Realme X50 Pro review: The overall performance of the Realme X50 Pro is great. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
Until last year Realme was mostly known for its value-for-money phones in the country. Now the smartphone brand has made its way to the premium segment. According to the latest report from Counterpoint Research, Realme is now among the top premium smartphone brands in India all thanks to the Realme X2 Pro that launched last year.
Currently the brand occupies around 2 per cent market share in the Indian premium segment. The company wants to grow its presence in the premium segment even further and it aims to do so with the latest Realme X50 Pro.
Realme X50 Pro price in India: Starts at Rs 37,999
Realme X50 Pro specifications: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 | 5G support | 4200mAh battery | 65W SuperDart fast charging support | 64MP Samsung sensor | 8MP ultra-wide lens | 12MP telephoto lens | 2MP depth sensor | 32MP main selfie camera | 8MP second camera | Realme UI based on Android 10 | Dual punch hole | 6.44-inch Super AMOLED display.
One of the key highlights of the Realme X50 Pro is its processing power. The phone uses Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor Snapdragon 865 that brings together 5G capabilities. The Realme X50 Pro is the country’s first 5G smartphone but does it really matter?
Well, in my opinion, it doesn’t matter right now whether a phone comes with 5G support or not given the spectrum itself isn’t ready in India. Possibly two years down the line it will make sense. But definitely not now.
Realme X50 Pro review: The Realme X50 Pro also offers great battery life. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
The overall performance of the Realme X50 Pro is great. The phone manages to run graphic-heavy games like PUBG and Asphalt 9 very smoothly. I played PUBG at high-graphics settings for close to an hour at a stretch and didn’t notice frame drops at any point. It also handles multitasking very well. Despite having numerous apps running in the background the phone never slowed down.
The Realme X50 Pro also offers great battery life. For me it easily lasted one and a half days in a single charger. I also liked how quickly the 65W Super Dart charger in the box charges the phone. I love OnePlus’ DashCharger, but Realme’s 65W Super Dart charger impressed me a lot. It takes just around 30 minutes to fully charge the phone.
Realme X50 Pro review: The 64MP photo will show better clarity and details. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
I used the phone to capture pictures in good daylight as well as at night. The pictures shot with the main photo mode and 64MP camera mode won’t show much difference until you decide to print them and compare side by side. The 64MP photo will of course show better clarity and details. I didn’t feel the need to print them though and hence I felt the main camera was great. Pictures clicked with the default photo mode look great with lots of details. The camera also manages to capture colours accurately.
Realme X50 Pro camera sample in daylight. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
Photos clicked with Realme X50 Pro look sharp. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
Pictures clicked with main camera mode show good colours. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
Photos clicked in daylight with the Realme X50 Pro show great details. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
Selfies clicked with the Realme X50 Pro (Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
I also liked the ultra-wide pictures that the phone clicks. Realme UI simplifies the camera app when compared to ColorOS. It makes it very easy to switch between camera modes which is very difficult in ColorOS. For instance, a left swipe on the screen allows switching between photo mode to ultrawide mode. Ultra-wide photos clicked with this Realme phone doesn’t miss out on a lot of details and also gets colours well. However, the ultra wide photos aren’t as detailed as pictures clicked with the main camera.
The 13MP 2X hybrid optical zoom lens of the phone can achieve 5X optical hybrid zoom and 20X hybrid zoom. The zoomed-in pictures surprisingly look clear and show a good amount of details. In the following pictures you can clearly see the difference in detail between a picture captured with main sensor, ultra wide lens and when zoomed in.
Realme X50 Pro camera sample in ultra wide. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
Realme X50 Pro camera sample in main photo mode. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
Realme X50 Pro camera sample in 2X. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
Realme X50 Pro camera sample in 5X. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
One area where I feel the Realme X50 Pro’s camera lags is in low-light. Pictures clicked in low-light scenarios miss out on details, colours and also look dull and hazy. In low-light the camera struggles to focus. The situation remains the same in selfie night mode. The dedicated Night mode resolves the problem slightly but not too much. Phones at this price point such as the OnePlus 7T click much better low-light shots. In fact, the OnePlus 7T is much cheaper in India.
The Realme X50 Pro clicks good selfies in good lighting but not so good ones in low-light. The selfies clicked with the main 32MP camera sensor look sharp and with a good amount of detail. The portrait selfies also look great with sharp edges and background properly blurred out. The ultra-wide selfies, however, miss out on some details but it’s sufficient for clicking group selfies.
Pictures shot with Realme X50 Pro in low-light. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
The low-light pictures clicked with Realme X50 Pro miss on details. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
One area where I feel the Realme X50 Pro fails miserably is the display. Despite using a sAMOLED panel the screen of the Realme phone is barely visible in daylight. In fact, maximizing the brightness hardly helped. I had to keep the brightness level of the screen at maximum all the time. In indoors too I had to keep the screen brightness at around 70 – 80 per cent. It’s difficult to read emails, send messages or watch videos on the phone when out.
Express Tech is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@expresstechie) and stay updated with the latest tech news
I also feel Realme could have played a bit with the design of the phone. Now that the company is charging such a huge amount for the Realme X50 Pro I expected to see a fresh design. This Realme phone looks similar to the Realme X2 expect that frosted glass finish at the back similar to some of the latest OnePlus phones. The dual punch hole camera design on the front though looks pretty neat.
The phone brings all the necessary features like the Type C port, in-display fingerprint and face unlock support. For me both worked pretty fast. I missed the headphone jack though and also wished for an official IP rating. Realme says that it left out headphone jack as the company now sells its wireless Buds Air earbuds in India at Rs 3,999 and is going to bring new ones soon.
Realme X50 Pro comes with dual punch hole design on the front. (Image: Sneha Saha/Indian Express)
Should you buy Realme X50 Pro?
The Realme X50 Pro is a good phone but at the price it doesn’t feel as premium as it should. The phone offers smooth performance and captures great pictures — in daylight. But I wish the low-light camera performance was equally good.
If you watch a lot of videos and movies and play games the Realme X50 Pro may not be an apt option given the screen is barely visible in good light. I also wish with future Realme phones we see a fresh design. The repetition of design is getting boring now. Battery is one area the Realme phone performs well when compared to the competition. In fact it is much better than some of the expensive phones.
Overall, my experience with the Realme X50 Pro is a mix of both good and bad.