Realme earlier in the month unveiled the budget Realme 9i 5G phone in India.
It is one of the most affordable 5G phones in the market. It comes with a visually appealing design language and a good set of internal hardware. Does it deliver the goods? Let's check it out.
Design, build quality and display
I'd like to reiterate what I said in the first impression, the Realme 9i 5G, particularly the metallica gold mode, is a gorgeous phone, best-looking in its class.
The sparkling back case is very pretty and grabs the attention of the people instantly. It has minimalistic design language and a flashy outlook. Realme calls it the vintage 'CD Design'.
The shell reflects bright sparkling light when viewed from all angles, and offers a visually exquisite look.
The company also offers colour models-- rocking black. It also looks great.
Though the back panel is made of plastic, the phone offers a sturdy hand feel. Also, the company offers a transparent silicone case, which not only protects the device from getting damaged during accidental falls, but also keeps the phone free from fingerprint smudges ruining the look of the phone.
On the front, it sports a 6.6-inch full HD+ (2400 ×1080p) LCD screen and supports up to 400 nits brightness, 90Hz refresh rate, and 180Hz touch sampling rate.
The display has decent brightness, just good enough to view and watch videos outdoors without having to squint my eyes. And, indoors, I had a really good time watching documentaries for long hours.
I also liked the fact that the company has kept the 3.5mm audio jack. This allows users to have wired earphones and never worry about losing out the battery. Most TWS earphones can last for a six hours.
It also has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. It responds fantastically fast and accurately. I wish more brands incorporate the physical biometric sensor instead of the in-display sensor in the phones. The latter doesn't work smoothly with sweaty fingers and has to be kept dry at all times. On other hand, the side-mounted fingerprint sensors have a low false rejection rate.
Performance
Realme 9i 5G houses a 6nm class MediaTek Dimensity 810 octa-core with Mali-G57 MC2 GPU, Android 12-based realme UI 3.0, 4GB/6GB LPDDR4x RAM with 64GB/128GB (UFS 2.2) storage (expandable up to 2TB).
The company is offering the device in two configurations-- 4GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage. Our review unit is the latter. The device worked smoothly without any fuss.
When playing games such as Asphalt 9: Legends, Realme 9i 5G was able to perform decently on par with any rival brands in the respective segment. But, it is not a proper gaming phone and we just can't expect it works blazingly fast from a budget phone. This is more suited for normal usage and multimedia consumption.
As far the Realme UI 3.0 is concerned, the phone offers a simple interface and we can get through settings to check for storage capacity, and the utility tools like compass are placed within a folder on the first page of the home screen for easy access. But, I am not convinced of the duplicate apps in terms of browsers, music and others, which eat up storage space.
On the bright side, the phone comes with three slots, two for nano-type SIM cards and a microSD storage card. Consumers need not compromise on storage for the second SIM or vice versa. However, there is no word on when Android 13 will be released to the Realme 9i 5G.
Speaking of 5G, it supports eight bands (SA/NSA)-- 1, 5, 7, 8, 28, 41, 77, and 78. This will ensure that wherever the cellular service providers such as Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, decide to commence commercial 5G operation, the device will be able to support super fast internet. And, be able to stream high-resolution multimedia content without any buffering issues.
Also, with the 5,000mAh battery, the device will be able to offer longer battery life. During the review period, it consistently lasted one full day under normal. It always had a reserve of around 30-25 per cent left before I could retire to the bed. If you play games that need an internet connection at all times and depend on a cellular connection, the battery will drain faster.
However, on the Wi-Fi, the draining is slow. This is a common issue in all phones, be it in the budget or premium segment.
And, it comes with an 18W charger and takes around two hours to fully the charge phone from zero to 100 per cent capacity.
Photography
Realme 9i 5G houses a triple-camera module-- main 50MP (f/1.8, 80-degree FOV: Field-of-View, ) with 2MP B&W (Black&White) monochromatic (f/2.4) sensor and 2MP 4cm macro sensor (f/2.4) with LED flash on the back.
It takes decent photos in the sunlight. The colours don't look saturated. They are near-accurate and the details are pretty well captured.
Though it does not come with an ultra wide-angle sensor, it manages to cover a good amount of area in the landscape mode. Also, the 2X zoom quality is okayish, on par with rival brands.
It also supports up to 10X digital zoom, but beyond the 5X, noise begins to crop in.
In the night mode, the photo quality is average with a bit of grainy in the background. But, for a phone under Rs 15,000 range, we can't expect more than this.
It supports 1080 (full HD) and 720p (HD) video recording. Also, it comes with an HD slo-mo feature. You will find it in the more tab of the native camera app. The video quality is decent at best.
On the front, it features an 8MP (f/2.0). It takes pretty good selfies. In portrait mode, the camera was able to capture good photos outdoors, but can't be said the same indoors with controlled light conditions. But, it is on par with any of the budget phones in the sub-Rs 15,000 segments.
It also comes with superficial filters and editing tools to adjust facial skin colour tone, skin texture smoothening (you can clear your acne scars), jawbone, cheeks, eye size, nose and other aspects of your face to make you photogenic.
Realme 9i 5G
Final thoughts
For its asking price, the Realme 9i 5G is a decent budget phone in terms of performance, battery life and photography. But, what makes the phone very different from others is the design and build quality. The shiny sparkling case on the back, particularly the metallic gold model, is an instant eye-grabber and makes people believe it to be an expensive phone.
The company is offering the device in two variants-- 4GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage-- for Rs 14,999, and Rs 16,999, respectively.