Realme Narzo 30 series finally made its debut in India on Wednesday. The high-end variant of the new Narzo series, the Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G, has been launched at Rs 16,999 for the 6GB RAM/64GB storage variant. To note, the new Realme Narzo is currently the most affordable device to offer 5G support in India.
The Narzo 30 Pro 5G features a 6.5-inch FHD+ (1,080 x 2,400 pixels) with a 120Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling. At the heart sits a MediaTek Dimensity 800U SoC, the same chipset incorporated on the Realme X7 5G smartphone. There’s a triple camera setup, 30W Dart charging support under its offering. The new Narzo 30 Pro 5G is touted to be a gaming beast, however, I would like to reserve my opinion until I’m done with the review.
I spent a few days with this new Realme device, and here are my initial impressions.
Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G: Design, display
The Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G looks quite identical to the previous iteration with curved edges and a tapered back. The Narzo 20 Pro featured a textured back panel, but this time around Realme opted for a dual-tone plain skin. The fingerprint sensor is flanked on the power button at the right edge of the plastic frame. A rectangular-shaped protruded camera module embeds the 48-megapixel triple camera system. The phone gets a dedicated microSD slot and dual SIM slot.
The Chinese OEM has implemented a plastic unibody design but despite that the build quality of the Realme Narzo 30 Pro doesn’t feel cheap, rather compliments its lightweight. Ergonomically, the phone is good, and my thumb could comfortably reach the power button. The base of the handset is chiseled with a mono-speaker grill, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a USB-C port. Good things aside, the Realme Narzo 30 Pro is prone to smudges and the volume rockers feel flickery.
Speaking of the display, the top left corner adorns the punch-hole cutout front-facing camera and microphone. The screen produces vibrant colour with good details and high-refresh-rate provide faster update times. The viewing angles are decent, but I could see a glaring effect under harsh light even when the brightness level was pumped up to its maximum.
Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G: Hardware, Battery
During my initial usage, the phone managed to handle day-to-day tasks with ease. While playing casual games like Alto’s Odyssey I didn’t find any stutter, but it wasn’t the same lag-free experience with Call of Duty: Mobile game. The slow-touch response almost brought me to a cul-de-sac. However, I would like to hold back the final verdict about the phone’s performance until we put it run through some synthetic benchmark tests.
With few tabs running in the background, streaming YouTube and Netflix content, running casual games in between, the device could last for over a day.
While all these sound good, one thing that disappointed me is the absence of 65W charge support which was present on the Narzo 20 Pro. The 65W charger was a unique offering for the price, but with charging speed dimmed to 30W could be upsetting for some of us given the Realme Narzo 30 Pro now packs a slightly bigger battery than its predecessor.
Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G: Camera
The Realme Narzo 30 Pro features a 48-megapixel primary sensor with an f/1.8 lens, 8-megapixel secondary sensor with an ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 2-megapixel macro lens. In terms of the camera performance, the Narzo 30 Pro 5G was a mixed bag of surprises. Although the cameras could render decent details in daylight, the images appeared artificial rather than portraying the natural look.
The image processing was slow in low-light conditions, and I could see a glaring effect while shooting photos at night. The images also appeared to be smudgy and looked like an oil painting. Upfront, it has a 16-megapixel camera that comes with AI beauty mode. While clicking selfies with AI Beauty mode on it makes you look more of a robot and less of a human. That aside, the camera software offers Portrait mode, Super Nightscape, Ultra macro (rear camera), Pano mode,and more.
Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G: Camera samples
Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G: Software
Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G ships with Realme UI-based Android 10 OS. The software iterates Apple iCloud and calls it ‘Hey Tap Cloud’ that enable ‘safe storage’ of photos, videos, audio recording, and more. It also includes a bunch of bloatware that you will right away see after setting up the device but don’t worry most of these apps can be uninstalled.
Realme UI
Similar to other Realme devices, it gets Smart Sidebar which is basically the Quick toggle. The Sidebar present on the home screen can be accessed by swiping to the left giving you the options to open file manager, quick screen recording, and more. The Sidebar settings can be customized. The software also offers few gestures and supports facial recognition. The layout on the Realme Narzo 30 Pro is quite decent and at least you get the app drawer which is hard to find on many Chinese smartphones.
Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G: First impressions
Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G looks like a decent performer with a large screen, good battery backup, and storage. Although it is the first affordable device to offer 5G support, the fifth-generation cellular service hasn’t been deployed in India yet. Nevertheless, the Realme Narzo 30 Pro’s simplistic design and triple-camera will attract users, however, performance is one-factor one will have to consider if they are looking for gaming smartphones at a decent price point.
from Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G first impressions: Affordable 5G phone with high-refresh rate display
0 Comments