2024 Winners and losers: Realme | Infinium-tech
Realme launches a staggering 45 devices in 2024. Some are only available in China, and others are fully international. Here are what we believe are the best and worst of the brand’s smartphone products.
Winner: Realme GT7 Pro
The Realme GT 7 Pro arrived in the last months to rescue a mediocre year for the Chinese brand. This is a true flagship – the latest chipset, capable cameras in every way and a powerful battery. It also has an extremely bright screen, which we were really surprised by.
The phone has everything you’d want from a top-tier device – IP69 rating, Android 15 with Realme UI on top, which is one of the better overlays on the market, and features like 360-degree NFC.
realme gt7 pro
Sure, the phone sells with a less impressive battery in one of Realme’s key markets, but that’s hardly an issue as the smaller 5,800 mAh capacity is still quite impressive, especially when paired with 120W wired charging.
Loser: Realme GT 6 Series
The GT series is usually the flagship lineup for Realme, but the GT6 family didn’t particularly impress. The GT 6T (launched in China as Neo6 SE) came with the Snapdragon 7 series chipset, and the GT 6 came with the Snapdragon 8 series, but this was the 8s Gen 3 – still not a flagship.
Realme GT6 and Realme GT 6T
And then we had the actual Realme GT6 with a fully fledged Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, only low-end cameras, but worse, only availability in China. One thing we liked about the GT6 was the charging, but that was about it. Thank god the GT7 was fast that day (and year).
realme gt 6t
Winner: Realme 13 Pro+
When Realme announced this phone in Bangkok we were initially skeptical as it didn’t bring many updates compared to its predecessor. The same screen, chipset and some cameras have not been changed.
Once we handled the device, we realized that the 13 Pro+ is actually a pretty nice upgrade. Realme improved the stamina, charging and screen brightness, making the phone a pretty good choice.
The Realme 13 Pro+ also came with some AI features, making it the first midranger from the company to do so. Of course, most of them were about photo editing since the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chip isn’t powerful enough for real generative AI. Still, the telephoto lens really sets the tone in this phone’s favor.
Loser: Realme 12 Pro+
Now that we’ve mentioned the 13 Pro+ as a winner, we must wonder – is the Realme 12 Pro+ worth it? The new option came with so many improvements that it became easy for users to quickly forget the 12 series.
We have to point out what is one of Realme’s biggest marketing flops, even if the company deliberately planned to make it controversial. We’re talking about a luxury watch design that was rumored to be in partnership with Rolex, but turned out to be a product created by “an international luxury watch designer from Switzerland.”
The smartphone brand also borrowed trademarked Rolex names like Submariner, Navigator and Explorer for color options, all of which are iconic designs for the Swiss company.
Realme might have run a more controversial PR campaign to increase its popularity. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?
Winner: Realme Note 50
Realme Note 50 was launched so long ago that even some die-hard fans may have forgotten it. We picked this phone as the winner because it was the first of the new Note lineup – a series targeted at the ultra-affordable price segment without compromising on materials or quality control.
Realme Note 50 in Midnight Black and Sky Blue
The phone was launched in India as Realme C51 as company officials believe that the Note does not need to be in this particular Asian market. It managed to expand into other regions, essentially introducing Realme and its ecosystem to a new group of customers who can rarely afford a smartphone for more than $100.
Loser: Realme P1
The P1, along with the P1 Pro, was all about raw power and performance (hence the P) in India, but the market is already saturated with similar affordable midrangers.
realme p1
The P family later expanded with the P1 Speed and P2 Pro, and it would have been great if there wasn’t already an affordable series before the Narzo phones. Perhaps this was another genius strategy from Realme – invest heavily to flood the market with phones in almost all price ranges and worry about earnings and revenues later.
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