Realme X50 Pro 5G review

Introduction

Once a rare breed of smartphones, today the flagship killers are everywhere. And Realme is jumping on this proverbial bandwagon with one of the cheapest Snapdragon 865-equipped devices on the market - the Realme X50 Pro 5G.

OnePlus may have moved on to the premium class, but Realme is successfully filling the void and it does more than just answer the call of the need for speed. Indeed, the Realme X50 Pro is fast - it has access to the fastest of networks, fastest of processors, and even the fastest charging.

But it also impresses with a fluid 90Hz OLED HDR10+ screen, a flagship-grade quad-camera at the back, stereo speakers, and the new no-nonsense Realme UI based on Android 10.

The Realme X50 Pro actually gets its main camera from the X2 Pro model - a 64MP primary - but there is also a 12MP tele for 2x optical zoom, an 8MP ultrawide shooter, and a 2MP depth sensor. The selfie experience has received a nice overhaul with a 32MP primary accompanied by an 8MP ultrawide imager.

Realme's 65W SuperDart charging premieres with the X50 Pro and it promises a full charge in 35 mins. That's quite impressive and we suspect it will become a standard feature for the maker's upcoming top-tier offers. But Realme, it's not too late to change the name. Just saying!

Anyway, here is the full specs to get you started.

Realme X50 Pro 5G specs

• Body: Gorilla Glass 5 front and back, aluminum frame
• Screen: 6.44-inch AMOLED, 20:9, 1080p+, HDR10+, 90Hz refresh rate
• Rear camera: Primary 64MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 Quad Bayer 1/1.72" sensor, 0.8µm, f/1.8 lens, PDAF; 119° ultrawide-angle 8MP camera with f/2.3 lens, PDAF, macro mode; 12MP telephoto camera with f/2.5 lens, PDAF, 2x optical and 5x hybrid zoom, PDAF; 2MP depth sensor; LED flash; 2160p@30fps video recording, EIS
• Front camera: Primary 32MP Quad Bayer 1/2.8" sensor, 0.8µm, f/2.5 lens; 105° ultrawide-angle 8MP camera with f/2.2 lens; 1080p video, EIS.
• Chipset: Snapdragon 865 5G: octa-core CPU (1x2.84 GHz Kryo 585 Gold & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 585 Silver), Adreno 650 GPU
• Memory: 6/8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM, 128/256GB UFS 3.0 storage.
• OS: Android 10.0; Realme UI 1.0
• Battery: 4,200mAh, 65W SuperDart charge (incl. in the box), 20W VOOC 3.0 support
• Connectivity: 5G, Dual SIM, Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ax/ax, dual GPS, USB-C
• Colors: Rust Red, Moss Green
• Misc: Under-display optical fingerprint reader, stereo speakers

We'd really like to see proper ingress protection on a Realme, but we are not getting our hopes up. Still, the X50 Pro has the usual nano-coating over its internals, which supposedly makes it at least splash-proof.

Unboxing the Realme X50 Pro

We don't have the Realme X50 Pro retail box to pose for a picture, but we did receive its contents. So, every new Realme X50 Pro will come with the 65W SuperDart charger and a yellow USB-C cable that's enhanced to work with the 65W brick.

Realme is also shipping the phone with a soft silicone case and a factory-applied screen protector.

Design and handling

Every 2020 flagship has to meet certain expectations, and the Realme X50 Pro design revolves around those. The X50 was built by the book - it's a glass-sandwich phone with metal frame and captivating colors. There are trendy curves on the sides and the back, and a nearly bezel-less screen at the front. This is what it takes to deserve a warm reception and the Realme has gotten it right.

The X50 Pro, either in Rusty Red or Moss Green, is uniquely enough to stand out. Sure, we can get behind the notion of the glass-sandwich design being overstayed its welcome, but until a better and more meaningful concept makes history, the glass phones will remain to rule the market.

One thing the Realme X50 Pro can brag with is the matt finish on the rear glass. It's really nice to look at and even better to feel it while handling the phone. The glass, especially when cold, feels like metal and yet it's not, and allows for these multiple layers of semi-transparent paint to magically quilt this rusty red color you are seeing.

