3 reasons to buy and 2 reasons not to buy

Realme 9 Pro series debuted in India recently and the lineup contained two models: Realme 9 and Realme 9 Pro+. The latter steps out from the price segment the Realme numbered series is usually placed in, meaning it is the most premium offering in the series yet. The handset ships with a 60W fast charging, a 90Hz AMOLED display, Android 12 OS, and MediaTek Dimensity 920 chipset. We recently reviewed the Realme 9 Pro+ and found it to be a compelling buy in the segment. However, there are flaws like any other phone. In this article, we will be taking a closer look at 3 reasons why you should buy the phone and 2 reasons why you shouldn’t. Let’s get started.

Realme 9 Pro+: 3 reasons to buy

Amazing display

Realme 9 Pro+ sports a 6.4-inch display with an AMOLED panel and a 90Hz refresh rate. This is the first time that Realme is using a combination of both on a phone. Truth be told, we would have liked a 120Hz panel. The quality of the display is impressive as it offers an excellent viewing experience with inky blacks and punchy colours. The colours are well-calibrated and bright even for outdoor viewing. There are features like eye comfort, dark mode, and Ultra Vision Engine that convert SDR content to HDR.

There are Vivid, Natural, and Pro Mode colour options that will further enhance the vibrancy and visual quality of the display. There are HDR10+ and wideVine L1 certifications to improve the OTT content consumption. On whole, the Realme 9 Pro+ has an impressive screen and we definitely like it.

Excellent cameras

Realme 9 Pro+ features triple cameras on the back, with a 50MP primary Sony IMX766 sensor with OIS, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 2MP macro lens. There are bundled features like the ultra steady video, night mode, timelapse, portrait mode, HDR, AI scene recognition, filter, Chroma Boost, Starry Mode, Tilt-Shift, Street Mode, and Long Exposure. It can record 960fps in 720p resolution.

At launch, the company has claimed it will offer a flagship experience with regard to optics. True to its words, the phone really shines no matter the lighting conditions. The 1/1.56-inch sensor captures a ton of light, keeping the images bright. While the 2μm pixel size delivers a lot in terms of details. As a bonus, the focus speeds are impressive and there’s no shutter lag, both of which results in clear shots without any shake. The phone can record 4K videos at 30fps.

The images captured are well detailed with accurate colours, though they are a bit saturated at times. HDR is enabled automatically and measures the dynamic range efficiently. The street mode allows you to set the focal length and adjust exposure values manually and dual-view video that can click with both the front and rear cameras simultaneously. The front 16MP snapper clicks good selfies that are social-media post-worthy. It is the tried and tested Sony IMX471 sensor.

Long story short, the cameras on the Realme 9 Pro+ are impressive and offer a lot more for what it costs.

Great battery life

The Realme 9 Pro+ packs in a 4,500mAh battery with 60W fast charging support. While the battery capacity may sound acceptable considering we are now seeing phones with 5,000 and even 6,000mAh capacities, this doesn’t do justice to how excellent the performance is. The handset lasted an entire day without needing to charge again and some days we have managed to go into the second day with some juice still left in the tank. 

The bundled 60W charger takes less than 30 minutes to completely juice up the battery.

Realme 9 Pro+: 2 reasons not to buy

Bland design

While Realme 9 Pro+ seems to be having a lot going for it but one place where Realme should have gone an extra mile is a design. The phone has a familiar design, both on the front and back. It has a left-positioned punch-hole cutout for the selfie snapper and a sizeable bezel below the screen. The rear houses a square module to house triple sensors. The power button is on the right, while the volume rocker is on the left. The handset doesn’t all that different at first glance, which makes us feel bland.

Adding to that is the bulky weight and curved edges. The phone feels heavy in hands and offers a less than the favourable grip on hands. Realme 9 Pro+ isn’t a head-turner by any means except for the Sunshine Blue colour that shifts colour when exposed to sunlight.

Bloatware

Though Realme 9 Pro+ runs on the latest Android 12 based Realme UI 3.0 custom skin, there’s a lot of bloatware installed. This hampers the user experience and consumes a portion of the internal storage. Had Realme cut down on the amount of bloatware installed, the software experience would have been better considering it packs in impressive feature set like themes, always-on-display customisations, colourful icons, and much more.