As it turns out, “5G” in the name of the smartphone now means not only that it has been added to the standard model
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7.5/10Rated by FerraRealme 9 5G
Table of contents
- Appearance
- Display and shell
- Performance and autonomy
- Camera
- Competitors
- Xiaomi POCO M5
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
- Total
Being a reviewer, it's hard to keep your sanitywhile smartphone manufacturers within the same line produce completely different smartphones. Outwardly, the new Realme models, for example, are identical, but in terms of filling - a complete bacchanalia. It is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish one smartphone from another, the names do not make life easier either. But one thing pleases - they are at least not as hefty as the same Xiaomi with its Redmi Note 11 5G NE.
Appearance
The now classic look of Realme smartphonesthe hero of the review also inherited. It is difficult to distinguish it from both the ninth generation brothers and representatives of other lines. If you have Realme 9 5G and, for example, Realme GT Neo 2 in front of you, then without deep knowledge of the model range, it will be downright difficult to determine who is who. But that doesn't make the design worse. Not unique? Yes. But it looks good.
Realme 9 5G
The review of the smartphone came to us in white colors.Although it can be called white with a big stretch. The back received a coating that shimmers in the sun: from pale pink to yellow-white and blue. Bored gradients in a new way, yes. But from afar, quite a white smartphone. A small relief is present - just run your nails along the surface of the lid.
No glass on the back, just plastic.Who cares, but I think that the departure from glass has benefited the smartphone. Firstly, we managed to slightly reduce the weight of the smartphone. Secondly, falls on the back will not result in cracks and chips, but in small scratches.
The side frame that frames the entire smartphone is alsoMade of plastic, but it looks exactly like metal. Even the texturing is done with dignity, it is difficult to distinguish the coating from anodized aluminum by touch.
Realme 9 5G
From the front, this is an ordinary inexpensive smartphone of the 2022 model: there are small frames with an acceptable chin, the front camera is hidden in the screen cutout. Unusual here only controls.
The physical buttons are in place, but hereHow inconvenient to use them. Do you think that you will press the power button and the phone will take you to the shutdown and reboot menu? But figs there. In order to get to the power menu, you must press both the lock button and the volume up button. Have you come across anything weirder? Me not.
In the early days, you can freak out for a long time, tryingsend the device to reboot, along the way taking a screenshot of everything that is possible. It will not work to reconfigure behavior for yourself “out of the box”, you will have to endure and suffer. Or activate superuser rights and suffer with crutches. But something tells me that you certainly will not do this.
Display and shell
Choosing an IPS screen instead of AMOLED in the regular Realme9, looks like a setup for the buyer. Do you want stylish and fashionable Always On? And figs there. Under-screen scanner? It won’t be here due to the impossibility of placing all the necessary filling under a matrix of this type. Are there any advantages to such a screen? Perhaps only one – it will not typically burn out in places where the same set of pixels is constantly working (curtain, clock widget, and so on).
The hero did not escape another sad fatebudget smartphone - a rather cold color temperature, which, although lower than competitors from Infinix and Tecno, is still too high. The result of such a strange calibration is a high DeltaE value.
Realme 9 5GMaximum brightness level(max./min.)580/3 cd/m2Contrast(more = better)1200:1Color gamut (sRGB)(90-100% is ideal)90%DeltaE(less = better)2.2Gamma(ideal - 2.2)2Colour temperature(ideal = 6500K)7700K
7700K is not horror-horror yet, but a bit too much
But everything is in order with a smartphone with brightnessscreen. In general, the brightness of the order of 550-560 cd / m2 is generally not typical for this price category. Usually in the mid-budget segment you can find the standard 400-420 cd / m2, but here it’s just some kind of generosity parade. For comparison, the OnePlus 10 Pro in manual mode produces about 500 cd / m2, and the Samsung Galaxy S22 - 465 cd / m2. With contrast, everything is also in perfect order. 1200:1 is the standard for IPS matrices.
Too cold color temperature, as expected, also affected color reproduction - the DeltaE value of the Realme 9 5G display turned out to be in the region of 5.7-6.0. We saw, of course, and less.
The declared 120 Hz is in place, but they work only within the interface and in Realme's native applications. In all other cases, the smartphone will render the picture at standard 60 Hz.
Realme UI3.0 is the standard shell for smartphones from Realme. Thank you for at least not castrated Reelme UI R Edition, which could be found in the budget Realme Pad Mini tablet. Colorful, with all the interface features characteristic of the conditional MIUI and a dozen other Chinese counterparts. It is based, by the way, on Android 12.
