Fresh off the release of the Realme 5 series, which garnered a warm reception from its fans, Realme is perhaps coming out with their last surprise of the year – the Realme XT. While its design largely stays the same, the biggest draw of the Realme XT is its price as well as its quad-camera setup being led by a 64MP main camera.
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 AIE |
| Screen | 6.4-inch SuperAMOLED, 19.5:9, 2340 x 1080, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 |
| RAM | 8GB |
| OS | Android 9.0, Color OS 6.0 |
| Rear Camera | 64MP f/1.8 PDAF Main, 8MP f/2.3 ultrawide, 2MP f/2.4 macro, 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor, LED Flash, HDR |
| Front Camera | 16MP f/2.0 |
| Storage | 64GB/128GB UFS 2.1, expandable up to 256GB via dedicated MicroSD slot |
| Network | Dual Nano-SIM, 4G LTE |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11ac, Dual-Band, Bluetooth 5.0, A-GPS, GLONASS, USB Type-C |
| Battery | 4,000mAh, VOOC Flash Charge 3.0, 20W Fast Charging |
| Others | Under-the-Display Finerprint Scanner |
| Colors | Pearl White, Pearl Blue |
While the Realme XT’s price point isn’t exactly budget-oriented, the company sticks to their motto of “less is more” when it comes to packaging. Included in its white-clad box is the smartphone itself, documentation, a SIM ejector pin, a silicone case, a USB Type-C cable, and a VOOC 3.0 charger.
A pair of earphones is still missing with the accessory list to allow the Realme XT to be positioned more competitively in the market. Though it can be argued that most smartphone users have their preferred pair of cans, it would have been nice if Realme threw in a set of earphones.
The Realme XT is perhaps the most premium smartphone from the company to arrive in the Philippines. Instead of an IPS display, the smartphone now comes with a 6.4-inch SuperAMOLED display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio for a resolution of 2340 x 1080.
The screen also comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection. If that’s not enough, Realme have courteously provided a screen protector pre-installed with the smartphone.
The smartphone’s display is surprisingly bright allowing usage even in direct sunlight. Colors on the SuperAMOLED display is on the punchy side of the spectrum while the whites tend to have a slight bluish tint. This is nothing to worry about, however, since a quick visit to the display settings can alleviate some of the tint on the display.
The device does still come with a waterdrop notch like its contemporaries. At this point, we have grown rather lenient with the notch. The notch houses the Realme XT’s 16MP f/2.0 front-facing shooter and also enables Facial Recognition.
Realme has moved on from their diamond-cut design and have adopted a two-tone color scheme on the XT. Ours came with the Pearl Blue color job that provides a blue and purple color way that cascades into each other in the middle.
Although the rear is made out of plastic, Realme’s paint job provides a metallic look from afar. A glossy finish concludes the aesthetic of the smartphone that’s surprisingly fingerprint resistant but might get scratched with a bit of rough tumbling.
The Realme XT has a rather significant camera bump due to its quad-camera setup. Headlining the lenses is the 64MP f/1.8 main camera backed by an 8MP f/2.3 ultrawide, a 2MP f/2.4 macro, and a 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor.
Keen viewers might have noticed that the Realme XT lacks a fingerprint scanner at the back. This is because the brand has emplying the use of an in-display fingerprint scanner, which is becoming more and more popular in smartphones nowadays.
The volume rocker is located at the left-hand side of the device while the power button rests on the right. They offer decent enough resistance but the positioning of the volume down and power button puts directly parallel of each other, which might accidentally trigger the screenshot function if you’re holding the smartphone in a particular way.
The SIM tray pops out just above the volume rocker. Realme has provided a Triple-Cut SIM tray that can house two Nano-SIM cards as well as a MicroSD card. Some of you might not even warrant the use of the MicroSD card slot since the Realme XT comes with 128GB of internal storage.
At the bottom of the smartphone is a USB Type-C port, which is always nice to see in an Android smartphone. On its left is the XT’s bottom firing speakers while on the other side is a 3.5mm audio jack.
When it comes to overall design, we rather miss the diamond-cut design of other Realme smartphones in the market since it is a recognizable design philosophy of Realme when they arrived in the Philippines.
In terms of design, the Realme XT is a pretty-looking smartphone. Its two-tone color scheme appeals oozes a classy aesthetic. Although the positioning of the buttons can be annoying at times, but it can be avoided so long as you handle it deftly in your hands.
The Realme XT runs on Android 9.0 Pie with ColorOS 6.0. Although some of the iOS-inspired UI choices has been replaced, the minimalist look of the ColorOS 6.0 still conjures some resemblance of iOS.
Traditional features of the ColorOS 6.0 as well as its Android 9.0 Pie roots are still present on the Realme XT. This include Smart Assistant, Quick Toggles, and split-screen multitasking.
Users can choose from several ways of navigating through the smartphone. The options settings gives way to a traditional navigation bar at the bottom with a couple of different setups as well as gesture controls.
GameSpace is also present on the device. This prevents notifications to interrupt applications such as games. It will also automatically purge some of the unused apps from the RAM to dedicate more resources to the game.
The camera app on the Realme XT comes with all the essentials you would need from a camera smartphone. Long standard such as Photo, Video, Time Lapse, HDR, Night Mode, Panorama, Slow Motion, and Expert are present.
There are additions to the standard formula such as an Ultra Macro Mode, Ultrawide Mode, Ultra 64MP, and since this is a ColorOS device, Chroma Boost.
As we’ve mentioned, the star of the show is the 64MP f/1.8 main camera. By default, the camera only captures a 12MP image when left to its own devices. In order to get the full 64MP goodness, you need to choose the Ultra 64MP mode in the options settings. If you decide to capture every photo in 64MP, the 128GB internal storage will fill quickly as every photo will be around 12MB each.
As expected, the Realme XT’s 64MP main camera takes a well-detailed photos thanks to the sheer megapixel count of the lens. Colors are well-saturated without being to offensive to the eyes.
Ultra 64MP Mode.
Night Mode.
The 64MP main camera also performs well on low-light situations. Unfortunately, the Ultra 64MP mode can’t be used with Night Mode. Night mode does have the leg up when it comes to low-light photography as it removes any light bleed from any sources of light by stitching several photos together.
If you want to check out the full-sized images taken by the Realme XT, you can check out this Imgur album.
The Realme XT runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 AIE with 8GB of RAM, while it’s not the best performing chip in the industry, it still does well in day-to-day tasks. We did not encounter any significant lag or slowdown while using the smartphone or playing games.
In terms of benchmarks, the Realme XT and its Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 gave decent numbers. In PCMark Work 2.0, the device pumped out a score of 8027. Meanwhile, the Realme XT scored a 2107 in Sling Shot Extreme Open GL and 2007 in Sling Shot Extreme Vulkan.
The Realme XT has a lot of competitors in terms of camera performance. While its 64MP camera might seem like a gimmick first, real world tests show that its 64MP can take in a lot of details especially in well-lit conditions.
As for performance, the Realme XT can give a middle-of-the-road expectations. Its Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 won’t break speed records but it can give reliable performance. Together with a ton of RAM, the Realme XT can a day of usage without breaking a sweat.
What separates the Realme XT from its competitors is its price. Priced at PhP 16,990, you would be hard pressed to see another smartphone packed with a ton of features and an eye-catching 64MP camera.
It’s with these reasons that we’re confident enough to give the Realme XT our 100% Satisfying Mid-Range Smartphone Award. If you’re out and about for a sub-PhP 20K smartphone, then the Realme XT would satiate all your needs.
