Of late, Realme has been refreshing its smartphones at a rapid pace largely so it can have a leg up over Xiaomi. While this does give consumers a lot of choice, it can be annoying for someone who’s just bought a Realme device, knowing that there’s already something newer and better out there. Realme has now refreshed its primary numerical series one again, with the Realme 6 (Review) and the Realme 6 Pro succeeding the Realme 5 (Review) and 5 Pro (Review) smartphones.
The Realme 6 has proven to offer excellent value for money, with premium features such as a 90Hz display, a powerful processor, and a 64-megapixel main camera. The 6 Pro, which we’ll be reviewing today, starts at a slightly higher price but you get the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC, a secondary wide-angle front camera, a telephoto rear camera, and some additional software features.
The Realme 6 Pro’s pricing means that this model overlaps with the Realme X2 (Review) — an existing premium offering which also has many similar features. It also has to contend with the brand new Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro and Redmi Note 9 Pro Max. So, is the Realme 6 Pro also a convincing upgrade, or would you be better off with one of these alternatives?
Realme 6 Pro design
With every new model, Realme changes the design of the back, and for the 6 Pro, we now have a lightning-inspired design in either blue or orange. It looks quite funky and isn’t too flashy, which we like. The glossy finish of the back makes this phone very slippery but thankfully it’s Gorilla Glass 5, so scuff marks weren’t really an issue. The Realme 6 Pro is quite chunky at 8.9mm and a bit heavy at 202g.
The front is where we have the biggest change, compared to other Realme phones in this price range. The Realme 6 Pro features a 6.6-inch LCD display with a dual hole-punch cutout, which gives this phone a modern appearance. The cutout is in the upper left corner of the display and isn’t too distracting. There’s Gorilla Glass 5 here too, but Realme also ships this phone with a screen guard pre-applied.
The new lightning-inspired design on the Realme 6 Pro is eye-catching
The layout of the buttons and ports is familiar, however, the power button has been flattened in order to accommodate a fingerprint sensor. We don’t mind this design choice, as the button lines up nicely with your thumb when holding this phone with your right hand. Left-handed users would probably prefer a fingerprint sensor on the back, though. There’s no in-display fingerprint sensor since Realme hasn’t’ used an AMOLED panel. The SIM tray on the left has slots for two Nano-SIMs and a microSD card.
The Realme 6 Pro doesn’t have a large protrusion for the camera module at the back, and the four cameras are lined up in a similar fashion as on the Realme 6. Overall, we feel that Realme has done a good job with build quality, but the 6 Pro has nothing that we haven’t seen before. The company also claims that there are three layers of waterproofing on this phone, which should help it survive s