Premium Design, Display, What Else?
Hi everyone, what’s up? It’s me Pratima again and today I have the all-new Realme 11 Pro Plus with me. Realme’s number series has always been quite popular, the Realme 10 Pro Plus and the 9 Pro Plus were decent phones in their price segments.
This year, with the Realme 11 Pro Plus, Realme has brought a few updates to their spec sheet and also a slightly higher price tag which puts the phone in a somewhat dangerous category because the 30,000 price range right now is a particularly crowded space with a lot of good options like the Moto Edge 40, Poco F5, and the recently launched Galaxy F54.
So, without wasting any more time, let’s get into the Realme 11 Pro Plus Review.
Realme 11 Pro Plus Review: Specifications
- Body: 73.9 x 161.6 x 8.2-8.7mm, 183-189gm
- Display: 6.7-inch OLED, 120Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling rate, 950 nits peak brightness, 2,160Hz PWM Dimming, HDR10+
- Resolution: FHD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels), 20:9 aspect ratio
- Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 7050 5G (6nm Mobile Platform)
- Memory: 12GB RAM, 256GB/512GB/1TB storage
- Software & UI: Realme UI 4.0 on top of Android 13
- Rear Camera: Triple
– 200MP HP3 primary, f/1.69, OIS
– 8MP f/2.2 112° FOV
– 2MP f/2.4 macro - Front Camera: 32MP (punch-hole)
- Audio: Stereo speakers, Hi-Res Audio
- Security: In-display fingerprint sensor
- Battery: 5000mAh with 100W fast charging
Realme 11 Pro Plus Review:
What’s in the Box?
Here inside the box, you get the phone, of course. Then we have a 100-watt SuperVOOC GAN charger. Then we have the basics, a SIM ejector tool, a cover, and some paperwork!
Design
I have been using the phone for about a week and I have been using it without a cover because I am in love with the design and form factor of this device. So I didn’t want to cover it with a case.
I think this is by far one of the most premium-looking and well-built phones in its price segment. It has a pretty balanced heft and is not too heavy to hold either. The vegan leather back feels amazing and contributes to a good grip and a lot of my friends have given a fair share of compliments to its design, so I am pretty happy about the way it looks and feels.
The Realme 11 Pro Plus is also available in a couple of cool color options. Besides this Green color, there’s White and Black and all of them look stunning. And surprisingly, my unit hasn’t gotten dirty either. I thought the leather finish might catch a lot of dirt easily, but no, it’s still good as new!
Display
One of the other things I like about its design is the minimal bezels around its display which contributes to a good viewing experience. At the same time, it’s also curved which makes it look like a more expensive phone. Personally, I am not someone who prefers a curved screen, but the slight curves on this one haven’t really been a problem for me.
Curved Display
While we are talking about the display, I am happy to report that this is an almost flagship-grade screen. It’s bright (950 nits), it’s responsive (up to 1260Hz touch sampling rate), and the colors on it look amazing. So, yeah, overall it’s a really nice screen.
It’s not an LTPO screen like we get on flagship phones but it still has 10-bit colors, supports HDR 10+, and other useful things like 2160 Hz PWM dimming, so I am quite happy about it. The in-display fingerprint sensor also works fine here, although I would have preferred it if it was located a little bit higher.
Audio and Haptics
Anyways, Realme has also included a good pair of stereo speakers on it. The output comes off a bit sharp at times, especially while listening to pop songs, but there’s no distortion on the highest volumes and it can get pretty loud. Overall, I’ve had a great time watching my favorite series and listening to songs on Spotify on the Realme 11 Pro+.
Plus, like its predecessors, the haptics on this phone is also very good for the price. It’s nice and precise and typing or interacting with this device feels great. Even when you get calls, the vibration on it is strong enough, so if you are on a bike or a car, there’s less possibility of you missing your calls.
Performance
Now comes the part where I think Realme could have done better. First is definitely the performance side of things. The Realme 11 Pro Plus comes with the Dimensity 7050 chipset and even though this is a new chipset from MediaTek which might give an impression of being an update over the last-gen Dimensity 1080, actually both these chipsets are pretty much the same.
Hence, the performance I am getting from this phone is more or less the same as I got from the Realme 10 Pro Plus. For a little bit of context, playing heavy games like PUBG or Genshin Impact on the Realme 11 Pro Plus yields similar fps and stability as the Realme 10 Pro Plus. And even general everyday performance feels pretty much the same.
Realme also hasn’t said much about the cooling system it has. On my gaming tests, the phone would reach around 42 degrees while playing Genshin Impact on high settings for about 20 minutes. It wouldn’t get extremely uncomfortable as the heat would only be localized near the camera module.
