Realme 3 review: Redmi Note 7 baiter?

The Realme 3 was launched in India on March 4 with the starting price of Rs 8,999. With this, the smartphone was pitted under a direct competition with the Redmi Note 7, the Samsung M20 and others.

In less than a year, Realme, a sub-brand of Oppo, has managed to establish itself in the Indian smartphone market that too in the crowded budget segment. Its previous devices the Realme 1 and the Realme 2 garnered a lot of praise from customers as they met most of their needs without burdening their pockets. Realme has eclipsed the likes of Nokia and Motorola, two old guns in the market, and emerged as one of the top names in the budget segment,  increasing the competition further for Xiaomi, another Chinese smartphone maker. The Realme 3 was launched in India last month with the starting price of Rs 8,999. With this, the smartphone was pitted under a direct competition with the likes of the Redmi Note 7, the Samsung M20 and others. Design And Display The Realme 3 has a 6.22-inch screen, protected by Gorilla Glass 5, with a dewdrop style notch. The device comes in two colours: Dynamic Black, which we are reviewing, and Radiant Blue. Its display has a 19:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1520 x 720 pixels. The resolution of the panel may be on the lower side but the overall performance of the display is quite satisfactory. The colour reproduction is accurate, viewing angles are good and the sunlight legibility is at par. Contrast and saturation are also on point, considering the price. The Realme 3 sports a smaller screen than the Redmi Note 7, which has a 6.3-inch full-HD+ LTPS display. The smartphone weighs 153 grams and has a reasonable body size to fit in your palm easily. The Realme 3 is perfect to hold, thanks to its curvy edges around the corner. It has a gradient finish back panel to dazzle the users and unibody design which looks premium and stylish. The glossy finish adds to the visual appeal of the device. At the rear panel, you will spot a metallic frame encircling the camera sensor and the LED flash. The front side of the phone is completely blank except for the camera. At the bottom lies a 3.5mm headphone jack, micro USB port, and a speaker grille. On the left, volume rockers and a SIM tray, which can hold two SIM cards and a microSD card at the same time, is placed. The power button is fixed on the right side of the phone. Processor And OS Realme 3 is the second device from realme which has been powered by MediaTek Helio P70 processor. It adopts the 8-core structure and is equipped with four Cortex-A53 cores and four Cortex-A73 cores, with the clock speed up to 2.1GHz. The phone boots on the latest version of Android 9.0 (Pie) on top of ColorOS, which makes the user interface quite comfortable and has features that allow users to get a smooth browsing experience. The smartphone handles multitasking quite well. Also, gaming on the Realme 3 is impressive and it ran all the titles we played smoothly. The quality of the graphics is lowered only when games with high resolution, like Asphalt and others, were played. The phone runs pretty smoothly for general tasks. The Realme 3 has 4GB RAM which supports the processor to handle the tasks assigned. While Redmi Note 7 at times gets stuck while processing multiple apps at once, the Realme 3 does a fine job. Also, the internal storage of the phone is of 64GB which is expandable in nature by inserting microSD card in a dedicated card slot. Camera The Realme 3 sports rear dual camera sensors where the primary sensor is of 13MP and the secondary sensor is of 2MP configuration. The rear camera is capable of capturing clear and good photos. It has a f1.8 aperture for low light and it delivers impressive photos with good detail. The AI works behind the scenes to help you take photos worthy for social media usage. The camera quality is good at taking daylit images. If you are an amateur photographer, you will find the Realme 3 to be a reliable device for your needs. We captured pictures in natural lighting conditions and it clicked some great pictures just about every time. The device’s Nightscape mode performs impressively under low-light conditions. At times images captured during night may have a lot of noise, and appear a bit oversaturated but overall the Nightscape mode of Realme 3 does a fine job. The Realme has also included a dedicated shooting mode called Chrome Boost which improves high contrast images with the help of software processing. It actually boosts the colour saturation for the images. In Chrome Boost, scenes in photos are recognized and optimized accordingly into a larger dynamic range, with more enriched details in highlighted parts and shadows, and more balanced exposure. The portrait mode on the device is reasonably accurate and Portrait mode with the edge detection working well for the most times and occasionally missing. It, however, takes a little time to calculate depth information but blurs the background quite aggressively, making your face stand out in the image after processing. The selfie camera in the Realme 3 is of 13MP. The selfies captured were good during the day. During night, noise levels are high and images appear a bit grainy, which is an issue with almost all devices in this price range. Overall, the camera performance of the Realme 3 is good. The device also supports 90fps/720P slow-motion video-shooting to slow down the wonderful moments for you. Battery The battery department is where the Realme 3 beats its rivals. The phone comes with a huge 4.230 mAh battery. The phone was easily able to last for a day and a half with normal use which includes being connected to Wi-Fi round the clock, taking pictures and watching videos on YouTube on certain times of the day, making calls, light gaming and using WhatsApp. The Redmi Note 7, with its 4000mAh cell, will barely take you through a full day on a single charge, the Realme 3 will lasts for a day and a half. Verdict The Realme 3 is a winner in all departments under the sub 10,000 price bracket and has got some power to attract the users. With its almost two-day battery life, latest Android experience and a nicely designed back cover, it's here to meet almost every demand of an average user. The display is big, colour reproduction is also at par. Also, its cameras are not going to disappoint you. So, if you're looking for a stylish and efficient device under 10k, the Realme 3 is the device for you.