Realme 7 Professional overview: a smartphone constructed for Gen Z

Who’s the Realme 7 Professional for?

Realme has not been shy stating its growth goals. ‘Dare to Increase’ and ‘Dare to Thrive’ had been the taglines the model was throwing round at IFA 2020 in Berlin. The technique is evident, launch a smartphone at each value level for each sort of (usually younger) client and crush the competitors. The Realme 7 Professional, subsequently, is for a technology of smartphone house owners who worth portrait images and quick charging over multitasking and clean shows.

At a value of £279 (8/128GB), the Realme 7 Professional is an reasonably priced, trendy cellphone that may be recharged from zero to 100% in somewhat over half an hour. Add to that the visible customization accessible within the new Realme UI 2.0 based mostly on Android 11 and you have a product which may simply seize a hip younger viewers.

The Realme 7 Professional is accessible in two colour choices Mirror Silver and Mirror Blue. It can go on sale from October thirteenth, with pre-orders from October seventh.

What I like concerning the Realme 7 Professional…

Stable efficiency

Realme has made a little bit of a reputation for itself by providing higher-end chipsets in its telephones than the worth tag suggests. The sub-€600 X50 Professional 5G, for instance, options the identical Snapdragon 865 you get in a Samsung Galaxy S20 within the USA and do not get in Europe.

The Realme 7 Professional options an octa-core Snapdragon 720G processor. That is kind of the identical processor you get in a Google Pixel 4a (730G). I would been utilizing the Pixel 4a as my day by day driver for about seven weeks earlier than testing the Reamle 7 Professional and actually did not discover any drop-off in efficiency throughout my day by day actions. Positive, the Android 11 goodness and Pixel-exclusive options are lacking, however for those who can reside with a Pixel 4a when it comes to uncooked energy, you may definitely reside with a Realme 7 Professional.

This processor is made utilizing an 8nm course of. It is usually geared up with Kryo 465 CPU with two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores at as much as 2.3GHz and 6 high-efficiency Cortex-A55 cores at as much as 1.8GHz, together with a brand new Adreno 618 GPU, which is similar because the Snapdragon 730G. In comparison with the final technology, the Snapdragon 720G has a ten% enchancment in CPU efficiency and a 75% enchancment in GPU efficiency.

Quick charging

The 65W SuperDart Cost is right for youthful customers who’re all the time on the lookout for that little additional little bit of juice. You possibly can cost the Realme 7 Professional from zero to 100 in 34 minutes. In solely three minutes, the Realme 7 Professional could be charged to 13% – which Realme tells me is sufficient for three rounds of PUBG, two hours of Instagram scrolling, or 150 minutes of YouTube watching. Apparently, you will get 4 days of standby time from the Realme 7 Professional, however you’d need to barely contact the cellphone in any respect to hit these sorts of numbers. I began testing this, and after two days the battery was nonetheless on greater than 50% cost, however I wanted to make use of the cellphone once more and I am completely happy to take Realme’s phrase on it. Whether or not or not you get a full day of battery life out of a smartphone like this (you do) is sort of irrelevant once you’ve obtained 65W quick charging. Bung it on cost for 5 or 10 minutes for those who get low and you might be golden.

That Realme bulk is decreasing

If you happen to’ve ever held a Realme smartphone in your fingers earlier than you may know what I am getting at right here. The model has been delivering stable specs at reasonably priced costs, however the precise housing of the telephones has remained nearly unchanged for some time. With the Realme 7 Professional, I felt for the primary time that the majority was disappearing. In comparison with the X50 Professional 5G, for instance, the 7 Professional is noticeably slimmer and extra snug within the hand. We’re nonetheless not fairly at the consolation of one thing like a OnePlus 8 or LG Velvet but, however it is a step in the proper route for Realme.

The three.5mm headphone jack lives on

Name me old style, however I’ve a tender spot for telephones with a 3.5mm headphone jack. True wi-fi headphones are nice however you continue to cannot beat the sound of a wired pair of cans in case you are on the audio-junkie aspect of the spectrum. It is not an enormous deal to have a headphone jack on a cellphone that prices lower than €400, however its nonetheless a promoting level for individuals who have a favourite pair of wired headphones that you’re not able to reside with out.

