realme, one of the fastest-growing smartphone brands in the Philippines, is known for offering high-quality products at affordable prices. The brand is popular among young Filipinos, and it now offers a wide range of smartphones in various price segments, including its latest series of stylish and fashionable devices
Although realme is facing stiff competition from other brands for the top spot in the Philippines, the realme 11 Pro Series 5G lineup is proving to be a major game-changer this year.
The realme 11 Pro 5G offers a wealth of useful features, as well as what we consider as one of the best designs and material choices in recent memory.
With the introduction on the way, let’s unbox this “super-phone”. But before that, official PH pricing and full specifications are through here: https://unboxdiaries.com/phones/realme-11-pro-2/
Unboxing the beauty
The realme 11 Pro 5G comes in a standard black and yellow box. The retail package includes a 67W GaN power adapter and a 10W USB-C to A cable.
There is also a paper compartment with a soft transparent case for additional protection. The realme 11 Pro 5G, like most mid-range smartphones, also comes with a thin anti-scratch film on its display. However, we removed this basic protector on day one because it attracts fingerprints.
What a fashionable design!
The realme 11 Pro 5G is the first realme Number series phone with a unique and stylish design. It has a curved back panel made of “Lychee Vegan Leather” with 3D-printed stitches. The camera module is also large and eye-catching, but it does not wobble when placed on a flat surface.
The phone is made of plastic, but it feels premium and well-built. It has an IPX4 Water Resistance, and a secure grip. The vegan leather back does not attract smudges or fingerprints, which is a plus.
The realme 11 Pro 5G is a thin and lightweight phone. It has a volume rocker and power button on the right side, a dual-SIM tray, USB-C port, and microphone on the bottom, and a speaker on the top.
Overall, the realme 11 Pro 5G is a stylish and well-built phone with a unique design. It is not water-resistant, but it is still a great option for those looking for a premium-feeling mid-range phone.
Equipped with a premium display
The realme 11 Pro 5G has a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a 1080p resolution, 10-bit color depth, 120Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch response, and 2160Hz PWM dimming. It also has HDR10+ certification and Widevine L1 DRM support.
The display has a tiny punch hole for the selfie camera and is protected by slightly curved tempered glass. The 10-bit color depth allows the display to show over one billion colors, while the high refresh rate makes for a smooth and fluid viewing experience. The fast touch response is ideal for gaming, and the 2160Hz PWM dimming helps to reduce eye strain.
The realme 11 Pro 5G is HDR10+ certified, but Netflix only streams 1080p SD content on it. This is because Netflix requires a Widevine L3 DRM level for HDR streaming, but the realme 11 Pro 5G only has a Widevine L1 DRM level.
Overall, the realme 11 Pro 5G has a great display with a lot of features. It is perfect for watching videos, gaming, and browsing the web.
Battery life and charging
The realme 11 Pro 5G has a 5000mAh battery, which is the same capacity as the realme 10 Pro+ and 500mAh more than the realme 9 Pro+. realme claims that the phone can last over 29 hours on calls, over 18 hours on videos, over 400 hours on standby, almost a day when listening to music, and 8 and a half hours when gaming.
The realme 11 Pro 5G supports 67W SuperVOOC fast wired charging. The phone comes with a 67W GaN charger in the box. realme also has a feature called Wise Charging, which is turned on by default. Wise Charging learns your charging habits and fast charges the phone to 80%, and then slowly charges the remaining 20% just before you start using the phone.
realme claims that the realme 11 Pro 5G can be fully charged in 47 minutes and 50% charged in just 18 minutes. The phone also has multiple levels of protection in case anything goes wrong with the fast charging. Additionally, the whole phone has been fireproofed from the inside, so you should still be protected from fire and burns.
Performance
The realme 11 Pro 5G is powered by the Dimensity 7050 5G chipset, which is a rebranded Dimensity 1080 SoC. It has an octa-core processor with two Cortex-A78 performance cores clocked at 2.6GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 2.0GHz. The GPU is Mali-G68 MC4.
The realme 11 Pro 5G is only available in a single storage configuration(8GB+256GB). The RAM is LPDDR4X and the storage is UFS 2.2.
The phone also supports Dynamic RAM Expansion, which allows you to add up to 8GB of virtual RAM.
The realme 11 Pro 5G is a capable mid-range phone that can handle most tasks and modern games smoothly.
Gaming test
| Games | Graphics Quality | Refresh rate |
| Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | Ultra | Super |
| Call of Duty: Mobile | Max | Low |
| Genshin Impact | Lowest | 60FPS |
The realme 11 Pro 5G can handle most games smoothly, with no lag or stuttering in Mobile Legends even at the highest graphics settings. Call of Duty can also be played at the highest graphics quality, but the refresh rate is stuck at low. Genshin Impact, the most demanding game, can only be played at the lowest graphics settings and 60fps, and there may be occasional stuttering. However, the phone has good heat management, and it only gets mildly warm even after prolonged gaming.