The matt finish transitions onto the aluminum frame making for a seamless design, beautifully executed and sturdily crafted out Gorilla Glass 5.

The Realme X50 Pro has a completely flat front - it's all screen protected with Gorilla Glass 5. The display employs a 6.44" OLED panel with elliptical notch for the dual-selfie camera. And it's a real dual setup with regular and ultrawide snappers, so we'd consider it a fair trade for the missing pixels.

The earpiece is etched within the screen enclose, a common technique nowadays, and it's quite thin and well concealed. The good news is that it also doubles as a speaker, pretty loud at that, and so the X50 Pro can brag with a stereo speaker setup.

The display hides more premium treats than meet the eye. First - it supports 90Hz refresh rate, meaning it can show 90fps provided the GPU can handle it (it can). And second, underneath that bright OLED screen is the fastest optical fingerprint scanner available right now - the same you'd find on the OnePlus 7T and Realme X2 series.

The rear Gorilla Glass 5 is eye-catchy, whether it's green or red, and it is bent towards the frame. Such curves became very popular lately and there is a good reason - this type of shape is considered premium as it is more expensive to make, plus it makes up for a slimmer profile and more pleasant, even if slippery, handling.

The four cameras at the back share one vertical hump. First is the 12MP tele shooter, followed by the 64MP primary, then comes the 8MP ultrawide snapper, and finally is the 2MP depth sensor. The bump is surprisingly short, but still enough to make the X50 wobble on a desk.

The metal frame is slightly curved and has the nice matte finish we experienced on the back. Thanks to this non-glossy persistence the Realme X50 Pro feels more secure in hand than the regular glass phones and gives you just enough peace of mind so you may ditch the provided case.

The bottom of the X50 Pro has the USB-C port, the SIM tray, the mouthpiece and here is also the second speaker. The volume keys are on the left, while the power key is on the right and has a thin yellow line for some reason (not that we are complaining).

The Realme X50 Pro was made in line with today's standards for both shape and size and nobody will have any issues with it, unless you are waiting for the next iPhone SE to pop up. The phone feels thin and light enough, while handling it is nothing short of a premium deal. The one thing we miss is proper water protection, but we guess on such a low price we got more than we bargained for.

One large 90Hz OLED

One of the key features of the Realme X50 Pro 5G is its 90Hz screen. It uses a 6.44" AMOLED panel of extended 1080p resolution (2,400 x 1,080 px) that has an oval cutout around the top left corner to make way for the two selfie snappers.

Gorilla Glass 5 is responsible for the screen protection against cracks and scratches, but Realme is applying a thin protector in the factory for some extra security out of the box.

The Realme X50 Pro display supports a 90Hz refresh rate like the Realme X2 Pro. You can choose between 60Hz, 90Hz, and Auto Select refresh from display settings.

The panel also supports HDR10+ and thanks Widevine L1 DRM support, you will be able to enjoy high-res HDR content from Netflix and the likes on the Realme X50 Pro.

The display maxes out at 525 nits of brightness when adjusted manually, and when set to the Auto setting and faced with bright light, it will go as high as 635 nits. These are some great numbers for an OLED screen, and you will never be faced with a dim picture, no matter the light conditions.

The minimum brightness we were able to measure on the X50 Pro screen is 4 nits - not the lowest we've seen from an AMOLED.

Display test	100% brightness
	Black,cd/m2	White,cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Realme X50 Pro 5G	0	525	∞
Realme X50 Pro 5G (Max Auto)	0	635	∞
Realme X2 Pro	0	500	∞
Realme X2 Pro (Max Auto)	0	708	∞
Realme X2	0	432	∞
Samsung Galaxy S20	0	397	∞
Samsung Galaxy S20 (Max Auto)	0	814	∞
Xiaomi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro	0	453	∞
Xiaomi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro (Max Auto)	0	643	∞
Huawei P40	0	440	∞
Huawei P40 (Max Auto)	0	589	∞
Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro	0	510	∞
Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro (Max Auto)	0	858	∞

The screen is tuned to comply with the DCI-P3 (Vivid) and sRGB (Natural) color spaces. The accuracy is good - the Vivid profile is not too saturated; color is just punchy enough but not overwhelming. As usually is the case with a more pumped up profile, whites lean slightly to blue (cool white). In this mode, we measured an average color deviation of deltaE 4.8 and a maximum deviation of 10 at white color.

