Realme 9 Pro Plus Review – A Mid-Range Champion With Excellent Cameras

The Realme 9 Pro Plus is a powerful mid-ranger featuring a flagship-level camera performance and other features, a segment in which Realme has established itself. The smartphone is the highest-spec edition of Realme’s most popular smartphone series’ latest iteration. The latest Realme 9 series will be the successor to the popular Realme 8 series.

The Dimensity 920 5G processor from MediaTek improves gaming performance significantly. In comparison to the Realme 8 Pro, the new Realme 9 Pro Plus appears to be a worthy upgrade. Let’s find out how the Realme 9 Pro Plus 5G performs in real life.

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The Realme 9 Pro Plus 5G is priced at Rs. 24,999 for the 6GB + 128GB variant. There’s also an 8GB + 128GB model for Rs. 26,999 and an 8GB + 256GB option for Rs. 28,999. The Realme 9 Pro Plus 5G comes in three colour options: Aurora Green, Midnight Black, and Sunrise Blue. The Realme 9 Pro Plus 5G will be available for purchase on February 21 at 12 p.m on Flipkart.

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Let’s see what the Realme 9 Pro Plus brings along inside the box:

• 60W Adapter
• USB Cable
• Quick Start Guide with Warranty Card
• Sim Card Tool
• Screen Protect Film
• TPU Case

Before we talk in detail about the Realme 9 Pro Plus, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.4 inches Super AMOLED
• Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 920
• RAM & ROM: 6GB 128GB, 8GB 128GB, 8GB 256GB
• Software: Android v12
• Rear camera: 50MP + 8MP + 2MP
• Selfie camera: 16 MP
• Battery: 4500 mAh
• Weight: 182 grams
• Dimensions: 160.2 x 73.3 x 7.9 mm

The Realme 9 Pro Plus appears to have swiftly caught on to the new craze of colour-changing smartphones. This phone comes in three colours: Midnight Black, Aurora Green, and Sunrise Blue. The Sunrise Blue variant is the only one that changes colour when introduced to sunlight. Aside from the colour-changing feature, the device has the same design as any other Realme smartphone. The overall look isn’t very premium, maybe because of that back which acts as a fingerprint magnet.

It comprises a plastic frame having flat sides which are sandwiched by the two layers of glass. Given its low 184g weight, the smartphone is quite compact, measuring just 7.99mm. It feels comfy for one-handed use. The Realme 9 Pro Plus is a comfortable phone to handle, and the design makes it simple for my fingertips to access the top of the display when I need to pull down the notification bar. The device does not strain my hands because of the rounded corners.

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However, the power button and volume buttons are relatively thin and may feel flimsy. It takes some time to become used to them. Aside from that, the phone’s bottom features a USB Type-C port, 3.5mm audio jack, and speaker grille.

The Realme 9 Pro Plus boasts a 6.4-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. On top of this, the screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The selfie camera is housed in a punch-hole camera cutout in the top-left corner. Although the phone boasts a “Super AMOLED” display, it does not have the same display quality or colour clarity. The colours are somewhat warm even though set to the brightest level. The bezels surrounding the display are relatively thin, and it gets HDR10+ and WideVine L1 certifications to enrich OTT streaming. The 90Hz refresh rate offers you seamless scrolling when using the smartphone.

The 90Hz refresh rate will appeal to gamers in particular, as it improves the gaming experience. If you wish the smartphone to decide the refresh rate of the screen, there is an adaptive refresh rate feature, but if you really want the best result, you should set 90Hz as the standard refresh rate – at the cost of faster battery drain.

Although the screen is bright enough to use in direct sunlight, it is definitely not the brightest we’ve seen in this class. This phone has an in-display fingerprint scanner that also functions as a heart rate monitor, which is one of the phone’s most exciting features. It’s a nice addition that could be handy for individuals who don’t have a fitness band or other specialised gear for the purpose, but it’s obviously not as reliable and accurate as any one of those.

The Realme 9 Pro Plus is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 920 CPU. It is a slightly improved variant of the Dimensity 900 chipset. The Realme 9 Pro Plus has no issues in terms of performance. The smartphone is fairly quick, and app loading times are comparable to those of any flagship phone from other brands. Because it’s a mid-range chipset, multitasking, switching across apps, and video editing are all smooth and lag-free. I didn’t face any lags or glitches during my time with it. That was a solid performance, but I wanted to push the boundaries even further, so I played games.

