperZoom has a neat and tidy industrial style. At its website, Realme emphasises the glass that’s used both equally entrance and back again. But look very carefully and you will see that the sides of this cell phone are created from plastic. It does a very good position of wanting like metallic, and is not in any way a offer-breaker, but it really is noteworthy due to the fact plastic use is 1 of the ways Realme has saved on production fees.
The six.six-inch X3 SuperZoom has a 120Hz IPS display and runs on a Snapdragon 855+ chipset with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of (non-expandable) interior storage. It truly is driven by a four,200mAh battery.
Illustrations or photos: Sandra Vogel / ZDNet
My evaluation handset was the Arctic White variant — a kind of creamy white that’s variously rippled with shades of blue, eco-friendly, orange, mauve and pink as it demonstrates light. It truly is eye-catching and distinct, but if you want, there is also a Glacier Blue option.
The tender-contact complete is commendably resistant to fingerprints, and also implies that the cell phone feels cozy in the hand — whilst it was however somewhat slippery on tender furnishings.
The quad camera array sits in a vertical lozenge that protrudes noticeably from the back again of the handset. This experienced the regrettable result of triggering the cell phone to move all-around — somewhat noisily — on a desktop when I prodded at the display.
The fingerprint sensor is designed into the electricity button on the suitable side of the cell phone. I am not the finest admirer of this spot, whilst I’ve grown used to it through various evaluations. Positioning aside, the X3 SuperZoom’s fingerprint reader is effective properly.
The left edge of the handset properties a pair of volume buttons, and on the base is the speaker grille, SIM caddy (which accommodates two SIMs), and USB-C charge slot. There is no 3.5mm headset jack, and no official IP ranking for dust and drinking water resistance.
The X3 SuperZoom has 32MP (broad) and 8MP (ultra-broad) entrance cameras, and four rear cameras: 64MP broad, 8MP ultra-broad, 8MP periscope telephoto and 2MP macro. The fingerprint reader is integrated into the electricity button on the suitable side.
Illustrations or photos: Sandra Vogel / ZDNet
The exhibit is flat, created from Gorilla Glass 5 and has a pre-equipped display protector. There is a sizeable bezel at the base edge, and the other 3 bezels are barely minimal. Continue to, the six.six-inch display matches into a neat chassis that’s 75.8mm broad by 163.8mm deep by 8.9mm thick and weighs 202g. Realme statements a display-to-entire body ratio of 90.5{36a394957233d72e39ae9c6059652940c987f134ee85c6741bc5f1e7246491e6}, whilst we calculate it at 84.8{36a394957233d72e39ae9c6059652940c987f134ee85c6741bc5f1e7246491e6}.
The best left of the display has a lozenge-shaped punch-gap for the dual entrance cameras. This is relatively distracting at to start with, but I before long bought used to visually blanking them, and the display itself has some good additionally factors.
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The six.six-inch display is IPS Liquid crystal display somewhat than AMOLED, but the colours are however quite powerful. The resolution of 2,400 by 1,080 pixels (399ppi) is properly very good plenty of for online video viewing, electronic mail, internet searching and e book studying. The display has a flagship-class 120Hz refresh price, which you can manually scale back again to 60Hz alternatively, you can let the handset to choose the refresh price mechanically.
It truly is a disgrace the mono speaker is a bit of a let-down, supplied the excellent of the display. There is a great deal of volume — a lot more, in reality, than several handsets handle — but it really is short on bass tones and is relatively distorted at the highest stage. It truly is very good plenty of for radio listening, but when keeping the cell phone in landscape method to view online video I experienced to consider treatment not to go over the speaker with my palm.
Illustrations or photos taken with 1x, 20x and 60x zoom.
