realme 9 4G Full Review
In a livestream event held earlier today, realme Philippines officially launched its latest addition to its much-loved Number Series - the realme 9.
The realme 9 is equipped with a triple rear camera, 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor. In terms of battery and storage, the realme 9 is powered by a 5,000mAh battery with 33W Dart Charge and has 128GB of internal storage.
Since we are already finished with the unboxing and first impression of the realme 9, this review will further explore the capabilities offered by this smartphone to help you in deciding whether this is the one you are looking for.
Design and Walk Around
For the design, realme 9 comes in a polycarbonate body with a Ripple Holographic Design for the White and Gold color variants. Created through Plasma Atom-coating and UV-Nano imprinting processes, the design was inspired by the image of dunes in the desert that look like waves of gold when hit by the sun’s rays.
I like this kind of finish because it is less susceptible to fingerprint smudges. In addition to its design, the realme 9 weighs 178g and has a thickness of 7.99mm.
The realme 9 comes in three color options: Meteor Black, Stargaze White, and Sunburst Gold. My unit comes in Stargaze White color.
On the front, the realme 9 is equipped with a 6.4-inch FHD+ (1080x2400) Super AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and comes with a pre-installed screen protector.
There’s also a punch-hole 16MP camera located at the upper left and the earpiece is quite thin and discretely etched within the screen enclosure. Like most smartphones in this segment, the side bezels are relatively slim but with a pretty thick chin.
At the back is a rectangular-shaped camera module with a frosted-glass-like surface that houses a triple-camera set-up along with a single LED flash. Three cameras are the 108MP main, the 8MP ultrawide, and the 2MP macro.
Found on the left are your standard volume rocker button and a 3-card slot for two nano-SIM cards and a dedicated slot for a microSD card capable of up to 256GB of expandable storage, handy for users who want to further improve storage capacity.
On the right side of the realme 9 is the power/lock button.
The top is clean with only the secondary noise-canceling microphone present.
At the bottom, you can find the USB Type-C charging port, downward-firing speaker, primary microphone, and a 3.5mm audio jack.
Display and Multimedia
realme 9's 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen comes with a Full HD+ (2400x1080) resolution with a 90Hz refresh rate and a touch sampling rate of up to 360Hz for better responsiveness when gaming.
The AMOLED display panel produces vivid colors; viewing angles are good and the screen can get bright at 430 nits and can go up to 1,000 nits of peak brightness; still, a bit more boost could be used so you can use it outdoors comfortably.
The audio quality of the loudspeaker is like your typical smartphone. It can get loud but no bass. There’s also some distortion when you maximize the volume. I recommend using headphones or an external speaker for better audio quality.
Camera
Rear Cameras
As for the camera, the realme 9 is packed with flagship photography innovations and boasts a triple-camera set-up—consisting of the 108MP F1.8 primary camera with Dual Pixel Phase Detection autofocus (PDAF) and uses a Samsung HM6 sensor with 0.64µm pixels. There's also an 8MP 120° F2.2 ultrawide camera and a 2MP F2.4 macro lens with a 4cm shooting distance.
realme 9 also comes with Street Photography 2.0 Mode which provides a variety of features catered to different mobile photography needs such as Peak & Zoom as well as the added 90’s Pop Street filter among others.
Quality from the rear cameras under bright lighting conditions is pretty decent with good colors and details, though dynamic range can be better. While the 2MP macro camera, as expected produces low-quality images.
For low light, the camera shoots good low-light photos and performs well in certain situations with the Night Mode feature turned on.
Front Selfie Camera
The front camera houses the lone 16MP F2.45 in-display selfie camera that makes use of realme’s Clear Fusion Algorithm for better color quality and facial recognition. The camera also supports different features such as AI Beauty, Portrait Mode, and Night Mode.
The realme 9’s front camera produces good photos with accurate skin tones, especially in bright conditions. Background blurring for portrait selfies isn’t that perfect but good enough.
Video
For video, the realme 9 captures videos up to 1080p/720p@30fps with its main and front-facing camera. There is no 4K mode and 60fps shooting, but there is an always-on electronic image stabilization (EIS) called Ultra Steady.
The recorded video from the main camera produces good colors, contrast, and dynamic range.
realme UI, Apps, and Security
realme 9 runs on realme UI 3.0, based on Android 12 out of the box. realme UI 3.0 offers an improved and smooth user interface. It also brings more customization options, floating windows, edge lighting, enhanced privacy, and security options. Pre-installed are the standard realme and Google suite of apps, as well as some bloatware apps.