The Natural profile does yield the same color accuracy scores: it's got an average deltaE of 4.7 and a max deltaE of 9.9 at point white, which once again leans towards blue.

You can use the color temperature slider, and its Warmest setting yields slightly better results with average deltaE of 3.6 for DCI-P3 and 3.2 for sRGB. The blue tinge is gone here as the whites in both modes are much more accurate (deltaE of 6 and 5.6).

Battery life

The Realme X50 Pro packs a 4,200 mAh battery. It is the first phone to support the new 65W SuperDart charge and the 65W charger is part of the retail bundle. Realme promises it will fully recharge the battery in 35 mins. And we can confirm it fills 99% of its dead battery in 35 mins, while a full charge is achieved around the 38 min mark. Very impressive indeed!

The Realme X50 Pro also supports all previous VOOC fast charging options, as well as USB-PD, so if you are fine without the charging speed that only 65W VOOC 2.0 provides, you can charge it with whatever fast charger you have lying around. As long as it's not a wireless charger that is - as the Realme X50 Pro does not support that.

We've completed our battery tests, and the results are very good. The phone can last you north of 13 hours of web surfing, or more than 17 hours of playing videos. The 3G talk time isn't spectacular, and nor is the standby performance - and these led to a bit lower than expected, but still very good endurance rating of 88 hours.

Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Realme X50 Pro 5G for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.

Speakers loudness

The Realme X50 Pro boasts two speakers - one dedicated at the bottom and the other one is the earpiece. The bottom one offers more bass than the earpiece, but other than that - their loudness seems balanced enough.

In our new speaker test, the Realme X50 Pro scored a Very Good mark as far as loudness is concerned. As for the quality - it's excellent. Both bass and treble are loud and clear and are very well presented - better than on the Oppo Find X2 Pro though the bass is not on the level of the best phones out there.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

Latest Android + fresh Realme UI

The Realme X50 Pro runs on Android 10 skinned with the brand new Realme UI. The maker has promised us a new take on ColorOS that's made by Oppo and with the most recent Realme 6 and X50 series it surely delivered.

First, always-on screen is available (called Screen Off) and it can show the usual content - clock, date, notifications icons, battery. Or you can opt for your personal mantra (i.e. Dare to Leap) and see only this message when the screen is off.

You can also turn screen light effects for new notifications, which is much more battery saving than having an AOD screen and you can fully customize it. This also makes up for the lack of dedicated notification LED.

Screen-off • Clock style • Clock style • Cock style • Mantra • Screen effects

The new launcher looks a lot like vanilla Android with no-nonsense homescreens, simplistic notification/toggles area, and easy to use task switcher. App drawer is available, too, and it is as clutter-free as one could hope for.

Realme UI 1.0

The new Realme UI supports different icon packs, so if you are not happy with the default one, you can opt for material style, pebbles, or you can even fully customize them by your liking.

Customizing system icons

There are a lot of powerful tools within the settings menu if you want full control over your Android OS. Or you can leave everything as is and enjoy hassle-free Android experience optimized by Realme's AI algorithms and machine learning.

Settings

Similar to the recent Galaxies, the Realme UI offers a Smart Sidebar on the edge of the screen - you can customize the actions and app shortcuts that appear there.

Smart Sidebar

The multimedia apps such as Gallery, Music, and Videos - are provided by Realme. There is also a redesigned File Manager and even a Phone Manager app. This completes the non-Google app list.

Gallery • Music • Videos • Phone Manager • File Manager

Finally, the Realme UI supports 90Hz and is displayed with 90fps - meaning it looks buttery smooth and blazing fast.

Performance

The Realme X50 Pro is among the first smartphone we meet running on the new Snapdragon 865 chip. It also features Qualcomm's X55 modem that adds full-fledged 5G connectivity.

