Realme 9 5G price in India
The price of Realme 9 5G in India is Rs 14,999, in which 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage variant of this smartphone comes. At the same time, its 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant costs Rs 17,499. The smartphone is available in two colors, with the option of Stargaze White and Meteor Black. I had the Stargaze White variant with me.
Realme 9 5G design
The Realme 9 5G has a familiar design and looks reminiscent of all the company’s smartphones that I have used before. A camera hole has been given in the left corner of the phone’s large display. The borders on the top and sides are quite thin but the chin is very thick. It does not bother much and goes well in smartphones of this price range. Reality has used plastic for the frame and back panel, due to which the company has managed to limit its weight to 188 grams, which feels quite light.
The power button is available on the right side of the phone, on which fingerprint scanner is given. Volume buttons are given on the other side. All the buttons are easy to reach when used with one hand. The phone is quite thin and its thickness is only 8.55mm.
The bottom of the phone houses a 3.5mm headphone jack, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and loudspeaker. While the top side is completely empty. The back side of the phone is absolutely flat and the edges are curved, which makes the phone very comfortable to hold. The three cameras are housed in a rectangular module at the rear which feels a bit protruding. Due to this the phone is not able to remain stable on a flat surface, which I did not like.
The back panel has been patterned with stargaze white finish, which when viewed in light, seems to change color. Fingerprints appear on the panel but are not easily visible. There is also a clear case for the phone inside the box.
Realme 9 5G specifications and software
The Realme 9 5G has a 6.5-inch LCD display with Full HD+ resolution. It has a 90Hz refresh rate. The weight of the phone’s performance is on the MediaTek Dimensity 810 5G octa-core processor. The device gets a 5000mAh battery, which supports 18W fast charging. The charger comes with the box. The SIM tray houses two nano SIMs and a microSD card. This phone has Bluetooth 5.1, dual band Wi-Fi and 6 satellite navigation system.
Talking about the operating system, it runs on Realme UI 2.0 based on Android 11. Android security patch of March 2022 was given in my unit. The user interface is quite simple, especially when you are using the Realme phone for the first time. You can toggle between the three-button layout or swipe gestures for navigation. It also has a Smart Sidebar feature, which gives quick access to your favorite apps and actions.
In Realme UI 2.0, you get a variety of personalization options, in which you can change the icon style, color scheme, font and icon layout. There are also experimental features for you to try out in the Realme Lab section inside the Settings app. One such feature is Sleep Capsule which does not let you use apps after a certain amount of time, so that you can sleep without any disturbance.
I found a large amount of pre-installed bloatware in the device. During the review, I keep getting spam notifications from some apps like FinShell Pay and Theme Store, but you can also remove third party apps.
Realme 9 5G performance and battery life
The performance of Realme 9 5G was quite good in common use. The refresh rate keeps switching between 60 and 90 Hz, depending on what you are working on the phone. You can also lock it to 90Hz to make scrolling smoother.
The experience of watching videos in the phone was good but the sound of the single speaker was not very loud. In this case, Redmi Note 11 gives it a tough competition, in which dual speakers have been given with AMOLED display. Its side mounted fingerprint scanner is quite fast and it didn’t take more than one attempt to unlock the phone. The face recognition feature of the phone is also very fast.
My review unit had 6GB of RAM, plus 5GB of storage can be converted to virtual RAM as well. Multitasking is smooth in the phone. I was able to switch quickly from one app to another without having to reload any apps in the background. The app loading time of the phone is also less.
Talking about the benchmark scores, the phone scored 372,099 points on AnTuTu. It scored 609 in Geekbench 5’s single core test and 1,830 in multicore test. The phone scored 3,475 in the 3DMark Sling Shot test.
Common games were running smoothly in the phone. Even the Call of Duty: Mobile game ran by default at medium graphics and medium frame rate settings. I played the game in the phone for 15 minutes, then the battery was reduced by 4 percent. The heat in the phone was almost non-existent.
Realme 9 5G offers good battery life and you can use it comfortably for about one and a half days on a full charge. The phone lasted 16 hours and 38 minutes in our HD video loop test, which is a decent amount of time. The 18W charger that comes with the phone charges it to 27 percent in 30 minutes and 52 percent in an hour. It takes a little over 2 hours for the phone to be fully charged.
Realme 9 5G cameras
Realme 9 5G has a 48MP primary camera, which has an aperture f / 1.8. It captures 12 megapixel photos by default. Ultrawide camera is not given in the phone. Its other two sensors are black and white portrait and macro. A 16-megapixel selfie camera has been given in the phone. Many features and shooting modes are available in the camera app. There is also a quick toggle button for HDR and AI mode. A Street Mode has also been given in the phone which gives high-contrast and high saturation effect while taking photos.
The day-light camera performance of the phone is good. The light was steaming well and the HDR mode would turn on automatically when the brightness was high. AI mode seemed more aggressive in terms of green color and making trees and other green things appear too artificial. The primary camera of the phone clicks good shots, but when zoomed in, the details fall a bit. Ultrawide angle camera should have been in the phone so that a lot could be done.
The close-up shots of the phone were good and the background blur was also well maintained. Portrait shots were sharp and edge detection was also good with background blur. Macro shots were average and the resolution was only 2 megapixels.
The phone’s low-light camera performance in the regular photo mode was pretty average. The photo looked soft and the watercolor effect was visible in the distant things. There was no significant difference even when using Night Mode. Even though it brought out details in the dark, it got a yellow tint, as if a filter had been used. The shots were also stabilized, so the blur was also quite visible.
Selfies looked good even in daylight or low light. Using screen brightness in low-light gave good results. Portrait selfies were good, but the phone was using the beautification filter by default.
With the primary camera and selfie camera, the phone can record videos up to a maximum of 1080p. By default it does not stabilize footage. It has an Ultra Steady mode, which slightly crops the frame to stabilize the footage, which makes the video better. Light grains were visible in low-light footage.
Overall, the camera performance of the Realme 9 5G was decent during day time, but the phone struggled in low-light conditions.
Verdict
Realme has launched so many smartphones in the range below 20 thousand rupees that it becomes difficult to differentiate its models and series from each other and do not understand which phone to choose. Simple design and specifications have been given in Realme 9 5G which I think will not attract much. The hardware features of the phone are quite similar to the Realme 8S 5G. It seems that the company has downgraded some of the specifications of the older models to keep the price of the phone low.
The 6 GB RAM variant of the Realme 9 5G comes for Rs 17,499, with the same specifications as the Rs 500 costlier Realme 8s 5G. The Realme 8s 5G packs a 64-megapixel camera and 33W fast charging, which makes it more value-for-money.
The base variant of Realme 9 5G comes for Rs 14,999. I found it more value for money than the unit test I did. If you are a simple user then you can check out this phone. But I would suggest that you go for the Redmi Note 11, as it also has an AMOLED display, stereo speakers and 33W fast charging support. It does not have 5G connectivity but no network provider in India is currently providing this service. So there is no harm in buying a Redmi phone.
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