Realme has carved a name for itself in the smartphone niche by doing two things really well – Making products with high specifications and at the same time undercutting the competition into oblivion.
This has been Realme’s plan of action in the past and it continues to be the same with the Realme 5 Pro.
At the outset, the Realme 5 Pro is a phone in the mid-market segment. It competes with really awesome phones such as Samsung M30, Realme X, Honor 20i and Redmi Note 7 Pro.
So what does the Realme 5 Pro offer?
It is it better than its predecessors, the Realme 3 or is it just another phone with incremental improvements?
Let’s find out!
Realme 5 Pro Singapore Review
Design and Display
The gradient look is the in-thing this season. The Realme 4 Pro has a holographic gradient finish. It has a diamond pattern that looks pretty good and that we have already seen in the past with Realme phones.
The polycarbonate finish mixed with the glass design makes this phone sturdy and good looking at the same time. It has a curved back which helps with improved grip.
This is by no means a bad looking phone. Realme hasn’t cut corners in the design of this phone to keep the price low.
The sides houses the sim tray, volume rockers on the left and the sim card on the right. This part is made out of plastic.
The main display has a selfie camera with a water drop notch on top. The one annoying aspect is the chin that the bezel has. It’s pretty thick.
On the back is the four-cameras that has a bit of protrusion without a case and also the fingerprint scanner.
It has a USB-C charging port.
Display
The Display is a classic 6.3-inch FHD+ screen with a 19:9 aspect ratio. Even though it has a thick bottom bezel and an IPS LCD screen, it’s a pretty decent screen. It won’t compete with the likes of an AMOLED.
The possibility of controlling the light of the display is a big boon and it has recorded 450 nits in the brightness department. In some tests, the brightness from the phone has been a bit poor in outside environments. If there’s a complaint on the display, it’s this.
Features and Specifications
The first thing you see in the specs area is the Realme 5 Pro’s Snapdragon 712. This is an advance of the super popular Snapdragon 710. This is a fast chipset and highly capable.
It comes with numerous storage and RAM options – 4GB + 64GB Storage, 6GB + 64GB Storage and 8GB + 128GB Storage. There is also a dedicated SD card slot which lets you expand the storage. This is a much needed feature that would be helpful for users who want to shoot high quality photos that will take up a lot of space on the phone.
With these specs, the Realme 5 Pro is a breeze to use. There is no lagging and stuttering and overall it’s a super seamless experience.
The software needs to be discussed as the Realme 5 Pro works on ColorOS. If you are wondering where you’ve heard about the Color OS, then it’s Oppo.
This is by all means a top performing OS. It has driving modes, game assists, clone apps and more.
There is some added bloatware, which might annoy a few users, but if you are the average user, you wouldn’t mind it.
Camera
A quad-camera on a mid-range phone always gets tongues wagging and it’s the same with the Realme 5 Pro too. Here is what you have to deal with.
- 48MP Sony IMX56 Sensor
- 8MP Ultra-wide Camera
- 2MP Macro Camera
- 2MP Portrait Sensor
The front is a respectable 16MP shooter.
So how do these cameras fare?
Like most top camera phones, the Realme 5 Pro uses pixel binning too that combines a bunch of pixels to make a sharper image.
If you want super-high quality images, you can use the dedicated camera option to shoot 48-megapixel ultra-rich shots. These will take up space.
The selfie camera uses the AI feature pretty extensively and does most of the work for you. The portrait shots are pretty amazing!
The AI feature might overwork sometimes and give you a photograph that is highly unreal and that can be adjusted in the settings.
Battery
The Realme 5 Pro carries a 4035 mAh battery within it. It has a 20W charger that ships with the phone that enables fast charging. You can go from 0 to 100% in an hour, which in our opinion is a bit more time than normal.
Final Thoughts
The overall experience with the Realme 5 Pro is top-notch. This is by all means a solid phone that performs well in all-departments. A great 48-MP camera with a battery life that’s excellent and a Snapdragon 712 that is generally not seen in phones like this.
You won’t have problems while gaming or using multiple apps. There are no issues at all with this phone.
If you had to nitpick, then you could say that the OS could have been trimmed down. ColorOS in all its glory is an amazing OS, but it does have bloatware that is annoying.
And that battery life? Absolutely worth it.
Overall, this phone is a bang for the buck. In fact, even more. This is one of the top contenders for the best smartphone in this segment.
If you had a choice between this and another phone, the only real competition comes from its own family – The Realme X that has an AMOLED screen.
Realme 5 Pro in Short
Pros
- Large display
- Good design with latest gradient textures
- Amazing performance with the Snapdragon 712
- Robust OS with a lot of latest gestures and controls
- Amazing cameras for high quality shots and AI feature which makes life easy
- Seamless gaming experience
- Brilliant battery life that comes with a 20W quick charging feature
Cons
- OS has bloat that is annoying
- The phone’s bezel is a bit thick