12/03/2020
After bagging the title of the Number One smartphone manufacturer in the Philippines, realme is closing the year 2020 with one last product launch. And it’s not just any ordinary device. The company is introducing for the first time in the country its 5G-enabled flagship phone — the X50 Pro 5G. This is in addition to other AIoT products that were also freshly unveiled.
With a really powerful Snapdragon processor, a quad-camera setup, fast-charging technology, and 5G connectivity, did realme save the best for last?
Design
As with other realme smartphones, the X50 Pro 5G looks familiar with its rounded edges and a bit of a chunky physique. You have your usual power/lock button on the right while the left side holds the volume buttons.
The top has nothing much going on except for a pair of antenna bands and a pinhole microphone, but the bottom comprises of a single SIM tray, its USB-C port, and a speaker grille.
Turn it around and we have much more to talk about so let’s begin with its eye-catching design. I like the subtle shine that its back panel has since it exudes a more sophisticated and premium feel.
The phone is available in Moss Green and Rust Red and realme specifically went with these low saturation colors. They used an AG Glass or anti-glare glass coating that gives the back panel a subdued look with an added resistance to smudges.
We also see the slightly protruding camera module housing four sensors. Meanwhile, up front, we have two selfie cameras with a capsule-style setup.
Located towards the bottom of the screen is an in-display fingerprint sensor which I actually prefer more than the side-mounted ones as you can accidentally unlock the display just by holding the device.
So far, fingerprint recognition has been snappy and missing the scanning area has been noticeably minimized as compared to other phones.
Display and Multimedia
Its display is 6.44 inches big and uses a Super AMOLED display. The panel is made by Samsung which means vibrance should not be a problem and it comes with a 90Hz refresh rate for smoother movements.
With a Full HD+ resolution (2400 x 1080), you get a sharp picture quality for consuming content with good contrast for reading and browsing.
As expected, colors are punchy and brightness is sufficient even under direct sunlight. Its Eye Comfort feature is still present to help reduce blue light from the screen and prevent eye strain from prolonged phone usage.
For watching videos or playing games without headphones on, you’d be glad to know that the X50 Pro comes with dual linear speakers that uses the earpiece as the second speaker.
With these, you get stereo sound which is a big deal as having only the down-firing speaker is definitely not as immersive.
Camera
The four-piece camera setup mentioned earlier consists of a 64-megapixel main, 12-megapixel telephoto, 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle macro lens, and a B&W portrait lens.
Generic shots have good detail in them and reproduce the scene’s colors naturally. As usual, having a wide-angle lens came in handy to pack in more elements into one shot. Telephoto is also great to have around but I personally go only as far as 5x zoom to keep most of the details intact.
Having its HDR turned on and working side-by-side with the AI scene enhancement greatly helps in bringing out more color and detail to every scene. It’s just a bit easy to go overboard with colors with AI scene enhancement turned on.
Meanwhile, Nightscape 3.0 also proved to be useful in really dim situations. The photo you see of a cat sitting on a plant box was captured in really low light settings and it was still able to bring out detail without seeing a lot of noise and smudge. That’s impressive!
The X50 Pro supports 4K video at 30fps and comes with video stabilization. This makes it possible to record fairly smooth hand-held footage.
Flipping it again, we see the dual front cameras with 32MP Sony wide-angle sensor and an 8-megapixel super-wide-angle camera for your selfies.
realme said the cameras are equipped with Edge Deformity Correction since wide-angle shots tend to stretch the image. With this feature, it’s able to recognize faces and optimize face shape and contours so they appear more natural. AI, man.
Together, these sensors took decent selfies even when shooting against the light. Its portrait nightscape feature also made it possible to have decent shots when lights aren’t that bright.
Additionally, they also capture stabilized and slow-mo videos that should help when you’re into shooting vlog-style clips.
Performance
We’ve discussed a handful of features so far and powering those functionalities is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 — one of the leading mobile processors offered today. Joining the party are 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage which are the best combo you can get for the X50 Pro 5G. realme is also proud of the fact that it runs on Android 11 with realme UI 2.0 so it contributes to the overall efficiency and power offered by the phone.
Everyday tasks are done without breaking a sweat. Although this is not really surprising as the CPU has been tweaked for better performance. This is more evident when playing games. Even resource-heavy tasks are easily run by the device while keeping things cool.
Graphics performance is also at par with our expectations and together with its vibrant display and up to 90Hz refresh rate, spending hours on games like Genshin Impact was an enjoyable experience. Other games like Wild Rift or Call of Duty: Mobile were also rendered seamlessly.
It’s worth noting that gaming is immersive not just in visuals and performance, but also even through its tactile vibrations for every hit or cast of a spell in-game. That’s a nice touch for all the gamers out there.
According to realme, AI performance has also been increased 100% which somehow doesn’t sound great for the future of the human race. But kidding aside, it should better assist you with your entire experience with the phone.
One of the main selling points of the X50 Pro is its 5G connectivity. And with more and more 5G-capable towers being established around the metro, it really pays to invest in something that can harness this power. realme has partnered with Smart Communications to provide this high-speed connectivity and the company promises download and upload speeds up to 600Mbps and 60Mbps, respectively.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have a Smart SIM available and was able to achieve a constant download speed of 291Mbps and upload speed of 28Mbps in our tests. Still, those are fairly impressive speeds, and streaming high-resolution videos online didn’t pause to buffer.
It’s also important to note that when talking about 5G connectivity, stability comes second to speed and the device was able to deliver stable connections as we browse the web even while using the X50 Pro as a hotspot with multiple devices. And during that time, we enjoyed its WiFi 6 with its extended range and Dual WiFi acceleration.
Battery
Packing a 4200mAh battery, the X50 Pro can last an entire day of usage even outdoors with 5G enabled. This may sound like an average performance for a smartphone but keep in mind that it needs a lot of juice for its apps and features that run continuously in the background. Being able to last more than 12 hours of usage is actually a testament to the efficiency of its internals.
When it comes to charging, its 65W SuperDart technology promises only 35 minutes to fully charge the device from 0-100%. Of course, we put it to the test and we’re happy to report that it proved true to its claims (almost) as we were at 99% after exactly 35 minutes of charging.
Just like before, it comes with battery-saving features to help conserve power when you need it most.
Creature Feature
As always, in our reviews, The Modern Creatures aims to look for features in devices that make them unique. Something that makes a product stand out from its peers. For the realme X50 Pro, it would obviously have to be its 5G capability and affordability.
Having a 5G smartphone means you’re future-proofing your device in terms of connectivity. We are slowly transitioning to having steady access to 5G network and during times that you need a reliable connection for sending bulks of files, for example, you can definitely rely on this phone.
Conclusion
With the X50 Pro 5G, realme has definitely saved the best smartphone offering for last before officially closing 2020. It’s got a subdued yet attractive design, capable cameras front and back, a smooth Android 11 UI, great performance thanks to its top-shelf processor and internals, and quick charging.
We can also say that from the processor down to the antenna, realme made sure that the X50 Pro is ready to make the most out of 5G.
The realme X50 Pro 5G can be availed through Smart Signature Plan M for PhP 1,899 per month with a one-time cash-out of PhP 6,900. Those who will pre-order the device from the Smart Online Store and select Smart Stores from December 3 to 10 get a free realme Watch worth PhP 3,990. The promo is available to new subscribers and is available at a special discounted price for existing and re-contracting subscribers.
