realme 10 Review: The new midrange king

One of the most successful smartphone manufacturers nowadays is realme. I had the opportunity to use the realme 3 as my daily driver just four years ago, and now the realme 10 has arrived. Like its predecessors, this new phone focuses on a stylish look and camera performance that outperforms its price range in order to cater to the entry-level market in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

It is a promising mid-range device with its 6.43-inch, 90Hz Super AMOLED display, Helio G99 CPU, 50MP rear camera, and 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging. Given the Realme 10’s starting retail price of around 13,000 PHP, it’s difficult to nitpick. Almost no phone that costs less than this will have a main camera that is as excellent-looking or as amazing. Even so, let’s examine whether this phone is still a worthwhile upgrade.

realme 10 Unboxing

One of the distinctive yellow boxes that Realme phones are known for contains the Realme 10. It comes with the phone, a USB-A to USB-C cable, and a 33-watt charger.

The paper container also has a clear silicone casing.

The Realme 10 has a screen protector already applied, like the majority of low-cost smartphones. We quickly took that off because it is of rather poor quality and is a huge fingerprint magnet. Even so, we like that it is scratch-resistant right out of the box.

Here’s our full unboxing video:

Build and Design

The Realme 10 is a somewhat compact phone that weighs 179g, has a 6.4-inch Full HD+ display, and is 7.9mm thick.

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I like how the overall design departs from the typical dual-curved sides of Android devices and adopts a flattering look. Its blocky appearance is similar to that of the iPhone, but it is lighter, slimmer, and has a gently rounded corner where the edges meet. Although the rear plate is made of plastic, depending on the angle, it does reflect light in various ways. Gorilla Glass 5 serves as the front’s protection.

Display

The 6.4-inch display on the Realme 10 is excellent for entertainment on the go. A crisp and clear 409 PPI is what the Full HD+ resolution translates to. On the other hand, it can generate deep blacks and vibrant colors thanks to the Super AMOLED resolution. 

The generated images and films are rich in detail and feature vibrant colors.

The Realme 10 offers Auto, High (90 Hz), and Standard (60 Hz) refresh rate settings. Widevine L1 DRM compatibility and full HD streaming across well-known apps are also included with the Realme 10. However, HDR streaming is not supported.

Performance

The Helio G99 chipset powers the Realme 10. It is a 6nm MediaTek processor with a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU and a 2+6 core CPU design. The base storage variant includes 64GB of UFS 2.2 storage and 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM. Versions with 4GB/128GB, 6GB/128GB, 8GB/128GB, and 8GB/256GB memory are also available.

With its G99 chip, the realme 10 is certainly not a phone that will top the charts, but it’s also not a dud either. It’s a notable step up from last year’s Snapdragon 680 chip in the Realme 9.

Generally speaking, the realme 10 works as expected, especially while using the typical social and business apps. Switching between Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and whatever else was possible was smooth and error-free. And yes, you can pretty much say that about the majority of phones today, but it’s still amazing to have a genuinely smooth performance at a low to mid-range price point.

Gaming with realme 10

With its Helio G99 CPU, the Realme 10 ensures a fluid Android experience and above-average game frame rates. Even though the preset settings allowed us to see action games run at roughly 50 frames per second or more, which is more than enough for a phone on a tight budget, games won’t run perfectly with the top graphics options.

Furthermore, the realme 10 has demonstrated exceptional reliability. The phone achieved scores of 84% on the 3D Mark stress test and 3831 on the GPU stress test. On the other hand, it scores 394939 on the AnTutu Benchmark test.

The Realme 10 won’t throttle even while operating at maximum performance for extended periods of time. The phone doesn’t become hot; in fact, an hour of benchmarking only causes it to get slightly warm.

Battery Life

The Realme 10’s battery has the same 5,000 mAh capacity as the Realme 9’s. This Realme phone passed our battery life test, just as many other inexpensive Realme phones have.

