Realme 5 Pro Hands-On, First Impressions

The Realme 5 series is launching in the Philippines, and fortunately, we got our hands on the more powerful variant — the Realme 5 Pro. This device has impressive specs that will become a hit once it arrives in the country. See how it initially fares and if it’s worth checking out.

Realme made the right choice in not ditching its geometric polycarbonate back design that sparkles when tilting the device at different angles. Surprisingly, with the rise of in-display fingerprint scanners, the Realme 5 Pro has a physical rear-mounted sensor.

The dewdrop display located at the 6.3-inch screen houses the 16MP shooter while just above it is the call speaker. Overall, the device looks solid and premium thanks to the slim side bezels, providing a better viewing experience.

At the top, you’ll find the lone noise-canceling microphone while the USB Type-C, loudspeaker, primary mic, and 3.5mm audio port are all situated at the bottom.

Looking on the left shows the volume rocker along with the tray that houses the dual-SIM and dedicated microSD card slots.

The power button is placed on the right side. All of the buttons are clicky and tactile, while their placements are just right for my thumb and index finger.

Flip on its back, and you’ll see the 48MP + 8MP + 2MP + 2MP quadruple rear cameras along with the LED flash and the fingerprint scanner.

The Realme 5 Pro is somewhat hefty as compared to its predecessor — the Realme 3 Pro. However, the phone still feels premium, robust, and can even fit it inside the pockets of your jeans. One minor issue is that it is a fingerprint mark and smudge magnet, but that’s okay since you can wipe it easily with a microfiber cloth.

Powering the Realme 5 Pro is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 chipset which should be more powerful than the Snapdragon 710. There are various RAM and storage variants here, but the one that we got is the 8GB + 128GB model. I’m looking forward to how it performs not just in gaming, but also in camera quality given it has a quad-cam setup. We’ll take the device for a full spin in the coming days so stay tuned for that.

Local pricing, availability are yet to be announced.

Realme 5 Pro specs:

• 6.3-inch FHD+ (2340 x 1080) Dewdrop full-screen display
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 2.3GHz 10nm octa-core0
• Adreno 616 GPU
• 4GB, 6GB, 8GB RAM
• 64GB, 128GB UFS 2.1 storage
• dedicated microSD card slot
• 48MP F1.79 Sony IMX 586 main + 8MP F2.25 ultrawide (119-degrees) + 2MP F2.4 portrait + 2MP F2.4 macro quad rear cameras
• 16MP F2.0 Sony IMX471 front camera
• Dual-SIM
• 4G LTE
• Bluetooth 5.0
• GPS, A-GPS, Galileo, BDS
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• USB Type-C
• Splash Resistant
• Fingerprint scanner (rear-mounted)
• Face Unlock
• ColorOS 6 (Android 9 Pie)
• HyperBoost 2.0
• Loudspeaker w/ Dirac HD Sound
• 4,035mAh battery w/ VOOC 3.0 flash charge support (20W)
• 157 x 74.2 x 8.9 mmnm
• 184 g
• Sparkling Blue, Crystal Green