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Realme UI 3.0
From really useful chips, and notvyrviglazny topics - the expansion of RAM due to the "rent" of the built-in. You can only take 3 GB for the needs of games and heavy software, which, although it looks modest by modern standards, is actually almost the same amount of RAM that is available out of the box. We pressed a couple of buttons in the settings - we got a smartphone with 7 GB of RAM. But do they make sense in everyday use of a smartphone?
Performance and autonomy
The heart of Realme 9 5G is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 chip(consists of two powerful Cortex-A78 cores at 2.2 GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores at 1.7 GHz), made using a 6 nm technical process. This sounds more than encouraging, given that competitors from the higher class are supplied with some kind of MediaTek Helio G96 with 12 nm. And here it’s quite a peppy processor, which can be found, for example, in the more expensive Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro + and Poco X4 Pro 5G. The latter in official retail generally costs all 26-27 thousand rubles and is considered almost gaming.
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In practice, the chip is quite suitable forundemanding games and heavy but old hits. Adreno 619, of course, allows you to run the conditional Genshin Impact, but only at low graphics settings and at a low frame rate. Throw in a few stutters and you'll end up with a not-so-cool gaming experience. You can play, you can even level up to a decent level, but through blood, sweat and tears. But without overheating and throttling.
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At peak times, performance sometimes drops sharply, but immediately returns to its previous values.
The fact that the platform behaves confidently underload, say the results of testing Realme 9 5G in the CPU Throttling Test. The graph does not fall below the baseboard, and rare subsidence is quickly won back by the processor. In everyday use, you are unlikely to notice friezes, but a heavy game can easily dull, skipping frames and giving out perfect friezes. The same Genshin (be it not okay) looks like this here.
No, it's not your video that lags. It's just how games work on a test Realme 9 5G
In general, it would be interesting to look at the samesmartphone, but with an AMOLED screen. Because even with a voracious IPS-matrix, this Realme does not hold autonomy. It can provide a full day of watching YouTube/TikTok content with breaks for scrolling through the social media feed without any problems, you don’t even have to think about recharging before leaving work.
However, if you still have to charge it somewhereon the road, you can pretty much get tired of the local power supply. For a battery with a capacity of 5000 mAh, the charger power of 18 W is prohibitively small for the end of 2022. Almost two hours at the outlet is too much.
Camera
Do not be deceived by the number of holes on the back of the smartphone case. Everything is about the same as in the gif below: there is only one module, and even that one would work. Checked - it works. And here's the same gif for you.
Nothing is true everything is permitted
Realme 9 5G
The main and only non-fake module,which received Realme 9 5G - Samsung S5KJN1 with a resolution of 50 megapixels, f / 1.8 aperture and a pixel size of 0.64 microns. Small pixels and not the coolest pixel binning algorithms (combining them so that at the output you get not huge 50 MP files, but modest 12 MP “gipegs”), as expected, give an average result. The night sky becomes noisy, with characteristic halos appearing around objects from the lousy working HDR built into the camera. Is there a solution to the problem? There is.
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Realme 9 5G
We looked at the pictures and wanted a little more picturesbest quality? Well, you have to install a camera from Google. With it, details appear in the pictures, night photography, as a process, becomes comfortable, and the result is beyond praise, if we do not forget that we have a representative of the upper part of the budget segment, whose price does not even reach 15 thousand rubles. For convenience, below is a gallery with similar shots: the first "batch" was filmed using the stock camera, the second - using the Google Camera.
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Realme 9 5G: stock camera app
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Realme 9 5G: Google Camera
However, no matter how computational photographysaved the mediocre camera module, it still can’t allow it to shoot video in 2K - it’s all the fault of the limitations on the part of the processor. Only state-owned 1080p with a maximum frequency (!) of 30 fps and a software image stabilization system during shooting. The latter works well, eliminates the main fluctuations. At least thanks for that.
Realme 9 5G: 1080p, 30fps
Realme 9 5G: 1080p, 30fps
But Realme 9 5G was equipped with a front camerawith a resolution of up to 16 megapixels. And no, that's not sarcasm. The closest analogue in the face of Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 boasts a front camera with a resolution of only 5 megapixels. For the TikTok era, this is the ultimate feature that you can't dodge. Yes, and she shoots, in general, really well.
