Realme's latest P series phone offers plenty of upgrades despite its unusually rapid product release cycle.
Realme’s P3 Pro is priced from Rs. 23,999 in India
Realme's P series of smartphones seem to be littering like mice. We had the Realme P1 Pro release in April last year, followed by the Realme P2 Pro, which was again released in September last year, and now (just 5 months in) we have the Realme P3 Pro as well. While the differences between the P1 Pro and P2 Pro weren't substantial, the P3 Pro is an interesting one indeed. Priced at the high end of the budget smartphone segment, it gets some hardware features found in mid-range smartphones, so let's take a look at what's new.
The Realme P3 Pro gets a completely new cosmetic design compared to the P2 Pro. Starting off with the finishes. There are Saturn Brown, Galaxy Purple, and Nebula Glow finishes to choose from. The first two have a faux leather finish for their rear panels, while the Nebula Glow finish can actually glow in the dark provided it's been given a good dose of UV light just prior. So, despite its cool appearance, it's mostly a gimmick, as you aren't going to transition from daylight to absolute darkness even when hitting the sack.
The Realme P3 Pro has a vegan leather rear panel
The faux leather finish doesn't feel premium but adds a good amount of grip. I like the rounded appearance of the phone, which has quad-curved glass on the front, a similar treatment for the rear panel, and curved sides on its mid-frame, which has a very seamless pebble-like appearance and a good hand feel. It's not just about looks, as Realme claims that its P3 Pro is also IP68 and IP69 rated for dust and water.
The new quad-curved 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED display looks great right away. It has a thin border all around despite getting the quad-curved glass treatment. It also has a 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate, which should be useful for gamers, since this is a device that has been designed for the youth.
Powering the P3 Pro is a more updated Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 SoC. Realme has also thrown in a large vapour chamber cooling system to help maintain the phone's performance while playing games.
The Realme P3 Pro runs Realme UI 6.0, which is based on Android 15
The Realme P3 Pro also comes with a new 50-megapixel camera sensor. While its resolution remains the same as the P2 Pro, the Sony IMX896 sensor packs a brighter f/1.8 aperture. The second rear camera is solely used for gathering depth data when using the Portrait camera mode. Indeed, the smartphone lacks an ultrawide camera, unlike some of its competitors. Selfies are handled by a 16-megapixel camera.
For those not in the know, the Sony IMX896 sensor is also used in the Realme 14 Pro+ mid-ranger priced from Rs. 29,999 onwards. Surely, our expectations from this primary camera are sky-high.
The Realme P3 Pro has only one user-accessible rear camera
The phone also gets upgraded to a 6,000mAh battery compared to the 5,200mAh capacity of the P2 Pro. It's expected to deliver better battery life, but Realme has also managed to retain 80W charging from the P2 Pro, which is good to have given the higher capacity.
With quite a few hardware upgrades sprinkled all over and the new cosmetic upgrades included, the Realme P3 Pro is an easy recommendation on paper when compared to the previous P2 Pro. It's Rs. 23,999 price tag for the base 8GB + 128GB configuration makes it even more enticing. But does it perform as expected? And can its camera deliver as it does on its mid-range sibling? Watch out for our detailed review, which will be out soon!
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