Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G review: The latest Realme Narzo is an
all-rounder 5G device and is a good buy for those budget-conscious users who
won't be able to spend more money on Mi 10i or Realme X7 Pro.
Realme’s latest phone, the Narzo 30 Pro is one of the most
affordable 5G offerings that one can buy in the Indian market at the moment.
While actual 5G connectivity might still be some time away in India, brands
like Realme continue to launch products that are ready for the next generation
of mobile connectivity. And with the Realme Narzo 30 Pro, the company is not
only offering support for 5G, but also an all-rounder phone at a reasonable
price.
Priced at Rs 16,999 in India, Realme Narzo 30 Pro runs the
MediaTek Helio 800U 5G processor, which is also powering the more expensive
Realme X7 from the brand. But, how does the Realme Narzo 30 Pro perform in
real-life? Here’s our review.
Realme Narzo 30 Pro review: What is good, what’s not so
good?
The new Realme Narzo series phone has a matte plastic finish
design at the back, which you might mistake for metal at first glance. I got
the Silver Sword color variant, which is a very subdued color and a bit boring.
Realme does bundle a case in the box, which you can use to hide the back panel
design. There is a Black Sword color option too, which looks more attractive
and is not flashy. The overall design of the phone is quite similar to the
Realme Naro 20 Pro. But this time you get triple rear cameras and a different
gradient paint job. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner continues, which is a
better placement for unlocking the phone. The volume button is located on the
other side of the device and is easily reachable.
This is the first Realme budget phone which has a display
with a higher refresh rate of 120Hz. The device automatically selects the
refresh rate based on your usage. You do get the option to set it manually. It
features a standard 6.5-inch display, which is currently one of the best screen
sizes for those who prefer a phone with a big enough display. It is also
comfortable for one-hand usage. The FHD+ display renders punchy colors and has
good enough sunlight legibility.
The general performance of the Realme Narzo 30 Pro was
satisfying and there was no noticeable lag or stutter while navigating the user
interface (UI) or browsing content online. The multitasking experience was also
good. I got the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage model for review.
The gaming on the Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G was smooth enough
when playing heavy titles like Asphalt 9: Legends and Genshin Impact. Though,
there was occasional stutter and lag even at the lowest settings in Genshin
Impact. The latter is playable and the graphics settings were set to Low by
default, so don’t expect great visual quality. Asphalt 9 ran at Medium settings
and the experience was surprisingly pleasing.
Realme has added a single speaker on the bottom, which can
offer good enough sound quality. Though you will have to use earphones for
bass-heavy tracks and a great stereo sound experience.
The budget phone ships with Android 10, just like the Realme
X7 series. While Google is expected to release the first beta version of
Android 12 in May, Realme is selling phones with Android 10 OS, which is
disappointing. While the company hasn’t revealed the exact release date of the
Android 11 update, it has at least confirmed that the latest Android OS update
for the Realme Narzo 30 series will be released soon.
I was happy to see that one can uninstall most of the
unnecessary apps offered by Realme. These include the Realme Community app,
Realme Studio, Realme Paya, Game Space, Sloop app, HeyFun app, and ORoaming
app, among others. There are three browser apps on the phone, which you can’t
remove.
People who have a lot of photos or videos on the phone will
likely be annoyed as you don’t get a bloatware-free phone. I didn’t witness any
ads on this phone. But, in case you see any ads, you can change that in the
settings.
The Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G offers a typical 5,000mAh
battery, which delivered more than a day’s battery life with light usage. This
includes social networking and messaging. If you also do heavy gaming for
hours, the device will die soon. Realme bundles a 30W charger in the box,
instead of a 65W charger that you get with Realme Narzo 20 Pro. The company
said that it had to offer a 30W charger to bring down the price of the phone.
The provided charger took around 50-55 minutes to top up the battery from zero
to 100 percent.
Realme Narzo 30 Pro review: Camera performance
The camera performance of the Realme Narzo 30 Pro is good
enough for the price. It features a 48MP primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture,
an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera with an f/2.3 aperture, and a 2MP macro f/2.4
camera. This time around, Realme hasn’t offered a quad rear camera, which has
been one of the key selling points of its phones. Here, you get a triple rear
camera setup and a single 16MP selfie camera. You can check out the camera
samples in the below album.
The shots taken with the primary camera were detailed,
colorful, and sharp enough in daylight. Though, some of the 48MP mode photos
were too sharp and overexposed. In some scenarios, I had to click a few photos
of one scene to get a proper photo with a good enough dynamic range. The
wide-angle shots are average with washed-out colors. The camera delivered the
image with minimal details and sharpness.
The 2MP macro camera is just for show and one shouldn’t
expect good results from this. Though, the close-up shots with the primary
camera (regular photo mode) were quite impressive with plenty of details and
accurate colors. The exposure and sharpness were on point. When you zoom in,
you can see each strand and design of the cloth very clearly.
You will mostly be satisfied with portrait shots. When you
are clicking a portrait shot, it might seem like the device is adding the bokeh
effect in the wrong place, but it delivers a surprisingly well-produced shot
with proper edge detection and bokeh effect once the image is processed.
The human shots had a decent bokeh effect and I got a nice
blurry background with objects as well. The color reproduction was also on
point. One can adjust the blur intensity before taking a shot.
When the sun goes down, you will get decent street shop
images, given there is enough light. Additionally, I got slightly brighter
results with night mode, but the noise was still present, which is somewhat
expected from budget phones.
By default, Realme Narzo 30 Pro clicks images in beauty mode
and it is better to keep it off if you don’t want an artificial photo with a
white skin tone and cherry red lips. The same was also the case with portrait
selfies. You will get good enough shots with effective background blurring in
the daytime when the beautification mode is disabled.
Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G: Should you buy?
There are plenty of options available in the Rs 20,000
smartphone segment; however, those are 4G devices and you don’t get 5G support.
The Realme Narzo 30 Pro is an all-rounder 5G phone and is a good buy for those
budget-conscious users who won’t be able to spend more money on Mi 10i or
Realme X7 Pro.
The Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G is priced at Rs 16,999 in India.
The price might seem a little high in terms of specifications, but you will
have to bear the extra cost as the mid-range phone packs a new 5G chipset. As
far as real-world usage is concerned, the Realme Narzo 30 Pro is capable of
delivering good overall performance and battery life.
If you don’t care about 5G yet, then you can consider buying
Realme Narzo 20 Pro or Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, though the Note 10 is also coming
soon. There is also Poco X3, which is a mid-range device with great specs.
These 4G phones are currently available on Flipkart for less than Rs 15,000 and
are some of the best 2020 devices.