The Snapdragon 865 has a new octa-core processor with a familiar core configuration - 1x2.84 GHz Kryo 585 Gold (Cortex-A77 derivative) & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 Gold (Cortex-A77 derivative) & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 585 Silver (Cortex-A55 derivative).

The Adreno 650 is part of the Snapdragon 865 and should bring the gaming possibilities to another level.

The Snapdragon 865 chip supports LPDDR5 RAM, and the Realme X50 Pro is available with 6, 8, or even 12GB of LPDDR5. The storage options are 128GB and 256GB, and the storage is of the UFS 3.0 kind.

Finally, the Snapdragon 865 is fabricated on TSMC's 7nm manufacturing process, same as the Snapdragon 855.

Realme has a new five-dimensional cooling system for the X50 Pro. It is comprised of a vapor chamber and multiple layers of solid graphite and it covers the entire chip area.

Well, the benchmark scores are in, and they show what we all expected to see - uncompromised performance across the board.

The updated 8-core processor is a skilled performer, on par with the latest Exynos (S20 series), and a meaningful upgrade over the S855 CPU.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  3269
• Realme X50 Pro
  3175
• Huawei P40
  3148
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  2942
• Sony Xperia 5
  2825
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  2803
• Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
  2750
• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  2732

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
  931
• Realme X50 Pro
  911
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  900
• Huawei P40
  778
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  773
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  764
• Sony Xperia 5
  750
• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  744

The Adreno 650 is the best mobile GPU right now and it thrives under 1080p screens. Unfortunately, the X50 Pro screen wasn't recognized as 90fps-capable by GFXBench for some reason.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
  87
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  87
• Realme X50 Pro
  86
• Samsung Galaxy S20 (120Hz, 1080p)
  86
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  81
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  80
• Realme X2 Pro
  78
• Huawei P40
  75
• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  71
• Sony Xperia 5
  69

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S20 (120Hz, 1080p)
  79
• Realme X50 Pro
  60
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  59
• Huawei P40
  58
• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  57
• Realme X2 Pro
  57
• Sony Xperia 5
  52
• Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
  45
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  43
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  40

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  45
• Samsung Galaxy S20 (120Hz, 1080p)
  44
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  43
• Huawei P40
  37
• Realme X2 Pro
  37
• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  36
• Sony Xperia 5
  33
• Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
  26
• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  25
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  24

And finally, the one number to rule them all AnTuTu was an easy test for the Realme X50 Pro and it simply aced it.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Oppo Find X2 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  593717
• Realme X50 Pro
  592447
• Samsung Galaxy S20 (120Hz, 1080p)
  525029
• Samsung Galaxy S20 (60Hz, 1440p)
  515538
• OnePlus 7T Pro
  493901
• Huawei P40
  486583
• LG V60 ThinQ 5G
  485908
• Realme X2 Pro
  467653
• Redmi K20 Pro/Mi 9T Pro
  437823
• Sony Xperia 5
  416601

The Realme X50 Pro's chipset of choice means it's over-equipped for its class and screen resolution. It's a flagship phone with flagship-worthy performance and will behave hiccup-free for years to come no matter what. It has a very good cooling system, which managed to keep the back rather cool and provide for a sustained performance even when running benchmarks for a long time.

Our only concern is with the 90Hz support - currently, there are few popular games that support 90+ fps, and even fewer of those recognize all HRR screens currently available, Realme's included. So, just don't expect to get 90fps in games or tests just because your screen supports it - you might be in for a disappointment.

Traditional quad-camera setup on the back, dual - at the front

The Realme X50 Pro lifts its main camera setup from the X2 Pro - it has a high-res primary shooter, an ultrawide snapper, a tele cam for 2x zoom, and a depth sensor for portraits. That's pretty much the traditional definition for the 4-camera arrangements and Realme obviously did things by the book.

The primary camera uses Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 1/1.72" sensor with 0.8µm pixels, Quad-Bayer filter, and f/1.8 26mm lens. Phase-detect autofocus is available.

There is also an 8MP snapper with f/2.3 13mm lens for ultrawide photos. It also features phase-detect autofocus and because of it - this 8MP cam is also used for super macro snaps. Nice!

