After realme launched its latest realme 10 Pro Series smartphones in India last month – realme 10 Pro+ and realme 10 Pro, the company also introduced realme 10 which is the first realme smartphone launched in the year 2023. The realme 10 is a mid-range smartphone highlighting its 90 Hz Super AMOLED display, slim and lightweight design, 33W SuperVOOC Charge fast charging, MediaTek Helio G99 processor, 50 MP primary camera, and more. Here’s what you need to know about the phone in our realme 10 review.
realme 10 (4G) Specifications
- Display & Design: 6.4-inch AMOLED Full HD+ resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels), 90 Hz refresh rate, 360 Hz touch-sampling rate, 98% NTSC color gamut, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection
- Software: realme UI 3.0 interface, Android 12 operating system
- CPU: 6nm MediaTek Helio G99 octa-core SoC clocked up to 2.2 GHz (2x Cortex-A78 + 6x Cortex-A55 processors)
- GPU: Mali-G57 MC2 Graphics
- Memory: 4 GB OR 8 GB RAM
- Storage: 64 GB OR 128 GB internal storage
- Main Camera: Dual cameras (50 MP f/1.8 camera + 2 MP f/2.4 B&W camera), LED flash
- Selfie Camera: 16 MP f/2.45
- Others: Side-mounted fingerprint scanner, 3.5 mm audio jack, Face Unlock
- Cellular: 4G network, dual SIM dual 4G, VoLTE support
- Battery & Charging: 5,000 mAh battery, 33W SuperVOOC Charge fast charging
- Colors: Clash White, Rush Black
- Price: ₹13,999 (4 GB + 64 GB), ₹16,999 (8 GB + 128 GB)
- Availability: 15th January 2023 at 12 AM on realme.com, Flipkart, and mainline channels
- Offers: Flat ₹1,000 off on ICICI bank cards and EMI.
Design, Display, & Build Quality
On the design front, the realme 10 has a 7.95 mm thin Light Particle design with slim bezels which I believe looks quite similar to the realme 10 Pro. The realme 10 Pro, rather, has more squeezed bezels, however, both resemble the backside with different design patterns.
The realme 10 comes with a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with Full HD+ resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels) and 90 Hz refresh rate which is fairly a good display in this segment. Several smartphones still use an LCD display in this range which is why realme 10 shines out in the display department.
Other display features include a 90% screen-to-body ratio, 8-bit color depth (16.7M colors), 4,000,000:1 contrast ratio, a 360 Hz touch-sampling rate, 98% NTSC color gamut, and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. The phone comes in two color variants – Clash White, and Rush Black, we got the Clash White color as you can see in the images below.
The back isn’t glass, and the sides aren’t metallic, but the design is quite well-built. The realme 10 is light in weight with around 178 grams and is 7.95 mm slim making it easier to hold and carry. You can see two big camera modules at the back, it has a dual camera setup, a fingerprint scanner on the power button, a punch-hole selfie camera in the left corner of the screen, and flaunts its slim bezels on the front.
The right side has a power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner and volume controls just above whereas the left side has a dual SIM tray with a dedicated microSD card slot. The top has a microphone and a loudspeaker at the earpiece (stereo) while the bottom side offers another loudspeaker making dual speakers. The bottom side has a USB Type-C, a microphone, and a 3.5 mm jack for earphones/headphones.
Software, User Interface, & Features
The realme 10 runs on the Android 12 operating system with realme UI 3.0 on top. The realme 10 has a security patch dated 5th November 2022. We would love to see the new realme UI 4.0 update on this phone as the two realme 10 Pro Series smartphones already debuted with it, and we expect an OTA to be rolled out soon for the realme 10.
About the realme UI 4.0, it made its global debut with the launch of the realme 10 Series last month, and with the new realme UI 4.0 based on Android 13, you get loads of features that make your user experience more useful. Features like a new UI design and a home screen, an Always-on display for multi-tasking, Dynamic Computing Engine, privacy and security, and more.
The realme UI 3.0 is still better than the older realme UIs and feels light and smooth, it has better optimizations and gives you a smoother experience, the 90 Hz refresh rate is a catalyst. The realme UI 3.0 packs a bunch of features on top of all the native Android 12 perks and offers a set of customizations. The realme UI 3.0 has been seamlessly optimized for Android 12 and it’s much more improved compared to the previous versions.
A handful of third-party apps can be seen such as Facebook, Josh, Dailyhunt, ShareChat, Moj, Snapchat, LinkedIn, PhonePe, Amazon, Public, Spotify, Flipkart, and a few more apps from realme. The user interface is smooth and lag-free in our initial usage, the experience overall is good and feels smooth due to its 90 Hz refresh rate.
