Realme 11 Pro 5G Review: Powerful in Performance, High in Style

Realme 11 Pro 5G Review Summary:

Editor’s rating: 3.8/5

Realme has once again captivated the market with its highly anticipated ‘Pro Number’ series for 2023. Following its recent launch in China, the Realme 11 Pro Series has now been officially introduced in India. The series comprises two smartphones: the Realme 11 Pro 5G and the Realme 11 Pro Plus 5G. The grand unveiling took place at a prestigious event held in Delhi just yesterday. Notably, Realme has chosen the iconic Shah Rukh Khan as the brand ambassador, making the Realme 11 Pro Series the first product associated with his endorsement.

Similar to the Realme 11 Pro Plus, the Realme 11 Pro 5G also claims to offer a cutting-edge 100MP OIS camera along with a powerful Dimensity 7050 chipset, rapid 67W charging capabilities, and a sleek vegan leather design. With this review, we will thoroughly examine whether the Realme 11 Pro also provides excellent value for money, just like its premium sibling.

Realme 11 Pro 5G Review: Design

Realme has consistently pushed the boundaries of smartphone design, always striving to offer something unique and refreshing. In their latest endeavor, the brand has collaborated with Matteo Menotto, a former GUCCI designer, to infuse the Realme 11 Pro Series with a distinct design language. And it appears that Realme has succeeded in their quest. The Realme 11 Pro 5G comes in three captivating shades: Sunrise Beige, Oasis Green, and Astral Black. I had the opportunity to experience the Sunrise Beige variant, and I must say it stands out from any smartphone I have encountered thus far.

The back panel of the Realme 11 Pro has a remarkable design and texture that resembles a stylish jacket, complete with a zipper running through the middle. The back panel has a fabric-like feel and features the golden Realme branding at the bottom. Realme aptly calls it a vegan leather design, a name that aptly suits its unique aesthetic.

A dark golden zipper-like design runs along the middle of the back panel, while the top section boasts a prominent circular camera module housing two lenses and an LED flash. The primary sensor takes center stage within the module, with the macro lens positioned to its right side. Above the main sensor sits the LED flash, accompanied by the text “100MP OIS Camera.” Though the module slightly protrudes, it does not pose any inconvenience when the device is placed on a flat surface. When held in hand, the Realme 11 Pro exudes a sense of sophistication and effortlessly captures attention from afar.

Despite its stylish appearance, the Realme 11 Pro remains lightweight and slim, ensuring a comfortable grip and convenient one-handed operation. The right edge of the smartphone accommodates the volume rockers and power button, while the left edge remains vacant. On the bottom, you’ll find the SIM tray, speaker grille, and USB Type-C port, while the top houses a microphone and a secondary speaker. Notably, the absence of a 3.5mm audio jack means that wired headphones cannot be used with this device.

On the front, a stunning 6.7-inch curved display greets you, adorned with slim bezels and a discreetly positioned selfie camera at the top. The bronze-colored aluminum frame elegantly complements the overall aesthetics of the smartphone. All in all, the Realme 11 Pro 5G is a device that allows you to make a sophisticated and trendy style statement, effortlessly blending elegance with modern design elements.

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Realme 11 Pro 5G Review: Display

The Realme 11 Pro 5G boasts a stunning 6.7-inch curved OLED display, capable of producing an impressive palette of 1.07 billion colors. The visuals rendered by this display are contrasty and lifelike. The accuracy of the colors is commendable, and the viewing angles are also satisfying.

One of the standout features of the Realme 11 Pro’s display is its 120Hz refresh rate, ensuring buttery smooth scrolling while reading articles, browsing through social media feeds, or indulging in gaming sessions. The 360Hz touch sampling rate further enhances the responsiveness, allowing the device to register your finger’s touch in a fraction of a second. Additionally, the HDR10+ support adds an extra layer of immersion to the content consumption experience. However, you will not be able to watch Dolby Vision content as it lacks the necessary certification.

In full-screen mode, the Realme 11 Pro’s display engulfs you in a captivating visual experience, as the slim bezels create a larger canvas for the visuals to shine. The dynamic range is commendable, offering a satisfying balance between light and dark elements on the screen. While the display supports a peak brightness of 950 nits, it falls slightly short when it comes to visibility under direct sunlight. Unfortunately, the sunlight screen mode does not provide significant improvement in this regard. However, apart from this minor setback in outdoor brightness levels, the Realme 11 Pro’s display leaves little room for complaint, delivering an exceptional visual performance overall.

The display produces large-sized visuals when in full-screen mode as the bezels are hardly noticeable and the dynamic range is good as well. The display supports 950 nits peak brightness but still, the display is not clearly visible under sunlight. The sunlight screen mode is also of no use. Apart from slightly underwhelming brightness levels outdoors, there is nothing to complain about in terms of display.

Realme 11 Pro 5G Review: Camera

The Realme 11 Pro 5G has a huge circular camera module at the back that includes dual camera sensors and an LED flash. There is a 100MP main and a 2MP portrait lens while at the front is a 16MP front camera. Since we have already talked about the camera module’s design earlier, let us now talk about the main thing- The Performance of the cameras.

