realme 10 Pro 5G Review

realme launched the realme 10 Pro 5G earlier this month as part of their new offerings, and completes the new lineup of the realme 10 series that started late last year. Here’s what we think about the device in our full review.

realme 10 Pro 5G specs:

Inside the Box

Inside the case are realme’s usual kit: the phone itself, the USB-C cord, the 33-watt charger, a TPU case, the sim tray ejector, and some documents.

Design: An evolution in beauty

realme chose to change its long-standing phone design with the realme 10 series, and the 10 Pro features similar characteristics as with the earlier-released realme 10 with its flat edges, more boxy look, and chamfered corners that seems to be a recent mobile design trend.

Let’s start with the sides. The right side houses the power/lock button that doubles as the fingerprint scanner, as well as the volume keys.

The bottom has the 3.5mm audio jack, the microphone, the USB-C port, and a set of loudspeakers.

On the left, the hybrid Dual SIM/microSD card slot is near the top.

The noise-canceling microphone is at the top. The call speaker, which also acts as a loudspeaker, is right at the edge of the device.

We have the display at the front, which now takes more screen estate and less pixel than last year’s realme 9 Pro series. The 16MP selfie camera is holed at the upper-middle part.

Flip the phone to its back and you’ll see the shiny back with what realme calls the Hyperspace design, with mineral shine in its gold-white gradient and rays of refractions highlighting the two protruding camera setups at the back. The realme logo is placed at the lower-left part.

The 10 Pro is taller in dimensions, but you can still reach most parts with two hands used together to navigate and type. It doesn’t have much heft even when used for a long time, though the back can show smudges and slips if you have sweaty hands, due to the glossy nature of the hyperspace design. It’s highly recommended to use the case or purchase one of your own.

Display and Audio: Smooth and Silky

Surprisingly, realme went for a 6.7-inch Full HD IPS display with this phone. The display appears to be bright in shady outdoor scenarios, but not so much when with glare under the hot sun. Colors are vivid, while sharpness and contrast is decent.

The good news here, is that the display offers a smoother animation experience thanks to a whopping 120Hz refresh rate. This definitely upgraded the experience you’ll get from playing your favorite games or watching your nightly flicks.

You have stereo audio with the call speaker acting as the accompaniment to the bottom-firing loudspeaker, and the audio is decent. While there isn’t much bass, the mids are really well-pronounced. The volume is good enough to be blasted thanks to realme’s built-in audio feature wherein you can amplify the sound to up to 200%. When you do, be prepared for tinny sounds on your favorite tunes which can be heard every now and then. It’s also enough to fill out a quiet medium-sized room.

Camera: Et tu, Ultrawide?

In the most shocking fashion, realme removed the ultrawide camera on the 10 Pro, leaving you with only a 108MP Samsung sensor and a 2MP depth lens for portrait photos. I do miss the ultrawide camera when I want to shoot landscape scenes, but the main cam does it job of capturing moments well.

The camera software also offers upgraded features such as an all-new street mode with geographical-based filters. In the Philippines, the local realme team chose several filters and named it after prominent areas in the metro such as Quiapo to highlight our busy neighborhoods.

In bright conditons, the camera performs well with well-saturated colors, decent contrast, and good dynamic range and sharpness. The camera struggles to take fast photos during low-light scenarios as it automatically activates night mode, which can make your shots unfocused on blurred. You can only digitally zoom up to 6x on photo mode.

Selfies are generally decent for social media uploads. The portrait mode needs some refinement, though, as the camera fails to properly blur my hair edges, Here are some sample photos:

Videos, on the other hand, contain the same quality as we have with the photos. You can only record videos up to Full HD resolution at 60 frames per second, with up to 2x digital zoom. Here’s a sample clip:

OS and Performance: As you get it

This phone is baked with realmeUI 4.0 based on Android 13, and the controls are quite similar to previous iterations. The updated OS also gives you new ways to perform phone functions including how to show the shutdown and restart slider (now by pressing both power and volume-up keys) and flexible windows.

Our unit features a 128GB storage variant that will not be available in the Philippines, but expect to get around 200-215GB of free space for your apps and media files with the 256GB variant. You can also expand the storage with a microSD card slot, albeit sacrificing dual connectivity for extra space.

We’re pretty surprised with the number of pre-installed apps — from Facebook to Spotify, to Ecommerce sites like Lazada and Shopee, to realme’s own apps such as Snack Video — this, even without checking any option to install an app during the initial setup. Luckily the apps can be easily uninstalled.

Gaming-wise, the Snapdragon 695 chipset enables you to play decent games, even hardware-intensive ones like Genshin Impact and Asphalt 9 albeit in lower settings. You can play in High settings with MOBA apps like Mobile Legends and LOL Wild Rift, and even Ragnarok M. When used prolonged for multitasking or gaming, the phone tolerantly heats up on its upper back part.

Connections work well. Wi-Fi is good as long as your router allows for longer, unobstructed distances, Bluetooth works really well when I tried my realme Buds 3 Air, and the 5G mobile data signal is good but is still location-dependent.

You have face unlock, fingerprint scanner, and the usual pin/password/pattern security for your phone. The Face unlock works well especially in well-lit areas, while the fingerprint scanner’s placement at the right part makes it good to use and easy to reach with fingers from both hands.

Battery Life: Good for daily activities

The Pro variant of realme’s number series still has a 5000mAh battery capacity which can last up to a day or two of moderate use, or around 18 to 20 hours with heavy use with two SIMS onboard. That’s enough juice to get you through the day without any worries.

We’re surprised, though, that the 10 Pro’s recharging has been reduced to 33 watts. While it is still quite as fast with today’s standards, having predecessors with charging speeds faster than that made us spoiled. A 30-minute charge gives you more than half the battery percentage, but then throttles the remaining percentage and get to 100% a few minutes after an hour.