Home » Realme 3 Revisited: Still one of the best smartphones under PHP 10K?

Realme 3 Revisited: Still one of the best smartphones under PHP 10K?

Written By Diangson Louie
Published • August 2nd, 2019
FeatureMobile
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The Realme 3 smartphone launched in the Philippines in March. It was an immediate hit to consumers who want a smartphone with competitive mid-range specs at an entry-level price. But five months have passed and other smartphones have already launched in the country. Can we still tag the Realme 3 as one of the best smartphones under PHP 10K? Let’s find out.

One of the main features of the Realme 3 is its unibody gradient design that comes in two colors: Dynamic Black and Radiant Blue. Since it’s made of plastic, it’s light but feels solid. We haven’t put a case on our unit, so it has already received some micro scratches. It’s only visible upon closer inspection, so I don’t think it has greatly affected its aesthetics.

The screen has also received its own share of scratches, but the good news is, it’s already protected by a screen protector out of the box. It’ll immediately feel brand new by installing a new screen protector and a case.

Software-wise, it’s still running on ColorOS 6.0 based on Android 9.0 Pie. Not much has changed but it has received software updates with the June 2019 Android Security Patch. Realme promises security patches every month, so that’s good.

When it comes to performance, we’re getting almost the same numbers in our benchmarks, so there’s no decline in the performance. The same can be said when it comes to its camera quality.

• AnTuTu – 129,190
• Geekbench – 1,421 (Single-Core), 4,655 (Multi-Core), 4,755 (RenderScript)
• PC Mark – 7,604 (Work 2.0)
• 3D Mark SSE – 1,108 (OpenGL ES 3.1), 1,068 (Vulkan)

The battery is one of the first things to deteriorate over time, but we’re glad to report that the 4,230mAh battery on the Realme 3 is still superb. We did a new round of video loop test on it and it even exceeded the original benchmark score by 1 hour at 16 hours and 3 minutes of playback.

Now for the price, the Realme 3 is originally priced at PHP 7,990USD 136INR 11,542EUR 130CNY 992 for the 3GB + 64GB model, and PHP 9,990USD 170INR 14,432EUR 162CNY 1,240 for the 4GB + 64GB. Other brands have their own offerings in the same price range, so to make it even more competitive, Realme recently made its prices lower by PHP 1K:

• 3GB + 64GB: PHP 6,990USD 119INR 10,098EUR 113CNY 867
• 4GB + 64GB: PHP 8,990USD 153INR 12,987EUR 146CNY 1,116

So, is the Realme 3 still one of the best smartphones under PHP 10K? Our answer is yes.

Realme 3 specs:
6.22-inch HD+ dewdrop notch display @1520 x 720px
2.0GHz Octa-core MediaTek Helio P60
Mali-G72 MP3 GPU
3GB, 4GB RAM
32GB, 64GB internal storage
Expandable up to 256GB via microSD (dedicated slot)
13MP f/1.8 + 2MP f/2.4 dual rear camera setup
13MP f/2.0 front camera
Dual SIM (Nano)
WiFi
Bluetooth 4.2
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
Micro-USB port
3.5mm audio jack
Fingerprint sensor
AI face unlock
FM Radio
ColorOS 6 (Android 9 Pie)
4,230mAh battery
75.6mm x 156.1mm x 8.3mm
175g