The main 100MP ProLight sensor comes with Optical Image Stabilization and the effect can be seen in the shots that are clicked. The sensor clicks beautiful shots in daylight or rather good light outdoors. These shots of the setting sun came out to be picturesque and left an impact. The shots display lifelike colors and are full of details as well.

However, when you move to lowlight indoor settings, the shots do lose some of their details. Although the images are clear and rich in colors, zooming in detailing seems lesser, which is quite natural.

Let’s talk about the 2MP macro lens now. The macro lens clicks just about ok images in good lighting conditions. These images are just about usable on your social media, but those who need accurate close-up shots will not be satisfied. The autofocus isn’t there and the edges of macro shots seem distorted at times. The 2MP sensor could have been made better.

The Camera setup comes with super nightscape, street photography 4.0, supergroup portrait, one take, and more features as well to make photography fun.

At the front is a 16MP selfie camera. The selfie camera performs quite well as it takes decent selfies both indoors and outdoors. While the selfies in natural light obviously are more detailed and dynamic, the indoor selfies are also ok. The focus is kept on the subject in the frame while the background is blurred out and the skin tones look pretty natural as well.

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Realme 11 Pro 5G Review: Performance

The Realme 11 Pro 5G is powered by the rebranded MediaTek Dimensity 7050 5G chipset based on a 6nm manufacturing process. The chipset is fast and efficient and this is visible when you use the device in real time. Opening and loading of apps is quick and no matter how many apps are running in the background, the device doesn’t slow down or show any lags. At one point, I had 10+ apps running in the background, and the smartphone was still smooth. These included games, editing apps, social media apps, and more. My unit had 12GB RAM and 256GB storage which meant even faster switching between apps and ample space for storing whatever I wanted to on the device. Gaming performance is also decent as games like Call of Duty Mobile could be played with HD graphics and high frame rates for long durations. Here are the results of some benchmark tests performed on this one.

Let’s talk about the software now. Realme 11 Pro runs Android 13-based Realme UI 4.0 which brings even more options for customization and personalization of the device. The icons look trendier, the font feels more comfortable to the eyes, and smart features like adaptive sleep, notification hiding and Omoji 2.0 for having fun. The biggest problem with the UI is bloatware. The Realme 11 Pro 5G comes with a ton of pre-downloaded apps like Moj, Dailyhunt, Josh, Snapchat, Phonepe, Agoda, Spotify, Linkedin, Paytm, and more. I had to uninstall those apps which were not needed and that just seems unnecessary. It is high time smartphone brands should start avoiding bloatware and allowing the user to choose which apps he/she really needs on the device. Taking a cue from Lava or Motorola will surely help the case.

Calling quality is decent as the antenna matrix 2.0 increases signal strength even when I was in an underground parking lot. The voices were clear on both ends and there was no hanging up due to low/weak signals. The Realme 11 Pro comes with Dolby Atmos stereo speakers and though they are loud and audible in a crowded room, the quality of the audio when watching content is not at par with the video quality. The audio lacks character, especially at higher volumes. This small niggle could have been avoided to make the overall content-watching experience even smoother.

One more area that suffers a little bit is thermal performance. Though there were no lags or stutters during long gaming sessions, but the device starts heating up after 15 minutes of intensive gaming. The area around the camera module heats up more than the rest of the back and sometimes that proved to be uncomfortable as the device has to be held in hand while gaming.

Connectivity options include dual SIM support, 5G, 4G, Bluetooth, WiFi, and more.

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Realme 11 Pro 5G Review: Battery

The Realme 11 Pro 5G packs a 5000mAh battery under the hood. The battery easily lasts throughout the day if you have moderate usage. My usage included reading articles, browsing social media, listening to music, watching videos on YouTube & Netflix, calling, messaging, and playing some light arcade games to unwind. With all this, the battery easily lasted throughout the day as at night my device still had about 15% remaining. However, if you are an avid gamer or someone who is into video editing, then you might need to charge it before the day ends.

The adapter bundled inside the box provides 67W SuperVOOC charging support that charged the device from 0 to 50% in about 20 minutes. It took just under 50 minutes to charge to 100%. The fast-charging speed is pretty decent if you have to leave for somewhere or have scheduled a task to be done on your device, the 67W adapter gets you prepped up in just 20 minutes.

Realme 11 Pro 5G Review Verdict: Should you buy it?

The Realme 11 Pro 5G is an impressive smartphone that offers a captivating leather design, a speedy Dimensity chipset, generous 256GB storage, a high-resolution 100MP camera, and blazing-fast 67W charging for its sizable 5000mAh battery. What makes it even more enticing is its affordable price tag, coming in at under 28k. While it may lack a 3.5mm headphone jack and exhibits underwhelming thermal performance and brightness levels, as well as some bloatware, these minor drawbacks can be overlooked considering the overall package. Moreover, the assurance of quality that comes with a Realme device adds further value. Whether you’re looking to upgrade your primary device or purchase your first-ever smartphone, the Realme 11 Pro 5G stands as a smart and budget-friendly choice, combining style, power, and affordability.