realme just dropped a new smartphone in the market in the form of the realme 9 Pro+ but will it shatter the competition or move the barometer? Here’s my realme 9 Pro+ review!

This potential daily driver could be yours for just ₱23,990.00 and will feature a number of great functions and features including a Sony IMX766 OIS Camera and more!

Design

You gotta love the simple and sleek design realme put in for realme 9 Pro+. The back was well done proportioned to the and the camera placement was not crowded at all.

If there’s anything here I wanted to point out its the volume rocker being placed on the other end of the phone as opposed to standard fair which put the volume control on the right side of the phone, just above the power button. It can make for some truly confusing moments especially if you jumped back to using a realme phone as your daily driver.

The realme 9 Pro+ is also the first smartphone for the brand that features the Photochromism Design. This design is a new design that “Under normal sunlight or ultraviolet light, the back cover will become completely discolored from blue to red in about 3 seconds; under no sunlight, it will fade in 2-5 minutes. It is the first light shift design overseas.”

It’s also the slimmest smartphone from the realme number series, with just 7.99 mm in total. Here’s a comparison between the realme 9 Pro+ and the realme 6 (which I thought at the time was the slimmest of its generation).

Display

The colors and refresh rate for the realme 9 pro+ is also top notch and it can hold a candle against other smartphones launched here in the PH and get away as a clear cut winner and that’s thanks to the 90Hz Super AMOLED display.

I’m quite happy with the 6.4″ screen size. If you’re coming from a smartphone with a bigger screen, it might be a change of visuals but its worth it especially with the resolution pushing 2400×1080 Full HD+ making it an entirely new experience when it comes to viewing or gaming.

The 9 Pro+’s display also features Corning Gorilla Glass 5, a screen-to-body ratio of 90.8% and touch sampling rate of 360Hz.

There front display also holds the fingerprint scanner; they finally did away with the built-in fingerprint scanner and opted to go digital. Hope the future releases will follow suit. *fingers crossed*

 

Camera

The realme 9 Pro+ comes with The First Sony IMX766 OIS Camera in Mid-range. The main camera also features Sony IMX766 Flagship Sensor with OIS & EIS, 2.0um Pixel and 1/1.56-inch. And hands down, for the current batch of smartphones that have been launched or released this quarter and for the upcoming months, the realme 9 Pro+’s camera is awesome.

And of course, if you’re into mobile photography/ toy photography this might just be the best phone to date for you to use…

Other functions you can choose from when taking photos with the realme 9 Pro+ includes:

• 50MP Mode
• Ultra Steady Video
• Night Mode
• Panoramic view, Expert
• Timelapse
• Portrait Mode
• HDRUltra wide
• Ultra macro
• AI Scene Recognition
• AI Beauty
• Filter
• Chroma Boost
• Slow Motion
• Bokeh Effect Control
• Movie
• Dual-ViewVideo
• TextScanner
• Starry Mode
• Tilt-Shift
• Street Mode
• Long Exposure

There’s also the Street Photography 2.0 mode.

You will be getting several modes under Street Photography namely:

• Rush Hour
• Neon Trail
• Light Trail Photography (as seen above)
• Light Painting

This is actually the reason why the whole campaign around both the Pro+ and the Pro was called #CapturetheLight, which I think was such a brilliant move.

The Night Mode also got a significant upgrade from the previous models with improved output such as these shots.

Everything stands out with the camera and the colors pop out for night mode.

The Zoom/ wide-angle shots are also decent/ exceptional depending on the lighting and your surroundings. Here are some shots where I used the wideangle.

In terms of selfies or front cameras, the realme 9 Pro+ is also a tough contender to beat. It comes with a 16MP in-display selfie camera with an aperture of F/2.4. Some of the functions that come with it includes Ultra Steady Video, Portrait Mode, Timelapse , Panoramic view, Beauty Mode, HDR, Face-Recognition, Filter, Night Mode, Bokeh Effect Control, Street Mode.

For video recording using the front camera, you get the default 720P with 30fps but it can support up to 1080P at 30fps. It is a good phone if you’re doing guerilla vlogging or doing live videos streamed over Facebook.

Speaking of videos, the realme 9 Pro+’s dual camera function is so much fun to use. Here’s a sample.

Battery

I love the battery on this smartphone. While it doesn’t come with a 5000mAh battery, it doesn’t feel like you’re missing out on anything. The folks at realme also made sure that usage will only get minimal disturbances with the fast charging feature. Below you’ll see a screenshot of the battery usage…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also have to note that the realme 9 Pro+ also features 60W SuperDart Charge system. It makes charging less of a hassle and more of an enjoyable break.

Gaming

In terms of gaming, the realme 9 Pro+ is pretty great. In the times that I played various games including Genshin Impact (as seen above), I never experienced any heating. And we can thank realme’s Vapor Chamber Cooling System for that. This is basically a super large heatsink area that can cover 100% of the phone’s core heat sources which helps bring down the phone’s temperature down at all times and yes including during a high-performance state.

I even tried to see if the phone would heat up in a demanding game such as Call of Duty Mobile and it.did.not. heat. up.

 

UI and UX

The UI and UX is based on Google Android meaning its easy to swap phones with this smartphone; like notifications and system stuff can be accessed by swiping down from the main screen…

 

and the phone also offers the option to put certain apps into personalized folders.

Performance

For this realme 9 Pro+ review we did a number of benchmarking on the phone. Here are the scores:

Geekbench: 802/ Single-Core Score

2262 / Multi-Core Score

PCMark: 

Work 3.0 performance score – 10797

Honestly the 9 Pro+ feels and operates like a high level, high-priced smartphone. In terms of computing power and processing speeds, its definitely a monster thanks to the processor they plugged in here namely the MediaTek Dimensity 920. This 5G processor gets a significant increase for the main core frequency to hits 2.5 GHz. The GPU is still the same with the Mali-G68 MC4 which helps in improving gaming performance by around 9%.

The Dimensity chip also helps improve photography using the phone as it gives around 35% in details per photos compared to the previous version.

Verdict

I’m really impressed with the output and performance of the realme 9 Pro+. For something priced under P25,000 it acts, looks and feels like a flagship phone. realme definitely has outdid itself with the release of this smartphone. And that’s discounting the fact that their flagship phones are nearly on par with their mid-rangers. No wonder realme has been cashing cheques and taking names this year and the last.

If you want a phone that takes great photos, has a high battery life, rarely heats up, plays good game with barely any lag then the realme 9 Pro+ is definitely worth picking up!

Follow me on Twitter at @thefanboyseo for more geek news and updates!