Realme has been bringing in one after the other swashbuckling mid-rangers, and even before we can fully gather what hit us, another one is already round the block. Surely not the one to hold Osborn effect in high regards, Realme first announced the XT from the 5 Pro stage and now that we have the XT in full glory, there’s the question of impending Realme XT 730. (Realme XT Review हिंदी में पढ़िए)
Anyways, with an aggressive starting price of Rs. 15,999, the Realme XT has a lot to look forward to including the first 64MP camera that we have come across, an AMOLED display, Snapdragon 700-series chipset, VOOC fast charging and a 3D Glass design. We have been running the phone through its paces to judge how much of an impact the 64MP camera would make and if this is a phone that we can recommend. Let’s answer these questions and more in our Realme XT review!
Page Content:
- Realme XT Price and Specification
- Realme XT Review: Box Content
- Realme XT Review: Design and Build
- Realme XT Review: Display
- Realme XT Review: Biometric Unlock
- Realme XT Review: Performance and Software
- Realme XT Review: Camera
- Realme XT Review: Battery and Audio
- Realme XT Review: Verdict with Pros and Cons
Realme XT Price and Specifications
| Model | Realme XT |
| Display | 6.4-inch Full HD+ (1080x2340p) AMOLED screen, Waterdrop notch, Gorilla Glass 5 |
| Processor | 10nm octa-core 2.3GHz, Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 AIE |
| RAM | 4/6/8GB LPDDR4x |
| Internal Storage | 64/128GB UFS 2.1 |
| Software | ColorOS 6 (Android Pie 9) |
| Back Camera | 64MP + 8MP ultrawide + 2MP macro + 2MP depth sensor |
| Front Camera | 16MP |
| Battery | 4000mAh, 20W VOOC 3.0 charger |
| Indian Price | 4GB RAM + 64GB:Rs.15,999 6GB RAM + 64GB: Rs.16,999 8GB RAM + 128GB: Rs. 18,999 |
Realme XT Review: Box Content
The Realme XT box contents include:
- Handset
- 20W VOOC fast charger
- USB Type-C Cable
- SIM ejector tool
- Protective Case
- pre-installed screen protector
- Documentation
Realme XT Review: Design and Build
The Realme XT exudes those premium vibes. This time Realme uses rear glass on the back, and considering how zealously Xiaomi is marketing the polycarbonate glass-finish as inferior, the use of real glass is likely to make the buyers feel better about their XT.
The pearl white finish that we have is classy and looks awesome. The phone isn’t ultra-slim but it is reasonably light. The rear glass tapers towards edges (or 3D glass), facilitating a comfortable grip.
The ’64MP quad-camera’ system on the top right corner bulges out quite a bit. The hump is evened by the bundled case, but that required the case cover to be thicker and that kind of robs the phone of its premium feel. Realme also retails custom Realme XT cases which should hopefully feel better, and they cost just 399 bucks.
The side rail is still plastic but you can easily pass it off as metal. There’s a USB Type-C port at the bottom symmetrically aligned with the speaker grill and audio jack. The power button and volume buttons are easily accessible and respond with decent tactile feedback. On the front, there’s mostly displays, and the chin at the bottom is quite slim.
If you are not put-off with the notch (and it’s not a big deal, really), chances are that you’d be happy with the way Realme XT looks and feels.
Realme XT Review: Display
The Realme XT has a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with a waterdrop notch. The display offers punchy colors (a bit oversaturated) and the white balance leans towards cold blue tones. The display is comfortably legible outdoors, but you may have to strain your eyes to see the screen under direct sunlight.
There are no color adjustment options under display settings, but you may adjust color temperature and switch to warmer tones. The oversaturated colors probably work for videos and users not finicky about color accuracy will find them pleasant. They did bother us, though.
Realme XT further has Always-on mode and DC Dimming. The options aren’t turned on by default and are listed as Off-screen Clock, and ‘Low brightness flicker-free eye care’ respectively. There is an OSIE Vision effect feature as well, but it works in select apps and we are not quite sure what apps support OSIE Vision effect, and so couldn’t make head or tail of it.
Realme XT Review: Biometric Unlock
The in-display fingerprint sensor on the Realme XT works flawlessly. It’s fast and super consistent. The phone also has some slick unlock animations to choose from.
The Face Unlock, too, is extremely snappy. Users also have the option to combine the Face Unlock Fingerprint sensor. This way your phone will unlock with whatever works faster at any given time.
Realme XT Review: Performance and Software
Powered by the Snapdragon 712, the Realme XT is a solid performer. The experience is similar to the recently launched Realme 5 Pro that had the same chipset and software. This is a good phone for gamers, particularly PUBG players. Day-to-day usage and multitasking are great too.
The Snapdragon 712 shows 10% performance improvement over Snapdragon 710, and lies one rung below Snapdragon 730G that will adorn the upcoming Realme XT 730G.