The Realme X50 Pro features a 12MP imager behind f/2.5 52mm lens for 2x zoomed photos. It can do 5X hybrid zoom, whatever that means, and also 20X digital zoom. Phase-detection AF is available here as well.

The fourth and final snapper is the 2MP depth sensor without color filter, which Realme calls portrait lens. It should help boost the contrast when assisting the main camera and enhance retro effects if you decide to apply such.

The three active shooters all support AI Color - this was previously known as Dazzle Color or Chroma Boost. In addition to more saturated colors, it also applies HDR when necessary. When light is low, though, AI Color actually triggers Nightscape mode instead. And speaking of...

There is a new night mode - Nightscape 3.0. It works like before - taking a couple of snaps with different exposure and stitch them together. And it works on all three cameras - main, ultrawide, and zoom (although 2x is usually upscale from the main cam). But it has a new Tripod mode - if you leave the phone on a tripod it can shoot for as long as 50 seconds for some jaw-dropping shots. We can't wait to test this!

There are two selfie shooters at the front but none of them features autofocus. Still, the primary is a 32MP Sony IMX616 Quad-Bayer sensor with f/2.5 lens, while the secondary is an 8MP imager behind f/2.2 lens for 105° ultrawide selfies.

The camera app is familiar with a few tweaks here and there - there are less menus, which is good. You will notice zoom toggles switching between Wide, 1X, 2X, and 5X, but quite expectedly everything beyond 2X is only digital zooming.

In the Pro mode you get to tweak exposure (ISO in the 100-3200 range and shutter speed in the 1/8000s-32s range), white balance (by light temperature, but no presets), manual focus (in arbitrary 0 to 1 units with 0 being close focus and 1 being infinity) and exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 1/6EV increments). You can use Pro with all three cameras, though the shutter speed for the ultrawide snapper maxes out at 1/2s.

Camera app

Image quality

The Realme X50 Pro main camera saves 16MP photos by default and those are great - the detail is abundant, the colors accurate, contrast is excellent, and the dynamic range is quite high.

There is some noise visible in areas of uniform color, but it doesn't get in the way.

The foliage isn't the best we've seen - the high complexity detail - grass and the tree branches - gets smeared by the algorithm. If we were to guess - all intricate things are mistaken for noise or the pixel binning just isn't as perfect. Either way, the photos are still great for this price tag and we'd say they are pretty close to current bests.

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Realme X50 Pro 16MP photos

AI Color is what Realme now calls the old Dazzle Color and Chroma Boost. This is pretty much an HDR more with an additional color saturation depending on the scene - Skies, Greenary, Buildings, etc.

The photos with AI Color do present much livelier colors, but we don't think this unrealistic look will be everyone's cup of tea.

Realme X50 Pro 16MP photos with AI color

Shooting at the maximum 64MP resolution is possible and this will net you some extra detail, mostly in foliage, under the right conditions. Even so, there's a major price to be paid in terms of noise - full-res shots have a lot of it, they are slower to take, and eat up between 15 and 35 MB of space. We'd stick to the 16MP default mode.

Realme X50 Pro 64MP images

The 8MP cam with the ultrawide lens does a very good job - the detail is good for the ultrawide purposes, the colors are close to the real thing even if a bit washed out, and the dynamic range is higher than what we usually get from such snappers. The 8MP ultrawide snaps are noise-free and overall - among the better ones we've seen among the 8MP shooters.

There is automatic distortion correction applied, so there are no wrapped buildings.

Realme X50 Pro 8MP ultrawide photos

And here are some ultrawide photos with AI color on.

Realme X50 Pro 8MP ultrawide photos with AI color

The 8MP ultrawide camera supports autofocus and, in addition to the always on focus shots, you can get really close to a subject (4cm) and take some macro photos like the ones below. Detail isn't ideal, but they would still do for the occasional ladybug or cactus.

Realme X50 Pro 8MP macro samples

The 12MP photos from the zoom camera are a bit noisy but exhibiting flagship level of detail. The foliage presentation is better here, the sharpness - just right, the contrast and colors - excellent, and the dynamic range is pretty great.

