Realm 9 Pro Plus review: Very good middle class or monotony?

Originally a small sub-company of OPPO, Realme has become increasingly dominant in recent months. The Realme 9 Pro As the flagship of the middle class, Plus is even a good example, because with equipment that is very similar on paper to the OnePlus North 2 manages to push the price down to under 370 euros.

However, compared to its strength, the Realme also has some hurdles. We want to examine this in the following lines.

Design: The Unexpected Vulnerability

The design is usually not a spectacular point for smartphones in this price range, because everyone prefers to focus on the inner equipment. Also the Realme 9 Pro Plus isn't particularly good at that.

The back is made of glass and the present blue version shows a yellow gradient depending on the light and is dotted with glitter. Personally, I probably would have found the design to be simpler, but a mid-range smartphone probably needs to be able to stand out with such methods. The back can even change color when exposed to large areas of sunlight, and at this color it becomes completely red, which really surprised me.

Alongside a flagship smartphone like the Realme GT 2 Pro you notice the low price clearly, especially in the processing quality. The frame is made of plastic and according to today's trend, it is also flattened. That ProThe problem, however, is that the back of the Realme 9 Pro Plus is rounded, the bezel sticks out very far and the transition to the display is therefore abysmal, making the bezel feel very weird overall. Due to a plastic layer at the transition to the screen glass, this is not like a line either, but rather uncomfortable. The keys are opposite and you can tell from the pressure points that they could be of higher quality.

However, the most striking thing is certainly the front. This is basically not a big one Proproblem, but the asymmetrical edges and the wide chin are clearly noticeable.

Picture: TechnikNews

Camera system: The great strength

But in order not to only report negative things, let's take a look at the camera system of the Realme 9 Pro Plus, the first big point on its own Proproduct advertising. It is therefore remarkable that the IMX766 sensor was installed, which we also found in the OPPO Find X5 Pro know. Together with the otherwise often omitted optical image stabilization, the main camera can definitely stand out on paper.

Color rendering and dynamics during the day

During the day you can see a higher image quality in most cases compared to a OnePlus 8T or Xiaomi 12X, which have two solid camera systems. As is typical for smartphones with a MediaTekProcessor that is not only the CPU or graphics card in a smartphone, but also image processingproprocessors, however, colors are very oversaturated in certain areas and images are lightened, which often makes for a rather cheap look and slips are more common. Based on many tested smartphones in the past, which are equipped with a MediaTekProcessor all exhibited similar behavior, such as this Xiaomi 11t, one can now say that the optimization of this is not yet so mature. That ProHowever, the problem has already been improved compared to the past, since the good results of the Realme 9 Pro Plus are now more constant.

Night shots and ultra wide angle

However, the biggest advantage of the large sensor is without question when shooting at night, this is simply a hardware advantage. The noise is low and the image quality and brightness are high, even compared to an OPPO Find X5 you hardly see any relevant difference. Without over-sharpening, it can sometimes even surpass a Samsung Galaxy S22. It will be difficult to find a better quality main camera under 400 euros than in the Realme 9 Pro plus to find.

But that doesn't mean that this camera is perfect in all areas, for example we see a clear smear in the ultra wide angle. The images are not unusable, but especially in less than ideal lighting conditions, you can see the miserable sensor in the poor edge quality. I would advise smartphone users to use the main camera.

Consumer experience: unspectacularly good

Compared to the camera system, the consumer experience is much less spectacular.

screen

The 90 Hertz Samsung AMOLED display on the front is definitely not bad. The only reason why it cannot stand out from the crowd is that the high standard has already established itself in the market. Calibrating the display of the Realme 9 Pro Plus is a bit too reddish, which can't be remedied by adjusting the white balance either. The brightness is not greater Proproblem, so that content can be read well on average in sunlight for the price, but the typical weaknesses of a non-flexible OLED display, more precisely rainbow-colored discoloration when viewed from the side, cannot be avoided here either, despite the slightly higher touch sampling rate of 360 Hertz I have the subjective feeling that the latency of the touch sensitivity is a bit higher, which also makes fast typing quite uncomfortable.

The display is calibrated a little too reddish. (Picture: TechnikNews)

Haptic feedback

The haptic feedback via the vibration motor is better, this is also X-axis, the highest quality type of vibration motor in a smartphone. Of course, it is not as high quality as in the OPPO Find X5 Pro, but the O Haptics are also integrated here. The haptic feedback is not quite as precise, but still comparatively pleasant. With the new ColorOS 12 software, called RealmeUI 3 here, there is also a good optimization and versatile use of the haptics. It's a good thing that good vibration motors have become more and more established as a relevant component in smartphones in recent years, now even up to the middle class.

Unlock

The fingerprint sensor in the Realme 9 Pro Plus is placed in the display, not on the side, as some manufacturers in this price range like to do. This technology has matured over the past few years, so unlocking is rarely a concern with a smartphone these days. Even if this is typically positioned too far down, you can still completely accept that at the price.

The user experience

Proprocessor

One of the main differences between the OnePlus Nord 2 and Realme 9 Pro+ is certainly the Proprocessor, because this is the MediaTek Dimensity 920 SoC. With less power than the in-house Dimensity 1200, it is still able to offer enough performance for everyday use. The RealmeUI 3.0 currently ensures a constantly smooth everyday operation.

Software

And unlike OnePlus, which still wanted to hide the ColorOS basis, this is actually the undoing of RealmeUI. The design elements changed on paper weren't thought through to the end and as a result this UI feels quite immature. For example, in the camera app and many other interfaces, the green colors on buttons are mixed with yellow Realme lettering, but other menus tell us that these should actually be blue. Otherwise, all the popular ColorOS features of Art+ are also available via the floating windows.

The advantage of OPPO's user interface over Android is that it runs the same on all devices across all price ranges and there are no differences in animations and the like. For expensive smartphones, this makes it feel less dynamic and fast than certain other UIs, but in the mid-range the clean optimization is definitely an advantage.

Battery

At 4500 mAh, the battery is just as big as in the OnePlus Nord 2. In terms of runtime, it can be positioned in the average range. No inefficient behavior of the MediaTek SoC is noticeable here. Thanks to the fast dart charging with 60 watts, the battery can also be recharged quickly.

Conclusion: Difficult thing...

Before unpacking the Realme 9 Pro Plus, I originally had extremely high expectations, also drawn from testing the OnePlus Nord 2, which were somewhat disappointed with the first impression of the design. After everyday use, however, one can say that the main camera and internal hardware can reproduce what is offered. In itself, the Realme 9 Pro Plus is a very good deal for less than 400 euros.

Compared to the OnePlus Nord 2 from the sister company, I still find it difficult to give this smartphone a particularly high rating. It is obviously a smartphone designed specifically for the online market, very different from OPPO's. This meets the key specs that look good on marketing sheets online. But with the points that you only feel after unpacking, such as the design, the compromade a mistake.

Basically none at all Proproblem, because you can't expect an all-round complete package for a low price, only OnePlus has found an even better balance with the Nord series, in my opinion, which is why this model was rightly priced cheaper here at the start. Because the OnePlus Nord 2 has been on the market for a long time, it is currently not more expensive with various promotions. So I would wait a little until the price difference has reappeared so that you can go to the actually very good Realme 9 Pro Plus can grab.

Thank you to Realme Germany for providing the Realme 9 Pro More!

Realm 9 Pro Buy Plus

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