Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition hands-on | Infinium-tech
Today, we have something special. This is the Realme 15 Pro Game of Thrones Limited Edition. Yes, it’s essentially the same Realme 15 Pro that we’ve previewed and reviewed before, but it’s like playing with fire.
Well, sort of, we’ll get to that in a bit. For starters, it’s a collaboration between Realme and HBO’s Game of Thrones, a popular TV series based on the novels by George RR Martin. The show was wildly successful in its time, but it also returned in 2019, so one can’t help but wonder why this collab is happening six and a half years later.
The Game of Thrones Limited Edition takes the existing Realme 15 Pro and dons it in a regal outfit. Starting with the packaging, the limited edition ships in a clean-looking cardboard box with Game of Thrones branding on top.
Inside, you will find the actual box. Made of real wood, the box opens sideways like a book. You get a quick glimpse of the dragon eyes mixed into the Iron Throne image, which was also the poster for the show’s final season. As the box opens further, a pop-up reveals a miniature Iron Throne replica, which also serves as a stand for the phone.
Digging further into the packaging, we find a scroll with secret text that’s only revealed under sunlight, a matching black charger and cable, and a bespoke silicone case.
In addition, there are also some stickers and postcards with pictures of the main characters from the show. And finally, there’s the phone itself with its special carving.
The limited edition features a similar overall design to the standard Realme 15 Pro, but with a number of customizations. The phone now comes in a black and gold trim, called Dragonfire Black. The back of the phone now has a vegan leather panel with a very special trick. In the middle of it sits a 3D Targaryen sigil, which is visible through the case as there’s a neat little window for it.
Above, the camera island gets the gold treatment. The part next to the lens contains the sigils of all the different houses that hit the light. Below them is an engraving of the Targaryen house words ‘Fire and Blood’. Finally, the look is completed with the dragon’s claws holding the bottom.
Getting back to vegan leather, the party trick here is that it can change color when exposed to heat. Anything above 42°C will do (and preferably not much higher than that, as it’s still a phone underneath, battery and all), and the black will rapidly turn to a deep red. Its effect is fleeting as it turns back to black as it cools, but it’s a fun little trick nonetheless.
Diving into the phone, as soon as we turn the phone on, we are greeted with a custom Game of Thrones theme. The rest of the setup is the same on the Realme 15 Pro, but once installed, you are greeted with a custom Targaryen ‘Dragonfire’ UI that consists of a custom static homescreen wallpaper, custom animated lockscreen wallpaper, custom always-on display visuals, and custom icons. Digging further, we also find two additional camera filters, King’s Landing and Winterfell, which give your images a very warm and cool look respectively. The fingerprint scanner icon also appears in the form of a Targaryen sigil.
We were expecting a little more on the software front. There is just one custom theme with a single custom wallpaper for homescreen and lockscreen. All apps as well as the UI for things like notifications and quick settings are left untouched. There was also no custom audio as a ringtone or even an opening sound when you boot the phone.
The icon theme puts all icons in a uniform color scheme, which can make them difficult to distinguish at times. All pre-installed apps get themed icons, including third-party apps. However, this is at the mercy of the developers, and should a developer select a custom icon, it breaks stability. Similarly, if you download other apps, most of them do not have a matching themed design, so they have their default look with the gold ring inside.
custom dragonfire ui
Despite the limited edition nature of this phone, it comes with essentially the same bloatware as the standard Realme 15 Pro, which we really wish wasn’t the case.
Overall, the software leaves something to be desired. At the very least, we would have liked to see more wallpapers pre-installed on the phone.
Thankfully, the hardware looks quite nice, and the color-changing back is a cool trick. The work done on the packaging is also excellent, and something die-hard fans of the series will want to display with the rest of their collection. If Realme can push out an update with more Game of Thrones content, it would be a pretty cool collector’s item, even if it’s a little late to the party.
Leave a Reply