Can Realme’s P4 Pro with its new design and refreshed hardware be the ultimate mid-ranger? Read about it in our review.
The Realme P4 Pro is priced from Rs. 24,999 in India
Realme's P3 Pro despite its IP69-rated design and mid-range price tag, only managed to deliver the basics on the feature front, and so, could not compete with other devices available at that price point. With the new Realme P4 Pro, there's now a slimmer design, an additional rear-facing camera, a new selfie camera and a bigger battery. Indeed, all of these feature add-ons come at a slightly higher asking price. Adding a new camera to its previous single-camera setup instantly makes the new model more attractive to buyers. But does this new camera perform, and how much better is the battery life with the larger battery? Read on to find out if it's worth your money.
Many will find it hard to believe that the Realme P4 Pro belongs to the lower end of the mid-range smartphone segment. The Midnight Ivy finish we received for review looks stylish with its tapered sides and is also quite slim, measuring just 7.68mm at its thinnest point. The sides of the skinny frame are now flat, and there's a 4D-curved display on the front that curves aggressively into the left and right sides, but not so much at the top and bottom. This, along with the curved-edge rear panel makes the phone appear a lot slimmer than it actually is.
The glossy camera module is a fingerprint magnet
The rear camera module is massive (even though it does not pack in very capable hardware) and takes up a third of the rear panel. The LED flash gets pushed to the corner, and thankfully, the module is not chunky enough to be called a “plateau”, like on an Apple iPhone 17 Pro.
It is impressive how Realme's engineers created a slimmer phone than the previous model, but with a bigger battery inside. This fresh and new design language does come at the cost of a slightly downgraded IP66 rating for dust and water resistance. The Realme P3 Pro had an IP69 rating. Realme claims the IP66 rating is good for splashes of water (even at angles), but since the brand does not cover damage caused by water ingress, we suggest you don't take it for a swim to test its water-resistant capabilities.
The Realme P4 Pro is just 7.68mm at its thinnest point
The 4D-curved display panel is different from the older one and can get quite bright. Realme claims a peak brightness of 6,500 nits, and I can confirm that this display does a fine job even in direct sunlight. The higher brightness levels also make way for HDR10+ support, and supported content appears as expected. High brightness levels aside, the display also has thinner borders, which adds to its premium appearance and makes the content appear more immersive. It is indeed one of the best displays I've laid my eyes on at this price point. The accompanying speakers are loud and clear but sound very treble-heavy and not exactly enjoyable. These are still good for gaming.
AI image editing works well, provided you feed it with clear voice commands
The Realme P4 Pro is powered by Realme UI 6, which is based on Android 15. Newer devices like Realme's GT 8 Pro, which I reviewed earlier, now come with a refreshed software experience, including new UI enhancements and a host of AI features. The Realme P4 Pro does come with some AI features out of the box, like AI Edit Genie, which uses voice commands to edit pictures. The feature actually works well, provided you give clear commands about how you want to edit an image, but it takes a while to process your voice command. AI Eraser, built into the Photos app, does an average job because it cannot handle simple edits flawlessly. And on the subject of software updates, users will get 3 years of Android updates and 4 years of SMR's, which is good for a smartphone at this price point.
The Realme P4 Pro runs Realme UI 6.0, which is based on Android 15
The software runs smoothly with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor. It is also accompanied by a co-processor, which the brand refers to as the “Hyper Vision AI chip”. This co-processor isn't a standalone chip but is used for visual processing, mainly while playing games. And so this humble mid-ranger can take advantage of features like Super-resolution, enhanced frame-rates and forced HDR as well.
| Benchmarks | Realme P4 Pro | Nothing Phone 3a | OnePlus Nord CE5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display resolution | 1,280 x 2,800 pixels | FHD+ | FHD+ |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 (4nm) | Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 (4nm) | Dimensity 8350 Ultimate (4nm) |
| AnTuTu v10 | 13,44,863 | 8,04,179 | 14,12,373 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 | 18,022 | 13,554 | 13,435 |
| Geekbench 6 Single | 1,208 | 1,158 | 1,317 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 3,567 | 3,255 | 3,989 |
| Geekbench AI CPU (Quantized) | 2,748 | 1,449 | NA |
| Geekbench AI GPU (Quantized) | 1,231 | 712 | NA |
| 3DM Wild Life | 6,389 | 3,988 | Maxed Out |
| 3DM Wild Life Unlimited | 6,592 | 4,175 | 11,038 |
| 3DM Steel Nomad Light | 682 | 384 | NA |
Gaming was a good experience overall. I fired up Call of Duty: Mobile, and it runs smoothly with sustained performance at the default Very High graphics and Max frame rate settings. Thanks to the additional chip, you can also crank up the frame rate artificially from 60 fps to 144 fps by inserting additional frames using the Boost frame rate feature. Even with 144 fps enabled, the phone delivered sustained performance while playing the FPS shooter.
However, one needs to keep in mind that the frame rate boost is artificial, meaning that the game underneath is running at the standard 60fps, while the MEMC system boosts the visuals to 144Hz. Sadly, even though the System Status indicator showed 144 fps, the game did not feel like it was running at 144 fps, but between 60-90 fps. So, I'd call this feature a gimmick. This is very different from the Realme GT 8 Pro's Frame Boost feature, which actually makes the game feel incredibly smooth and responsive.
