Realme P3x review: many hits, some misses

The Realme P3x is the newest edition of the brand’s performance-focused ‘P’ series lineup and is in fact the entry-level variant of the 2025 lineup. The affordable phone features the latest MediaTek Dimensity 6400 SoC, a chunky 6,000mAh battery with 45W fast charging support, and a more durable chassis with IP68 and IP69 water and dust resistance. All these features make it a strong contender for a top spot in the sub-Rs 15,000 segment. But the real question is – does it walk the walk? 

Verdict

The Realme P3x is a decent option in the sub-Rs 15K segment. It particularly shines in areas like design, durability, and performance. Realme also deserves credit for offering features like an IP69 rating and a 6,000mAh battery, which customers on a tight budget will appreciate. However, some areas, including the cameras and software experience, could use some improvements, which might be a dealbreaker for some users.

Design and display

The Realme P3x has a slightly different design than the Realme P3 Pro, which it launched alongside. It features a rectangular camera module on the left side of the rear panel, with a faux leather-textured back and flat edges. The leather finish helps keep fingerprints and smudges away.

The flat edges might not be the most comfortable for everyone, as they can press into your palms over time. The power and volume buttons are on the right edge, while the USB-C port and mono speaker sit at the bottom. The SIM tray is placed on the left.

What’s great is that the phone comes with an IP69 rating for dust and water resistance, a rare feat in this price point.

The Realme P3x comes with a 6.72-inch IPS display featuring an FHD+ resolution (2400 x 1080p), a 120Hz refresh rate, 82 percent NTSC colour coverage, and a peak brightness of 950 nits. Like most phones in this price range, it has a bottom chin, which, to be honest, is starting to feel a bit outdated now.

For the price, the display delivers a solid experience with rich, vibrant colours. Brightness levels are decent too, holding up well even under direct sunlight. My main gripe, though, is the mono speaker. While it gets reasonably loud, it lacks the depth and punch of a stereo setup. The overall sound output feels flat, which takes away from the multimedia experience

Cameras

The Realme P3x comes with a 50MP rear camera, a 2MP depth sensor, and an 8MP front camera. In bright conditions, the rear camera captures good-looking images with slightly boosted colours and contrast. It also offers decent dynamic range and sharpness. However, fine details are lacking across the camera system, making textures appear softer than expected.

Daylight selfies look appealing, with natural skin tones, though facial details are smoothed out. Low-light performance is a mixed bag – while images have good colours and high contrast, they often appear fuzzy, even with Night Mode enabled, limiting overall clarity in darker scenes. 

Coming to videography, you’re limited to 1080p at 30fps while some rivals like Vivo T4x (review) offer 4K output at 30fps. I compared the phone’s camera against its closest rivals, the Vivo T4x and POCO M7 Pro (review) to see how it performs, check out the results below:

Daylight

The Realme P3x and Vivo T4x deliver similar results in daylight shots, both featuring a warm colour profile and comparable levels of detail. However, the Realme P3x boosts colours slightly, making them appear richer than they actually are. The Vivo T4x, on the other hand, produces slightly sharper images due to its processing, though this also introduces some noise in darker areas.

Against the POCO M7 Pro, the Realme P3x’s differences are subtle. The POCO phone leans towards higher saturation, while the Realme P3x keeps colours a bit more balanced. In terms of detail, however, the Realme P3x falls slightly behind — at 50 percent zoom, objects appear softer, whereas the POCO M7 Pro retains better clarity and sharpness.

Portrait

The Realme P3x struggles a bit with edge detection, often failing to separate the background from the subject. This applies to the Vivo T4x as well. When it comes to details, both phones are fairly similar, but the Realme P3x smooths out skin more aggressively. The Vivo T4x has an edge in skin tone accuracy, with colour reproduction that looks closer to reality.

The POCO M7 Pro’s edge detection in portrait shots is fairly average, but it does a few things better than the Realme P3x. Its colour processing is more accurate, with skin tones appearing more natural, and the higher contrast makes images look more dynamic. It also retains facial details better, resulting in sharper, more textured images.

Selfie

The Realme P3x offers the best skin tone reproduction among the three, representing the scene more accurately. However, it falls short in terms of detail, as its selfie camera struggles to capture finer facial features clearly. The Vivo T4x, while not the most colour-accurate, has the upper hand when it comes to clarity and facial details.