The Realme 10 received a 126-hour overall endurance rating. All of our battery life tests, including calls, a mix of gaming, online browsing, and video playback, yielded excellent results. The Realme 10 comes with the appropriate power adapter and 3A-rated cable to facilitate 33W fast wired charging. A charge optimization that slows charging at night to increase battery life is one that is engaged by default. 

realme UI 3.0

The phone has Realme UI 3.0 on top of Android 12. The software is a generation behind the Android 13 seen in most competing phones, but I suppose it’s not far off compared to other third-party Android phones.

The phone has a side-mounted scanner that works excellently and is as quick as they come, and it enables fingerprint to unlock. For an even faster unlock, you can also set up face unlock; however, it is less safe.

There is an always-on screen option, and it can display standard information such as the time, date, notification icons, and battery. On realme 10, there are only the default themes. Some of the information, such as date, battery, or notifications, can be turned off.

The Dynamic RAM Expansion (DRE) capability is also supported by realme 10. DRE enables you to virtually increase the RAM on your smartphone by utilizing the device’s internal storage. You can increase your virtual RAM by 2 GB to 5 GB. Realme has set 3GB as the default option for this feature, which is turned on by default.

Overall, the UI is flexible, the animations are fluid and smooth, and everything that must function does so. No serious complaints, but the software skin is a little bit dull.

Camera

• Primary: 50MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN1 1/2.76″ sensor, Tetracell filter, and 0.64 mm pixels 27mm f/1.8 lens is attached to the sensor, which supports PDAF
• Secondary: 2MP monochrome OmniVision OV02B1 sensor
• Front: 6MP OmniVision OV16A1Q 1/3.06″ sensor with 1.0 m pixels, Quad-Bayer filter

The 50-megapixel main camera of the realme 10 is excellent for its price range. It focuses quickly and takes pictures with accurate colors and an above-average dynamic range. A wide-angle lens, which is more relevant today, may have been substituted for a secondary 2-megapixel depth sensor. It feels constraining to not have an ultra-wide camera in 2022, especially considering that prior realme phones in this series did in fact give us an ultra-wide.

Additionally, the main camera’s resolution is lower than the 108-megapixel found on the Realme 9, although we don’t consider this to be a significant drawback. In spite of these variations, the realme 10 has proven to be a competent shooter. The resulting images are very detailed and have true colors. Despite not having a telephoto lens, the pixel-dense main sensor allows for a solid 2x to 3x zoom when using a digital crop, and the image still appears decent without any detail loss. Street mode, Night mode, and Portrait mode are additional options. It can capture videos at a maximum resolution of 1080p at 60 frames per second.

Here are some shots taken during our trip to CALABARZON:

The realme 10 may also be useful for those who prefer to shoot in dim light. When it detects a dim situation, the AI function will automatically switch to Night mode and begin using longer exposure periods, although only by 3 to 5 seconds. This can be done even without a tripod.

Should you buy the realme 10?

Realme has succeeded in keeping the realme 10’s price identical to that of the realme 9. Even better, the upgrade to the Helio G99 chipset has made the phone more powerful overall, especially in terms of graphics. The screen and battery, however, have stayed mostly the same.

It’s quite difficult to find flaws with a little computer in this price bracket that has a good screen, competent cameras, and long battery life. My other complaints, like the plastic back and the lack of ultra-wide cameras, are probably not that big of a deal.

Despite a few flaws, the realme 10 is a tempting offer that we would recommend because of its value for the money. Fan favorites, including an audio jack, a stand-alone microSD card, and NFC, are also included with the Realme 10.

We are aware of the cost-cutting measures taken to create realme 10, and we anticipate that most users will be satisfied. The Realme 10 has a quick processor, a Super AMOLED screen, and long battery life. These features are more than adequate for the price and have earned it our recommendation.

realme 10 Specifications

Pricing and Availability

The realme 10 is now available on Lazada and Shopee for only PHP 12,999 (8GB + 128GB) and PHP 14,999 (8GB + 256GB).