Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Realme X3 SuperZoom Hands-on, First Impressions

Realme has been kicking 2020 off well despite the current situation with the pandemic. There’s the Realme 5i, the Realme 6 and 6 Pro, and a whole lot of other devices Realme has launched that range from entry-level to flagship killer specs. But today, we’re going to be taking a quick look at one of their latest mid-range smartphones this year, the Realme X3 SuperZoom.

The first thing you’ll notice when you pick this phone up is its robust construction and hefty weight. Looking at the phone, the Realme X3 SuperZoom looks very premium down from the get-go. Our unit comes in Arctic white, but there is also a more vibrant version that comes in Glacier Blue. The rear panel has a smooth matte finish accompanied with a faint holographic-like reflection under ambient light. The frame is also clad in a metal trim with a similar matte treatment, which helps with overall grip.

We get a quad-camera and LED flash module on the top left and of course the Realme logo at the bottom. It has a large display size of 6.6-inches, and features their 2400 x 1080 FHD+ IPS Display, with a 90.5% screen to body ratio, a pixel density of 399ppi, and a refresh rate of 120Hz, which is one of the X3 SuperZoom’s main highlights. A dual punch-hole front camera sits on the top left side and when it comes to protection, we get Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to put the icing on the cake.

On the left are your standard volume rocker buttons while on the right side we have your power button which also doubles as a side-mounted fingerprint sensor.

The top is clean with just your secondary noise-canceling microphone, while at the bottom you can find the USB Type-C charging port, a single downward-firing speaker, the primary mic, and a dual nano SIM-card slot. Unfortunately, we don’t get a 3.5mm audio jack as well as a dedicated microSD card slot for this device so keep that in mind.

Under the hood, we have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ octa-core processor coupled with an Adreno 640 GPU. Our unit has a massive 12GB of RAM with 256GB of internal storage, which is the largest available option for the X3 SuperZoom, but there is also an 8+128GB variant which should be a little more affordable.

As for the main shooter, we get a 64MP main sensor, an 8MP periscope lens with OIS (Optical-Image Stabilization), another 8MP for ultrawide, and a 2MP macro lens, while the front camera houses a 32MP main shooter coupled with an 8MP ultrawide lens.

When it comes to software, the X3 SuperZoom runs on Realme UI 1.0 based on Android 10, which should be a treat to use as I think they currently have one of the cleanest skins out there. Apart from your basic connections such as Wi-Fi, 4G+, and BlueTooth, we also get NFC support and is all powered by a 4,200 mAh battery with 30W fast charging support out of the box.

To wrap things up, this device already feels like a solid performer that not only looks aesthetically pleasing but also features promising hardware specs which we’ll have to dive deeper in our full review. As for pricing, Realme will be having a Livestream Launch of the X3 SuperZoom on July 9 2020, so stay tuned for that.

Realme X3 SuperZoom specs:

6.6-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) 120Hz display
Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ octa-core CPU
Adreno 640 GPU
8GB, 12GB LPDDR4x RAM
128GB, 256GB internal storage UFS 3.0
Quad-rear cameras: 64MP Samsung GW1 F1.8 (main) + 8MP F3.4 (periscope) with 60x SuperZoom + 8MP F2.3 (ultra-wide) + 2MP F2.4 (macro)
32MP F2.5 Sony IMX616 (main) + 8 MP (ultra-wide) F2.2 front cameras
Supports up to 4K @ 60fps video recording and UIS Max Video Stabilization
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 5.0
GPS, GLONSS, BEIDOU, GALILEO, QZSS
USB Type-C
1216 Super Linear Speakers powered by Dolby Atmos
Fingerprint scanner (side-mounted)
Realme UI (Android 10)
4,200mAh battery w/ 30W Dart Charge
Approximately 202 g
163.8 x 75.8 x 8.9mm
Arctic White, Glacier Blue