The phone does warm up, but nothing abnormal happens while playing games. However, it does get mighty hot when using the camera app outdoors (under sunlight). And that is where I noticed the video preview when recording video was slowing down. Thankfully, this was only related to the preview and did not affect the video recording. However, it is a bit surprising to know it gets so hot ,especially when it has a large vapour cooling chamber built in.
There's a new 8-megapixel ultrawide camera
The Realme P4 Pro has the same Sony IMX896, 50-megapixel, OIS-stabilised primary camera as the P3 Pro. The new model also gets an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera this year, which seems like an upgrade when compared to the Realme P3 Pro. Selfies are handled by a new 50-megapixel front-facing camera.
A big change with the camera app is its ability to snap a photo in two colour modes. The Crisp colour mode dims the photos a bit, giving them a contrasted appearance, while the Vibrant colour mode brightens things up. These two can make a scene appear quite different, as you can tell from the two camera samples shown below.
Crisp colour mode (top), Vibrant colour mode (bottom). (Tap images to expand)
I like the contrasted appearance of the artsy Crisp colour mode. But I also find the images to be a bit too dim, with white areas exhibiting a mild pinkish tone. The Vibrant colour mode isn't perfect either, as it blows the brightness levels up a bit, even though it's closer to how things actually appear to my eyes. I hope that a future update also includes a standard colour profile, letting users avoid ‘Crisp' and ‘Vibrant', if they want to. But at the time of writing this article, there is no way to turn them off.
Coming to image quality, colours appear a bit saturated. Dynamic range is a bit overdone, no matter which colour mode you choose. There is a bit of oversharpening going on when you zoom into an image, but the level of detail is good for a mid-range device. In low light, depending on which colour mode you use, you will see more or less detail. The low-light sample shown below was captured in the Crisp colour mode and hence appears a bit contrasted and dim.
Realme P4 Pro primary camera samples (Tap to expand images)
The 2X digital zoom is useful in daylight but not so much in low-light, as the photos come out soft and blurred.
Realme P4 Pro ultrawide cameras samples (Tap images to expand)
The ultrawide camera captures passable images in daylight. Colours are a bit saturated, but the photos appear soft and are low on resolved detail. Low-light images aren't worth capturing as they are blurry and soft at best. Indeed, the added ultra-wide-angle camera does not end up justifying its existence. And I really wished that Realme had resorted to a 2X telephoto camera instead.
Realme P4 Pro selfie camera samples (Tap images to expand)
Portrait-mode photos captured by the primary camera show good detail and a decent dynamic range. Edge-detection is decent as well. When shooting selfies in Portrait mode, the photos come out a bit soft, with warmer hues and reddish skin colour. Low-light selfies come out soft and also exhibit the same reddish skin tone.
The phone can capture 4K 60 fps video recordings and shoot 4K in HDR. The 4K 30 fps recordings appear sharp, have noise under control and possess good dynamic range, showing sufficient detail in the shadows and bright spots. The same cannot be said about the 4K 60 fps video recordings, which appear soft and lack detail. 4K 30 fps video in HDR looks punchy and contrasted with better dynamic range than the standard footage, but appears a bit choppy as it lacks a stable framerate. Low-light 4K video capture shows decent dynamic range with natural colours but lacks detail and appears a bit soft overall. Focusing is also a problem in low light.
The 4D-curved edge display gets bright enough, has skinny borders and offers HDR10+ support
Battery life with the massive 7,000mAh battery is solid, delivering up to two days of casual use and easily over a day even with heavy gaming. In PCMark's Work Battery Life test, the P4 Pro managed 21 hours and 57 minutes, which is higher than the P3 Pro's 17 hours and 29 minutes. Charging remains the same as before, but the 80W charger is now charging a bigger battery. Surprisingly, the Realme P3 Pro reached a fully-charged state in 1 hour and 6 minutes, while the new P4 Pro accomplishes nearly the same with Rapid Charging mode on in 1 hour and 10 minutes, which isn't bad at all.
Realme's P4 Pro definitely looks the part for a mid-range device, and it also has the hardware to back it up with reliable performance, which can even handle heavy gaming. While it excels in most areas when stacked up against devices at this price point, it struggles to deliver when it comes to camera performance. The addition of an 8-megapixel ultrawide does not make its case any better than the previous Realme P3 Pro model, as it fails to deliver decent daylight and low-light imaging. And so, this is still a one-camera smartphone in a sea of competitive devices.
Thankfully, it has a gorgeous HDR10+ capable display, offers good gaming performance with its dual-chip architecture, and has a battery that keeps up with the times, which helps it rise above devices like the Nothing Phone 3a and the OnePlus Nord CE5.
The OnePlus Nord CE5 offers better performance with its MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Apex SoC. But if you are looking for a flexible set of cameras, Nothing's Phone 3a still is a better choice thanks to its 2X telephoto camera.
Get your daily dose of tech news, reviews, and insights, in under 80 characters on Gadgets 360 Turbo. Connect with fellow tech lovers on our Forum. Follow us on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News for instant updates. Catch all the action on our YouTube channel.