What I do not like concerning the Realme 7 Professional…

The place’s the 90Hz show?

The
story of the show on the Realme 7 Professional is one among give and take. While the expertise has been upgraded from the Realme 6 Professional, itself solely launched earlier this yr, one in style function has been dropped. The worth you pay for the improve from an IPS LCD display screen to a Tremendous AMOLED, it appears, it the lack of a 90Hz refresh fee.

The Realme 7 Professional accommodates a 6.4-inch Tremendous AMOLED Full Display screen with a 180Hz sampling fee. In comparison with an LCD show, OLED show performs higher in picture high quality and energy effectivity, and it’s appropriate with an in-display fingerprint sensor. However the lack of a 90Hz refresh fee continues to be a little bit of a blow to those that love clean scrolling. The choice has been made maybe to enhance battery life or to carry the gross sales value down, however it nonetheless seems like a downgrade from the Realme 6 Professional in my view.

The Realme 7 Professional show comes with 20:9 ratio, 2400x1080P FHD+ decision, 82.7% screen-to-body ratio, 600nits peak brightness, 98% NTSC colour gamut. It is shiny and sharp, however left me asking wouldn’t it actually have been so painful so as to add a 90Hz refresh fee? The equally priced Realme X50, for instance, encompasses a 120Hz Extremely Clean Show.

The 2X optical telephoto zoom digicam from the Realme 6 Professional has additionally been dropped for the 7 Professional, with a 2-megapixel depth sensor taking its place. This can be a trade-off I can reside with, particularly when you think about the viewers Realme goes for. Bokeh selfies and portrait pictures are extra fascinating than sketchy zoom for the youth of right this moment.

Bezels are nonetheless large at Realme

The second show compromise you make once you purchase a Realme cellphone in 2020 is larger bezels than the competitors. While you would be grasping to count on the screen-to-body ratios within the 90-percent vary we see on flagship merchandise as of late, the Realme 7 Professional feels a contact outdated with its fairly giant bezels across the show.

Positive we’re not speaking about enormous high and backside bezels like we used to see on Google Pixel telephones or the brand new iPhone SE 2020, however you may all the time inform a Realme cellphone from the entrance resulting from this rounded, darkish edges. It is a function of all the model’s telephones and never essentially a dig on the 7 Professional particularly, however given the physique has gotten slimmer and is shifting in the proper route, I would have prefer to have seen the show bezels placed on an analogous eating regimen. General brightness is also higher, and I had some problem with viewability in direct daylight.

Realme 7 Professional technical specs

Ultimate verdict

The Realme 7 Professional is, in some methods, what we have now come to count on from the fast-emerging model. Realme has proven no qualms about stating its objectives because it floods the European market with gadgets. The plan is evident, goal younger shoppers and provides them what they need at a value they will afford.

While the Realme 7 Professional is in some methods and improve on the 6 Professional from earlier this yr – a slimmer physique, higher portrait pictures due to the brand new depth sensor, and the quickest charging in the marketplace – there are areas the place the brand new cellphone is definitely a respectable downgrade such because the lack of the 90Hz show and the telephoto digicam.

What we’re taking a look at here’s a smartphone tailor-made to the calls for of the goal market. Realme has clearly made cuts in areas it thinks the children will settle for to offer them options it thinks will please them extra. It is an enchanting technique that few producers do to this extent, with the vast majority of the competitors going for a one-size-fits-all method and attempting to seize each sort of client with only one or two variants. I suppose it is the profit of Realme’s 20+ cellphone launches in two years method. If you happen to actually need a 90Hz or 120Hz show, there are a number of different Realme telephones for a similar cash that give you that.

Realme’s product portfolio is turning into one thing of a decide and blend for younger shoppers and, for me not less than, it should be charming to see how this performs out for the model in the long run.