The Realme 9 Pro+’s claim to fame is its 50MP optically stabilised Sony IMX766 sensor. A setup like this isn’t new. You also get it in the OnePlus Nord 2. But while OnePlus will charge you close to Rs 30,000 for it, Realme is selling it at under Rs 25,000 making the Realme 9 Pro+ the cheapest phone to have such a thing at the time of writing.
There’s no catch in there, either, like you would normally expect from such a proposition. At least on paper. Superfluous naming aside, the Realme 9 Pro+ is actually a “pro” phone from every perceivable angle. It looks sharp, has a fast AMOLED screen, plenty of power under its sleek and light chassis, latest Android software, and quick charging. Plus, you get stereo speakers, headphone jack, a good haptic motor, heart rate sensor, Wi-Fi 6, and 5G.
The Realme 9 Pro+ checks so many boxes, it’s hard to believe that it costs so low. Let’s find out how good a package it is, for real.
Realme 9 Pro+ design, display
The 9 Pro+ is shiny. That’s the first thing you’d notice about it. It’s not gaudy or anything but its looks can be tad polarising. The back is made of glass, which is nice—gives the phone a nice, premium touch, though Realme does not mention the type. A layer of sparkle below the glass accentuates depth. One of the phone’s variants called “sunrise blue” has photo-sensitive material and turns from light blue to red when exposed to UV light. It’s sort of like the Vivo V23 Pro, but bolder. You can get it in non-colour changing green, too, without having to give up on all the shimmer. The phone also comes in black for those seeking something sober.
| Vivo V23 Pro 5G review: Steals the spotlight
A thing to note about Realme phones is that even though it launches phones on the fly, almost every other week now, it manages to bring something new and interesting to the market each time. There are some familiar elements, sure, but you’re always bound to be surprised by the brand’s creative choices. Some work, some don’t. The 9 Pro+ design works, for the most part. There is another thing to note about these phones. Despite packing so much hardware, inside, they’re very slim and light. The 9 Pro+ is also very slim and light at around 8mm and 182g. As phones are getting bigger and bigger, it’s nice to see a phone that is obviously big on screen size but also feels comfortable to use, even with one hand.
Speaking of the screen, it’s 6.4-inch 1080p Super AMOLED with a 90Hz refresh rate, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, and a hole punch cut-out at one end. It’s probably one of the most boring aspects of this phone, at least on paper, without any chart-topping brightness levels or HDR support. It’s nice and simple, and just works, but phones like the Xiaomi 11i give you more powerful screens at the same price point. The 9 Pro+ does have one trick up its sleeve, though, which is that the phone’s in-screen fingerprint reader doubles as a heart rate monitor. The feature is in “beta” at the time of writing and all data is stored locally on the device itself. You can’t sync it with third-party –or first-party—fitness apps yet.
Realme 9 Pro+ performance, battery life, and cameras
Realme phones, generally, tend to squeeze more out the available hardware. The 9 Pro+ is a good example. It has the same 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 920 chip as the Xiaomi 11i and yet, scores “visibly” higher in benchmarks. In our testing, the Realme 9 Pro+ achieved 5,08,916 in AnTuTu (versus 4,36,002 in 11i Hypercharge), 11,934 in PCMark (versus 10,949), 808 in Geekbench single core (versus 737), 2,249 in multi-core (versus 2,197), and 2,871 in Geekbench 5 Compute (versus 2,669). The numbers, in fact, are comparable to the Snapdragon 778G-powered Realme GT Master Edition which is to say that the 9 Pro+ is a very capable phone and slightly better than peers like the Xiaomi 11i in performance. Moreover, it does not throttle, at all, giving you consistently good “sustained” performance as was evident in our multiple CPU throttling tests. The phone never got uncomfortably hot during our testing, too.
| Xiaomi 11i Hypercharge 5G review: Should you be hyped?
For average users, this means the phone can pull everything from basic day-to-day tasks to demanding games even (at medium graphics), without any issues. Battery life is also decent (though there are certainly longer-lasting phones at this price point). The 4,500mAh battery inside the 9 Pro+ lasted for 14 hours and 54 minutes in our video loop test which is a respectable figure. Most users will be able to get a day’s worth of usage. You also get 60W fast charging and the bundled charger can top up the phone from 0-100% in around 50-55 minutes.
You get up to 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage. This is non-expandable. There is support for dual SIM and five 5G bands. The phone packs dual speakers that get nice and loud. Haptic feedback, also, is quite good. A headphone jack is available.
The 9 Pro+ runs Realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12. This version is still a “luxury” in this price segment so it’s nice to see Realme breaking some stereotypes. Whether you agree with its take on Android, or not, is a different story. You see, Realme has customised the software heavily, which is still fine, but in doing so, many Android 12 core features have been altered haphazardly or chucked out of the window entirely. There is no straight-forward widget support, for instance. The same is true about Google’s Material You theming. Choosing a widget or theme shouldn’t be this complicated. The bloatware situation hasn’t got any better, either. For what it’s worth, the software is well optimised and there were no lags or stutters be it during navigating through home screens or opening and closing of apps. Realme has confirmed it will offer two major OS updates and three years of security updates to the 9 Pro+ so that’s quite generous.
Coming to the phone’s main USP—the cameras—well, there’s good news and some bad news. Let’s start with the specs. The Realme 9 Pro+ comes with a triple camera setup on the rear with a 50MP main Sony IMX766 sensor behind an f/1.8 lens with OIS, 8MP ultrawide-angle, and another 2MP macro shooter. On the front, there is a 16MP selfie camera.
Right out of the gate, we’re not impressed with Realme’s colour science. Franky, it’s all over the place. Too boosted, too unnatural at times. Its subject isolation chops in portrait mode, also, need some work. For what’s it worth, the only brands that are doing this well are those who’ve been doing it for a while. Realme will get there, too, eventually, and we feel it’s on the right track.
Now the good bits. The 9 Pro+ is the best camera phone under Rs 25,000, today. There are no two ways about it. That main sensor holds so much promise and OIS gives it the necessary firepower to extract the most out of tricky and low-light situations. This means the 9 Pro+ can pull more detail, more sharpness, and more colours out of a scene like that better than any other competing phone in its class without any noticeable noise or smoothening. There are some metering issues here and there (those exist during the day also) but the results, overall, are so pleasing you won’t mind any of that. Videos shot (up to 4K@30fps) with the sensor are a mixed bag with generally positive footage though there is some room for improvement.
The ultrawide and macro, to no one’s surprise, pale in comparison to the primary sensor. Still, the output is decent for the price. We’ve seen worse.
Realme 9 Pro+ | Should you buy?
The Realme 9 Pro+ price in India starts at Rs 24,999 for a version with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. The phone also comes with 8GB/128GB for Rs 26,999, and 8GB/256GB for Rs 28,999, respectively.
We have absolutely no doubts in saying the 9 Pro+ is the new low-light camera champion under Rs 25,000. But it’s not a one-trick pony. It’s got a lot going for itself, especially on the performance side. It has a nice scree, too, and well-optimised software. Battery life is adequate and design, while it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, is sleek and premium.
The 9 Pro+ is not perfect, but at its low price, its imperfections are easy to overlook because on the other side lies a phone basking with potential. We can’t wait to see what Realme has in store for us next.
Pros | Cons |
Premium glass design | Screen can’t do HDR |
Fast and smooth display | No micro-SD card slot |
Excellent performance | Cameras need some tuning |
Main camera is fantastic in low light | |
Android 12 | |
Decent battery life | |
Quick charging | |
Loud speakers, good haptics | |
Great value |