The SD 712 is duly assisted by high-quality LPDDR4X RAM (up to 8GB) and fast UFS 2.1 storage ( up to 128GB) and there is also a dedicated card slot.
The XT is currently running Color OS software, but chances are that Realme OS will replace it soon. The ColorOS is a feature-rich skin and will perhaps work for people who are not really particular about their OS needs.
We often make it a point to ask people (or people who aren’t as tech-savvy) using Oppo or Realme phones about how they feel about the software. Surprisingly, we are yet to hear anyone complain. These are people who probably can’t tell that the software running on the phone is Color OS.
We, however, don’t find the interface design agreeable, no matter how hard we try. Besides, since the Realme has been working to replace it, the company has never made an attempt to defend the software, resulting in more bad press.
On a positive note, the Realme XT does have DRM L1 certificate and supports HD streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Realme XT Review: Camera
The star feature of the Realme XT is its camera. After all, there has been a lot of hullabaloo over the Samsung GW1 sensor. Both Realme and Xiaomi have gone great lengths just to be the first to get there. And darn those megapixels, all that hype makes you want to know whether all this tussle was worth it.
The thing is the 64MP sensor relies on the same technology as the 48MP sensor. There are four tiny pixels crammed under one regular Red, Green, or Blue pixel of Bayer’s filter, and output from these is combined to reproduce a high-quality 16MP resolution image.
The imaging improvements we saw on the 48MP camera phones were because:
a) The software could theoretically split sensor in two and shoot at two different exposures resulting in a better dynamic range.
b) With 4 pixels gathering one color info, the impact of noise could be reduced.
c) The effective large size of the sensor helped too.
But moving from 48MP to 64MP, all we get is a bit higher resolution. So, if you keep the marketing aside, the gains here are only incremental compared to the 48MP sensor. But Yes, there are some gains.
The Realme XT can capture a great amount of detail in proper lighting. The colors, however, turn out a bit oversaturated.
The XT can lock focus on close objects without much trouble. The phone also has a dedicated 2MP macro camera if you wish to get even closer.
The 16MP resolution shots turned out best, but there is also an option to shoot 64MP full resolution images. Since Snapdragon 712 doesn’t support such high resolution, the XT is most likely capturing 16MP feed and upscaling it.
The portrait mode is a hit and miss, but it’s still reasonably good.
In low light and indoor lighting, the 64MP camera performance is pretty basic. Once again, the camera struggles with proper metering in tricky situations and tends to oversaturate colors.
The nightscape mode comes in handy, and we found ourselves using it a lot. The Nightscape mode is, in fact, quite good.
The 16MP front camera should impress people who are into clicking selfies. The camera does struggle with getting the exposure right at times.
The overall camera performance is very reasonable for the price, but if you had been pinning your hopes on the 64MP camera to revolutionize mid-range photography, you’d be disappointed.
Realme XT Review: Battery and Audio
The Realme XT houses a 4000mAh battery and the battery mileage we are getting is excellent. The VOOC fast charging further adds to the convenience. It takes a little less than 1.5 hours to fully charge the battery. According to realme, the phone charges by 43 percent in one hour while playing PUBG.
The audio quality via loudspeaker is reasonably good, but not very loud. Audio output via headphones is great for the price.
Realme XT Review: Should you buy it?
The Realme XT isn’t perfect, but given the price, its flaws are quite forgivable. The design is premium, there’s a punchy AMOLED display on offer, the phone is solid performer, and the camera is pretty good for the price. Indeed, going into this review we didn’t know the price and expected it to cost a lot more. The software is shoddy, but Realme is actively working on replacing it with hopefully a better experience. So, there isn’t much to complain about.
And should you wait for the Realme XT 730G? If gaming is your top priority, then perhaps Yes. Otherwise, the experience should be similar and siding with the SD 712 will save you some money.
Pros
- Elegant design
- Fast in-display fingerprint
- USB Type-C port and fast charging
- Dedicated card slot
- HD Streaming supported
Cons
- Software needs improvement
- No Display color adjustment profiles
Realme XT Review: Quick Bytes
The experience offered by the three phones is very similar. The Realme XT gives you bragging rights for 64MP camera and has a real-glass body. The Realme X is the best looking of the three (especially the onion and garlic editions), and with Realme 5 Pro you can essentially get a very similar experience by spending the least amount of money.
Not much. We did notice some improvements in lowlight photography, but don’t expect a massive difference in terms of image quality. This is because the underlying technology remains the same and in switching from 48MP to 64MP sensors, the major change is only the higher resolution.
The Realme XT 730G will arrive in India in December, so you will be waiting a while and will miss out on Diwali festival sales. The Realme XT 730G will offer upgraded chipset, faster charging, and 32MP selfie camera. We’d say unless you just need to have the best possible gaming hardware, you might as well go for the regular XT.
Nope.
Yes, it can broadcast signals in both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequencies.
Which is better among realme xt and Samsung m31 in low light camera