“COME with me if you want to leap.”
Well, this might as well be the tagline of the realme 10, which it dubbed the “segment terminator,” during its launch last Wednesday, November 9, 2022.
This marks the first time that realme PH is joining the global launch, making it one of the countries to debut the realme 10. Something it deserves after being named the No. 1 smartphone brand for seven consecutive quarters in the Philippines.
NO LONGER ‘FLAGSHIP ONLY’: The number series has always captured the core of what realme is about and that is bringing leap-forward technology to its millions of users. Since it began in 2018, each product in the series has had at least one leap-forward technology that is the absolute best in its pricing—whether it was the quad cameras of the realme 5, the 67W fast charging tech of the realme 7, or the realme 9’s light-changing design, making those features no longer flagship only.
With the realme 10, it promises to be even more ambitious than ever by going all in on this leap-forward mindset, promising a best-in-class product that focuses on three areas its fans care the most about—performance, display, and design, aiming to sweep the competition with this “terminator” phone.
Looking at the spec sheet, the realme 10 is equipped with a MediaTek Helio G99 Processor, 90Hz Super AMOLED Display, and a 5000mAh Battery with 33W SUPERVOOC Charge. These highly battery-efficient specs are complemented by a 50MP Color AI Camera, 200 percent Ultra Boom Speaker, and an eye-catching 7.95mm Ultra-Slim design. It will be available in either an 8GB+128GB or 8GB+256GB storage variant.
Should you dare to make the leap, or should you skip this instead?
DESIGN AND DISPLAY: The realme 10 comes in its signature yellow box and ships with the unit, paper documents, sim tray ejector tool, a 33W charger, and a USB-A-to-C cable. Like the realme 9, it also comes with a darker plastic case which I’m not a fan of as it mutes the color of the phone.
The realme 10 is said to be the slimmest smartphone from the number series, featuring a 7.95mm Ultra Slim design. I’m a fan of the overall shape, with its iPhone-ish blocky vibe, but it’s more comfortable to hold because it only weighs 179g making it quite pocketable and the corner where the edges meet is slightly curved.
realme has been known for its unique finishes and this time its Light Particle Design intends to recreate the image of light particles colliding with each other in space. In reality, the Clash White variant is one of the most sparkly-glittery finishes we’ve seen playing with various hues of color from white, blue, pink, orange and purple depending on how the light shines on its back. If your significant other is wishing for something sparkly this holiday season, maybe he/she is actually hinting at a realme 10.
The Rush Black version has a dark blue that graduates toward black sprinkled with thousands of glittering particles. It’s the more mainstream choice if you want something a little more discreet.
The realme 10 has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner instead of an under-display one. It is not actually a big deal as both are equally useful and fast. Personally, I prefer this placement as it is easier to reach and more natural when holding the phone. It has no official IP rating, but the entire device seems to be sealed quite well with some basic insulation around the slots.
For the display, the realme 10 retains the same 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen as its predecessor with a similar 90Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch response, and DCI-P3 color gamut. The 16MP selfie camera is located around its top left corner, which is perhaps the most unobtrusive location. It has Gorilla Glass 5 protection which offers supreme durability for slight drops and more than twice the scratch resistance compared to other types of glass used in this price segment.
The display size is ideal for mobile entertainment and the Full HD+ resolution (409ppi) is crisp and sharp. Watching videos, reading ebooks, playing games or just browsing your feed looks great thanks to its Super AMOLED display that produces deep blacks and vibrant colors.
One feature realme has been highlighting for the realme 10 is 200 percent Ultra Boom speaker, allowing you to play music at maximum volume, then taking that sound and doubling it through software. It does get very loud; unfortunately, it doesn’t sound as good as you’d expect. With only a single down-firing speaker, it’s severely limited with very little bass, and pushing it above 100 percent volume makes it very tinny and distorted. It’s a good thing they brought back the 3.5mm headphone jack so you can enjoy your audio better privately.
CAMERAS: One of my biggest concerns with the realme 10 was its cameras. Coming from the 108MP triple camera setup of the realme 9, the 50MP + 2MP B/W sensor of the realme 10 might seem like an obvious downgrade. Despite the differences though, it still proved to be a capable shooter as realme found a way to optimize its software to be able to produce great-looking images. Photos have plenty of details and nice rich colors which make it very social media ready. You also get all the fun modes including a Street Mode for those artistic shots and a Night Mode to help boost brightness when lighting conditions are not ideal. When it comes to video recording, it can shoot at a maximum of 1080p at 60 fps. The only thing missing is an ultra-wide camera that would have made it even more versatile.
PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY: The realme 10 prioritizes powerful performance above all to give its users that flagship level feel when it comes to everyday use, and in that aspect it does an excellent job. The realme 10 is the first smartphone with the newest Mediatek Helio G99 chipset which is an upgrade from the previous Snapdragon 680 chip. It’s a 6nm chip with a 2+6 core CPU configuration (2×2.2GHz Cortex-A76 and 2×2.0GHz Cortex-A55) and a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU.
The realme 10 is the only phone in this price segment that can boast of an Antutu benchmark score of over 400,000 and that’s because the Helio G99 that’s been perfectly optimized for efficiency and power. To address slow app switching, slow app launching, and limited storage space, the realme 10 can have up to 16GB Dynamic RAM that’s optimized for efficiency. You already get a whopping 8GBRAM built-in that’s more than sufficient even for the most demanding games, plus you can allocate up to eight more GB of your phone’s memory. More RAM gives you more raw power to play with, allowing the realme 10 to run 18 apps at the same time for next-level productivity and multitasking. It also ships with either 128GB or 256GB storage expandable up to 1TB via external memory.
Everything just works smoothly, with no lag, no slowdown, and it can handle just about any game I installed on it without any problems. Just don’t max out the settings for the smoothest gameplay experience.
With the holiday season upon us, phone battery is life and the realme 10’s 5000mAh Battery can easily last a day of moderate use. It also has 33W SUPERVOOC Charge that can power the phone from 0 percent to 50 percent in only 28 minutes and fully charge it in just about an hour.
FINAL WORD: If you are on the lookout for a phone that prioritizes performance and battery, the realme 10 strikes just the right balance between price and features. Those looking for an affordable yet powerful phone should definitely check it out. It has a very good display, the Helio G99 processor is a workhorse, and realme has done a great job with software optimization. The Ultra Boom speaker is a nice gimmick and hopefully they can further improve it. As for the cameras, you get exactly what you’d expect from a realme midrange device—good details, vivid colors and fun modes. If you are looking for better cameras, you might want to hold off and wait for the realme 10Pro or realme 10Pro Plus which are definitely launching soon.