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If you play a bunch of games on your smartphone, the Realme 9 Pro Plus is a good choice. It supports high frame rates on titles like BGMI (Battlegrounds Mobile India) and Call of Duty: Mobile, as well as delivers good responsiveness and loading times. On BGMI, you can play at extreme frame rate (60fps), although only using the lowest graphical settings. Despite playing for nearly an hour, the phone does not overheat.

There is a Game Space feature where users may configure their phone so that it is ready for gaming. The game space also displays CPU and GPU usage, as well as smartphone temperature and battery life.

For the first time, Realme has supplied the 9 Pro Plus with Realme UI 3.0, which is based on Android 12. I’m glad we can finally get our hands on the latest Android versions. There are several third-party applications that can be uninstalled, as well as some Realme-branded apps that cannot. Otherwise, big thanks for providing the device with the most recent version of Android. Realme UI 3.0, for example, is not as highly customizable as Vivo’s Funtouch OS and is more like stock Android.

We noticed that navigating the phone’s user interface was fairly quick: we had almost no lag while swapping between apps or opening and closing apps. Customisations for Always-on-Display are now available, as well as floating windows for easier access. There’s also a Simple Mode for the less tech-savvy, which brings all of the essential apps to the front and blocks access to unwanted apps.

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The Realme 9 Pro Plus’s Heart Rate monitoring is one feature worth mentioning. Yes, the Realme 9 Pro Plus has a built-in heart rate sensor that takes a 15-second scan and displays the user’s heart rate. This does not necessitate the use of a separate wearable device such as a smartwatch. Now, I put this against my smartwatch, and the results were a mixture. It was sometimes pretty close to or totally correct, and other times it was completely inaccurate.

The Realme 9 Pro Plus comes with a triple camera layout that includes a 50-megapixel primary sensor featuring optical image stabilisation, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 2-megapixel macro lens. You get a 16-megapixel front camera for selfies and video calls. You can take excellent shots with this phone, especially in daylight.

The main lens of the Realme 9 Pro Plus is amazing, capable of taking some stunning photos both during the daytime and at night. The colours are accurate and don’t appear oversaturated, as I’ve noticed with other smartphones in this series. The sensor is also effective in capturing fine details.

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The phone includes a dedicated 50-megapixel mode that you’ll have to switch to in order to get better colour quality and detail in photographs.

The ultra-wide-angle camera captured photos that were surprisingly usable. They weren’t as sharp as those taken with the primary camera, but thanks to software correction, they had a decent dynamic range and low barrel distortion. We also used the macro camera, but the results were not as good as we had hoped. The macro images are usable, but barely, due to the low 2MP sensor. Although it does capture sharp colours when there is good lighting.

On the front, there’s a 16MP camera that captures photos with above-average dynamic range and clarity. Despite leaving all settings neutral, the selfies appear to be unnaturally beautified. It’s not something that will appeal to those who like a more natural face without the use of AI.

Portraits taken with both the front and rear cameras were clear and detailed, with a high dynamic range. In addition, edge detection was really good.

The low light images were strictly average even with the night mode enabled. The photos I took in night mode had a good amount of brightness and very little noise. This camera is fairly quick on focusing, and the focus seems to be mainly on point.

Video recording can be done in 4K resolution, which is quite normal for any mid-range smartphone, but only at 30 fps – you can only get up to 60 fps if you reduce the resolution to 1080p. The video quality was good like that of photos, and the videos were steady and not wobbly.

Even with the 4,500mAh battery, the Realme 9 Pro Plus has good battery life. It can easily last you two days if you are a casual user. Even a heavy user can expect it to survive a whole day. The phone gave me more than 6 hours of screen on time which I did not expect from a 4,500mAh battery.

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In addition, the device comes with a SuperDart 60W fast charger that can charge the smartphone from 0 to 100 per cent in just under an hour. It’s perfect for instances where you don’t have a lot of time to charge your phone as this can charge up to 30 per cent in just about 15 minutes.

The stereo speakers of the Realme 9 Pro Plus support Dolby Atmos for a clear, powerful, and rich sound. Users with compatible wired earphones/headphones can use the bottom-mounted headphone jack to enjoy Hi-Res audio.

The phone has a dual-5G standby mode and supports multiple 5G bands. It seems to have 13 5G Bands which include n1, n3, n5, n7, n8, n20, n28, n38, n40, n41, n77, n78, and n79. Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and the typical satellite navigation systems are also included.

Realme has used an optical fingerprint sensor for authentication, which is accurate and works well for the most part, but facial recognition, on the other hand, may use some fine-tuning.

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