Realme 9 4G

amazon Realme 9 4G reviews

Fancy back design

The appearance of realme 9 4G inherits many things in common with the two previous brothers, realme 9 Pro and realme 9 Pro + with camera clusters placed in a triangle, flat edges, and curved back to the sides with many effects fancy.

Realme calls this a wavelength Hologram design with plasma atom coating and UV Nano printing. The device has an eye-catching yellow version with a 3D ripple design, spreading each unique color array.

When exposed to light, the realme 9’s back will change color in a soft wavy form, the interference between the two bright and dark patches. To achieve the Hologram effect, realme says it has performed many stages including applying 9 layers of 420nm paint – 10 times thicker than conventional coatings.

Unlike the glass back material on the realme 9 Pro and 9 Pro + seniors, the realme 9 4G switched to plastic material to cut costs. The use of plastic also makes realme 9 a bit lighter with a weight of 178g with a fairly thin 7.99mm body making it comfortable to hold. The machine is also well machined, solid, and sturdy.

Regarding the connection port, realme 9 4G still retains the 3.5mm headphone jack next to the USB-C port that supports 33W fast charging equivalent to the 9 Pro version. However, the device only has a single speaker on the bottom edge, not dual speakers like the two seniors, so when watching movies, playing games horizontally will not be as “pleasant”.

The sim tray is made in the form of 3 slots with a separate design of two sims and a microSD card so that users can use both memory cards and two sim cards at the same time, without sacrificing either one like many other devices.

The screen is surprising in terms of quality

Although not emphasized, the screen is one of the bright spots on realme 9 4G. The screen parameters of the device are almost equivalent to the 9 Pro + version when using the same Super AMOLED panel, 6.4-inch size, Full HD + resolution (1080 x 2400 pixels), 20: 9 aspect ratio, 90Hz refresh rate, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Screen brightness is 430 nits and can be increased to 1000 nits.

The fingerprint sensor is placed on the screen and more interesting when the fingerprint also integrates the unique heart rate measurement feature.

The screen quality of realme 9 4G is quite impressive with high brightness, good outdoor display, clear, fresh colors, wide viewing angle, high contrast, and deep black, unfortunately, does not support HDR. The screen border is slimmed on the two sides and the top edge and the mole contains a small selfie camera set to the left corner. The minus point in the screen is that the chin is still quite thick, and the screen is still protruding from the chassis, so it does not bring a seamless look.

The 90Hz refresh rate, although not too high, is just enough to provide a smoother experience of scrolling, opening, and closing applications, and switching multitasking than 60Hz screens.

The device has an Always On Display screen feature to display clock information, date and time, notifications, and battery life when the screen is off. You can customize this screen with a variety of styles.

The camera is stable but low light still needs to be improved

The camera is one of the most noticeable points on realme 9 4G when it is the first smartphone in the world to be equipped with a 108MP ProLight camera with a Samsung ISOCELL HM6 sensor.

This is realme’s second smartphone equipped with a 108MP camera. Previously, the realme 8 Pro was the first realme smartphone to have this large resolution camera and use the Samsung ISOCELL HM2 sensor.

Samsung ISOCELL HM6 sensor on realme 9 4G uses new NonaPixel Plus technology, sensor size 1/1.67 inch, pixel size 0.64 μm with the ability to combine 9 pixels into 1, the default will capture 12MP images with 1.92μm pixel size for noise reduction.

Equipped with 100% pixels with phase detection AF (PDAF), the autofocus accuracy of the ISOCELL HM6 sensor is 4 times higher than that of the 108MP HM2 sensor. At the same time, the ISO support algorithm helps this sensor’s maximum light capture ability increase to 123% in dark environments (compared to Samsung HM2 sensor).

Samsung and realme also take advantage of the large 108MP resolution to provide lossless 3X digital zoom, helping to capture distant subjects with satisfactory quality.

Street Photography 2.0 is also available on realme 9 4G. This mode will bring features such as 90s color filters, DIS snapshots, and quick focus zoom… suitable for photography lovers, and creative people. You can quickly launch street mode by pressing the volume up/down button twice when the screen is off.

When in this mode, the interesting point is that the lens and zoom level of the device will switch to display as a focal length corresponding to levels from 16mm – 24mm – 50mm – 120mm. These are popular focal lengths when taking street photos with cameras, making it easy for users with photography knowledge to access and choose the right focal length range. Besides, while holding down the shutter button, you can both adjust the zoom level and adjust the focus range for full control.

