A few days ago, we saw realme’s two latest 5G smartphones under the realme 9 Series, the realme 9 5G and realme 9 5G Speed Edition, and now the company has launched yet another variant of its realme 9 with better features alongside its ultimate flagship – realme GT2 Pro 5G. The highlights include a 90 Hz Super AMOLED display, 108 MP triple cameras, a Snapdragon 680, and supports 33W Dart charging. Here’s our hands-on and first impressions of the realme 9.
realme 9 Specifications
- Display: 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, Full HD+ resolution, 90 Hz refresh rate, 360 Hz touch sampling rate, 1,000 nits peak brightness
- Software: realme UI 3.0, Android 12
- CPU: 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 octa-core SoC clocked at 2.4 GHz
- GPU: Adreno 610 Graphics
- Memory: 6 GB OR 8 GB (Up to 13 GB Dynamic RAM)
- Storage: 128 GB UFS 2.2 internal storage, microSD slot
- Main Camera: Triple cameras (108 MP main + 8 MP ultra-wide-angle + 2 MP macro), single LED flash
- Selfie Camera: 16 MP
- Others: Side-mounted fingerprint scanner, Face Unlock
- Cellular: 4G network, dual SIM, dual 4G standby support
- Battery: 5,000 mAh battery
- Charging: 33W Dart fast charging, 50% in 31 minutes
- Price: ₹17,999 (4 GB + 64 GB), ₹18,999 (6 GB + 128 GB)
- Availability: 12th April 2022, Flipkart, realme.com, and other retail outlets
- Offers: Flat ₹2,000 off using HDFC and SBI cards
As opposed to its 5G variant, the realme 9 has far superior features such as its Super AMOLED display, 108 MP cameras and offers faster 33W Dart charging. Even though the realme 9 supports 4G, it still beats the realme 9 5G and realme 9 5G Speed Edition in certain areas.
The realme 9 has a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with a Full HD+ resolution and 90 Hz refresh rate. The fingerprint scanner isn’t on the right side where you usually see mounted on the power button, this time it’s on under the display due to its Super AMOLED screen. Unlike their 5G variants – realme 9 5G and realme 9 5G Speed Edition using an IPS screen, the realme 9 emerges with a better overall display quality (Super AMOLED).
The back has a ripple holographic design which looks fantastic, and the phone appears to be very slim (7.99 mm) and light in weight (178 grams) in the hands. We have the Meteor Black color variant while there are two more colors – Starbust Gold, and Stargaze Silver. The back also has three cameras with a whopping 108 MP as the main while the other two are 8 MP ultra-wide-angle and 2 MP macro, the selfie camera is 16 MP.
The bottom side has a USB Type-C port, 3.5 mm audio jack, a microphone, and loudspeakers. The second microphone is on the top and no second loudspeaker is available, hence no stereo effect. The right side has a power key while the left side has volume control and a triple-slot SIM tray supporting dual 4G SIMs and a dedicated microSD slot.
Talking about its hardware and performance, the realme 9 is equipped with a 6nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 octa-core SoC with Kryo 265 cores clocked up to 2.4 GHz paired with Adreno 610 GPU for gaming and graphics-intensive tasks. You will find the same chip Snapdragon 680 on realme 9i which was released a while ago.
About the CPU, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 is a midrange SoC manufactured in a 6nm process consisting of 4+4 core configurations, and four high-performance Kryo 265 Gold cores clocked at 2.4 GHz, and four power-efficient Kryo 265 Silver cores clocked at 1.9 GHz.
It comes in two variants, starting with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage considered as the base variant, and 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage as the top variant while it has a total of three color variants as mentioned before. The realme 9 also uses its RAM expansion technology extending the smartphone’s internal RAM up to 13 GB (an additional 5 GB RAM on top of 8 GB RAM).
Surprisingly, it runs on the Android 12 operating system with realme’s latest UI, the realme UI 3.0. The realme UI 3.0 was released a few months ago and a handful of realme smartphones have already received the update, thankfully realme has put the latest UI on the realme 9 whilst the realme 9 5G variants are still on the older 2.0 version. Moving to its battery, the smartphone packs a 5,000 mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging support.
The price for the 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant starts at ₹17,999 and the price for its 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant is ₹18,999. What we like about the phone is its 90 Hz Super AMOLED, its light-weight and slim form factor, 108 MP camera, and a decent performing Snapdragon chip. You can grab the realme 9 using an ongoing discount of a flat ₹2,000, the sale starts on 12th April 2022 on Flipkart and realme.com.
