Realme has already announced a couple of flagships and budget smartphones for the year. With the launch of the Realme X3 SuperZoom, its mid-premium X series finally gets its long due refresh.
The Realme X3 SuperZoom made its global debut in Europe today. However, there was no word on availability in other countries such as India, or on the other devices in the X3 series. The Realme X3 SuperZoom is the new affordable flagship from the brand, and its first with a periscopic camera.
Realme spent a good chunk of the keynote talking about the camera capabilities and features of the X3 SuperZoom. It has a quad-camera array on the back, starting with a 64MP primary camera, followed by an optically stabilized 8MP f/2.2 periscopic 5x telephoto lens, a macro shooter and an ultra-wide lens with a 115-degree field-of-view. It is packed to the brim with shooting mode options including Nightscape 4.0, Nightscape Pro mode, Ultra Nightscape and Tripod mode.
Announcing realme's next leap in camera technology with 60x Zoom & Starry Mode on #realmeX3. I urge you to take the #realmeSuperZoom challenge and try clicking a better pic than this with your smartphone.RT and reply using #realmeX3. pic.twitter.com/9SidiG6QKgMay 8, 2020
A starry turn from the camera
Perhaps the most interesting feature is the new Starry mode, which lets you try astrophotography via your phone. It can be triggered via the primary as well as the telephoto lens, and implements software-level optimisations to get the desired image. The process starts with the camera shifting focus to infinity, and shooting more than ten shots over a period of 4 minutes when mounted on a tripod. After the image is captured, the stars are brightened during the processing, intelligently aligned to compensate for the Earth’s rotation and then undergoes multi-frame noise reduction for a clean result.
There are two cameras on the front, with a 32MP Sony IMX616 primary selfie camera along with an 8MP ultra-wide shooter with a 105-degree field-of-view. Nightscape is available for selfies as well. Video shooting modes include slow-motion, bokeh, ultra image stabilisation, and UIS Max.
On the inside, the Realme X3 SuperZoom is powered by the last-gen Snapdragon 855+ chipset with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage. Realme claims that this is the fastest Snapdragon 855+ phone in the world, with a peak core frequency of 2.96GHz. There’s also a vapour cooling chamber for better thermal management.
It has a 6.5-inch LCD panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. The refresh rate varies according to apps and content to be battery efficient. The peak brightness is 480 nits, and the display is protected by 2.5D Gorilla Glass 5.
The Realme X3 SuperZoom houses a 4,200mAh battery and supports 30W Dart charging over USB Type-C. It can take the battery from empty to full in less than an hour. Other hardware features include a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, 1216 super linear speakers and dual-channel GPS (L1 + L5).
The Realme X3 SuperZoom is currently available only in Europe, for a price of €499 (~Rs 41,000). Colour options include Arctic White and Glacier Blue. There’s no word on if this phone will launch in India, but considering that Madhav Sheth has already talked about its camera capabilities, we can be hopeful. The same event also saw the unveiling of the Realme 6s, which looks like a rebranded Realme 6.