Illustrations or photos: Sandra Vogel / ZDNet
The X3 SuperZoom has 6 cameras, two at the entrance and a quad-camera array at the back again. The entrance cameras are 32MP f/2.5 broad-angle (80.4°) and 8MP f/2.2 ultra-broad angle (105°). It could possibly sound like overkill to have dual entrance cameras, but the ultra-broad angle option is in fact quite useful for team shots, or when you want to body 1 or a lot more folks towards a backdrop.
The 2MP macro camera has a 4cm concentration length.
Picture: Sandra Vogel / ZDNet
The quad-camera array at the back again is as follows: 64MP f/1.8 broad angle (seventy eight.6°) 8MP f/2.3 ultra-broad angle ( 119°) 2MP f/2.four macro (4cm concentration length) and 8MP f/3.four periscope telephoto (5x optical zoom).
This is an superb specification, but there are constraints. The macro lens normally takes a moderately very good-excellent shot, but the ideal focal length of 4cm is limiting. There is no zoom on the macro, so you are left with transferring the handset to and away from the issue. Each individual little bug I tried to photograph in my locked-down backyard flew away as I approached it. Luckily my cat was a lot more docile. In the true earth, I would get quite disappointed, quite quickly.
On the zooming entrance, 5x and 10x shots were being of sensible excellent, but at the time you get past the incremental display taps that consider you to 10x it really is a issue of pinching at the display to zoom even more, and frankly the positive aspects are not worth the trouble. What did impress me was the colour fidelity: people flowers are a vibrant, surprising pink, and the X3 SuperZoom will get as close as any cell phone camera I’ve tried.
I’ve currently observed that the SIM caddy supports two SIMs. There is no facility to strengthen the interior storage via MicroSD, but that’s not definitely needed. There is 256GB mounted, of which 18GB is used out of the box, leaving 238GB totally free. That storage is UFS 3., and it really is quick. This, along with 12GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 855+ chipset, implies the Realme X3 SuperZoom definitely zips along.
The Geekbench 5 CPU test noted pretty respectable normal scores of 786 (single core) and 2440 (multi core). Set it towards the OnePlus 8 Professional with its best-conclusion Snapdragon 865 chipset, which reached 907 and 3375 respectively, and you can see the distinction. Nevertheless, the OnePlus handset fees £899 for the exact same RAM/storage blend, and I failed to uncover that the £469 X3 SuperZoom ‘s functionality held me back again in any way.
Battery existence is outstanding much too, with the four,200mAh battery long lasting for seventeen.5 hrs under the Laptop Mark Operate 2. benchmark. A lot more anecdotally, my mainstream use pattern commonly noticed me complete the working day with involving 70{36a394957233d72e39ae9c6059652940c987f134ee85c6741bc5f1e7246491e6} and 55{36a394957233d72e39ae9c6059652940c987f134ee85c6741bc5f1e7246491e6} of a full charge remaining. Acquiring to a full charge just isn’t much too much of a trouble, possibly, as the 30W ‘Dart’ charger must consider you from zero to full in 55 minutes.
Android ten comes with a couple of added characteristics courtesy of the Realme UI overlay. The Good Sidebar, which is a staple of Realme handsets, provides a customisable shortcuts bar you can pop out by sliding inwards from the screen’s suitable edge this element is also on Oppo handsets, where by it really is known as Rapid Instruments. Realme applications involve a tunes player, picture viewer, temperature app, compass, file supervisor, and various other extras. 3rd-party choices, which involve Fb and Opera, can be eliminated if you do not want them.
The X3 SuperZoom in Glacier Blue.
Picture: Realme
Conclusions
Realme has delivered an outstanding set of specifications in a sub-£500 handset, with compromises created in all the suitable areas. A high-excellent display with a quick refresh price, a great deal of RAM and interior storage, very good battery existence, and a style that seems distinctive are all additionally factors.
In reality, it really is a disgrace that Realme puts so much store on the camera’s 60x zoom capability, due to the fact this simply isn’t going to are living up to the guarantee. SuperZooming aside, although, this is however a pretty able smartphone for the dollars.
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