Realme X Review: Brings In The ‘X’ Factor

Realme X is finally official in India and it’s the most competitive phone Realme has launched till date. It’s got a full-screen AMOLED display, a  pop-up camera, a powerful Snapdragon 700-series chipset, high-quality UFS 2.1 storage, and a disruptive price. (Realme X हिंदी में पढ़िए)

At the same time, the competition in the online space has intensified manifolds in just the last couple of months. As of today, it’s not just Xiaomi that Realme is up against, but other brands like Vivo and Samsung have caught up and released online exclusives based on the same mantra of offering alluring specs and powerful chipsets at reasonable prices. In fact, Realme’s closest sibling Oppo is also stepping up its online game and will soon launch a similar-specced option very soon.

Can the Realme X hold up against such formidable foes? Well, we are done evaluating the phone and will gradually build up to our verdict in the following Realme X review.

Page Contents:

• Realme X Price in India and Specification
• Realme X Unboxing: Box Contents
• Realme X Review: Design and Build Quality
• Realme X Review: Display
• Realme X Review: Performance and Software
• Realme X Review: Camera
• Realme X Review: Battery and Connectivity
• Realme X Review: Verdict with Pros and Cons

Realme X Price In India and Specifications

Realme X Unboxed

The Realme X India retail unit has different packaging than in China. The X comes in a white box with the phone’s picture along with Realme X branding.

Inside the box, there’s the usual. You’d get:

• The handset
• TPU bumper case
• VOOC 3.0 Charger
• Type-C data cable
• User manual

There are no headphones in the Realme X box.

Realme X Review:  Design and Build Quality

Ahh, no notch. That’s a winner right there in my opinion. Over the years, I have been critical to all sorts of notches, which is why the all-screen Realme X looks particularly appealing. No punch hole, u-shape, or v-shape drama here – just the uninterrupted screen with a hardly-any top bezel. The phone still has a sizeable chin, though.

Realme has embraced all the latest trends including the pop-up camera and in-display biometrics. The use of AMOLED panel allows the company to place the latest-gen Goodix optical scanner underneath the display. It’s active as soon as you lift your phone and works almost every time. The unlocking speed is faster than most Samsung phones including the Galaxy S10 Plus (review). Though it fails to beat the likes of OnePlus 7 Pro (review) or Huawei P30 Pro (review).

As mentioned above, the Realme X has a motorized pop-up mechanism to house the selfie camera, similar to what you’d find on the likes of Vivo V15 Pro (review), and Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro (review). According to Realme, the pop-up mechanism takes 0.7 seconds to elevate and can withstand 2 lakhs pops. It also retracts automatically when the phone detects freefall. With hardly any space on the top, ambient light and proximity sensor finds a spot underneath the touch glass. Unfortunately, notification light didn’t make the cut.

The Realme X is currently offered in Steam White and Punk Blue hues in India. There’s a Spiderman edition as well and Onion and Garlic inspired Master editions that really look and feel wonderful. Of these, the Punk Blue feels the least impressive.

Right at the center of the back panel sits the rear camera module that protrudes slightly. As on all Realme phones, the depth sensor has a golden ring, similar to what you have on the power key. Physical buttons offer decent tactile feedback.

The SIM tray sits on the right edge above the power key and has cutouts for dual SIM cards only. What that means is that the Realme X is the first phone from the maker to ditch the microSD card slot.

Build quality-wise, the Realme X feels firm and there are no flexes. It is predominantly made of polycarbonate but feels sturdier than other Realme phones. Besides, the arched back ensures a comfortable and firm grip. The Gorilla Glass 5 on the front means that the screen resists minor scratches. At 191 grams, it is slightly heavier than the Samsung Galaxy A50 (review) and Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro (review).

Overall, the Realme X design is in line with contemporary industry trends and there is hardly anything to complain about with regards to the build quality, especially when you factor in the price.

Realme X Review: Display

Simply put, this is the best screen Realme has offered on a phone till date. The Realme X houses a large 6.53-inches AMOLED screen with full HD+ resolution with 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The display offers 450nits of peak brightness which proved adequate even when we were under direct sunlight. The OLED screen offers deep blacks and infinite contrast. Realme could have calibrated the display a bit better as whites tend to appear slightly bluish.

If like us, you are also very particular about your whites, you’ll have the option to adjust the color temperature from display settings. We haven’t noticed any touch latency issues with typing or scrolling. The presence of DRM L1 Widewine certification means that the Realme X is HD streaming ready.

