Realme 3 Pro Review: Here Is Why You Should Buy It

Despite being lucky to try high-end smartphones like OPPO Reno 10x or Samsung Galaxy S10e, I personally don't want to spend too much on a phone, so I often aim at mid-range smartphones only.

Recently, Realme has released its new Realme 3 Pro, which is the successor to the Realme 2 Pro, in the mid-range segment. I'm currently using the Realme 2 Pro, so I decided to try this latest phone, and after more than a week of using, here are what I see:

More colorful design

Right after taking the device out of the box, you can see that the phone has an entirely different design from its predecessor. Realme 3 Pro has a gradient color rear panel, which gradually turns from violet to dark blue and slightly shines under the sunlight, completely different from the simple gray back of the Realme 2 Pro.

Honestly, I prefer a more basic color scheme, but if you like the eye-catching and colorful look, the Realme 3 Pro will be a great choice for you.

On the back, we still have a dual-camera setup with a fingerprint sensor. Some today high-end models have switched to use an on-screen fingerprint sensor, but for mid-range models, most of the phone makers still go for a rear-mounted on their devices, which still gives faster recognition speed than in-display fingerprint sensor found in the Galaxy A50.

The back finish is made of plastic, not glass, so of course, it still brings the feeling of mid-range models when holding the phone in hand.

The plus point is that the handset is made thinner than the Realme 2 Pro, along with slightly curved edges.

Although the device still comes with a micro USB charging port, instead of USB Type-C, it has been equipped with the latest VOOC 3.0 charging solution. In addition, we still have a 3.5mm port.

In addition, the Realme 3 Pro still have dual SIM slots with a microSD card slot. Although Realme only produces low and mid-range models, the company still provides users with features that high-end models are gradually giving up, which gives its users a 'full' feeling!

Better display

The phone has the same screen size as the predecessor but in fact, it is completely different.

As mentioned above, one of the big reasons for me to choose the Realme 2 Pro is its 6.3-inch Full HD display with a dewdrop notch, which looks quite modern and has an acceptable resolution. But in fact, when using it, the phone showed some weakness in its screen like ghosting in some certain situation.

Improved interface but still not really that good

One of the reasons that I decided to buy the Realme 2 Pro is its ColorOS interface. Like Huawei, OPPO (and Realme) uses an Android version with lots of bloatware when it was active. The interface, in general, is not really well-designed and even has many 'confusing' details.

Another thing that makes me annoyed when using OPPO and Realme smartphones is that it seems like these two brands do not want their users to use Developer Mode. I use this feature to reduce the time for Animation to make the device faster to use (from 1x to 0.5x). With Realme 2 Pro, after adjusting for 1 day, all those choices returned to the default setting. Realme 3 Pro no longer has this issue, but still has a message that encourages users to turn off this mode. This is a very confusing and annoying thing!

Acceptable configuration upgrade

The difference in the configuration of the two models is their chipsets. While the Realme 2 Pro comes with a Snapdragon 660 SoC, its successor features a Snapdragon 710 SoC. Both chipsets are in Qualcomm's mid-range segment, but everyone knows that Snapdragon 710 SoC is a new chipset built on a 10nm process, so it will certainly be more powerful.

The most noticeable difference is in the GPU. The Snapdragon 710 has a 1.5 times higher performance score than Snapdragon 660. So it will be a major upgrade for 'mobile gamers'. In daily tasks, the Realme 3 Pro is also smoother than its predecessor due to a new SoC or software optimization.

Changed imaging capabilities from hardware to software

The Realme 3 Pro has a 25MP f/2.0 selfie camera, a dual-camera setup on the back including a 16MP f/1.7 primary sensor and a 5MP depth sensor. Both the selfie camera and the depth sensor are improved in their resolution compared to the Realme 2 Pro. However, the company still keeps the resolution on the primary sensor. Why?

In fact, the 16MP main sensor on the Realme 3 Pro is Sony IMX519, which is different from the one on the Realme 2 Pro and is being used on the OnePlus 6T with much higher pricing.

The quality difference of the images captured by the two models is not too significant but is still enough to recognize. Photos grabbed by the Realme 3 Pro have a bit higher definition. The photos’ noise is also color-less while the noise of photos captured by the Realme 2 Pro often turns purple.

Another difference between the two models is in the software. The Realme 3 Pro features additional modes for shooting. Of which, the most eye-catching feature is the Ultra HD shooting mode, which is advertised to be able to merge 4 images with 16MP resolution into a single 64MP resolution image.

Indeed, when using this mode, the camera produces images with a size of 6,912 x 9,216 pixels, which are larger than the images captured by the medium format Fujifilm GFX50R priced at over Rs. 290,000! But when zooming, the 64MP image resolution is not higher than the regular 16MP image. In this mode, the device also works much slower than normal mode, so I think this mode does more harm than good!

The Realme 3 Pro also has several useful features that can be used daily, which includes bokeh mode, macro mode, night mode, and ultra-slow video recording at 960fps for creating fancy GIF images.

Several test shots from Realme 3 Pro:

Greatly improved batteries

All of the above upgrades make the Realme 3 Pro experience better than Realme 2 Pro, but for me, the greatest improvement of the phone is its battery.

It has a 4,045 mAh battery, which is 545mAh higher than the capacity of Realme 2 Pro's battery. Combined with mid-range configuration, the handset can be used within 2 days without intense gaming for a long time. Additionally, the standard VOOC 3.0 charger makes the Realme 3 Pro fully recharged from 0% within 80 minutes, while the Realme 2 Pro with smaller battery takes nearly 2 hours to fully charge the battery!

Is Realme 3 Pro worth buying?

As a user of the Realme 2 Pro, I have to admit the Realme 3 Pro is a major upgrade version with necessary improvements for the previous version, making it a completely worth-buying smartphone.

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