Realme X50 Pro 12MP telephoto samples

A 5x toggle is also present in the viewfinder, and that does digital zoom from the 2x module. Images look okay at fit to screen magnifications but don't stand up well to pixel-level scrutiny.

Realme X50 Pro 12MP telephoto samples with AI color

The Realme X50 Pro shoots portraits with its main 64MP snapper and with the help of the 2MP so-called portrait camera. Realme says this tiny camera is not just a depth sensor but is also used to enhance the contrast of the said portraits.

Well, we can't be certain what's going on behind the scenes, but the Realme X50 Pro takes very good portraits with competent subject detection and convincing background blur. Stray hair was much of a challenge either and overall, the shots are exemplary for this class.

Realme X50 Pro 16MP portrait photos

Enough with the daylight photos, let's look at a bunch of pictures we shot at nighttime.

The X50 Pro performs very good when the light is low, although we've seen better from some recent Galaxy and Xiaomi phones. Anyway, the detail is enough and there is lots of noise left, but the photos show outstanding color saturation and contrast, and good dynamic range.

Realme X50 Pro 16MP low-light photos

Using AI Color will always trigger Nightscape, so here are some Nightscape photos. These got a visible boost in the shadows, improved highlights, and the color saturation gets even better, if somewhat over the top. There is no loss in detail, but some noise does vanish and that's just great.

Realme X50 Pro 16MP Nightscape photos

The Tripod option of the Night Mode triggers a 20 or so seconds shooting with the main camera and it yeilds great photos. Those are brilliantly balanced, with excellet color retention, there are stars in the skies, and no highlights were blown in the process. The car tails were removed instead of blurred on the images, which is another thing we like about the algorithm. If you have a tripod and want to take an amazing photo at night, this is the way to go.

Tripod Night Mode

The ultrawide shooter does an acceptable job at night - the images are soft, and detail is scarce, but still - we've seen much worse.

Realme X50 Pro 8MP low-light ultrawide photos

Nightscape does an excellent jot in improving the ultrawide shots and it is not at the price of standing still for 10 seconds. The images are brighter and have higher dynamic range, the captured detail is more, too. The colors and contrast improve as well and, in the end, - if ultrawide picture is a must - Nightscape is what you need to get it right.

Realme X50 Pro 8MP Night Mode ultrawide photos

The 2X switch doesn't trigger the dedicated zoom camera at night and instead - uses digital zoom over the main snapper. Still, for when the snapper does fire - it takes good enough pictures, but these can be much better with Nightscape.

2x zoom • 2x zoom • 2x zoom Night Mode

Selfies

The main selfie camera on Realme X50 Pro has a 32MP sensor behind 26mm f/2.5 lens, while the secondary snapper is an 8MP 17mm f/2.2 shooter for ultrawide selfies. There is no autofocus on either shooter.

The image quality of the selfies is very good. The resolved detail is average, but everything else is excellent - contrast, colors, dynamic. We suspect this 32MP sensor is of the Quad Bayer kind - thus the reduced detail in full resolution - and for the record - we would have been very satisfied with 8MP snaps out of this 32MP sensor.

Realme X50 Pro 32MP selfies

The 8MP selfie portraits are very detailed with proficient separation, nice blur and lively colors.

Realme X50 Pro 8MP selfie portraits

The 8MP ultrawide selfies came with very good detail, too, and they show superb contrast and colors. Overall - the entire selfie experience on the Realme X50 Pro left us only with positive impressions.

Realme X50 Pro 8MP ultrawide selfies

Video recording

The Realme X50 Pro records video at up to 2160p with its main camera, which can also record 1080p at both 30fps and 60fps. The ultrawide-angle and telephoto cams top out at 1080p/30fps. You get to pick between the h.264 and h.265 codecs, too.

The main camera captures detailed enough 4K footage though at 50Mbps bit rate we did expect more. Colors are pleasingly saturated without going to extremes and the contrast is nice. The dynamic range could have been higher, but it's not bad either.