One note is that the street mode on realme 9 4G will not have the “Long Exposure” shooting feature with night exposure effects like on the realme 9 Pro+.

In addition to the 108MP main camera, the realme 9 4G is equipped with an 8MP ultra-wide lens and a 2MP macro lens. The realme 9 4G’s 16MP AI Beauty Selfie front camera has built-in filters to adjust skin smoothness, cheekbones, eye size, nose, chin reduction, makeup, or create volume, 3D for the face.

Experience shows that realme 9 Pro + for fast shooting speed, image saving, and fast focus. In bright enough conditions, the realme 9 4G’s 108MP camera and 8MP wide-angle camera give good quality, bright colors, details, high definition, and decent light range. The machine features AI scene enhancement. In some situations where it is overcast, lacks sunlight, or is dark, you can use this mode to improve the color and brightness of the image quite usefully.

However, when the light is weak, the realme 9 4G’s 108MP camera has a significant loss of quality. At this time, you should use the Night mode available on the device, which will significantly improve detail, sharpness, color as well as light range.

where can you get a Realme 9 4G online

Realme 9 (4G) Dual SIM 128GB ROM + 6GB RAM (GSM only | No CDMA) Factory Unlocked 4G/LTE Smartphone (Sunburst Gold) – International Version: Buy it now

Realme 9 (4G) Dual SIM 128GB ROM + 8GB RAM (GSM only | No CDMA) Factory Unlocked 4G/LTE Smartphone (Stargaze White) – International Version: Buy it now

Realme 9 (4G) Dual SIM 128GB ROM + 8GB RAM (GSM only | No CDMA) Factory Unlocked 4G/LTE Smartphone (Meteor Black) – International Version: Buy it now

Performance just enough for basic needs, healthy battery

Performance is the biggest difference between realme 9 4G and 9 Pro and 9 Pro+ seniors. At a lower price, realme 9 4G is equipped with a Snapdragon 680 chip that focuses more on battery life and stable performance than on processing power.

This is shown as soon as I try to measure performance with applications such as AnTuTu, GeekBench, 3D Mark, and GFX Bench, the scores are averaged.

With common tasks, realme 9 4G can still provide a smooth and stable experience. 8GB RAM capacity and 128GB internal memory also make multitasking, taking photos, storing videos, and installing apps and games relatively comfortable. The machine also has a virtual RAM feature that allows you to take up to 5GB of internal memory to increase multitasking capabilities.

However, with heavy tasks like gaming, you will have to lower the graphics settings to medium or low to get a good experience.

In return for moderate performance, Snapdragon 680 and 5,000 mAh battery help realme 9 4G get quite a “strong” battery life. I usually achieve onscreen time (screen brightness) from 8 to 9 hours with high usage, filming, taking photos, playing games, and surfing the web continuously. The device can be used for a day comfortably and if used moderately, it can last 2 days before needing to be charged.

The included 33W fast charging also gives quite a fast charging speed, 30 minutes of charging is about 50% and 75% of the minutes is full of battery.

Software with many customizations

In terms of software, realme 9 4G comes pre-installed with realme’s latest realme UI 3.0 interface based on Android 12. The device offers quite a lot of interface customization from system icons, and notification centers, to general colors of the entire interface, fingerprint animation, or the Always On Display standby screen.

In addition, realme UI 3.0 also provides many security options such as locking the app with a fingerprint, hiding sensitive apps, and a private safe area.

Interesting ancillary features such as Flexible Window, Quick Back, Quick launch app on screen unlock, Smart sidebar, and kid space.

The point that I am a bit annoyed with is that the device has a lot of pre-installed applications and games, many of which I never use. Of course, you can uninstall the apps if you want, but it’s better to let the users decide for themselves.

Summary

Although realme focuses on design and camera, what makes me most satisfied with the realme 9 4G is the screen and battery life. This machine offers a very stable screen quality, clear, clear display, and smooth scrolling. The battery life is enough for me to use comfortably from 1 to 2 days with 33W fast charging which is also a bonus.

The fancy back design, especially on the yellow version, helps the realme 9 4G stand out from the crowd, and the 108MP camera does a good job in most lighting conditions, although night photography still needs to be improved more.

Of course, to get these things, you will have to accept the trade-off for not too strong performance, just enough to use. At the same time, the device also does not have high-speed 5G connectivity.

Realme 9 4G will compete with rivals such as Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S, Oppo A95, and Vivo Y55. The dominant point of realme is screen quality, battery, design, and camera, while performance is the point where the device proves to be worse.