Realme 10 Pro+
MSRP $379.00
“The Realme 10 Pro+ has two-day battery life, great on a regular basis performance, and improved software. But beneath the sparkly back, it lacks that something special to make it a winner.”
Pros
- Two-day battery
- Great general performance
- Stereo speakers
- Lightweight and crowd pleasing design
Cons
- No water resistance
- No wireless charging
- Wide-angle camera disappoints
What phone must you take a look at if you happen to want reliability, long battery life, a suitable camera, and a design that reminds you of the best possible flagships from a couple of years ago?
You switch to Realme, which continues to make good phones at reasonable prices, with the brand new Realme 10 Pro+ being no exception. It has been my principal phone for greater than every week, and while I prefer it, I don’t find it irresistible — and that’s an issue. Here’s a more in-depth take a look at why that’s.
Realme 10 Pro+ design
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The Realme 10 Pro+ you see in our photos is within the Hyperspace finish, which in accordance with the corporate, has a “prism acceleration pattern” and “nebula particles.” This, in language we are able to understand, means the rear panel has a glitter ball effect and can also be quite sparkly. It’s not essentially the most masculine of finishes, nevertheless it really catches your eye and, in the suitable light, looks colourful and fun. It jogs my memory of the amazing work Huawei did to make the P30 Pro stand out prefer it did.
If the Hyperspace finish isn’t for you, then the Realme 10 Pro+ is available in Dark Matter (black) and Nebula Blue, a color-shifting blue that also recalls Huawei’s efforts. These comparisons are compliments, but unlike Huawei’s top phones, Realme has used plastic for the rear panel and never glass. This does help keep the phone lightweight at 173 grams, and the 7.78mm thickness makes the Realme 10 Pro+ slim and manageable. The perimeters are sharply tapered, but using the flexible TPU case included within the box prevents it from becoming uncomfortable to carry.
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Realme doesn’t mention Corning Gorilla Glass, but does say the glass on the front is double-reinforced for strength and that the phone can survive drops from around one meter without cracking. Unfortunately, there’s no mention of water resistance in any respect, so that you’ll should watch out with the Realme 10 Pro+ if you happen to want it to last.
Narrow bezels give the front of the phone a contemporary look, and although the twin camera modules on the back look somewhat small to my eye, they don’t dominate the design, leaving the sparkling Hyperspace finish to do all of the talking. While the sturdiness may not quite meet our expectations, the Realme 10 Pro+ looks excellent.
Realme 10 Pro+ camera
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A 108-megapixel principal camera leads the charge, followed by an 8MP wide-angle camera and a basic macro camera. There’s also a 16MP selfie camera set at the highest center of the screen. This is precisely the identical camera setup on paper because the Realme 9, released in April of this yr, but here it comes with some additional software tweaks to justify calling it recent. Realme says the camera has 9-in-1 pixel binning, improved dynamic range, higher A.I., more speed, and improved algorithms for portrait shots, group shots, and night images.
It’s all concerning the principal camera here, because the wide-angle camera is a disappointment and the macro camera is a waste of time. But even the principal camera has its problems. In great conditions, it performs quite well — with pleasing colours and contrast, a number of detail, and enough pop that you simply can be joyful to share the photo without editing. But other times, it exposes shots badly and amps up colours to the purpose where they not look natural.
The wide-angle camera is worse, and a lot of the photos I’ve taken with it have been muddy, blurry, noisy, and poorly focused. The awful 8MP camera joins the 2MP macro camera as filler on the back of a phone. Night mode shots are wonderful, but there’s plenty of smoothing happening to make them look acceptable, and the 3x zoom shortcut within the camera app results in a digitally zoomed image of questionable quality.
Yes, the Realme 9 Pro+ has three cameras, but you’ll only really need to make use of certainly one of them. And even then, the outcomes will vary.
Using the Realme 10 Pro+ every single day
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The massive 6.7-inch, 2142 x 1080 pixel AMOLED screen has a 120Hz refresh rate, is curved down the edges, has narrow bezels, and uses clever technology that reduces flicker even when the display is dimmed down. With a maximum of 800 nits, it’s not especially shiny, and even though it has been wonderful in the course of the gloomy early winter days here within the U.K., I’m unsure how it’s going to perform in the course of the summer. Viewing angles are good, however the display’s color accuracy does diminish once you reach extreme angles.
