Review: Realme X50 Pro can it kick all other phones out of the way?

The Realme X50 Pro 5G, which has taken the mantle of the former OPPO sub-brands signature product. There are a number of things that instantly stand out for this device. It’s the first 5G phone I’ve tested, and the first with the Snapdragon 865 SoC. Apart from this it also has a 90Hz FHD+ display, dual selfie cameras, 65W SuperDart charging, UFS 3.1 storage and a 64MP quad-camera layout. The phone boasts top-tier specs in every department.

Design and Display

It’s easy to confuse different Realme phones with each other when you look at them from the back. This is because, over the past six months or more, the company has been throwing the vertical quad-camera setup and a dual-tone colour shifting gradient on almost all its phones. The pattern differs between a few models, but unless you have a sharp eye, nearly all of Realme’s latest offerings look the same. I did like the matte finish that Realme has implemented this time around though, quite similar to the one seen on the OnePlus 7T. Moss Green is the variant that we received for review but it was the Rust Red version that caught my attention the most. However, there is something new on the front of the phone in the form of a dual punch-hole camera, a first for the company.

Other design features on the phone include a dual-speaker setup with the earpiece doubling up as a secondary unit while the primary sound is driven by the bottom-firing speaker. The power button has a golden accent to it as well.

The display has been a strong suit for Realme over the past year with the company more-or-less only trailing comparable Samsung phones in terms of viewing experience and display quality. More recently though, Realme has adopted the high-refresh-rate philosophy that was brought to mainstream audiences by OnePlus. The 6.44-inch Super AMOLED panel on the X50 Pro is quite colour accurate and bright for reading under sunny conditions. There are a couple of colour modes to choose from, such as Vivid and Gentle, wherein the former will amp up the colour saturation while the latter will give more natural hues. Apart from this, the phone also has a system-wide dark mode option, an eye-care option and the ability to select the colour temperature of the display. As mentioned earlier, the Realme X50 Pro also has a high refresh rate display at 90Hz. There is also the ability to adjust the refresh rate automatically between 60 and 90Hz for conserving your battery.

The Realme X50 Pro also has an extremely buttery smooth browsing and navigation experience. Animations were fluid and so was the gaming experience. I can definitely see almost all future phones in this category making use of high refresh rate displays.

Specification

Body: Gorilla Glass 5 front and back, aluminium frame
Screen: 6.44-inch AMOLED, 20:9, 1080p+, HDR10+, 90Hz refresh rate
Rear camera:
- Primary 64MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 Quad Bayer 1/1.72″ sensor, 0.8µm, f/1.8 lens
- 119° ultrawide-angle 8MP camera with f/2.3 lens
- 12MP telephoto camera with f/2.5 lens, PDAF, 2x optical and 5x hybrid zoom
- 2MP depth sensor
Front camera:
- Primary 32MP Quad Bayer 1/2.8″ sensor, 0.8µm, f/2.5 lens
- 105° ultrawide-angle 8MP camera with f/2.2 lens
Chipset: Snapdragon 865 5G: octa-core CPU (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 585 Gold & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 585 Gold & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 585 Silver), Adreno 650 GPU
Memory: 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM, 128/256GB UFS 3.0 storage.
OS: Android 10.0; Realme UI 1.0
Battery: 4,200mAh, 65W SuperDart charge (incl. in the box)
Connectivity: 5G, Dual SIM, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ax/ax, dual GPS, USB-C
Colours: Rust Red, Moss Green
Misc: Under-display optical fingerprint reader, stereo speakers
IP Rating – None

Cameras

The Realme X50 Pro has six cameras to its name, with a quad-camera array being present on the phone’s rear while dual cameras are housed in the punch-hole display in the front.

Realme X50 Pro’s primary lens has a 64MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 sensor with f/1.8 aperture, the Snapdragon 865 packs in the Spectra 480 image signal processor which gives a significant boost to the phone’s image taking prowess. Extremely crisp details, good dynamic range and perfect exposure handling were quite common when the primary sensor was drowned in sunlight. Detailing and focus were rarely ever an issue on the phone during the day. An additional AI Colour mode, previously known as Chroma Boost, pumps up the saturation which could look good for someone posting photos on social media.

