Just when you thought realme will just be cruising along till the end of the year after being the no. 1 smartphone brand in the Philippines for six consecutive quarters (based on IDC’s Q2 2022 sell-in report), it announced the arrival of its flagship number series—the realme 10.
Now, what makes this launch special is that for the first time, the Philippines will be joining the Global launch meaning that the PH will be the first countries to get first dibs on the realme10!
Should you be excited about the realme 10 and should you make room for it in your Holiday wishlist?
Here’s our unboxing and first impressions of the realme 10.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX: The realme 10 ships in the trademark yellow box similar to its predecessor with the 10 branding on the top corner and black colored base. You’ll find realme branding are on the sides and printed on the back are its highlight features and regulatory markings.
Inside the box, you’ll find the “Welcome to the realme Family” compartment containing the plastic case, paper documents, and Sim Tray ejector tool. Recently, realme has included a frosted case instead of a clear one. While that’s okay if you have a dark-colored unit, it actually mutes the color of the lighter-shade variants. I actually had to order a clear one for my realme 9 because it’s such a waste not being able to show off that golden hue.
Back to the contents of the box, you’ll find the realme 10 unit wrapped in plastic and underneath is the wall charger and USB-C charging ca
Exploring the ports and buttons we get the usual realme layout with the volume rocker and power button on the right side. The power button does double duty as a side-mounted fingerprint scanner.
On the left is the sim tray slot.
At the bottom is the USB Type-C charging port, mono speaker and the comeback of the 3.5mm headphone jack
HIGHLIGHTS AND TOP FEATURES:
The realme 10 is the slimmest smartphone from the number series featuring a 7.95mm Ultra-Slim Light Particle Design. This Light Particle finish recreates the image of light particles colliding with each other in space.
In reality, this is one of the most sparkly-glittery finishes from the brand playing with various hues of color from white, blue, pink, orange, purple depending on how the light shines on its back.
If your significant other is wishing for something sparkly, maybe, she’s actually hinting at the realme 10.
Sharing the spotlight with its sparkly finish are the dual rear cameras of the realme 10, no island this time just two big circular lenses. the flash is located right beside the upper lens and the 50MP AI Camera branding beneath it. The realme logo is located on the bottom left corner.
Turning it over you’ll find a hole-punch here on the upper left portion that contains the selfie camera. I do like this placement as its less obstructive than being placed in the middle. Bezels are thin except for a bit of chin at the bottom.
For the display, the realme 10 has a large 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, which probably explains its blinding clarity. It also has a 90hz refresh rate for those smooth animations and transitions.
Accompanying that enviable display is an even more surprising audio system. Another first for the number series is this UltraBoom Speaker that takes the volume way up to 200%. This optimized and finetuned single downward-firing speaker designed to produce louder audio with more clarity both on treble and bass giving that surreal audio experience when gaming, binge-watching or filling your room with the sounds of Christmas music.
Making sure it performs as well as it sparkles realme has equipped it with the flagship-tier MediaTek Helio G99 Processor, which is currently considered as the best 4G chip from MediaTek. The Helio G99 is built with a 6nm architecture along with an Arm Mali-G57 MC2 GPU paired with an octa-core setup. It also comes with 8GB of RAM and you can further add up to 5GB more via Dynamic RAM Expansion for better multi-tasking and seamless performance. There are two storage options to choose from, 128GB and 256GB. The device runs on realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12.
Everyone’s expecting this to be the most exciting holiday season after the last two years were dulled by the pandemic. With everyone expected to go out you need a phone battery life that could keep up with all that partying!
The realme 10 has a 5000mAh Battery for all day use and comes with a 33W SUPERVOOC Charge that can power the phone from 0% to 50% in only 28 minutes! No more having worry about forgetting your powerbank or being a wallflower to charge your smartphone.
Perhaps the most exciting feature of the realme 10 are its cameras. realme’s number series have been praised for its camera system and the realme 10 looks to prove that point with a high-resolution 50MP Color AI Camera paired with Nightscape and Street Mode 2.0. There’s also a robust set of photography and video modes for users to explore which will be useful in creating those stories, TikTok videos, and IG Reels that may even go viral.
Here are some of our initial test shots:
For capturing better looking selfies, the realme 10 has a 16-megapixel front camera that can record 1080p videos as well.
We will be trying out all the modes and share them with you in our full review.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:
Its only been a few days since I took out the realme 10 out of its box, and so far I am really liking realme 10’s design and colorway. The 50MP camera is also quite interesting–it may seem like a downgrade from its predecessors’ 108MP triple camera setup.
But I am quite satisfied with how the photos are turning out. I do miss the wide-angle lens though and it would have been a better addition than the 2MP depth sensor. The AMOLED display is also very good but I’m really not sold on the 200% Ultra Boom Speaker since it only has a single speaker.
The realme 10’s Ups do outnumber the Downs but I will reserve my final recommendation when realme reveals its official price and pre order promos. So wait for our full review on Saturday on The Business Mirror.
Check out the realme PH Facebook page to get updates and watch the official live stream launch this November 9, 2022.
