Introduction
Realme launched the Narzo 20 Pro on 21st September 2020 as the successor to the Realme Narzo 10 and is also the first smartphone in the Narzo series to get the ‘Pro’ badge. The phone comes with a 6.5-inch FHD+ IPS LCD panel with a 1080 x 2400 resolution, 90Hz fast refresh rate and a powerful Helio G95 chipset. The camera setup at the back houses the 48MP primary camera, 8MP Ultra-wide lens and two 2MP Macro and depth sensors. The selfie camera at the front is a 16MP shooter. The big thing is that you do get the 65W Super Dart charging with the Narzo 20 Pro which gives it an edge over many other smartphones in the same price segment.
Read More: Realme Narzo 10 Series Review
The Realme Narzo 20 Pro offers a solid spec sheet but how does it perform in real-time, that’s the big question.
Prices in India, Variants, Availability
Pricing is the most crucial factor for any smartphone to make it stand out of the competition, and the Realme Narzo 20 Pro has been priced aggressively. The 6GB RAM + 64GB storage variant sells at a price of ₹14,999 while the higher 8GB+128GB variant is priced at ₹16,999. The device is available in two colour options: White Knight and Black Ninja. Pretty fancy names for black and white!
You can buy it from Flipkart or Amazon or realme.com as well. There are a lot many deals on Flipkart like the buy with the exchange where you are getting an exchange value of up to ₹13,900 for your old smartphone. You can also the avail the No cost EMI option starting from ₹1,667/month.
Box Contents
Realme Narzo 20 Pro comes in a standard yellow packaging as we have seen in the other Realme devices. The box contents include:
- Narzo 20 Pro handset
- 65W Super Dart Charging Adapter
- SIM Card Tool
- Screen Protect Film
- Transparent Case
- USB Type-C Data Cable
- Quick Guide Booklet with Warranty Card
Specs at a glance
Before we talk in detail about Narzo 20 Pro, let’s have a quick look at the key specifications.
- Display: 16.51 cm (6.5 inch) Full HD+ Display, 90Hz refresh rate
- Processor: MediaTek Helio G95
- Storage: 6GB/64GB, 8GB/128GB
- Software: Realme UI v1.0 (Based on Android 10)
- Rear cameras: 48MP + 8MP + 2MP + 2MP
- Selfie camera: 16MP
- Battery: 4500 mAh, 65W Super Dart Charger
- Weight: 191g
- Dimensions: 162.30 x 75.40 x 9.40mm
Now, let’s move ahead and see the Realme Narzo 20 Pro review and check why you should skip this if you are a camera lover.
Design and Build
The design is similar to the Realme 7 with a glossy touch. The back is polycarbonate and not glass, and it plays around with light to give that V-effect. Also, it is a huge fingerprint magnet and is slippery too, so it is recommended to use it with a case. The good thing is that Realme provides a transparent TPU case in the box. The display is a 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel with a punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera at the top left corner. The bezels are very thin at the top and the edges, but the chin is thicker in comparison.
Just like the Realme 7, the Narzo 20 Pro has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner on the right side which doubles up as the power button. The triple sim-slot and the volume rockers are present on the left side and are quite clicky. The speaker grille, microphone and the USB Type-C port are all present at the bottom. The camera module at the back is similar to the Realme 7’s straight-rectangular quad-camera setup and houses the four cameras, plus, a dual-LED flash. The secondary noise-cancellation microphone is absent from the device which should have been there for a 15K phone.
Also Read: Why Realme 7 Pro is the Best Budget Performer?
Realme Narzo 20 Pro is not bulky and weighs around 190gm with a thickness of 9.4mm, which is acceptable given its size and the battery it packs in.
Display
The display on the Narzo 20 Pro is a 6.5-inch IPS LCD Panel. The upgrade from HD on the other Narzo 20 models to Full HD+ display in the Narzo 20 Pro is noticeable when compared side by side. The display has a 1080 x 2400-pixel resolution with a pixel density of 405ppi. There is the now-standard 20:9 aspect ratio with an 83.4% screen-to-body ratio.