In terms of security, realme 9 is equipped with an in-display fingerprint scanner and facial recognition for unlocking the device. Both work well---the fingerprint scanner is pretty fast, and the accuracy is close to excellent. However, the facial recognition feature can slow down when there isn’t much light.
The realme 9 in-display fingerprint scanner also doubles as a heart rate measurement. The experimental heart rate measurement can be found inside the realme lab section.
Hardware and Performance
The realme 9 comes with a power-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor. This processor is made using a 6nm process and houses four Cortex-A73 cores that clock at up to 2.4GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores that clock up to 1.9GHz. Another thing to note is that this processor comes with Adreno 610 GPU.
The performance of the realme 9 is buttery smooth in casual and moderate tasks; the gaming experience in graphics-intensive games is okay and tolerable with slight stutters and lags, so you’ll most likely use the medium to lowest settings to improve your gameplay.
The realme 9 also supports Dynamic RAM Expansion technology, Dynamic RAM Expansion lets you expand your phone's RAM virtually by using the phone's internal storage. realme 9 can make use of up to 5GB of its internal storage, giving it up to 11GB of total RAM.
The realme 9 is available in the Philippines in one variant only - 6GB RAM plus 128GB storage, with 105.3GB of available storage (22.7GB used out of the box). If you need additional storage, you can further expand the storage up to 256GB via its dedicated microSD card slot.
Below are the benchmark scores from this device:
- AnTuTu v9.3.9 – 287,553
- AnTuTu Storage Test v9.3.9 – 37,615 (997.2 MB/s Seq. Read, 710.5 MB/s Seq. Write)
- Geekbench 5.4.4 – 381 (Single-core), 1,592 (Multi-core)
- PCMark – 8,141 (Work 3.0)
- 3DMark – 1,330 (SSE – OpenGL ES 3.1), 1,275 (SSE – Vulkan)
Battery Life, Charging, and Connectivity
The 5,000mAh battery of the realme 9 can easily last you a whole day of moderate usage without an additional charge. In the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life Test, the unit yielded a score of around 19 hours and 21 minutes.
With realme 9’s 33W Dart Charge, the 5,000mAh battery can be charged from 0% to 100% in only 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Deep software optimization like App Quick Freeze, Optimized standby, Optimized Night Charging, Power Saving Mode, and Super Power Saving Mode are also available in realme 9 which could make a big difference in battery life.
Aside from the battery and charger, the realme 9 has your usual connectivity features, including dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by), 4G LTE, dual-band WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, a 3.5mm audio jack, and USB Type-C.
realme 9 Specifications
6.4-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) Super AMOLED display
90Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling rate
Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 processor (6nm)
Adreno 610 GPU
6GB / 8GB RAM
128GB of internal storage (UFS 2.2)
microSD up to 256GB (dedicated slot)
Triple-rear cameras (108MP F1.75 main + 8MP F2.2 ultra-wide + 2MP F2.4 macro)
16MP F2.45 front camera
Dual-SIM / 4G LTE
WiFi 5 / Bluetooth 5.1
GPS, A-GPS, GALILEO, GLONASS, BDS
USB Type-C / 3.5mm audio jack
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
realme UI 3.0 (Android 12)
5,000mAh Battery with 33W Dart Charge
160.2 x 73.3 x 7.99mm (dimension)
178g (weight)
Colors: Meteor Black, Stargaze White, and Sunburst Gold
What’s inside the box
If you haven't seen the unboxing of the realme 9 yet, the signature yellow-colored box contains the realme 9, USB Type-C Cable, 33W Dart Charger, SIM card ejector tool, protective silicone case, quick start guide, and important product information (including the Warranty Card).
Price and Availability
The realme 9 will be available in a 6GB+128GB variant retailing for only Php14,999 SRP starting June 15, 2022.
The realme 9 will sell exclusively on Lazada starting June 15, 2022, and will sell at its SRP of Php14,999 from June 15 to 18, 2022 initially. As part of celebrating the Lazada Super Brand Day on June 19, the realme 9 will retail with a discount of Php2,500 off at only Php12,499 with an additional free 1 year extended warranty for one day only.
The realme 9 will also be available in all realme stores nationwide, coming with a free realme Buds Air 2 Neo worth Php1,990 for every purchase from June 15 to 19, 2022.
Verdict
Is this the smartphone you are looking for? I recommend that you shortlist realme 9.
Even though it is a bit pricey compared to its competition, the realme 9 is a very solid mid-range smartphone that managed to offer an eye-catching design, excellent battery life and power efficiency, decent cameras, Super AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate, and 33W fast charging.
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