Samples

Apart from that the phone also has a 12MP telephoto camera that can take 2X optical zoom photos and also boost it up to 5X hybrid zoom and 20X digital zoom. Then there is also an 8MP ultra-wide lens which doubles up as the macro sensor as well. Both the lenses take exceptionally good photos but details sometimes appear to have been smoothened out via overprocessing. The depth sensor has a 2MP resolution and is mostly just used for depth detection for portrait mode shots, which it does pretty well.

The dual-selfie cameras work well and the primary lens is a 32MP sensor with f/2.5 and a fixed focus. Details are generally good with AI separation for bokeh photos up to the mark. The secondary camera is an 8MP ultra-wide sensor with a 105-degree field of view and can fit a lot more in the frame than the regular selfie shooter.

Performance and software

With the Snapdragon 865 housed inside, my expectations of the phone were quite high and I was not disappointed in the slightest. Benchmarks are not exactly a true testament to the performance prowess of the device, but if AnTuTu is anything to go by, then seeing a score of 587115 really opened my eyes.

There was really no stuttering or lag or even remotely a sign of slow processing from the device. Apps opened at blazing fast speeds and remained that way in the background thanks to the 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. UFS 3.1 storage aided in faster boot times of heavy apps such as PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile, and of course Fortnite.

The Realme X50 Pro 5G also comes with a five-dimensional cooling system which comprises a vapour chamber and multiple layers of solid graphite.

The face recognition capabilities of the phone are super fast as well, with the device unlocking in the blink of an eye.

Realme UI is being shipped on to the Realme X50 Pro 5G which is a modified version of the Android 10-based ColorOS 7.0. This is the very first phone I’ve used with this UI and I’ve to say that Realme has done a good job indeed to make the experience simplistic yet intuitive. It would appear that Realme UI takes some inspiration from stock Android and employs a barebones home screen with an integrated app drawer that makes it easy to navigate through the various apps on board. The notifications and toggle area are similar to what we saw in ColorOS having big icons and easy one-hand reachability. Apart from this the Settings menu on the device is organised enough for me to find what I’m looking for fairly quickly. There are several customisation options available that help you map out various screen gestures, themes, icon styles, and more. As with other ColorOS devices, the X50 Pro also has a Smart Sidebar on the edge which can be modified to include shortcuts to apps you use frequently.

The only gripe I’ve with the UI is that there are still multiple apps for Music, Movies, Gallery also a File Manager, and even a Phone Manager app that can’t be uninstalled.

Battery

The Realme X50 comes with a 4,200mAh battery which can be considered just above average in this day and age. Our standard battery test, involving playing a video on repeat at medium brightness and volume, revealed that the phone lasted about 21 hours. Real-world usage saw the X50 Pro make it to the end of the day with about 10-15 per cent battery left. During this time I had a screen-on time of 5/6 hours of on-screen time. I assume that the battery life will take a slight hit when using 5G but I’m unable to test that because of the lockdown at the moment in time. As for my usage, it generally consists of my social media browsing, watching a lot of YouTube and Netflix content, and about 1.5 hours of Call of Duty Mobile etc.

Verdict

The Realme X50 Pro 5G excels in almost all areas of mobile usage and for its price, there is no better or future-proof device. While some devices cut corners on aspects like design and display, the Realme X50 Pro is a wholesome device that is striving to provide the best of everything while keeping the price competitive. At long last, the flagship killer mantle will have a new phone placed that is not an OnePlus.

Review: Realme X50 Pro can it kick all other phones out of the way? 14 — SuperDart 65W Charging

Realme is also flexing its charging speeds on the X50 Pro with its 65W SuperDart feature. While this is extremely quick, I can only imagine the toll of supplying so much power in such a short time takes on the battery. I guess this is something we shall find out in due time given the onset of these extremely fast charging speeds. You can get the phone to full capacity in about 35 minutes, or to 60 per cent charge in 20 minutes.

I’m genuinely left me impressed that Realme has accomplished so much at such an attractive price point. The display is top-notch with the 90Hz refresh rate working flawlessly. It has the highest charging speed of any smartphone. The software is snappy and bloatware-free. Really the only complaint I have is the abysmal Night Mode on the device which again I believe can be fixed via future software updates.

The pricing starting at £569 for 8GB+128Gb and £699 for 12Gb+256GB available from Realme and Amazon UK from the 13th May 2020.