Realme has been extremely aggressive this year when it comes to bringing new smartphone to the market. Just a few days ago, the company launched the Realme 5 and Realme 5 Pro in India. These are the first set of quad camera phones from the brand and a precursor to the upcoming 64MP quad camera smartphone, the Realme XT. Realme plans to launch the Realme XT just before Diwali, so we're probably looking at a September-end unveiling.
Weeks before the India launch of the Realme XT, the company decided to give the media a chance to get a feel of the device. India Today Tech received a unit of the Realme XT along with its specifications, which is no doubt a way for the company to get one up on Xiaomi, which is set to launch its own 64MP quad camera Redmi Note 8 Pro in China on Thursday, August 29.
Realme hasn't officially revealed the specs of the Realme XT, but it did tell us enough to offer our first impressions of the device. The company also told us not to post images of the display yet, so you will just have to go by our word.
The first thing to note is that the Realme XT is not part of the Realme X series. It is a brand new series that the company will launch in India. This means the Realme XT is not a successor to the Realme X, but rather a more premium smartphone, which might be debatable, and we'll talk about that in a bit.
Starting off with the design, the Realme XT is both familiar and different. On the front, it gets a Dewdrop display that we have seen on several Realme phones in the past. The back, however, gets a glass protection rather than plastic. Yes, the Realme XT is the first phone from the company to offer glass on the back. The rear panel is curved around the edges to offer a comfortable grip. The Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the back feels good and should withstand scratches to some extent.
The rear panel is clean and minimalistic with just a vertical quad camera setup on the top left corner. Realme is also going with an in-display fingerprint sensor, which adds to the new-age touch. The phone will come in white and blue gradient colours. The white colour unit we received is actually off-whitish, possibly a lighter shade of blue. The panel makes straight and curved lines to make it look more premium under light.
The frame is metal and it sees a power button with yellow accent on the right side and volume keys on the left. On the bottom is a Type-C port, 3.5mm headphone jack and a single speaker grille. The Realme XT is marginally smaller than the Realme X and is lighter too at 183 grams.
The Realme XT sports a 6.4-inch FHD+ (1080x2340) Super AMOLED display, similar to the Realme X. The AMOLED display looks good on first glance with attractive, vibrant colours and good viewing angles.
India Today Tech has also learnt that the Realme XT will be powered by a Snapdragon 712 SoC, which is the same processor powering the recently launched Realme 5 Pro. SD712 is a 2.3Ghz octa-core processor based on a 10nm process and is equipped with an Adreno 616 GPU. The Realme XT will be offered with 4GB, 6GB and 8GB of RAM along with 64GB and 128GB of internal storage. Unlike the Realme X, the Realame XT will support storage expandability via microSD card up to 256GB.
Of course, the USP of the Realme XT is its 64MP quad camera phone, so let's get right into that.
The quad camera setup on the Realme XT includes a 64-megapixel Samsung GW1 sensor. The Realme XT and upcoming Redmi Note 8 Pro are among the first phones to use Samsung's high-resolution sensor. Much like the 48MP sensor that's all the rage right now, the 64MP camera uses pixel binning (Tertracell technology as Samsung calls it) to stitch 16MP shots together to offer a bright, detailed photo. This is done by default but there is also a full 64MP mode in the settings menu as well, which should only be used in limited, daylight scenarios.
In addition to the 64MP f/1.8 primary camera, the Realme XT gets an 8-megapixel ultra wide-angle lens, a 2-megapixel macro lens and a 2-megapixel depth sensor, similar to the Realme 5 series. The main camera gets EIS support and also supports Nightscape, Chroma Boost and HDR. The selfie camera offers a 16-megapixel Sony IMX471 sensor.
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I tried the cameras very briefly so I won't be able to offer a verdict just yet. Suffice it to say that the main camera does impress in daylight shots with HDR offering good support in tricky lighting conditions. Colours look good even without Chroma Boost enabled. When comparing it to the Realme X's 48MP camera, the difference in picture quality is not that big. We were quite impressed with the camera on the Realme X, and it looks like the Realme XT should impress us as well. The macro camera doesn't offer the best clarity or detail, but it gets the job done. I often found better or more usable macro results with the main camera's AI macro detection, although it doesn't get as close to the subject.
The Realme XT packs a 4,000mAh battery, which should be good enough to last a whole day. Realme phones typically last long thanks to some helpful power saving options in ColorOS 6. The phone also supports VOOC 3.0 fast charging, which takes about 80 minutes to charge the device from 0-100 per cent.
Oppo plans to launch the Realme XT in India just before Diwali, so there is still a few weeks to go before the company announces its pricing and availability details. This looks and feels like a more premium version of the Realme X, so a price tag just under or over Rs 20,000 won't be wrong to assume. The 64MP quad camera setup defines the Relame XT and it needs to be something special for consumers to choose this over the Realme X.