The budget smartphone segment in India is the most lucrative and competitive right now, with Redmi Note 7 Pro leading the lot with a feature-rich and powerful offering. However, Realme has today unveiled the much-anticipated Realme 3 Pro (starts at ₹13,999) and it now looks to shake up the dominant force of Xiaomi’s Redmi Note lineup with aggressive pricing.
Instead of directly diving into my thoughts about the Realme 3 Pro, here’s a quick look at its specs sheet:
What’s in the Box
Realme now packages its smartphones in their signature gray and yellow box. I still feel that it looks pretty bland and doesn’t really attract you, but it’s what inside that matters and the Realme 3 Pro brings all of the essentials in tow. Here’s everything you get inside the box:
Right off the bat, you see that the Realme 3 Pro has parted ways with its once-popular diamond-cut and acrylic finishes in favor of a curved gradient panel with its third-generation phones and I’m totally in favor of the upgrade.
I like the Nitro Blue color variant that we have with us, but the Lightning Purple variant is probably my favorite among the lot. The panel is shiny and reflective, but that’s trendy right now right?.
Realme 3 Pro has a functional design that’s definitely in line with the times and better than the Realme 2 Pro. The inclusion of faster charging is awesome, but what about the display? Well, at first glance, it looks better than its predecessor and it’s what we’ll talk about next.
Turning our attention to the front, well, it is almost identical to the Realme 2 Pro, with a dewdrop notch up-top and a same-sized chin at the bottom. Even the display size of the Realme 3 Pro is the same as its predecessor. It features a 6.3-inch Full-HD+ screen, with a display resolution of 2340x1080p and 408ppi pixel density.
Performance
Moving away from the design and build, a lot has changed on the hardware and camera front. So, let’s first talk about the hardware, which has been the point of debate over the last few days.
Next up, the Realme 3 Pro also brings major improvements on the camera front. While there’s no hyped up 48MP camera here, Realme 3 Pro has a capable 16MP (f/1.7)+ 5MP (f/2.4) dual-rear camera module. Now, I said “capable” because the primary sensor here is the same high-end Sony IMX 519 sensor as the OnePlus 6T and it’s the highlight of the camera experience.
So, the Realme 3 Pro does take some great shots, and I like the fact that the camera app here is feature packed. There’s Nightscape, which is basically the night mode feature and the new UltraHD mode takes four shots and combines them to create one Ultra-HD 64MP picture.
We even took some comparison shots with the Redmi Note 7 Pro, and well, the Realme 3 Pro manages to stand tall against the budget king. The latter captures some pretty good pictures and there are even instances when the Note 7 Pro pales in comparison. More on this coming really soon, so keep an eye out.
User Experience
Realme 3 Pro comes with the latest ColorOS 6.0 skin on top of Android Pie, and while I’m still not the biggest fan of ColorOS, I appreciate the improvements it brings over ColorOS 5.0. There’s an app drawer now, you no longer need to go to the settings to change the wallpaper, the notification shade is still shady but definitely better, and I like the fact that there are no ads here, unlike MIUI and Experience UI on the Galaxy M series. The UI has been polished and reminds me of MIUI at times.
The Realme 3 Pro brings a huge 4,045 mAh battery, which should be enough to last users pretty long on a single charge. I am yet to test the battery life on the phone, but I appreciate the inclusion of the battery saving features, like Smart Power Saver, and the Super High Power Efficiency mode.
So, I hope that was a good look at the Realme 3 Pro and the one thing that’s pretty clear right now is that the Realme 3 Pro stands tall against the Redmi Note 7 Pro. This is the latest smartphone that strongly rivals Xiaomi’s Redmi Note lineup and does that with functional, solid design, a tall and beautiful display, power-packed performance, capable cameras, a massive battery, and super fast charging.
There has been a lot of hype around the Realme 3 Pro and I believe the smartphone truly deserves the hype. However, if it is better than the Redmi Note 7 Pro or not is something we will explore in our in-depth review of the smartphone.
