Realme’s 9 Pro Plus is equipped with MediaTek Dimensity 920 5G processor. The 8GB RAM and 128GB ROM version of the phone, priced at Tk39,990, was recently launched in Bangladesh.
Aesthetic
Realme 9 Pro Plus is visually appealing. It has a glass back and a plastic frame. Available in Sunrise Blue and Aurora Green, the phone has a reflective back. The Sunrise Blue version has a colour-changing back while the Aurora Green version gets glitter patterns under the glass.
The phone only weighs 182 grams and is 8mm thin. It’s safe to say that the phone is on the lightweight and thin side.
Due to proper weight distribution and the phone being thin, it offers a good in-hand feeling and using the phone with one hand wasn’t distracting at all.
Following the previous generations, the phone incorporated an in-display fingerprint sensor, which was fast enough. The fingerprint sensor also functions as a heart rate monitor this time. Just like the previous generations, the front-facing camera in Realme 9 Pro Plus is also located in the upper left corner of the display and is a punch hole camera.
The headphone jack, charger port and all the buttons were properly placed and the phone comes with a stereo speaker setup, which is fairly loud. One thing that went missing this time is the microSD slot.
All in all, Realme did offer a visually appealing package with its 9 Pro Plus.
Display
Realme 9 Pro Plus has 6.4 inches, 90Hz Super AMOLED display with 430 nits of typical brightness and 600 nits of high brightness under direct sunlight.
While this is not the best display out there, it is one of the best within this price range. The display is ideal for any activities people perform on their smartphones, let it be gaming or multimedia consumption. There are barely any places to complain about the display quality of Realme’s number series.
However, the 90Hz display refresh rate could have been made 120Hz. That would have provided an even smoother performance.
With a 600 nits high brightness, there shouldn’t be much of an issue using the phone during moderate daylight. But using it under direct sunlight might pose a few challenges.
The display is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection.
Performance
The phone is equipped with a 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 920 chipset with Mali-G68 MC4 as the GPU. The UFS 2.2 storage also offers a faster read and write speed.
On paper, Dimensity 920 performs better than Snapdragon 695 and goes close to Snapdragon 778G.
Yes, Snapdragon 778G would have been a very nice option to have in this price range. However, Realme going for a MediaTek chipset instead may have something to do with the camera and display it offered. For the sake of other features and offering a balanced package, the decision didn’t seem bad to me.
The AnTuTu 9 benchmark score for Dimensity 920 is 8% lower than Snapdragon 778G and 23% better than Snapdragon 695.
As for other devices, Realme 9 Pro Plus should perform way better than the recently released Oppo F21 Pro 5G, which has a Snapdragon 695 chipset inside.
The hardware of Realme 9 Pro Plus has enough to handle an average smartphone user’s day-to-day needs without breaking a sweat. There was no visible heating issue and games like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9 and Mobile Legends Bang Bang performed well.
Camera
Realme 9 Pro Plus has a triple camera setup on the back. It has a 50 MP main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), an 8 MP ultrawide sensor and an unnecessary 2 MP macro lens.
Since the price of the phone is already above Tk39,000, now would have been a good time to give a better and more usable macro lens with the phone. But Realme decided to get away with a 2MP macro sensor like most of the other smartphone manufacturing companies.
Apart from the macro lens, the camera unit isn’t bad. The primary camera, with a Sony IMX766 sensor, can capture stunning photography. The images turned out to be vivid, colourful and ready to use.
The portrait shots of both the back camera and the front-facing 16MP camera turned out to be nice.
Realme’s camera app has always offered a handful of features and Realme 9 Pro Plus is no different. It has all the shooting modes including Night, Portrait, Video, Photo, Pro Mode, 50MP, as well as Street Mode. Manual mode is also there.
As for the video section, Realme 9 Pro Plus can capture 4k videos at 30fps. It climbs as high as 60fps if you decide to capture videos in 1080fps. For slow-mo, the camera supports up to 480fps in 1080p and 960fps in 720p.
Battery
Realme 9 Pro Plus comes with a 4500 mAh Li-Po battery. Unlike some other smartphone brands, Realme does offer a charger in its box. In this case, a 60 Watts one.
The phone itself offers a screen on time up to 7-8 hours on average. With moderate usage, the phone should last for a day and a half.
The 60 Watts charger that comes with the phone will be easily able to fully charge the device from zero in 45 minutes.
Verdict
Should you buy Realme 9 Pro Plus? At a price of Tk39,990, the phone offers a decent display, decent performance and a good camera.
The only drawback is the lack of microSD card slot. But even with that, the Realme 9 Pro Plus is definitely a phone worth recommending.