Hardware, Performance, & Gaming
Moving to the specifications of the phone, the realme 10 is powered by the MediaTek Helio 99 octa-core SoC clocked up to 2.2 GHz. The SoC is laced with up to 8 GB RAM, up to 128 GB internal storage, and a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU (up to 950 MHz clock speed) for gaming and graphics-related tasks.
The SoC is a midranger manufactured in a 6nm process and consists of 8x Cortex CPUs (2x Cortex-A78 and 6x Cortex-A55 processors). The two performance ARM Cortex-A78 cores are clocked at 2.2 GHz, and the six power-efficient ARM Cortex-A55 cores are clocked at 2.0 GHz. A Mali-G57 MC2 graphics processing unit with up to 950 MHz clock speed is available for gaming and graphics-related tasks.
The Helio G99 SoC is more like a higher-clocked Helio G96 manufactured in the more recent 6nm process. The performance would be slightly higher than the G96 if we go with the benchmarks. The performance of the CPU is closely related to the Snapdragon 730G, as well as, the two 5G-based SoCs – Snapdragon 695 and Dimensity 810. And this makes the realme 10 quite of a performer, no wonder it’s a 4G device.
Gaming is yet another aspect, especially for gamers since it shares the same GPU found on the Dimensity 810 with a slightly lower clock speed (950 MHz vs. 1068 MHz). The performance is similar to the Adreno 619L and somewhat below Adreno 619 (Snapdragon 695 5G). Expect a midrange gaming performance with medium to high graphics settings in the games.
About the variants of the phone, the realme comes in two RAM and storage variants i.e. 4 GB RAM with 64 GB storage as the base variant and 8 GB RAM with 128 GB storage as the top variant. The RAM can be expanded up to 8 GB via its RAM expansion technology and the storage can be expanded with a microSD card. The RAM is an LPDDR4x type and the storage is a UFS 2.2 type.
Cameras
As for the cameras of the phone, you don’t get the fancy triple or quad cameras here, the realme 10 equips a 50 MP f/1.8 main camera in its dual camera setup on the rear side with the secondary camera of 2 MP f/2.4 B&W while the front side has a 16 MP f/2.45 selfie camera.
You can see the two big camera modules, one housing a 50 MP main camera and the other a 2 MP B&W (Black and White) camera. No dedicated wide-angle camera, no macro camera, and no telephoto. The cameras seem degraded as compared to the 108 MP camera on its predecessor realme 9 (4G). The realme 10 Pro Series smartphones launched recently also offer 108 MP as the primary camera.
The camera UI is pretty much similar in realme phones depending on the camera configuration and features. You get a 50 MP Mode, Night Mode, Street Mode, Dual-View Video Mode, Film Mode, Panorama Mode, Pro Mode, Timelapse Mode, Portrait Mode, HDR Mode, AI Scene Recognition, AI Beauty, Filters, Slow Motion, Bokeh Effect Control, Text Scanner, Tilt-Shift, JPG/RAW Mode, and more. The main camera allows users to record 1080p videos at 60 fps, as well as, slow motion videos of 1080p at 120fps.
Moving to the quality of the cameras, the 50 MP camera takes decent shots in the daylight. No wide-angle camera is available on the phone which limits its capabilities on the phone. Take a look at the camera samples below taken from realme 10’s cameras.
realme 10 Camera Samples
Battery Runtime & Charging
For its battery, the realme 10 packs a 5,000 mAh battery with support for 33W SuperVOOC Charge fast charging. As per realme, the 5,000 mAh can deliver up to 688 hours of standby time, and more than 2 hours of music with 5% battery life in Ultra Saving Mode. The realme 10 can also deliver 21 hours of YouTube hours, 19 hours of navigation, and 38 hours of calling. You can expect the phone to last up to 2 days depending on your usage. The phone can be charged up to 50% in 28 minutes with its 33W SuperVOOC Charge fast charging.
Verdict – realme 10 (4G)
The realme 10 offers a stunning 90 Hz Super AMOLED display, a fast 33W SuperVOOC Charge fast charging, a slim and lightweight design, and a fast Helio G99 CPU. All these top features make the smartphone a great choice for midrangers. The realme 10 is a great performer, faster than its predecessor realme 9, it has impressive specs and features under ₹15,000 budget and is recommended for those who are looking for a mid-range 4G smartphone at this price.
realme 10 Price in India – Where To Buy?
The price for the realme 10 starts at ₹12,999 for its base variant 4 GB + 64 GB variant and ₹16,999 for its top-variant 8 GB + 128 GB variant. The smartphone is available on realme.com, Flipkart, and mainline channels. You can grab the ongoing offers which include flat ₹1,000 off on ICICI bank cards and EMI.