The POCO M7 Pro, on the other hand, applies a cooler tone to selfies, which makes images look slightly dull. It also overprocesses shots a bit, and when zoomed in, there’s a noticeable loss of detail and sharpness.

Low-light

The Realme P3x tends to artificially boost sharpness in images, details still aren’t prominent. It also enhances colours slightly, but the higher contrast makes photos look more visually appealing. In comparison, the Vivo T4x captures better details and has superior edge detection, though its colour processing is a bit overdone, making images appear less natural.

Against the POCO M7 Pro, the Realme P3x has an advantage in contrast and shadow preservation. However, its images are noticeably softer, and when you zoom in, the level of detail isn’t as sharp as its competitor.

Performance and software

The smartphone is powered by the new MediaTek Dimensity 6400 SoC, paired with up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of storage which is expandable up to 1TB with a microSD card. It succeeds the Dimensity 6300, a chipset that was widely used in phones under Rs 15,000.

For everyday tasks, the Dimensity 6400 holds up well. You won’t run into much lag or stutter when browsing social media, streaming videos, playing casual games, or handling light multitasking. That said, it’s not built for heavy workloads.

If you’re planning to run demanding games like BGMI or Genshin Impact, don’t expect smooth performance, as the chipset lacks the raw power for extreme multitasking or high-intensity gaming.

When it comes to gaming, the phone seems optimised for stable performance in moderately demanding titles. In COD: Mobile, it maintains a steady 50 fps at medium graphical settings, ensuring smooth gameplay.

In BGMI, however, the frame rate is capped at 30 fps on medium settings. If you’re looking for better gaming performance, the Vivo T4x (review) is a more capable alternative for handling demanding titles.

On the software side, the device runs Realme UI 6 based on Android 15 out-of-the-box. The overall experience feels smooth and well optimised, with Realme’s usual set of smart features. You get AI Smart Loop, which makes transferring text files between apps quicker, a handy sidebar for quick access functions, and more.

My biggest complaint is the number of pre-installed apps. There’s quite a lot of them, and some app folders, like the Hot Apps and Hot Games sections, need to be manually disabled through the app store. As for software updates, the support policy is fairly standard for this price range, but it’s still good to have.

Battery and charging

The Realme P3x packs a sizeable 6,000mAh battery with support for 45W fast charging. The growing trend of bigger 6000mAh batteries in 2025 is definitely a welcome move, as it helps improve overall battery life. However, in our battery benchmark test, the device recorded an average score of 14 hours, which doesn’t quite reflect its real-world performance. In day-to-day use, you can comfortably get a full day of battery life, even with heavy usage.

I managed to get a screen-on time (SOT) of around 8-9 hours, which is great. As a heavy user, I’m quite satisfied with the battery backup, though keeping 5G enabled at all times does bring the SOT down by about 2 hours, which is not a bad trade-off. In our lab tests, the phone’s battery dropped 24 percent in 2 hours of heavy usage, which is decent but slightly on the lower side for this segment.

Charging times are also pretty good, with the device taking just over an hour to fully charge from 20 to 100 percent, a great result for a battery this size.

Final Verdict

The Realme P3x comes at a starting price of Rs 13,999 for the 6GB + 128GB variant and goes up to Rs 14,999 for the 8GB + 128GB variant. Its strengths include IP69 rated durability, good display, satisfactory day to day performance, and a beefy 6000mAh battery. However, its cameras and software experience leave room for some improvements, which could be a drawback for some users.

Its primary rivals include the Vivo T4x (review) and the POCO M7 Pro (review). The former exceeds the Realme P3x in areas like performance, cameras, and multimedia experience at a similar price point. The latter, instead comes with an AMOLED panel which elevates the multimedia experience, better performance output and longer software support, although its batter life isn’t as good. That said, the Realme P3x remains a solid choice for those prioritising durability and battery longevity, making it a well-rounded option in this segment. 

Editor’s Rating: 7.5/10

Reasons to buy:

• The IP69-rated design makes it one of the most durable phones in its segment.
• The display delivers smooth visuals and decent brightness levels.
• The 6,000mAh battery offers great longevity, easily lasting a full day on heavy usage.
• The phone delivers satisfactory performance for daily tasks and casual gaming.

Reasons not to buy:

• The phone comes with a fair amount of pre-installed apps.
• The cameras struggle to capture finer details, especially in low-light conditions.