realme X50 Pro Review | Geek Lifestyle

2020 has been quite a year for realme as this year, the brand has officially become the top smartphone brand in the Philippines after claiming the #1 spot in Q3 2020. The success of realme is thanks in large part to the continual release of great value smartphones, from budget devices to flagship-level phones.

Even with its success, realme isn’t resting on its laurels as it ended the year with a bang by launching the realme X50 Pro, the brand’s first 5G smartphone in the country. The X50 Pro comes in at just the right time, after all, telcos have now begun to roll out 5G to select areas of the country, with a wider rollout expected soon.

While 5G is a great feature to have given that it allows access to fast internet speed with low latency, the X50 Pro is more than just a 5G phone. Not only does the X50 Pro pack a flagship-grade processor, it also has a promising quad camera setup and a high refresh rate display.

The realme X50 Pro seems like an excellent phone on paper, but does it live up to the hype in actual use? Find out here in our full review!

Geek-sthetic

Starting off with the design, the X50 Pro comes with an interesting design at the back. While it looks shiny in some angles, the phone also looks a bit matte; in reality, the X50 Pro’s back is somewhere in between. It’s tough to fully describe, but think of it as a matte/glossy finish hybrid that’s stylish and unique, all while not being a fingerprint magnet.

One thing that you’ll notice with the X50 Pro is that it’s a bit thicker than expected. Personally, I’m fine with the phone’s thickness as it can still easily fit in my pocket. Another good thing about the thicker design is that it only has a small camera bump; a large camera bump is quite annoying when laid on a flat surface after all.

Moving to the front, you can see the X50 Pro’s 6.44-inch FHD+ AMOLED display. Thanks to the slim bezels along with the holepunch notch, the X50 Pro has an all-screen look that’s on par with a number of flagship phones.

Binge-watching Factor 

The X50 Pro’s display doesn’t just look good though, it also works well for binge-watching as it gets fairly bright and has nice, vibrant colors. So if you love watching movies, shows, or anime, the X50 Pro is a great device to have.

While I’m often disappointed with onboard speakers in a lot of phones, I was surprised to find out that the realme X50 Pro’s speakers are of great quality. The new realme phone packs stereo speakers that get fairly loud, meaning they are great for both binge-watching and even some music listening. Though for the best experience, you may still want to use wireless speaker/headphones (the phone does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack).

Gaming Prowess

The realme X50 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, a flagship chipset that has enough power to run practically any mobile game out on the Play Store. Coupled with the phone’s 90Hz display, gaming on the X50 Pro is a great experience.

For starters, games that aren’t too demanding such as Legends of Runeterra ran smoothly at the max settings. Other popular titles such as Wild Rift ran also ran at max smoothly and without any issues.

As for more demanding titles, the realme X50 Pro still proved to be powerful enough to run them. For instance, Genshin Impact (a hardware-intensive RPG) ran at high settings, even though it defaults to the Medium setting when first opened. And thanks to the phone’s high refresh rate display, the X50 Pro provides a great gaming experience for titles that support 90FPS such as Rockman X DiVE.

Geek Photoshoot Capabilities

In the camera department, the X50 Pro has a 64MP f/1.8 +  8MP f/2.3 ultra-wide + 12MP f/2.5 periscope telephoto (2x optical zoom) + 2MP f/2.4 B/W depth sensor quad-rear camera setup. At the front meanwhile is a 32MP f/2.5 + 8 MP f/2.2 ultra-wide dual front camera setup.

For outdoor daytime photos, the realme X50 Pro’s 64MP main camera is a great shooter, with photos having great quality and vibrant colors. The main camera is also great for taking photos indoors, even with only decent lighting.

At night, shots taken with the 64MP main camera see a noticeable dip in quality, but that’s shooting in auto mode. With Night Mode, low light photos turn out much better, with more details being retained and better colors. While its low light imaging performance is not the top of its class, it is good overall, especially for its price.

Meanwhile, the X50 Pro’s 8MP ultra-wide camera is able to take good photos in daytime, but it struggles in low light conditions. It’s a good thing that the ultra-wide works with the phone’s Night Mode; thanks to this, the X50 Pro is able to take decent ultra-wide shots at night, though not at the same level of quality as the main camera.

As for the telephoto shooter, the X50 Pro’s 12MP (2x optical) camera is able to take quality photos at daytime, even at 5x zoom. For low light situations, Night mode is a must as Auto mode just doesn’t cut it for low light.

The X50 Pro is also able to take nice portrait shots thanks to a dedicated 2MP depth sensor. Finally, selfie lovers will be satisfied with the X50 Pro as the two front cameras enable users to capture standard and wide-angle selfies. As for quality, selfies are also social media ready, even without touch ups; though the AI beautification is a bit too much by default personally.

Everyday Reliability 

Thanks to the phone’s Snapdragon 865 processor and 12GB of RAM, the X50 Pro is an excellent phone for day-to-day use. Whether checking emails, working on documents, or scrolling through social media, the X50 Pro is fast and snappy. What’s even better is that that the phone runs on realmeUI that’s based on Android 11 with the latest update, making it one of the few phones running the latest Android software.

As for battery life, the phone’s 4,200mAh battery lets the X50 Pro last for over one day of medium-heavy use, though that’s with the display in 60Hz mode. When using 90Hz mode on the screen, the X50 Pro should last for around one day, or even less with heavy use. Though if you do need to charge, the X50 Pro can fill up incredibly fast thanks to 65W fast charging. With this, the phone can charge from 0-100% in just under an hour.

5G can get even faster than this!

Finally, the X50 Pro is one of the few phones available in the Philippines that is 5G ready. Thanks to this, the phone can take advantage of incredibly fast and low latency 5G connections which are rolling out in more and more places nationwide. So if you want to enjoy fast 5G internet, the X50 Pro is a great option.

Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict

Thanks to good battery life, capable cameras, and great performance, the X50 Pro has a lot going for it. Adding the fact that the phone supports 65W fast charging, a good-looking design, and 5G connectivity, the realme X50 Pro is definitely a great phone to get, especially if you want a flagship level phone that won’t break the bank.

The realme X50 Pro is available via Smart Signature Plan 1899 with a one-time cash-out of PHP 6,900.

Realme X50 Pro Specs:

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor
• Adreno 650 GPU
• 12GB RAM
• 6.44-inch FHD+ display (w/ holepunch notch), Corning Gorilla Glass 5, 90Hz refresh rate
• 256GB storage
• 64MP f/1.8 +  8 MP f/2.3 ultra-wide + 12MP f/2.5 telephoto (2x optical zoom) + 2MP f/2.4 B/W depth sensor quad-rear camera setup
• 32MP f/2.5 + 8 MP f/2.2 ultra-wide dual front camera
• 3G, LTE, 5G Dual SIM
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, fingerprint scanner (side-mounted), USB Type-C
• 4200mAh battery, 65W fast charging
• Android 11 with realmeUI