realme 11 Pro+ Review | Geek Lifestyle

In our realme 11 Pro+ review, we check to see if this premium mid-ranger from realme delivers excellent photography capabilities and more.

Today, realme launched its newest premium mid-range lineup, the 11 Pro series. Though ahead of the lineup’s launch, we got to try out the realme 11 Pro+, the top model in the series which promises to deliver great performance in an incredibly stylish package.

What makes the phone stand out the most is its cameras. Specifically, the 11 Pro+ packs a triple camera setup that’s headlined by a 200MP main camera — yes, that’s 200 megapixels. While megapixels aren’t everything, this phone promises excellent photography capabilities, especially for zoomed-in shots. In fact, realme says that this phone offers up to 4x lossless zoom without a dedicated telephoto camera.

So, does the 11 Pro+ deliver on its promise of being a great smartphone for photography? And does it also deliver when it comes to performance and usability? Find out here in our realme 11 Pro+ review!

Geek-sthetic

Before we tackle the phone’s impressive cameras (at least on paper), let’s first take a look at its design. The realme 11 Pro+ features a Vegan Leather back making it unique among most other phones with matte polycarbonate or glossy finishes. While opinions on a phone’s design varies per person, it’s fair to say that this is one of the most striking phones out there looks-wise.

If you look closely, the vegan leather back has nice looking grain that looks quite like real leather. It also feels great too without a case, not to mention that it feels nice and grippy without a case. Personally, this is probably one of the best phones to go caseless on. Though if you do still prefer a case, the phone comes with a clear case inside the box so you can still admire the design (especially if you have the Sunrise Beige colorway that we have).

Our only real concern with the phone’s unique finish is its longevity. After all, some vegan leather goods have a tendency to peel off after some time. But from the looks of the 11 Pro+, that likely won’t be a problem. Though of course, we can’t say for certain as this type of finish is not common for phones.

Moving to the front, the 11 Pro+ has a striking 6.7-inch AMOLED display. What makes the display pop is the vibrant colors of the AMOLED panel, coupled with the curved edges.

While curved edges were all the rage some years ago, it has become a bit rarer these days. For those who like the look of curved screens though, the 11 Pro+’s display is a definite plus. It also helps that even with the curved edges, the phone still feels great to hold as the edges aren’t too sharp.

Binge-Watching Factor

Binge-watching on a phone is the norm these days, and for this use case, the realme 11 Pro+ does not disappoint thanks to its impressive AMOLED screen. As mentioned above, the screen has vibrant colors, making for an excellent viewing experience for watching your favorite movies and shows. Plus, the screen has quite bright, so you won’t have to worry about brightness if you want to watch something outdoors.

What’s more, the 11 Pro+ has stereo speakers which should give you a better watching experience even with just the onboard audio. Though the quality of the phone’s speakers are just okay. They get quite loud, but the audio is a bit tinny when near or at max volume.

For the best experience, headphones are recommended, though you’ll need a wireless set as this phone sadly lacks a headphone jack.

Gaming Prowess

Aside from watching the latest movies or shows, many folks use their phones for gaming. So, how does the realme 11 Pro+ fare in this regard? Well, its Mediatek Dimensity 7050 Processor holds up pretty well for many popular titles, though you won’t be able to play all of them at max settings.

While it’s billed as a new SoC, the Dimensity 7050 is essentially a rebranded version of the Dimensity 1080. Given this, it’s not surprising to see that it can run most of today’s popular titles with ease.

For instance, we had no issues running games such as League of Legends: Wild Rift and Call of Duty: Mobile on the High Graphics settings for each. Both games also ran at a smooth 60 FPS in our time with it. While there were some minor framerate drops, they were not too noticeable while in a match.

Though take note that while the phone has a 120Hz refresh rate display, games only seem to play at 60FPS. This is a quirk that is present in other mid-range smartphones.

As for more demanding games like Genshin Impact, don’t expect to run the game at max settings. Though the 11 Pro+ can still run it, the settings will need to be set to Low for a smoother gameplay experience.

Geek Photoshoot Capabilities

Now we move on to the camera setup, the realme 11 Pro+’s killer feature. This latest realme premium mid-ranger comes with a 200MP f/1.7 main (with 2x/4x in-sensor zoom) + 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide + 2MP macro triple rear camera setup, as well as a 32 MP, f/2.5 front camera.

The 200MP main camera is an interesting one as it also doubles as a telephoto shooter. Though instead of actually being able to zoom physically, the phone relies on digital zoom to get the 2x and 4x lossless shots.

To start, the 200MP camera is able to capture excellent photos in daytime, with shots having great colors and a lot of detail, enough to rival even flagship phones. Indoors, the photos are still quite good, even if your indoor lighting isn’t great (as is the case with the sample shots above).