Realme has also added DC Dimming which Color OS lists as “Low-Brightness Flicker-Free Eye Care” under display settings. There is also an always-on display that has been termed as “Off-Screen Clock”.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy M40 Review

Realme X Review: Performance and Software

Realme is using the same chipset as it did on the Realme 3 Pro a couple of months ago. The X is driven by Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 710 chipset with custom Kryo cores clocked up to 2.2GHz. Our review unit came with 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 storage. The makers were vocal about the Gaming capabilities of the Realme X and with good reason.

While using the Realme X as my daily driver, the phone felt perfectly smooth. It consistently delivered, even under heavy loads. And yes, it’s a great phone for gaming. The Adreno 616 GPU with Game Boost 2.0 enhancements manages to run graphic-intensive games like PUBG and Asphalt 9 at high graphics without difficulties.

On Gamebench, we were able to get around 30fps on PUGB mobile at higher settings. Having said that, the Snapdragon 710 SoC is no longer the best performing chipset in this segment, not since the launch of Vivo Z1 Pro (Snapdragon 712) and Xiaomi Redmi K20 (Snapdragon 730).

Coming to the software, Realme X comes running on the latest iteration of ColorOS 6 based on Android Pie. Realme has made attempts to polish its software with modern colors and iconography. There are numerous option to customize the overall look and feel. For instance, users may download colorful themes and wallpapers or use Swipe gestures instead of classic on-screen keys. It comes with several optimizations and features like power-saving modes, clone apps, call recording, bike modes and many more.

Still, Color OS 6 is far from perfect. Even in 2019 it takes a lot of inspiration from iOS but lacks that fluidity. What concerns me with the Realme X is the amount of pre-installed bloatware. Some of these third-party apps like NewsPoint, App Market, Sharechat continuously spam you till you give up and uninstall them.

ALSO READ: Realme X FAQ – All Questions Answered

Realme X Review: Camera

The camera on the Realme X is another major upgrade from the Realme 3 Pro. On the rear, there’s a dual setup including the popular 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor (f/1.7 aperture) teamed with 5-megapixels (f/2.4 aperture) depth sensor.

As for selfies, there’s a pop-up 16MP Sony IMX 471 sensor with f.2.0 aperture. Realme claims that if you take 50 selfies a day, the pop-up assembly would hold good for another 10 years. One thing that we noticed in the Realme X pop-up camera is that though it elevates quickly, it takes a little extra time to retract, especially when you are switching between the cameras.

The camera app has a simple layout and is easy to navigate. It has AI scene recognition, Advanced HDR in Chroma Boost mode, NightScape, time-lapse and more. The Realme X is Camera 2 API enabled which means you will be able to use ported Google camera app if and when some developer gets generous enough to share.

Shots that we clicked in daylight tuned out well. The landscapes had a good amount of details and colors even when chrome boost is turned on. The color tones are slightly warmer than usual. There is slight noise around image corners but that isn’t a bother.

There is no telephoto lens so the 2X toggle is for digital zoom. The depth sensor manages to efficiently map depth, resulting in decent portrait shots.

In not so favorable lighting conditions, the Realme X losses out on sharpness, which is understandable. Still, the aggressive noise reduction algorithm ensures low light shots are clean.

For better details, it’s better switching to ‘Nightscape mode’. Just like the Realme 3 Pro, it takes a few seconds to click a shot depending on the lighting. Nightscape shots are often brighter and crisper than regular low light shots.

Anyone who is into selfies will enjoy clicking on Realme X. By default, it has AI-beautification turned on and in our opinion, it’s more of a nuisance that gets in the way. Portrait mode for selfies has also seen some improvements as the bokeh is now more natural.

ALSO READ: Vivo Z1 Pro FAQ with Pros and Cons

Realme X Review: Battery and Connectivity

The Realme X is backed by a 3,765mAh battery which is slightly lower than what we had on the Realme 3 Pro. Nonetheless, the difference in screen on time is marginal. In our battery loop test, the Realme X lasted for a good 14 hour and 13 mins. This is possible because of aggressive OS level battery optimization. The bundled 20W VOOC 3.0 charger manages to refill battery from 0 to 90 percent in an hour.

As for connectivity, I faced no call quality issues in my locality. It supports dual-band Wi-Fi and comes with 2×2 MIMO to deliver reliable wireless connection without signal drops. The phone supports 4G dual SIM dual VoLTE. Realme has also implemented ‘Dual Channel Acceleration system’ that uses both Wi-Fi and cellular data to augment download speeds.

Realme X Review Verdict: Should You Buy It?

Should you buy the Realme X? Well, it ticks most of the boxes to earn a recommendation. It looks beautiful especially the Steam White variant. The Master Editions look even more ravishing. Naoto Fukaswa designed master editions are inspired from Onion and Garlic and don’t cost an extra dime.

If you want a phone with excellent aesthetics, appealing display, reliable performance, and lasting battery Realme X will fit the bill perfectly. On the downside, the Color OS is still a liability.