Realme XT Review

Realme is the latest smartphone manufacturer to enter Australia, and the Realme XT is one its first phones you'll be able to buy here. It also happens to be the first smartphone with a 64MP camera which, quite frankly, is a ludicrous number of megapixels.

For those not familiar with Realme, the company was first started as a subsidiary of OPPO focused on making even more affordable smartphones. Realme is now its own independent company, albeit still part of the BBK Electronics group which also includes Vivo and OnePlus. Despite the separation from OPPO, Realme shares a supply chain with its former parent and its smartphones are still powered by OPPO's customised take on Android, ColorOS.

Now that we've got the introduction out of the way, let's talk about numbers.

Many fine megapixels

There's more to a smartphone camera than numbers, but you might be wondering why the Realme XT has so many damn megapixels. After all, top-tier smartphones like the iPhone 11 Pro, Pixel 4, and Samsung Note 10+ are still using 12MP cameras.

Well, for the most part, the Realme XT doesn't actually take 64MP photos. Instead, the Realme XT merges four pixels into one, which gets you a brighter 16MP photo. This is most useful when shooting in low light, and can reduce the amount of noise in a photo, but still has benefits in good lighting, like better dynamic range and more accurate colours. Essentially, the use of a higher resolution sensor can get around some of the shortcomings typically associated with more affordable smartphones.

You can still take 64MP photos if you're genuinely after a super high-resolution shot. 64MP snaps taken by the Realme XT will have more noise and less dynamic range than the equivalent 16MP, but it captures extra detail and gives you a little more flexibility when it comes to cropping thanks to the larger size. While the Realme XT doesn't have any zoom, cropping down a 64MP image tends to look better than using 2x digital zoom while shooting in 16MP.

Here's a 16MP shot from the Realme XT:

And here's a 64MP shot: 

Here's a 100% crop of the 16MP shot:

And here's a 100% crop of the 64MP shot:

For the most part, it's only worth using the 64MP mode in good lighting. At night, it barely captures any more detail than the 16MP lens and the resulting images are noticeably noisier.

Megapixels aside, the Realme XT primary camera is pretty impressive for its price-point. Unsurprisingly, it's great in good lighting, with great dynamic range, true-to-life colours and plenty of detail. It also performs well in lowlight, although it can be a little prone to motion blur in dark environments, especially with moving subjects. I struggled to get a sharp shot of these plants blowing in the breeze:

There's also a dedicated night mode that takes multiple images over a longer period of time to stitch them together into a brighter photo, but you'll need to keep your hands steady. The Realme XT isn't quite as good at compensating for handshake as the Google Pixel 3a, and as such, the photos aren't quite as sharp - especially in darker environments - but night mode photos are still pretty impressive given the phone's $499 asking price.

Here's a photo taken without night mode:

And here's the same shot with it on:

Night mode does have some limits, however, especially when there's less ambient light. Here's a shot in a darker setting without night mode:

And here's the same shot with it on:

The night mode photo is clearly better, but not necessarily what you'd call good.

While the 64MP camera is the clear star of the show, it's joined by an 8MP ultra-wide angle lens, a 2MP macro lens for close-ups, and a 2MP depth lens for improving portrait shots.

The ultra-wide angle lens lets you zoom out rather than in, but it's noticeably lower in quality than the primary camera. You don't get too much fish-eye distortion on shots, but the dynamic range is lower and photos tend to look washed out. It's also a little tricky to find. Rather than pinching to zoom out as you would on most other smartphones, the ultra-wide lens is accessed via an icon at the top of the camera app. It does the trick, but it's not quite intuitive.

Here's a shot from the ultra-wide lens:

And here's a comparison from the primary: 

Similar holds true with the macro lens. You can use it to get closer to your subject, but the resulting shots just aren't very good. There's very little detail and they tend to exhibit high amounts of noise, especially indoors.

On the other hand, the Realme XT does a pretty good job when it comes to portrait photography. Messy hair can cause problems, but otherwise, the resulting shots tend to look pretty convincing.

Familiar, but good familiar

As aforementioned, Realme shares its supply chain with OPPO, so it's not surprising that the Realme XT shares a lot of its DNA with the OPPO R17 Pro and Reno Z. And I do mean a lot, but that's a good thing. You get the same unobtrusive tear-drop notch, the same lovely 6.4-inch display, the same slim bezels, and the same premium-without-the-price-tag design. The Realme XT feels good, plain and simple.

It also looks striking. You can get the Realme XT in two different finishes: pearl white or pearl blue. Pearl blue is a bit of a misnomer however, as it's more of a blue to purple gradient (with a matching aluminium frame), reminiscent of the R17 Pro we reviewed. In both cases, the finishes catch light in a rather unique way, with glistening curves or "hyperbolas" that move back and forth as you change the angle of the phone. It's a very cool effect.

Similarities to past OPPO devices don't stop with look and feel. In terms of specs, the Realme XT is pretty much a souped-up R17 Pro. You get the same 128GB of expandable storage, a faster processor, and more RAM. When you consider the R17 Pro launched at $899 outright and the Realme XT is selling for just $499, that's pretty damn good.

In real-world terms, this means the Realme XT isn't the kind of phone where you're sacrificing speed to save money. Day-to-day performance is snappy and just that little bit faster than the phones you’d typically find in its price bracket.

The Realme XT also uses OPPO's fast-charging technology, VOOC. If your Realme XT is flat, you can get it back to around 50% with a thirty minute top-up. In most cases, you shouldn't need this, however. The Realme XT comfortably lasts around a day-and-a-half per charge. Maybe even two with lighter usage.

Lower price-tags often mean compromises, but the Realme XT makes surprisingly few. It ticks most of the boxes. It even has a pretty reliable in-screen fingerprint reader, fast facial recognition, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The main omissions are water-resistance and wireless charging, which are still far from common when it comes to cheaper handsets.

In terms of software, the Realme XT runs OPPO's cleanest operating system yet. OPPO is renowned for its heavily customised takes on Android (dubbed ColorOS), but its latest is more Android-like than ever. The new version of ColorOS has an app drawer out of the box. It doesn't have a hissy fit if you try and change default apps, like for SMS messaging. I don't love all of the app icons (especially the weird settings hexagon), but Android veterans should still feel right at home.

You might find you get delayed notifications due to aggressive battery management, but you can get around this by "locking" an app (tap the hamburger icon next to an app in the multitasking menu). It's easy enough, but it might not be obvious.

Who is the Realme XT for?

Priced at just $499, the Realme XT represents a whole lot of phone for not a lot of money. It's easily the best smartphone you can buy under $500, which isn't an easy feat given how crowded the space has become. The camera is great, the battery will comfortably last over a day, the processor is faster than anything else in the price range, and the phone just looks and feels great. Sure, spending more can still get you a better phone, but if you're after value for money, the Realme XT is hard to beat.

More Realme XT camera samples

I don't want a Realme XT, what else can I buy?

Google Pixel 3a

If you can spend $150 more, the Pixel 3a is the best mid-range phone you can buy right now. It's not quite as flash as the Realme XT - it's plastic rather than glass, heavier on bezels, doesn't have as many camera lenses, and is just a little less modern - but the Pixel 3a has one of the very best cameras you can get in a phone right now. For a $649 device, that's nuts.

Motorola One Vision

If you're not into the idea of ColorOS, the Motorola One Vision runs Android One, a clean version of Android that is guaranteed two years of major operating system updates and three years of security updates. It's also a pretty good all-rounder, and while the camera and battery aren't quite as good as what you'd get on the Realme XT, it comes in at the same $499 price-point.

Alex Choros

Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor | X | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

Read full bio