realme 9 Pro+ 5G Hands-On

As other smartphone brands have been releasing their mid-range contenders for 2022, realme is here to join the party with their refreshed realme 9 Pro series.

Instead of their traditional line, this time the brand is starting with their Pro variant followed by this premium variant, the realme 9 Pro+. If you want to know more, then keep reading for our first impressions.

Looking at its design, the realme 9 Pro and Pro+ share the same style language and color variants. They do slightly differ in size as the Pro+ version is slightly smaller and is close to the same size as last year’s realme 8 Pro. Normally, by having a “pro plus” in its name, expectations are that it would be a bigger version, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. On its own, this feels light to hold despite being 182g.

We get an unusual yet artistic glowing design on its glass back, which looks like subtle shimmering stars. We like it! Aesthetically, it looks futuristic, at the same time, premium. The unit we have is in the Aurora Green color and is also available in Sunrise Blue or the classic Midnight Black if you want a simpler look.

Found on the upper left corner is its protruding square camera module to house its triple rear cameras and LED flash.

As for the buttons and ports, the power trigger is placed on the right side, while on the left are the volume rocker along with a dual nano-SIM card slot. Yup, no microSD card expansion here.

There is a secondary noise-canceling microphone at the top of the phone. While, at the lower end, we are greeted with the bottom-firing stereo speaker, the USB Type-C port, the main microphone, and the ever-so-reliable 3.5mm headphone jack.

Checking out the front, the bezels look slim, except for the thicker chin part below. On the upper bezel, of course, is the call speaker that’s also utilized as a secondary speaker.

Furthermore, the front camera is placed on the upper left corner on a punch hole notch, while on the lower part of the panel is the in-display fingerprint scanner.

To be specific, we get a 6.4-inch FHD+ (1080 x 2400) Super AMOLED panel with Gorilla Glass 5 protection. We also get a pre-installed screen protector on top, so thanks for that.

The vibrant display features up to a 90Hz refresh rate and a 360Hz touch sampling rate. Although, do note that the standard realme 9 Pro can go up to 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate.

Moreover, under the hood, the realme 9 Pro+ is powered by a 5G-ready MediaTek Dimensity 920 chipset. It’s paired with a Mali-G68 MC4 GPU, 6/8GB RAM, 128/256GB UFS 2.2 storage, and realme UI 3.0 (Android 12) for software. By the way, there is a RAM expansion available on this device and you can even toggle between an additional 2GB, 3GB, and up to 5GB. This should help a lot when it comes to daily use and multitasking. We’ll get more into this, along with some benchmarks, in our full review soon.

Now one of the main highlights of this phone is its cameras. The realme 9 Pro+ has a triple camera setup on the back, composed of a Sony IMX766 50MP OIS main, an 8MP ultrawide, and a 2MP macro. For selfies, there’s the 16MP front camera. We’re pretty excited to explore its camera capabilities more, but for now, check out some of our first few sample photos:

As for the battery, we now get a 60W fast charging upgrade to juice up its 4,500mAh capacity, which is similar to last year’s Pro model.

As of the date this hands-on was published, we don’t have the official price yet, but stay tuned for more updates.

realme 9 Pro+ specs:
6.4-inch FHD+ (1080 x 2400) super AMOLED
90Hz refresh rate
360Hz touch sampling rate
MediaTek Dimensity 920
Mali-G68 MC4
6GB, 8GB RAM
128/256GB UFS 2.2 storage
Triple-rear cameras
• 50MP f/1.8 Sony IMX766 OIS (main)
• 8MP f/2.2 (ultrawide)
• 2MP f/2.4 (macro)
16MP f/2.4 front camera
4G LTE
5G
Dual-SIM (nano)
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6
Bluetooth 5.2
Fingerprint scanner (in-display)
realme UI 3.0 (Android 12)
USB Type-C
Dolby Atmos Dual Stereo Speakers
4,500mAh batter w/ 60W superdart charge
160.2 x 73.3 x 7.99mm
182g
Sunrise Blue, Aurora Green, Midnight Black