Realme XT Review

The Realme XT has officially launched in the Philippines. It’s a mid-range smartphone with a 6.4-inch screen, Snapdragon 712 chipset, quad-rear cameras, and a 4,000mAh battery. It has plenty of similarities to the Realme 5 Pro, but with some upgrades and higher price tag. The question now is, should you get this one or just settle with the Realme 5 Pro? Find out in our review.

Design and Construction

As mentioned earlier, the Realme XT has plenty of similarities to the Realme 5 Pro. It also has a notched screen with a 6.4-inch screen size, which is 0.1-inch larger than the 5 Pro. It is protected with Gorilla Glass 5 instead of Gorilla Glass 3 and already has a screen protector pre-installed.

It has the triple card tray on the left, along with the volume buttons. The power/lock button is on the right.

The buttons are firm, clicky, and easy to each since they’re placed at the center of the frame.

Down below is the loudspeaker, the USB Type-C port, the primary microphone, and the 3.5mm audio port. Up top is the secondary microphone.

At the back, we still have the protruding quad-camera setup. What’s missing here is the fingerprint scanner as the Realme XT now uses the in-display type. It’s responsive and accurate and works just like other phones with the same kind of scanner.

The design is also different on the XT and has an effect that resembles light flowing, instead of the diamond pattern on the 5 Pro. It also comes in two colors: Pearl White and Pearl Blue.

Quality is excellent and easy to grip, thanks to the curved sides. It has a plastic frame with a metallic finish but with a glass back, which, as expected, attracts a lot of fingerprints and smudges. Good thing it comes with a clear jelly case in the package.

Display and Multimedia

The Realme XT has a 6.4-inch screen with Full HD+ resolution or equal to 403ppi. This time, instead of an IPS screen, it now uses Super AMOLED. We like the quality better as blacks are deep, and colors are punchy. Viewing angles are also great and can handle sunlight.

One feature we noticed on the XT is the OSIE (Object & Semantic Images & Eye-tracking) Vision Effect. It’s an AI-powered feature that enhances viewing experience when viewing content from select apps like TikTok.

The speaker’s audio quality is decent. Lows are weak, but the mids and highs are crisp. It can also get really loud, which is enough for watching videos on YouTube and Netflix.

Camera

The Realme XT has a quad-camera setup similar to the Realme 5 Pro, but with a 64MP Samsung GW1 primary sensor instead of the 48MP Sony IMX 586. The rest were retained, including the 8MP ultrawide, 2MP portrait, and 2MP macro. It has AI scene recognition, HDR, portrait mode, Beautify, Ultra 64MP mode, Panorama, manual, time-lapse, slow-motion, and Nightscape.

Camera quality is good, especially in bright conditions. Images have plenty of details, good dynamic range, and accurate colors. Portrait mode looks nice as it can produce creamy backgrounds that almost looks natural. The same quality can be observed with the selfie camera.

In low-light, the images produced start to get noisy and muddy. The only way to improve quality is by using Nightscape mode. There’s no OIS here, so EIS is used to stabilize the photos. Some shakes can’t be eliminated, though, as observed in the light trails. Details also appear too soft, but the overall image is brighter. As for the ultrawide and macro cameras, they’re best used in bright conditions as images become muddy and peppered with noise in low-light.

When it comes to video recording, the Realme XT can shoot at up to 4K resolution at 30fps. There’s no option to switch to wide-angle while recording, which is a bit of a downer. There’s EIS, but shakes are still visible. Quality is good, though, as it is sharp with accurate colors. Watch the sample below:

OS, UI, and Apps

Running the software-side is ColorOS 6.0.1 (version RMX1921EX_11_A.10) based on Android 9 Pie. If you have handled an OPPO or Realme smartphone before, the experience is similar. You’ll get a simple and easy-to-navigate UI — swipe up to launch the app drawer, swipe to the left to bring up Smart Assistant, and swipe down to reveal the shortcut keys and notifications center.

Realme’s apps, like the App Market, Phone Manager, Game Center, Theme Store, ORoaming, Game Space, and Theme Store, are here. Inside Settings, you’ll see Smart Services, Digital Well-being & Parental Controls, App Cloner, and App Split-screen. Dark Mode is available but make sure you update to the RMX1921EX_11.A.11 version to get it.

When it comes to pre-installed apps, we have Lazada, Opera browser, and Webnovel, in addition to the usual Google apps. Storage-wise, we’re getting 128GB with 114GB as usable. It’s great that Realme decided to keep the dedicated microSD card slot for extra storage.

Performance and Benchmarks

The Realme XT is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 chipset, Adreno 616 GPU, and 8GB of RAM. That’s the same hardware configuration as the top-of-the-line Realme 5 Pro, meaning we can expect the same level of performance. Games like CoD: Mobile, PUGB: Mobile, and Mobile Legends are playable in high settings. Warming can be felt at the back near the cameras, but not to the point it’s uncomfortable.

Check out the benchmark scores below:

• AnTuTu v8- 222,275
• Geekbench – 409 (Single-Core), 1,530 (Multi-Core), 996 (OpenCL)
• 3DMark SSE – 2,139 (OpenGL), 2,023 (Vulkan)
• PCMark – 8,274 (Work 2.0)
• AndroBench – 508.47 MB/s (Read), 193.82 MB/s (Write)

Connectivity and Battery Life

We have the same connectivity features we got from the Realme 5 Pro — dual-nano SIM, 4G LTE, WiFi ac, Bluetooth 5.0, and a slew of SatNavs. Mobile data and WiFi connectivity are good, while calls are loud and clear.

There’s a slight change when it comes to battery capacity, as the Realme XT has 4,000mAh, which is 35mAh shy compared to the Realme 5 Pro. However, we’re getting better mileage as our video loop test got us 23 hours and 40 minutes playback. It also gets us a day and a half with light to moderate use. Charging is handled by the 20W VOOC 3.0 charger and takes a little over an hour to get it from 0 to 100%.

Conclusion

After spending some time with the Realme XT, we’re starting to see it as the upgraded version of the Realme 5 Pro. If you’re wondering which one to get, well, that depends on your budget. The XT is priced at PHP 16,990 (8GB + 128GB), which is PHP 3K higher than the Realme 5 Pro (8GB + 128GB). And for that price, you’re getting a nice Super AMOLED screen, Gorilla Glass 5, an in-display fingerprint scanner, a 64MP main rear camera, and a longer battery life.

If you don’t need those features, the Realme 5 Pro will suit you just fine. But if you can stretch the budget, go for the Realme XT. It’s the best Realme smartphone you can buy right now.

Realme XT specs:
6.4-inch FHD+ (2340 x 1080) Super AMOLED display, 403ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 5 (front and back)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 (10nm) 2.3GHz octa-core CPU
Adreno 616 GPU
4GB, 6GB, 8GB RAM
64GB, 128GB UFS 2.1
microSD up to 256GB (dedicated slot)
64MP Samsung GW1 F1.8 (main) + 8MP F2.2 (ultrawide) + 2MP (macro) + 2MP (depth) rear cameras, EIS
16MP Sony IMX471 F2.0 front camera, EIS
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 5.0
GPS, A-GPS, BDS, Galileo
3.5mm audio port
Dolby Atmos
USB Type-C
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
ColorOS 6 (Android 9 Pie) w/ HyperBoost 2.0
4,000mAh battery w/ VOOC 3.0 Flash Charge
Pearl White, Pearl Blue

What we liked:
• Good design
• Solid build
• Nice display
• Good cameras
• Long battery life
• VOOC 3.0 fast charge

What we didn’t:
• No OIS
• Nightscape performance needs improvement