Next, let’s see if the phone’s telephoto capabilities are as good as realme says they are.

Based on the samples above, you can see that the 2x and 4x zoom shots retain a lot of detail in daytime, enough that they can rival even that of dedicated telephoto cameras. This is impressive given that the phone relies on digital zoom plus image processing to get these results.

Even the 20x zoom photos are surprisingly decent, with results being comparable to phones with 2x telephoto cameras, at least in daytime. Essentially, only true flagship cameras can rival the realme 11 Pro+’s zoom capabilities when shooting with a lot of light.

At night, the phone’s main camera is also great as low light photos retain a lot of detail when taking photos with the dedicated Night Mode. Though as you’d expect, the colors in these photos are on the vibrant side (which is a typical tradeoff for Night Mode on most phones).

As for the zoom capabilities, low light results aren’t the best at 4x zoom, though they are still a bit better than digital zoom on other phones. At least the 2x zoom results are pretty good, but that’s likely because the Night Mode supports up to 2x zoom only (meaning Auto Mode is your only option for 4x zoom and beyond).

One cool feature of the phone is a dedicated Street Photography feature which lets you adjust to specific focal length equivalents on the fly. While this is a nifty feature, it’s essentially just shortcuts to the different zoom lengths that’s dressed up to give a more pro photography feel. But there is something actually unique about it, and that is the ability to automatically zoom to a chosen subject. This can be good for users who want to capture candid or street-style photos of a moving subject. Not a lot of users will use this, but it’s still a fun mode to try out.

As for the ultrawide, the 11 Pro+’s ultrawide camera delivers good photos in daytime, with low light shots having a dip in quality. Thankfully, you can use the ultrawide on the Night Mode for better results.

The macro shooter meanwhile, performs how you would expect it to, with photos being decent outdoors while indoor macro photos are a bit fuzzy and dim.

Finally, selfies on the 11 Pro+ are quite nice thanks to the 32MP front shooter. Selfies are great even at low light, though the AI beautification feature can be a bit unnatural on the default setting. If you turn it off though, you’ll get more natural-looking photos.

Everyday Reliability

As the phone is pretty good for today’s popular games, it’s not surprising that the 11 Pro+ is also a reliable phone for everyday use. During our time with the phone, it was fast and snappy throughout, whether we switched between multiple apps or opened email or other work-related apps.

The phone’s UI is also pretty good, save for the number of pre-loaded apps and notifications from them that you’ll want to turn off (if not uninstall the apps completely). While some users may not like the pre-installed bloat, the phone at least doesn’t become slow because of them.

When it comes to battery life, the 11 Pro+ is not bad as the battery lets it last for around a day of use. It’s not exactly the longest-lasting phone that we’ve tried, and we would’ve liked a bit more in case a user wants to game on it for hours or take lots of photos/videos. Though for most users, the battery life should be satisfactory.

On the flip side, the phone does have incredibly fast 100W fast charge support, meaning you can top up for just a couple of minutes and get hours of battery life. Plus, charging to full will not take long, even if you’re at or near zero percent charge.

realme 11 Pro+ Review – Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict

The realme 11 Pro+ does not disappoint when it comes to photography as its 200MP main camera delivers excellent photos, and even captures zoomed-in shots that are comparable in quality to dedicated telephoto cameras. What’s more, the phone has an impressive design that makes it stand out with its vegan leather finish. Rounding these out is the phone’s vibrant AMOLED screen which is great for watching movies and shows on.

There are some things we would’ve wanted though like better gaming performance and maybe longer battery life, but for the most part, the 11 Pro+ ticks all the boxes. And at its price of PHP 24,999, this phone is definitely something you should consider if you’re in the market for a premium phone with a focus on cameras and design.

If you get it today until tomorrow, you’ll even be able to buy it at just PHP 21,999 — this easily makes it one of the best deals that you can get for a premium mid-ranger!

realme 11 Pro+ Specs:

• Mediatek Dimensity 7050 Processor
• Mali-G68 MC4 GPU
• 8/12GB RAM
• 6.7-inch AMOLED display, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+
• 256GB/512GB/1TB storage
• 200MP f/1.7 main (with 2x/4x in-sensor zoom) + 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide + 2MP macro triple rear camera setup
• 32 MP, f/2.5 front camera
• 3G, LTE, 5G Dual SIM
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, fingerprint scanner (under-display), USB Type-C
• 5000mAh battery with 100W fast charge support
• Sunrise Beige, Oasis Green colors
• Android 13, Realme UI 4.0
• Price: PHP 24,999