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Realme 9 5G: front camera
Competitors
Realme 9 5GXiaomi POCO M5Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Prooperating systemAndroid 12 + Realme UI 3.0Android 12 + MIUI 13Android 12 + MIUI 13ScreenIPS, 120 Hz, 6.6", 1080" 2412 p., 20:9, 400 PPIIPS, 90 Hz, 6.58", 1080" 215;2408 p., 20:9, 401 PPIAMOLED, 120 Hz, 6 ,67", HDR10, 1080"215;2400 p., 20:9, 395 PPICPUQualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G 6nm 8 core (2 core2.2GHz Kryo 660 Gold + 6-core 1.7GHz Kryo 660 Silver) MediaTek Helio G99 6nm 8-core (2-core 2.2GHz Cortex-A76 + 6-core 2.0GHz Cortex-A55Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G , 8 nm, 8 cores (2 cores 2.3 GHz Kryo 470 Gold + 6 cores 1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver)GraphicsAdreno 619Mali-G57 MC2Adreno 618RAM4 GB4 GB6 GBStorage device64 GB64 GB128 GBConnectionWi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.1, A2DP, LE, aptX HD, GPS, GLONASS, BDS, NFCWi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.3, A2DP, LE, GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS, NFCWi-Fi 802.11 a/ b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.1, A2DP, LE, aptX HD, GPS, GLONASS, BDSCamerasPrimary:50 MP, f/1.8, 27 mm, 1/2.76", 0.64 µm, PDAFPrimary:50 MP, f/1.8, 27 mm, 1/2.76", 0.64 µm, PDAFPrimary:108 MP, f/1.9, 26 mm, 1/1.52", 0.7 µm, PDAFMacro:2 MP, f/2.4Macro:2 MP, f/2.4Wide Angle:8 MP, f/2.2, 118˚, 1/4.0", 1.12 µmDepth sensor:2 MP, f/2.4Depth sensor:2 MP, f/2.4Macro:5 MP, f/2.4, AFDepth sensor:2 MP, f/2.4Front:16 MP, f/2.1, 26 mm, 1/3.09", 1.0 µmFront:5 MP, f/2.2, 1/5.0", 1.12 µmFront:16 MP, f/2.1, 26 mm, 1/3.09", 1.0 µmBattery5000 mAh, 18 W 5000 mAh, 18 W 5020 mAh, 33 WDimensions164.3×75.6×8.5 mm164×76.1×8.9 mm164×76.5×8.1 mmWeight191 g201 g193 gPrice14 thousand rubles 16 thousand rubles 17 thousand rubles
Xiaomi POCO M5
Xiaomi POCO M5
Original mid-budget smartphone from Xiaomi.One of the main features is not the most practical but nice design with a huge piece of glass on the back. Moreover, the plastic case is neatly textured under the skin. All this in the hands does not even look vulgar.
Inside is an analogue of Snapdragon 695, but from ChineseMediaTek - Helio G99, with two Cortex A76 cores at 2.2 GHz and six Cortex A55 cores at 2.0 GHz. The smartphone did not receive such a smart display, only 90 Hz, but this should have a positive effect on autonomy. Its camera is the same as that of Realme 9 5G – sad 50 megapixels in the face of Samsung S5KJN1.
The price, by the way, is almost the same. In gray retail, Xiaomi POCO M5 is offered for 15-16 thousand rubles. And this is with more RAM (6 GB versus 4 GB).
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
If you don't mind last year'ssmartphones, then this option is ideal. Xiaomi sample of 2021, when there were no Redmi Note 11 with understated specifications on store shelves. Chips? They are here. For example, a full-fledged module for macro photography, which can even record good video.
Instead of the "dragon" of the six hundredth series, here is useda more vigorous Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G, which behaves more confidently in games due to overclocked Cortex-A76 cores up to 2.3 GHz. And it seems to be not Cortex A78, but the same Genshin Impact on 732G produces 10-15 frames more than Snapdragon 695. Although at the “minimal”, but still.
Total
Realme 9 5G is literally a mix of the other twoinexpensive smartphones. Realme engineers managed to put together Redmi Note 11 and Realme 9 Pro. From the first smartphone, the hero of the review received a Samsung S5KJN1 camera and a modest amount of RAM, from a colleague from Realme, a Snapdragon 695 5G processor.
Realme 9 5G
Putting aside the question of which of themSince the camera is better, the Realme 9 5G looks like a good way to get the hardware out of an older device for a lot less. The lack of RAM is compensated by the local analogue of "swap". The display here, although not OLED, can easily boast a good level of maximum brightness and not the lowest contrast. Both representatives of the Realme 9 line have a high update rate, but they are of little use - they are intended only for drawing the interface.
Still, there is no life without a camera and I wantwas no worse than in Realme 9 Pro? You can try to dance with a tambourine and install one of the many camera mods from Google, which is utterly stuffed with image processing algorithms. I did it, the result is decent, in the pictures there are those details that you can’t see behind the screen of the stock software.