The Narzo 20 Pro has a faster 90HZ refresh rate panel making it identical to the one in Realme 7. However, it still needs optimisation so that it can match the 90Hz refresh rate on phones that are priced higher.
This time you do get a brighter display as compared to the previous Narzo phones which had below-average peak brightness levels. From our usage, we can say that the screen got bright enough to be used outdoors, with text remaining nice and readable. The colours produced are sharp and vibrant. Also, we did not face any issue with the viewing angles on the phone. The camera cutout at the top left corner may seem a little distracting in the beginning, but over time the eyes adjust to its position.
With a Full HD+ display which is 6.5-inches large, watching multimedia content will definitely be an immersive experience. The device does come with Widevine L1 certification so that you can stream at full resolution in services like Netflix and Amazon Video.
The display is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3. The device comes with a pre-applied screen protector which is not of good quality and is a magnet for scratches and smudges. We’d just take it off and either uses the screen as it is or invests in proper tempered glass protection.
Performance
Talking about performance, the Narzo 20 Pro is powered by the Mediatek Helio G95 octa-core processor clocked at up to 2.05GHz, which is a noticeable upgrade from the Helio G85 in the vanilla Narzo 20 and even more so the Snapdragon 665 in the Narzo 20A.
The 12nm chipset paired with the Mali-G76 GPU keeps the phone running smooth. It undoubtedly handles day to day usage quite efficiently without showing any lags or stutter. Switching through apps, navigating across the UI and multitasking were handled well with ease. App loading time was quick too.
Check out this detailed comparison between Realme Narzo 20 Pro and Realme 7: Narzo 20 Pro v Realme 7
The Helio G95 is quite a capable chip when it comes to gaming with the device. You can enjoy almost every popular Android game like Call of Duty Mobile, Asphalt 9 or PUBGM with the graphic settings set to high. Plus, the 90Hz fast refresh rate acts as icing to the cake while playing games which support higher refresh rate and gamers will definitely love it.
Your Narzo 20 Pro might get slightly warm during extended gaming sessions, but there was no significant heating. Realme has implemented the Carbon Fibre Cooling System Heat Dissipation Technology that helps regulate the phone’s temperature.
The device comes with 6GB or 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.1 storage type. It also supports expandable storage up to 256GB with a dedicated microSD card slot.
Software
On the software end, the Realme Narzo 20 Pro ships with Realme UI v1.0 based on Android 10 operating system. The new launcher has a lot of similarity with stock Android and that is the only one thing I like about it. There is an app drawer, which provides a clutter-free experience and it is optional too, i.e. one can opt-out of it if they want. The UI supports different icon packs to choose from if you are not satisfied with the default one. There is a system-wide Dark mode which you can enable it manually or schedule it from within the display settings. You do get the option for a Smart Sidebar on the edge of the display which you can customise to include the actions and app shortcuts of your choice.
Realme promises a 2-year update cycle for its smartphones. The Realme UI provides a clean user experience with fewer ads and no banned apps preinstalled in the device. There are some apps which come preinstalled like Amazon, Facebook and some Realme apps but you can uninstall most of them to get rid of the bloatware. The overall user-experience with the Realme UI is quite pleasant. The interface is snappy, clutter-free and simplistic.
Cameras
The Realme Narzo 20 Pro shares its Camera unit with the Realme 7 which happens to be nearly alike with the one on the vanilla Narzo 20, as well, with just an extra 2MP depth sensor.
The main camera is a 48MP Quad-Bayer Sony IMX471 sensor with f/1.8 aperture and 0.8µm pixels. This is paired with an 8MP ultra-wide lens with f/2.3 aperture and 1.12µm pixels with 119 degrees field of view, and two 2MP macro and depth sensors. The selfie camera is a 16 MP sensor with f/2.1 aperture and 1.0µm pixels.
