Realme 10 Pro 5G review: maximising screen real estate

Published On: December 15, 2022

Realme has announced two new smartphones just before the year ends, placed under its signature number series lineup. I got a chance to try out the Realme 10 Pro+ (review) and termed it as the most aesthetically pleasing device under Rs 30,000. And now I have with me its sibling, the Realme 10 Pro, which is priced starting Rs 18,999.

The Realme 10 Pro uses the same 108MP primary shooter as its more accomplished cousin, and also features the slimmest bezels I’ve ever seen. Other features on the device, at least on paper, make it an enticing offering but to be absolutely sure, the Realme 10 Pro will need to go through a stringent review process.

Table of Contents

Verdict

The Realme 10 Pro’s standout design element, the near bezel-less display, is also its more impressive feature. The device, while held back by less-than-ideal low-light camera performance, scores on key aspects like processing capabilities, battery life, and build quality.

The lowdown

Talking first about the design, Realme has employed a boxy, rectangular slab approach with the 10 Pro, reminiscent of the latest iPhones. The edges are sharp with no curvature of any kind, making it slightly hard to grip the phone. Instead of the Pro+’s glossy look, the Realme 10 Pro has a matte finish across the board, including the sides.

The phone is reasonably light in the hand at 192g and can be called a bit thick with a depth of 8.3mm. As usual, you get the standard USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a speaker grille. Thankfully the earpiece doubles up to provide stereo sound.
The display is where Realme has focused quite a bit of its attention. One glance at the phone from the front, and it’s easy to see how remarkable the razor-thin bezels on three sides of the panel are. Matter of fact, the width of these bezels is just 1mm, which is less than even the slightly curved screen on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Unfortunately, the chin does not replicate this thinness but it can be considered acceptably slim compared to other phones in the category.

The panel itself is a 6.7-inch IPS LCD with FHD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 120Hz. It has satisfactory coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and decent brightness levels for legibility in sunny outdoor conditions. The colour profile can be adjusted to your liking and you also get the O1 Color enhancer toggle to pump up saturation while playing videos. There is a punch hole up top around which very minimal backlighting is visible.
Camera-wise the phone gets a 108MP Samsung HM6 sensor, the very same seen on the 10 Pro+, while the secondary shooter is a 2MP depth sensor. The Realme 10 Pro churns out detailed 12.5MP pixel-binned images in daylight conditions, as can be expected of affordable phones these days. I like how well the colours are replicated and there’s plenty of dynamic range to play around with. The sensor also exposes the sun correctly and brings out more contrast in shots. Focusing and shutter speeds are also fine for my needs.

As far as low-light shots are concerned, surprisingly the images were not as crisp as I expected. There’s a focusing issue that robs images of detail and outputs soft images. Even after several taps on the viewfinder, the images can be considered a hit-or-miss and this is despite the presence of ample ambient light. I feel this is an area for improvement on the Realme 10 Pro and maybe it could be resolved via a software update.

Versatility is lacking on the Realme 10 Pro’s camera setup since ultra-wide and macro shooters are absent. The selfie camera is a standard 16MP lens that can take pleasing snaps, albeit slightly over-processed and not matching real skin tones.

Powering the Realme 10 Pro is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC, which can be considered a veritable performance workhorse in this segment. The benchmark numbers surrounding the device are pretty good for the price. On Antutu the device scores 417,108 while Geekbench 5’s multi-core result is shown to be 2,022.

The phone also maintains 91 percent of its peak performance under sustained load, which is quite remarkable. All this to say that your device is likely going to go through medium to hard tasks without too much difficulty. The Realme 10 Pro also comes with up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage which can be expanded to 1TB using a microSD card slot.
Looking at some other features on the device, there’s the side-mounted fingerprint scanner which works as well as can be expected. The dual-speaker system is loud enough to be enjoyed in a small room without any ambient noise. 5G capabilities are present on the device and there is support for NSA and SA bands when they become available in your region. The device operates on RealmeUI 4.0 based on Android 13 and you can read about it more in my Realme 10 Pro+ review.

You get a 5,000mAh cell inside the Realme 10 Pro which is likely to last you easily over a day. Moderate usage involving some light social media browsing, watching content on YouTube or OTT platforms, and some amount of gaming will be covered with the 10 Pro’s battery life. There is also 33W charging that’ll take less than two hours to completely juice up the phone.

Final verdict

The Realme 10 Pro, for its price, offers an exceptionally large viewing area with its razor-thin bezels. While not in the league of AMOLED panels, the LCD display on the device will largely provide the same experience visually for the average consumer. The device does not lag behind in performance or battery life.

Yes, the primary shooter’s low-light capturing could leave you wanting for more, but I do think that this is a niggle that could be handled through software updates. Overall, I’d say the Realme 10 Pro is one of the top affordable phones in the market and possibly ahead of rivals.