Realme 10 Pro+ 5G review: An all-round midrange phone set back by bloatware

Ahead of the year-end sale season, Chinese smartphone maker Realme updated its number series in India with the launch of Realme 10 Pro series. Leading the pack is the Realme 10 Pro Plus 5G, a midrange smartphone with two-side curved AMOLED screen as its key differentiating factor. Powered by MediaTek Dimensity 1080 system-on-chip, the phone is the first from Realme to boot Android 13 operating system-based Realme UI 4.0 interface. Though a thin-and-lightweight smartphone, it is powered by a big capacity 5,000 mAh battery and supports 67W fast wired charging dubbed as SUPERVOOC Charge. Imaging got an update too; the phone sports a 108-megapixel primary camera sensor (Samsung HM6) on the back. Priced at Rs 25,999 (review unit: 8GB+128GB), the Realme 10 Pro Plus 5G seems to be an all-round smartphone. Is it? Let’s find out:

Design

The Realme 10 Pro Plus 5G is a lightweight smartphone with two-side curved profile, which makes it feel thinner than it is. Made of plastic, the smartphone has a gradient reflective design on the back with a twin-ring camera module placed on the top left corner – accommodating its primary camera in one ring and the other two camera sensors in the second ring. The back cover (review unit: hyperspace gold colour) is glossy, therefore attracts fingerprints and gets easily smudged. That said, go for one of the other two colour options – dark matter and nebula blue – if you prefer matte designs over glossy.

Display and audio

The Realme 10 Pro Plus 5G sports a two-side curved AMOLED screen on 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. Together with thin bezels on the top and bottom side, the phone offers an impressive screen-to-body ratio. Besides, it feels natural to use with gesture navigations. With a sidebar tool available as part of the interface, the two-side curved screen proves beneficial in everyday use and multitasking. Two-side curved screens are good but are prone to accidental touch recognition. Thankfully, Realme has taken measures to reduce the probability of the screen recognising accidental touches.

Complementing the experience is the dual stereo speakers, which are loud and clear. The phone lacks support for Dolby Atmos and the balance is off mark because the bottom firing speaker is louder than the speaker in the earpiece, but the overall audio experience is good for its price. Important to note, there is no 3.5mm audio output jack here.

Camera

The Realme 10 Pro Plus 5G has a triple camera set-up on the back, featuring a 108MP primary camera sensor paired with an 8MP ultra-wide-angle sensor and a macro sensor. On the front, the phone has a 16MP camera sensor.

Realme has spent significant time adding fineness to 64MP and 50MP camera sensors that are available in most of its smartphones launched this year. The 108MP camera sensor is new to Realme smartphones and it shows limitations in the performance. The primary camera is good in daylight conditions. The pixel-rich sensor can produce natural shallow depth-of-field and capture frames with good details. However, it struggles in indoor shots and low-light conditions.

The ultra-wide-angle sensor is a weak performer too. It lacks clarity and misses out on crucial details such as highlights and shadows. The macro lens is there for novelty. It takes close-up shots from 4cm distance, but of poor quality.

The front camera is better at taking selfies and front-facing portraits. However, it struggles in low-light conditions too.

Performance

Powered by MediaTek Dimensity 1080 5G SoC, the Realme 10 Pro Plus 5G is a capable performer set back by the Realme’s version of Android 13 operating system. There is a freshness in the UI such as improved always-on display, themes with matching colour pallets for icons, and more. However, there is way too much bloatware. Worse, there are folders with apps unheard of placed on the home screen with install available on a single tap.

Battery and charging

The Realme 10 Pro Plus has a modest on-battery time of about a day on regular use with 5G enabled on a standalone network. The on-battery time extends to a couple of hours on the 4G network. The phone supports 67W fast wired charging, but comes with an 80W charger in the box. It takes about 50 minutes to charge the battery fully, but the charging speed slows down drastically if you use the phone for power-intensive workloads while charging.

Verdict

The Realme 10 Pro Plus 5G is a good midrange smartphone marred by underwhelming imaging and bloatware infested Realme UI 4.0. Acknowledging the bloatware and apps recommendations issue, Realme said it is taking “strict corrective steps to rectify this error”. Further, it is “moderating the user experience by screening such apps”. It seems a future software update may smoothen the experience, but there has been no such commitment from Realme with regard to imaging experience. That said, the Realme 10 Pro Plus 5G is a potential segment best smartphone – if its upcoming firmware updates improve things around its imaging and interface issues. In its current form, however, it is not.