realme 11: The newest Head-turner Smartphone

The realme is back again with a new mid-segment phone under the realme 11 lineup, the realme 11. This much-awaited smartphone looks to meet the expectations of modern users by providing the ideal balance of power, style, and innovation in a single, elegant package.

Let us dive into the review to find out if this is the best smartphone to buy under the mid-range category.

 

Unboxing

Inside the box, you can find an assortment of items:

• realme 11 unit
• 33W SUPERVOOC Adapter
• Type A to Type C USB Cable
• SIM Ejector Pin
• Protect Case
• Warranty Card and Quick Guide

Here we are using an 8GB + 256GB variant of the realme 11 in Glory Black color. If you are planning to buy this smartphone, read below for important things that you need to know.

 

Design

The first thing you will probably notice when you put the new realme 11 in your hand is how light it is, which is mainly due to the polycarbonate frame and back body. The phone is 8 mm thick and weighs 178 grams.

The device ships with flat edges and a matte-finish that doesn’t attract fingerprints and smudges. It has a captivating subtle sparkle effect on the back when it catches the light at certain angles. The smartphone is available in two colors – Glory Gold and Glory Black.

The realme 11’s back has a “matte” yet a bit smooth finish. Good thing, the company does throw in a transparent case so you can still enjoy and flaunt back design without sacrificing the phone’s safety. But don’t worry accidentally dropping it, because the realme 11 has Gorilla Glass 5, as it is a well-rounded experience, offering excellent shatter and scratch resistance.

The realme 11’s controls, which include volume rockers and a tactile power button, are arranged handily on the right side. In order to provide quick and safe device unlocking, the power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Moving down to the phone’s bottom, you’ll see the speaker grill, 3.5mm headphone socket, and USB Type-C charging port.

 

Screen

For the front, we get to see a large display with thinner bezels all around. With a screen-to-body ratio of 90.80%, one glance at the phone from the front, and it’s easy to see how remarkable the razor-thin bezels (1 mm) on three sides of the panel are. The chin of the phone is slightly thicker, and there’s punch-hole cut out for the selfie camera on the upper left part.

With a dynamic refresh rate of up to 90Hz and 360Hz touch sampling rate, the 6.4-inch Super AMOLED FHD+ display with a resolution of 1080×2400 pixels and a high brightness of 1,000 Nit of the realme 11 is impressive. Internet browsing is enjoyable thanks to the smooth display, which is sharp and suitable for viewing content. The bezels are somewhat thicker on the chin than they are on the sides.

 

Software

This latest mid-range smartphone ships with the realme UI 4.0 user interface – the most recent iteration of realme’s custom user interface, and runs on Android 13 operating system out-of-the-box. The OS offers a clean look and comes with some new features – but nothing major. And like all realme phones, this one too comes with several bloatware.

 

Hardware

A MediaTek Helio G99 CPU powers the realme 11. With this state-of-the-art processor and lots of RAM, users can play games with high graphics settings, operate several applications, and multitask without any problems.From web browsing to social media, this is definitely enough for average use cases, basically, this new smartphone can fulfill the needs of the majority of phone users.

 

I used the device as my daily driver and had no significant heating or lag problems when multitasking or conducting light browsing. It’s important to keep in mind that you should have reasonable expectations when it comes to gaming, even though it can be fun.

 

Camera

In its latest outing, the realme’s placement of the two camera sensors within a halo camera deco cutout at the top left corner adds a unique flair and premium feel.

For this unit, the company has opted for a simple camera configuration by incorporating just two rear camera sensors. The realme 11 sports a 108MP primary camera with support of built-in 3x in-sensor zoom, boasting f/1.8 aperture and PDAF technology. Alongside this, a 2MP depth sensor with an f/2.4 aperture takes its supporting role seriously.

The realme 11’s 108MP camera is no slouch; and to my surprise, it produces clear, sharp shots both daylight and low-light conditions. The 2MP depth sensor does a decent job. However, if you want more natural-looking colors, you might have to switch to Pro mode.

The smartphone clicks good images in daylight with a decent dynamic range. Also, portrait mode produces good bokeh and edge detection is OK for the price. 

For selfies, it has a 16MP camera on the front with an aperture of f/2.5. The selfies that were taken had excellent detail and the ideal combination of sharpness and color.

 

Battery

Despite the smartphone’s lightweight and slim figure, the smartphone has a 5,000mAh battery that can be charged with 33W SUPERVOOC technology.

The phone’s battery can also last a total of up to 673 hours at Standby, with up to 52 hours of phone calls, 21 hours of YouTube, 42 hours of Spotify music streaming, and 15 hours of TikTok. So as long as you don’t try to push it too hard with max settings, this phone is well-equipped for performing your basic stuff and casual entertainment.

 

Verdict

Offering decent features and specs, the realme 11 is one of the highly competitive mid-rangers available now in the market for only PHP 13,999. Its performance is fairly remarkable; with decent camera capabilities, and the processing is also not that bad. So, if you can manage with mid-level performance, then this smartphone is definitely for you!