The 1080p clips at 30fps aren't exhibiting a great deal of detail either, some over-sharpening is at play, while the colors and dynamic range are a match for the 4K footage.

Finally, the 1080p at 60fps videos, even though shot at the same 20Mbps bit rate as the 30fps, are somewhat richer in detail and the sharpness is just right. We suspect the always-on EIS of the 30fps clips is to blame for the said imperfections.

The 1080@30fps clips from the tele camera are flawless - the detail is superb, the contrast and dynamic range - flagship grade.

Finally, the 1080p vids from the ultrawide camera are uninspiring with average quality across the board - detail, colors, dynamic.

Electronic stabilization is available on all 1080p@30fps options, no matter the type of camera.

There's also a two-tiered Ultra Steady mode (shot at 1080p@30fps) you engage with a toggle in the viewfinder. In its 'base' mode, it uses the main cam while flipping a second toggle into Max mode engages the ultrawide-angle shooter. We found the results obtained this way to be inferior to what you'd get without Ultra Steady.

Wrap-up

The Realme X50 Pro is one of the cheapest Snapdragon 865 smartphones you can buy today. Top this with a 90Hz OLED screen, and we probably have a deal. Especially when its targeted European price is about €600, while elsewhere it can be purchased for as low as $650.

And the Realme X50 Pro is a full-fledged flagship phone as opposed to a mid-ranger with a flagship chip ala Pocophone. It has one very bright AMOLED HDR10+ screen with 90Hz refresh rate, 5G connectivity, fast storage, capable camera kits on both sides, and blazing-fast charging.

The Realme X50 Pro also caught our attention with its great sounding stereo speakers, fast fingerprint reader, and the lovely Realme UI. One thing that's invisible to the naked eye, but wallet-friendly, is the enhanced splash resistance even if the X50 Pro doesn't have an official IP rating.

So, yes, we can see the Realme X50 Pro 5G becoming one of the best deals on the flagship-killer market, and it would deserve it.

Alternatives

The best match for the Realme X50 Pro is unsparingly coming from Xiaomi. The Redmi K30 Pro Zoom is Asia-limited for now, but it's a very good deal with a price that's close to the Realme's. The K30 Pro Zoom has the same Snapdragon SoC, similar rear camera setup, and even larger battery, while its 6.67" HDR10+ AMOLED screen is free of any cutouts. One thing the Redmi lacks is 90Hz refresh rate, and this may be a bummer for some.

Xiaomi's Mi 10 5G will give you the 90Hz screen on top of the Redmi K30 Pro, it also adds wireless charging, and the main camera now has 108MP sensor, though the telephoto is scrapped. The Mi 10 5G costs at least $100 on top of the Redmi K30 Pro and even more when compared to the Realme.

Samsung Galaxy S20 seems like a nice deal. It's slightly more expensive than the Realme, but it shines with a QHD 120Hz AMOLED screen, IP68-rated body, and somewhat better photo and video quality across all snappers. The S20 is a smaller device though, and as we said - it costs more.

Finally, the newly announced OnePlus 8 is probably the X50 Pro true rival. It has pretty much the same screen, same chip, and similar main camera sans the tele shooter. But the Oxygen-booting 8 costs €100 on top of the Realme X50 Pro, so once again - the X50 seems like the better deal for now.

Xiaomi Redmi K30 Pro Zoom • Xiaomi Mi 10 5G • Samsung Galaxy S20 • OnePlus 8

The verdict

The Realme X50 Pro aces everything it was designed to do, and that was the whole point of its creation, wasn't it? The X50 Pro is a cheap flagship, a flagship killer if you will, but nothing was spared in its making.

Realme has once again shown us how a no-compromise phone can be made without cutting any (obvious) corners.

Pros

• Large AMOLED, HDR10+, 90Hz, very bright
• Cutting-edge performance
• Blazing-fast charging
• Splash-resistant body with matte Gorilla Glass
• Great photo quality across the board, dual-selfie shooter
• Loud stereo speakers, fast fingerprint reader

Cons

• Proper IP rating would have been better
• No OIS on main camera
• No 4K at 60fps, no EIS on 4K at 30fps

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