MediaTek’s Dimensity 1080 is a robust performer. I play Asphalt 9: Legends and haven’t noticed any serious slowdown or frame rate problems, and it was as fun as all the time. The chip also keeps the software running easily, and I’ve had no problem opening and swapping between apps because the 12GB of RAM is great for multitasking.
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For on a regular basis use, and for general gaming, the Realme 10 Pro+ is a wonderful companion. It’s efficient, too, with half-hour of gaming depleting around 8% of the battery, and half-hour of YouTube taking even lower than that (even with each at full brightness). Dual stereo speakers make games and video enjoyable, and although there’s not much bass, you don’t should adjust your grip since you’ve mistakenly covered up a single speaker.
Using the phone normally, with between two and three hours of screen time per day, I’ve got not less than two full days of use out of the 5,000mAh battery before it needs a recharge. Plug it in with the supplied 67-watt SuperVOOC charger and cable, and the battery will go from zero to 100% in around 50 minutes in my tests. While clearly fast, this isn’t as fast as another Realme phones, or one of the best from OnePlus and Oppo. There’s no wireless charging either, which is a disappointment.
Realme 10 Pro+ software
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
You get Android 13 with Realme UI 4.0 installed on the ten Pro+, and it’s the primary phone from the brand with the newest version of its software installed out of the box. I’ve probably not been a fan of RealmeUI and Oppo’s ColorOS (they’re mainly the identical) because of their limitless nannying, irritating apps, and inconsistent design. But some real improvements have been made here.
For a start, it has not bothered me with notifications for this and that in the course of the first few days of use. It has simply got on with things itself, and let me do the identical. The brand new control center looks great, and the icons appear more consistent and are easier to acknowledge at a look. These sound like small changes, but together they make the phone faster, simpler, and fewer annoying to make use of.
Problems still exist, though. For instance, why the always-on screen notifications refuse to point out the newest email from Outlook, preferring to point out an older message as an alternative, I’ll never understand. It’s wonderful with WhatsApp, so I can only assume it’s a compatibility problem with Outlook. Overall though, Realme UI 4.0 is an improvement over older versions. Nevertheless, it’s still not as pleasurable, logical, or as attractive as Samsung’s OneUI or Google’s version of Android on a Pixel.
Realme 10 Pro+ price and availability
The Realme 10 Pro+ won’t be available within the U.S., but Realme has provided its “global” price in dollars. The most cost effective 8GB/128GB version is $379, the 8GB/256GB version is $399, and the highest 12GB/256GB version is $429. There isn’t any final release date for the phone yet, and no details on whether it’s going to be released within the U.K.
Its biggest competitor is the Google Pixel 6a, which costs around the identical, but offers a much better camera, great on a regular basis performance, and a extremely pretty design. The Samsung Galaxy A53 5G costs somewhat more, but has water resistance. The Nothing Phone 1 must be one other consideration, with its cool design, no-nonsense camera, and excellent software. I’d select any of those three over the Realme 10 Pro+.
The rationale to purchase the Realme 10 Pro+ is …
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
I need to offer you a reason to purchase the Realme 10 Pro+, but I’m unsure I can. It’s a solidly built, (mostly) attractive, and capably performing smartphone with a battery that lasts for a few days. That makes it smartphone, and on the surface, purchase too. I actually don’t think you’ll be disillusioned if you happen to buy it either; I’ve definitely not been eager to stop using the phone, or found problems that make me need to throw it out the window.
The problem is it doesn’t do anything recent and alluring. Realme pushes the screen’s special 2160Hz PWM Dimming mode as certainly one of its standout features, nevertheless it’s probably not something I’ve noticed working during my use. I got here from the Pixel 7 Pro and Galaxy Z Fold 4, neither of which have the identical dimming technology, but I couldn’t have told you the Realme phone had it. Its presence is probably going useful, but the shortage of water resistance and wireless charging, in addition to the inconsistent camera, are way more impactful to on a regular basis use.
I just like the Realme 10 Pro+, however the competition around it’s considerably more appealing, and I don’t think Realme has struck quite the suitable balance between genuinely helpful features and price. If the 8MP wide-angle camera is one of the best it could possibly do, I’d somewhat see that and the macro camera disappear, potentially making room for water resistance and wireless charging on the budget sheet. It’s decisions like this that may make the Realme 10 Pro+ stand out, as in the meanwhile, once you take away the sparkly rear panel, it’s all a bit bizarre.
Editors’ Recommendations