By default, the main camera captures 12MP shots. However, you do have the option to shoot at the full 48MP resolution. Images captured by the primary camera have good dynamic range and retain true to life colours. The HDR mode adds more details and sharpness to the photos. The camera performed decently in both outdoor and artificial lighting, however, the same is not true when the amount of ambient lighting drops. Low-light photography on the Narzo 20 Pro is not up to the mark despite having a dedicated Night Mode. The images lack details and are full of background noise. The Night mode performance on the Narzo 20 Pro is inferior compared to the Realme 7’s Night Mode shots.
The 8MP ultra-wide sensor is good enough for the price point, but not stellar. Images captured are weak in detail and noisy too. The colours lose their vibrancy and the image becomes a bit dull. You do get the Night mode option with the Ultra-wide camera too, but unfortunately, the limits of the 8MP resolution are evident here. The images come out brighter but the colours and contrast are not that great.
The 16MP selfie snapper in the Narzo 20 Pro takes decent selfies. The skin tones look good though you get smoothened results. Turn off the AI beautification for getting more natural results. The portraits shots taken with the front camera come out nice with decent edge-detection. It also lets you set the level of blur. Low light selfies were below average.
4K video capturing at 30fps is only available for the primary camera while the selfie camera can shoot up to 1080p footage at 30fps. Daylight videos shot at 1080p had a mild shimmer while 4K footage lacked stabilisation. The Ultra steady mode stabilises footage better but is restricted to 1080p in resolution. Low-light video shot at 1080p had a ghosting effect and 4K footage wasn’t stabilised.
Battery
The Narzo 20 Pro has a 4500mAh battery under its hood which is split into two cells of 2250 mAh each. It’s not as much as the Realme 7 with its 5000mAh cell and kinda far from the Narzo 20 and its huge 6000mAh battery. The key highlight here is the 65W Super Dart charging which can power up the device from 0 to 40% in just 15 minutes, 75% in 30 minutes and a full charge takes around 45 minutes. The charging speed is really fast and impressive. And if you are in a hurry, simply plug in the charger for 15 minutes and see the phone charge up to 40%.
Talking about the battery performance, the phone lasted for more than 36 hours on a single charge which includes moderate usage with few hours of watching online videos, browsing on the web, listening to music and calls. Even with rather intensive use, the phone would last throughout the day.
Audio, Connectivity, Biometrics
Realme Narzo 20 Pro has a single speaker which is present at the bottom. The audio output is good for this price. The sound is loud and clear, but you don’t get the stereo effect as it has a solitary bottom-firing speaker. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack and support for Bluetooth 5.0. You don’t get Dolby Atmos sound but it does support Dirac Sound Effect and MT6359 Audio Decoding Chip. The audio output via headphone jack or Bluetooth is quite good no matter which headset you are using.
The earpiece used by Realme in the Narzo 20 Pro has a decent output and there were no issues in hearing the other party, while on a call.
Realme Narzo 20 Pro supports dual sim ( Nano-SIM) with 4G enabled on both the SIMs. Other connectivity options on the Narzo 20 Pro include dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C 2.0 and USB On-The-Go. GPS support with A-GPS, GLONASS is present. There is no FM radio antenna in this device. Other sensors present on the Narzo 20 Pro include accelerometer, gyro, proximity sensor and compass.
For security, the Narzo 20 Pro is equipped with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor which is pretty fast. Facial recognition is also included and detects your face in no time in almost every scenario. As usual, you can set up a 6-digit secure Pin or Password.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 65W SuperDart fast charging tech
- Vibrant display
- Runs on Realme UI 2.0
Cons
- Average camera setup even at this price
Realme Narzo 20 Pro features a powerful spec sheet and delivers solid performance suited for both a heavy user and normal user. The Helio G95 SoC is fairly capable of handling heavy apps and games. The 4500mAh battery delivers good battery life, plus, the 65 Watt Super Dart charging further ensures that you can charge it back in no time. Daylight camera performance is decent but low-light photography needs improvement.
So, if you are not much of a camera user and mainly a power user, the Narzo 20 Pro will suit all your needs. However, the Realme 7 can be a suitable alternative with a better camera but only 30W fast charging.