User Interface
The realme 11 Pro 5G runs on Android 13 with realme UI 4.0. The custom UI includes battery optimizations, media controls, color customizations, and privacy updates. realme is promising two generations of OS updates and three years of security updates for the realme 11 Pro and Pro+.
realme UI 4.0 has a modern and clean Aquamorphic theme. It also includes Android 13’s Media Controls, smoother animations, dynamic widgets, and refined notification and control centers.
The realme 11 Pro 5G has an optical under-display fingerprint sensor that is fast and accurate. You can also set up face unlock for an even faster unlock.
The Always-on display (AOD) can show the usual content, such as the time, date, and notifications. You can also customize the AOD with different themes, clocks, and patterns. The AOD now supports Spotify media controls.
The realme UI 4.0 interface is clutter-free and easy to use. It feels great when working with a 120Hz display. The interface also retains plenty of powerful tools for those who want to dig deeper.
One of the realest Cameras
The realme 11 Pro 5G has a single 100MP rear camera with OIS and 4K video recording. The camera uses the OmniVision 1/1.8″ sensor with 0.612µm pixels. It also has a 2MP depth sensor and a single LED flash.
The 100MP sensor allows for 2x lossless zoom in photos and features Auto Zoom, which automatically zooms and crops on a subject and keeps it in the center of the frame. The improved stabilization also enables handheld Starry Sky mode.
The 16MP selfie camera has 1.0µm pixels and a 24mm f/2.45 lens.
Camera quality test
The main camera on the realme 11 Pro 5G takes 12MP photos by default. The sensor bins 4 pixels to make one, which should result in 25MP photos. However, the phone actually saves 12MP photos, which means that the images are further resized.
The 12MP photos taken in the default Photo mode are of high detail, low noise, good contrast, and adequate dynamic range. The colors are a bit over-saturated, but this may be a preference for some people.
The 100MP high-res photos look like they have been upscaled from the 25MP output even if it is not available to the end user, but they can be useful for downscaling to 25MP or 12MP, which would produce flagship-grade photos with natural colors and less over-sharpening.
The realme 11 Pro 5G’s 2MP depth sensor takes likable portrait photos with good subject separation, blur, detail, and dynamic range.
The main camera’s Auto Nightscape mode takes okay photos that are bright, exposed well, and have a wide dynamic range and pleasant color saturation. However, the detail is average and noise is visible.
Turning off Nightscape will lead to more detailed and sharper photos with a narrower dynamic range and many blown highlights. These photos look more natural and some users may prefer them over the heavily processed Nightscape photos. It is also the only way to shoot moving subjects at night.
The 16MP selfie camera takes good, albeit soft, photos with passable detail, good exposure, wide dynamic range, low noise, and punchy colors.
Video quality test
The realme 11 Pro 5G can record videos up to 4K at 30fps with its main camera and 1080p at 30fps and 60fps with its selfie camera.
The main camera also has an Ultra Stable mode that records 1080p at 60fps with heavy cropping to achieve action camera-like footage.
The main camera’s videos are great, with plenty of detail, great color presentation, and a wide dynamic range. There is no visible noise. The stabilization is not available in 4K resolution, but it works in 1080p although the implementation is not the best and the video may look abrupt and shaky.
The low-light video from the main camera is good, with adequate detail and pleasant colors. However, it is noisy and the dynamic range is a bit narrow.
The 1080p selfie video looks good, with passable detail and sharpness, realistic colors, and enough dynamic range for selfies. However, the electronic stabilization is once again rather bad.
What we like:
- Extremely fashionable and unique design.
- Excellent OLED display
- Super battery life and charging
- Decent performance
- Decent daylight photos and videos
- Good software support
What we don’t like:
- Overprocessed photos.
- EIS is pretty bad, and non-existent in 4k videos.
- No ultrawide or macro cameras, the microSD slot has been removed.
- Pricing is super close with the realme 11 Pro+ albeit being inferior
Final Remarks
The realme 11 Pro 5G is a great phone that offers a lot of value for money. It has a unique design, an excellent OLED screen, a powerful processor, a good main camera, and a long-lasting battery with fast charging. However, it does have some shortcomings, such as the over-sharpened images, subpar EIS, no ingress protection, and generally, a huge downgrade from the Pro+. Well, the realme 11 Pro 5G is still a good option if you’re looking for a mid-range phone with a premium feel that is not extremely pricy.
To know more details about this newest smartphone, head over to realme’s official website or Facebook page.
