by It’s a busy week for phone news, as we had the Sony Xperia I IV and Google IO 2022, and now Realme is here with a launch of its own, but this one is aimed at the lower end of the market.
The company has unveiled the Realme 9, Realme 9 5G, and Realme Pad Mini, all of which come with temptingly low prices.
Starting with the Realme 9, this is a 4G smartphone with a 6.4-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. It also has a Snapdragon 680 chipset, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 33W charging.
The camera is triple-lens, with a 108MP main sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide and a 2MP macro snapper, and the phone also has a 3.5mm headphone port and an under-display fingerprint scanner, which can also measure your heart. Velocity.
The Realme 9 comes in a choice of gold, black or white, and costs just £249 (around £305 / AU$440).
Then there is the Realme 9 5G, which, contrary to the name, is not just the Realme 9 with 5G added. It has 5G, but it’s also quite different in other ways, and not all of it is for the better.
It has a 6.6-inch FHD+ LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 695 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB or 128GB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 18W charging.
The cameras include a 50MP main sensor backed by macro and black and white, while on the front there is a 16MP camera, and the phone has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner and a 3.5 headphone port. mm.
The price of a 128GB model is the same as the Realme 9 (£249) and for now that’s the starting price in the UK as the 64GB model isn’t currently available there.
Finally, there is the Realme Pad Mini, which is a tablet with an 8.7-inch 1340 x 800 display, Unisoc T616 chipset (also cleverly used by the Realme C35), up to 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, microSD slot. for cards and a 6,400 mAh battery with 18 W charging.
The rear camera is 8MP and supports 1080p video recording, and the slate is just 7.59mm thick.
There’s no confirmed UK availability for the Realme Pad Mini yet, but there’s a suggestion it could land there later this year. In Europe, it starts at just €130 (roughly £110 / $135 / AU$200), making it incredibly cheap. Note, however, that none of these devices have been confirmed for the US or Australia.
Analysis: these could be among the best cheap mobiles
Realme has a reputation for offering excellent smartphones at low cost, from the Realme 8 5G, which is currently on our best cheap phones list, to the Realme GT 2, which is on our best smartphones list despite undermining the most other entries.
So there’s a chance the Realme 9 and/or Realme 9 5G will be future additions to our best cheap phone guide, though we won’t know for sure until we’ve fully reviewed them.
Certainly their specs seem reasonable for the money, though since they’re priced the same, buyers may have a hard time choosing between them.
The Realme Pad Mini, meanwhile, is a possible contender for our best cheap tablet guide, though its specs are so basic we’re less sure about that. Still, it certainly comes at a low price.