Other less demanding games like PUBG or COD ran well without much overheating or throttling though.
So, I think Realme definitely should have provided a slightly powerful chipset here because the 30,000 price segment has some really good-performing phones like the Poco F5 or the Moto Edge 40. Even the Dimensity 7200 on the Vivo V27 is a better performer. Not to forget, the Lava Agni 2, which is a much cheaper phone, comes with the same Dimensity 7050 as this phone. So, I am a little disappointed on this front.
Realme UI is not free of bloatware
Except that, the software experience here is good. I like the simplicity of Realme UI and how easy it is to get along. This device also comes with Android 13 out of the box and Realme has committed to 2 years of OS and 3 years of security updates, which is good enough. Well, not as good as Samsung’s 4-year commitment, but not bad either.
Sadly, like most realme phones, you do get a ton of bloatware apps on this phone too, but luckily you can uninstall 80% of them. But there are a couple of apps that can’t even be disabled which I had to tuck in a separate folder somewhere in the corner.
Optics
Okay, let me talk about the cameras now. The Realme 11 Pro Plus features an upgraded 200MP sensor with OIS, then we have the usual 8MP ultra-wide lens and a 2MP macro lens. The front houses a 32MP shooter for selfies.
Main Camera
For the most part, the 200MP sensor does a good job of maintaining nice details and dynamic range in pictures. The color reproduction is also classic Realme with boosted Greens and Blues.
I compared its cameras with the Vivo V27, which is one of the good camera phones in the similar price range, and found Realme’s photos to compete well overall when clicking pictures of landscapes and flowers and such.
Realme has also been advertising its 4x lossless zoom feature and after testing it, I must say, it works quite well. The 4x zoom shot is actually achieved by cropping in from the 200MP mode, hence the detail levels here are commendable and the shot does not look over-sharpened or unnatural in any way.
However, this 200MP sensor does struggle a little when focussing on nearby subjects, so you will have to maintain a certain distance to get a sharper picture.
Portraits and Selfies
Likewise, one thing that Realme definitely needs to work on is processing human subjects better. I found the skin tone in portraits, normal photos, and even selfies to be much better and more vibrant on the Vivo V27.
I do appreciate that Realme has provided a 2x portrait option, which makes the portraits look more appealing in terms of subject focus, but I think they could make the skin tone more pleasing.
Night Shots
During nighttime, the pictures from its primary camera are fairly sharp and the large 1/1.4-inch sensor of the 200MP camera captures a good amount of light to bring out well-exposed pictures. Realme also says it uses something called a Tetra2Pixel technology that, depending on the lighting conditions, intelligently uses either 4-in-1 pixel binning to get 50MP photos or 16-in-1 binning to get 12.5MP in extremely low light cases.
Ultrawide
Anyways, when you turn to the ultra-wide shots, well, they are just average in terms of details and color reproduction. And even the videography side of things is not the most impressive here.
With an upgraded sensor, I was expecting the 11 Pro Plus to shoot good videos, but the max you can shoot here is up to 4k 30 fps videos and they look just okay with average stabilization. The color reproduction is not bad and the videos have a wider field of view, but Realme definitely could have done a better job. Even selfie videos are capped to 1080p 30 fps and come out just okay.
Battery Life and Charging
Lastly, the battery life on this thing has fared well. Under normal, light kind of usage, I got around 7 hours of screen time, while putting some gaming and camera tests into the mix, I was getting around 6 hours here which is good enough to last you for a full day.
The phone can charge pretty fast too. With the 100-watt charger, it takes around 35 minutes for the phone to get fully charged. And because this is a GAN charger, it does not dissipate too much heat while charging either!
Realme 11 Pro Plus Review: Conclusion
So, to conclude, as I said during my review, I’ve had a good experience with the Realme 11 Pro Plus. This phone definitely feels premium and its display is great while the inclusion of nice haptics further makes interacting with the phone a hoot.
But arguably the biggest Achilles heel of this phone is the choice of chipset and maybe the camera performance as the main 200MP camera could have been more reliable across both photography and videography aspects. Likewise, since this is a more premium offering from the company, a better ultra-wide camera could also make it a more appealing choice since brands like Nothing and Motorola are indeed providing higher-resolution ultra-wide sensors.
Realme 11 Pro Plus Review: Pros and Cons
Pros
- Attractive Design
- Curved AMOLED Display
- Good Primary Camera
- Decent Battery Life with 100W Charging
Cons
- Bloatware on Realme UI
- Average video recording
- Dimensity 7050 performs the same as the Dimensity 1080
