Realme has finally unveiled the much awaited ‘flagship smartphone’ Realme X. Sadly, unlike the leaks, Realme X is powered by Snapdragon 710 instead of the expected flagship processor Snapdragon 855. The funny thing being, Realme 3 pro, which was launched last month as a budget smartphone priced at Rs13,999 also features the same processor, i.e. Snapdragon 710.
Hence, it is natural to think why Realme hyped the Realme X as a flagship smartphone but didn’t come with a flagship processor. You might be wondering then what makes the Realme X special when compared with the Realme 3 Pro. To solve the above questions, we will explain the differences between Realme X and the Realme 3 Pro and we will find a solution as to whether the Realme X is as good as its hype.
Design and Build
Realme has decided to stay with the polycarbonate plastic back which mimics glass, and the design is somewhat similar to Oppo F11 pro, a smartphone from Realme’s parent company. The camera placement is similar to the new Oneplus 7 pro. Realme logo is now in the bottom center position, unlike Realme 3 Pro’s bottom left logo placement style. The fingerprint sensor is missing in the rear end, as now it comes with an in-display fingerprint scanner.
A great advantage for Realme X comes in the form of the USB Type C port, while the Realme 3 Pro is still rocking the old micro-USB port. Both smartphones come with the headphone jack.
Display
When it comes to the display, there are a lot of changes when compared with the Realme 3 pro. For the first time ever, Realme has used an AMOLED panel in their smartphone. The Realme X comes with a 6.53-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with the resolution of 2340×1080 px.
It comes with an astonishing 91.2% screen to body ratio, and this is because of the absence of notch, and this has made the Realme X an awesome looking smartphone. Realme 3 pro comes with 6.3-inch IPS LCD display with a screen to body ratio of 83.7%. Both smartphones come with 2.5D Gorilla Glass 5 protection.
The verdict in the display section is clear: Realme X takes a clear lead due to its superior display panel and smaller bezels when compared with the Realme 3 pro.
Camera
Realme X comes with Sony’s flagship camera sensor, the Sony IMX 586 which is a 48MP sensor. It uses an f/1.7 lens and supports 4K video at 30 fps, 1080p at 30/120 fps and has EIS at 1080p. 960fps slow-motion is also available. It also has a 5MP f/2.4 sensor for capturing depth information
In the front, it uses a motorized pop-up selfie camera like the one which is present in the Oneplus 7 Pro. The selfie shooter is a Sony IMX 471 sensor with 16MP and f/2.0. Realme has given assurance that the pop-up mechanism has been tested for 200,000+ times. To avoid scratches in the lens due to dust particles, Realme has introduced sapphire glass in the camera module. The module takes a mere 0.74s to launch, even though it is higher than the time taken by Oneplus 7 Pro’s camera to launch(0.53s), it is decent enough.
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On the other hand, Realme 3 pro features a 16MP f/1.7 Sony IMX519 sensor along with a 5MP secondary depth sensor, and for selfies, it has a 25MP sensor. Camera features like Chroma Boost, Nightscape are available in both smartphones.
Camera Sensor and Image quality
One funny thing I noticed with the cameras is that Oneplus 6T has the same camera sensor as the Realme 3 Pro, and the latest Oneplus 7 pro has the same sensor as the Realme X. I found someone tweeting out that the Redmi Note 7 Pro has the same 48 MP Sony IMX 586 sensor as the Oneplus 7 Pro, so it is the better camera in the segment. Although this is true to a small extend, image quality is dependent on many other factors other than the camera sensor.
For example, the Image Signalling Processor(ISP) has a major effect on how the image turns out, and ISP’s vary with processors. Snapdragon 855 processor comes with ISP Spectra 380, and the Snapdragon 710 comes with ISP spectra 250. So the same sensor on 2 different smartphones with different processors can make a difference in quality. The lenses used by smartphone manufacturers can also affect the quality of the image.
Want to know more about ISP and how they work, check out this article from AnandTech
An added advantage of both these smartphones is that both of them comes with Camera2Api enabled out of the box, so we can use a Google Camera port for these smartphones, and get a Pixel camera experience.
Performance and Software
This is the part where Realme X doesn’t shine much. Both the Realme X and the Realme 3 pro comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 SoC which is a 10nm processor. The top end variant of Realme X comes with 8 GB of ram and 128GB of internal storage, while the Realme 3 pro’s top end variant has 6GB of ram and 128 GB of internal storage. Snapdragon 710 comes with Adreno 616, so playing PUBG and Fortnite will be a smooth experience.
Everyone expected Snapdragon 855 for the Realme X, but Realme disappointed us. But wait till you see the price of this smartphone, and trust me you will be more than happy for this processor.
Talking about the software, both come with Oppo’s Color OS 6 under Android 9 Pie. Android Q Beta is already out for the Realme 3 Pro so we can expect both the Realme 3 Pro and the Realme X to get Android Q update in the near future.
Battery
Realme X comes with a 3765 mAh Li-Po battery which is lower than Realme 3 Pro’s 4045 mAh battery. But this won’t be much noticeable as the Realme X comes with the highly power efficient AMOLED display panel. Both smartphones support VOOC 3.0 fast charging technology, which can fill up to 50% battery in 30 minutes in Realme X, and 50% battery in about 40 minutes for the Realme 3 Pro.
Realme X vs Realme 3 Pro: Price in India
As I said above, the factor where we Realme X truly shines is its price. Since Realme has only been launched officially in China, the price is also available in the local currency, and it converts to Rs.15,300. We can expect Realme X to be launched in India for Rs15,999 for the base variant(4GB/64Gb), Rs17,999 for the 6GB/64GB, and Rs.18,999 for the top end 8GB/128GB variant.
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Realme 3 pro also has 3 varaints: 4GB/64GB for Rs13,999 , 6GB/64GB for Rs.15,999 and 6GB/128Gb for Rs.16,999.
Realme X vs Realme 3 Pro: Which should you buy?
That is a really silly question, for a price difference of just Rs.2000 for the base variants of the 2 smartphones, we are getting several advantages in Realme X when compared to Realme 3 Pro. Here is a list of advantages that Realme X has over Realme 3 Pro.
- Use of AMOLED display panel
- Beautiful 91.2% screen to body ratio with no notch
- In-display fingerprint scanner(First in this price segment)
- Flagship level camera sensors
- USB type-C port
- Getting more value for just Rs2000 more.
Conclusion
Realme began their journey just 1 year ago, and now they have launched their 10th smartphone, the Realme X. Realme’s success story just proves the theory that when you give your customer what they actually want they will buy it. Realme understood what their consumers needed and made phones for their consumers need.
Of course, Realme X is not anywhere near a flagship smartphone, but their view of providing more to their consumers for a lower price tag will ensure that this phone becomes a success. They brought some features that are only available in phones in the Rs.20k+ price segment like the In-display fingerprint scanner, Pop-up selfie camera, notch-less design.
Hence if you are in a situation to buy a smartphone in this price segment, you can buy the Realme X with no doubts.
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