Realme 5 Pro Review: Camera Speedster On A Budget?

Realme 5 Pro Review: Camera Speedster On A Budget?

We review Realme’s latest budget mid-range speedster!

The Realme 3 Pro was a great phone for budget-minded individuals looking to get the most bang for their buck. Its powerful internals and solid camera made it a fast favorite for budget-conscious buyers when it was first released. Fast forward to today, Realme has unveiled its successor that promises even better performance for roughly the same amount of money. The Realme 5 sports updated internals and more importantly, four cameras on the rear that Realme says will raise anyone’s photography game.

Does the Realme 5 Pro perform as advertised?

Who knew plastic could be this pretty

Realme was one of the few companies that didn’t jump onto the gradient bandwagon this year, instead going for more unique visual tricks like diamond cut backs for their phones.

Available in either Crystal Blue or Crystal Purple, the unique geometric shapes make the phone stand out compared to the offerings of their competitors while being objectively tougher than gradient finishes.

The only downside is that the glossy finish is a definite fingerprint magnet, though that’s easily solved with a transparent jelly case so you can still flaunt that unique back while protecting the phone from smudges and scratches.

Compared to its predecessor, the Realme 5 Pro has more curves, making it easier to handle. While it has the same port and button layout, Realme has finally decided to join the year of our lord 2019, putting a USB Type-C connector on the bottom instead of the antiquated microUSB port we’ve all come to hate.

Great display for media consumption

While the Realme 5 Pro has a display that is a teeny bit smaller than the Realme 3 Pro, its full HD+ IPS panel performs just as well as its predecessor. Viewing angles are great, and it has a decent amount of contrast and saturation. Its full HD+ resolution makes it a joy to use for watching videos and playing games, and you’ll barely notice its waterdrop notch.

On the audio side, the Realme 5 Pro’s lone speaker produces decent sound quality. Just like the Realme 5, we recommend keeping the volume at 80% tops to avoid blowing out the tiny speaker.

Snapdragon 712 more of an incremental upgrade

Speaking of processors, the Realme 5 Pro gets a slight performance bump with its Snapdragon 712 processor. While it has the same 10nm process and same Adreno 616 GPU with the Snapdragon 710, the Snapdragon 712 has a slightly higher clock speed at 2.3Ghz (compared to 2.2Ghz on the Snapdragon 710).

Paired with 8GB RAM, the Realme 5 Pro has a significantly higher AnTuTu score at almost 183k compared to around 153k with the Realme 3 Pro. Overall performance is much better with the updated internals, and it shows. Check out the benchmark scores we got using GameBench:

If you want smooth 60FPS gameplay (or something close to that), MOBA games like Vainglory and Mobile Legends and FPS games like Call of Duty can be played with the Realme 5 Pro at the highest possible settings with close to 100% FPS stability. Mainstream favorites like PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9 can be played at 30FPS (the maximum cap for both games) at close to 100% stability.

If you really, really want to push the Realme 5 Pro’s internals, NBA 2K20 can be played at the highest possible settings with average FPS in the 40s at close to 90% FPS stability.

48-megapixel main camera definitely delivers the goods

The Realme 5 Pro’s standout feature is its 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 main rear camera, accompanied by the same cameras found on the Realme 5: 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, 2-megapixel macro camera, and 2-megapixel portrait camera. The Realme 5 Pro’s main rear camera is so good that you can shoot a photo at 2x digital zoom without any compromise to overall image quality—one of the benefits of pixel binning as we explained in a previous article.

Aside from that, the Realme 5 Pro’s main camera produced well-detailed shots with a good amount of dynamic range and accurate color reproduction regardless of lighting conditions.

While we complained about the usefulness of the Realme 5’s macro camera, it’s a different case with the Realme 5 Pro. Thanks to the Snapdragon 712’s better image signal processor, we got more usable close-up shots with the Realme 5 Pro’s 2-megapixel macro camera.

The Realme 5 Pro’s ultra-wide-angle camera delivered great shots with minimal distortion and decent dynamic range. Like the Realme 5, you can use Nightscape on the Realme 5 Pro’s ultra-wide-angle camera.

On the video side, the Realme 5 Pro can shoot 4K video just like its predecessor, though this time around you have the option to shoot Full HD video at 60FPS.

 

Battery life that can last you throughout the day

While the Realme 5 Pro has a slightly smaller battery at 4035mAh, it is more power-efficient than its predecessor. Running PCMark’s battery benchmark test got us around 13 hours of battery life—that’s around an hour better than what we got with the Realme 3 Pro. Using the Realme 5 Pro as our daily driver, we managed to finish the day with around 30% juice remaining.

Like its predecessor, you get 20w VOOC 3.0 charging with the Realme 5 Pro, though it uses a USB-C this time instead of MicroUSB. You will need to use the supplied charger and cable to quickly juice up the Realme 5 Pro from 0 to 100% in approximately an hour and 15 minutes.

Verdict: A step up from everything we love from its predecessor

Realme really went all out with their new phone. The Realme 5 Pro’s quad-cameras delivers the goods, producing excellent images in challenging situations that other, more expensive phones consistently fail at.

Aside from having great cameras, the Realme 5 Pro is also a solid budget gaming powerhouse thanks to the processor and RAM bump, as well as Realme’s own set of software-related tweaks.

The Realme 5 Pro is priced at Php 11,990 for the 4GB/128GB variant and Php 13,990 for the 8GB/128GB variant. Pre-order starts today until October 11, and each pre-order comes with a Realme 10000mAh power bank.

Realme 5 Pro Specs

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 octa-core processor
  • Adreno 616 GPU
  • 4GB/8GB RAM
  • 6.3-inch Full HD+ LTPS IPS Dewdrop display, Gorilla Glass 5 protection
  • 128GB of expandable storage
  • Quad rear cameras: 48-megapixel f/1.79 Sony IMX 586 main camera; 8-megapixel f/2.25 ultra-wide-angle camera; 2-megapixel f/2.4 macro camera; 2-megapixel f/2.4 portrait camera; with LED flash, Dual Pixel Autofocus, EIS, Chroma Boost, Ultra HD mode, 960FPS slow-motion video, Speed Shot, Nightscape, and 4K video recording
  • 16-megapixel f/2.0 Sony IMX 471 front camera with AI beautification, Smart Groufie
  • Dual SIM
  • 3G, LTE
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
  • Fingerprint scanner, AI Face Unlock, Smart Audio Amplifier, Dust and splash resistant
  • 4035mAh battery with VOOC 3.0 20w fast charging
  • Android 9 Pie with ColorOS 6.1

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