The realme 9 is the latest addition to the popular line of smartphones joining the 9 Pro+, 9 Pro, and the 9i. The smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G chipset which is quite popular to mid-range phones these days. It also packs a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with up to 90Hz refresh rate.
Moreover, the smartphone boasts a whopping 108MP rear camera, 16MP front camera, and 5000 mAh battery with 33-watt fast charging support. From the looks of it, the realme 9 flashes a lot of muscle in this segment and we're very excited to share our unboxing and first impressions with the handset.
Design
The realme 9 comes with the same box as its brethren. Likewise, the same inserts are present in the box - dark tinted jelly case, documentations, SIM eject tool, USB-C cable, and wall adapter.
We have the Stargaze White colorway for our review unit. The backing of this variant is mostly white but it dazzles when hit by a light source. It is made of high quality plastic, while its frame is flat - just like the realme 9 Pro+.
The whole situation with the ports and buttons are quite the same. We have the power button on the right, while the volume rocker and the SIM tray are housed on the left side.
At the bottom side, we have the speaker grille, USB-C cable, microphone, and 3.5-mm audio jack. The latter may not be as popular today as it was in previous years but it's still a breath of fresh air to have it.
I find the design and build aesthetically tasteful though you need to use it without a case to wow your audiences. Still at the back, there's the camera module defined by a triple camera setup. You won't miss the 108MP inscriptions for the main sensor. There's also an 8MP ultrawide sensor, a 2MP macro sensor, and the LED flash.
Display, Sample Photos
The realme 9 is a compact slab of a phone rather than a humongous note-sized device. Impressively, the internals are crammed in a 7.99mm-thick body and 178-gram weight. I love the fact that you can easily use it with one hand.
You can take advantage of the 90Hz refresh rate. To me, it completes the already amazing AMOLED display which offers generous colors and vividness. The panel is a full HD+ affair which frames 1080 x 2400 pixel resolution and 20:9 aspect ratio. It also offers generous amount of screen space with a 90.8% screen-to-body ratio. Again, I am quite impressed by the choice of AMOLED display in the realme 9.
Our initial impressions with the display is quite good. There's a noticeable difference when scrolling in 90Hz compared to the standard 60Hz. On top of that, streaming my favorite shows with this device is quite a worthwhile experience.
We also took initial shots with this smartphone; so far, things are quite impressive.
Sample Photo: Night Mode |
Sample Photo: Night Mode |
Sample Photo: Selfie |
Hardware and Software
As I have mentioned earlier, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G is quite a popular chipset nowadays. It's a powerful SoC which could definitely take on your favorite MOBA games. In the Philippines, the 6GB RAM variant will be available upon release. Though we are using an 8GB variant, it's still unsure whether this will offered in the country.
The realme 9 is also powered by the latest version of Android operation system - Android 12. It will be skinned under realme UI 3.0, which is definitely one of the best Android skins in the market. The phone also supports an under-display fingerprint reader which explains the absence of a physical fingerprint scanner.
Despite being light, the realme 9 packs a massive 5000 mAh battery. This supports 33-watt fast charging which, according to realme, would charge your phone up to 100% in 75 minutes.
The Wrap
The realme 9 is definitely something to look forward to if you're in the market for a new phone this season. We will be giving you our judgment on this phone in our full review coming out soon. Meanwhile, mark your calendars as the realme 9 will be launched in the Philippines this June 14.
Related: realme GT 6 Review
realme 9 Specs
- 6.4-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED Display, 90Hz, 1080 x 2400p, 411 PPI, 430 nits (typ), 1000 nits (peak), 90.8% STB ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass 5
- Snapdragon 680 4G (6 nm) SoC
- 2.4GHz Octa-core CPU
- Adreno 610 GPU
- microSD support, up to 256GB (dedicated slot)
- 6GB RAM
- 128GB UFS 2.2 Storage
- Triple rear cameras:
- 1. 108MP, f/1.75, Samsung HM6 Sensor, with Dual Pixel PDAF
- 2. 8MP, f/2.2, 119.9˚ ultrawide
- 3. 2MP, f/2.4, macro
- 16MP, f/2.45 front camera
- 1080p@30fps videos
- Loudspeaker
- 3.5mm jack
- 4G/LTE
- Dual SIM (Nano)
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- Bluetooth v5.1
- GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO
- USB Type-C 2.0, USB OTG
- Fingerprint (under display, optical)
- Realme UI 3.0, based on Android 12
- 160.2 x 73.3 x 7.99 mm, 178 grams
- Li-Po 5000 mAh battery with 33W fast charging
- Support Reverse Charging
- Meteor Black, Sunburst Gold, Stargaze White