consumer electronics

Realme X3 SuperZoom review

Kyle Chua

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Realme X3 SuperZoom review

Kyle Chua

A bang-for-your-buck flagship alternative

This review also appears on the tech and video game site Solid State Now.

Flagship phones aren’t getting any cheaper, and it’s becoming more evident that they’re not always the most practical and cost-efficient choice, with midrange and budget releases sometimes offering some of the same bells and whistles for a fraction of the cost. 

The X3 SuperZoom from Oppo’s spin-off, Realme, seems to bolster that argument, packing a display that supports 120Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 855+ chipset, and a quadruple rear camera setup into one affordable package. 

While the brand is marketing the phone as its first flagship, its P24,990 price tag is closer to that of upper midrange releases than premium. That’s a big plus, of course, since it lets you enjoy a number of cool features without really breaking the bank. 

One of which is the aforementioned screen with 120Hz refresh rate, giving you that buttery smooth experience when scrolling through your social media feeds or playing a game.

In case you didn’t already know, refresh rate is the number of times a screen can update the image. The higher the number the smoother images supposedly look. 

There’s a growing demand for the feature among flagship phones, and having it here is definitely a welcome treat. If you love playing games on your phone, this can definitely enhance your experience, lessening jitters and slightly enhancing visual fidelity. Outside of games, however, I don’t think it’s as essential. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice feature to have, but the effect eventually wears off. 

Setting your display to 120Hz also consumes a lot of battery, making it less than ideal if you want your phone to last a day or two without charging. Thankfully, you always have the option of toggling the refresh rate back down to 60Hz whenever you want to. 

The components needed for manufacturing screens with high refresh rates can be expensive. And for the X3 SuperZoom, the tradeoff is you get an LCD panel instead of AMOLED. It’s not a dealbreaker as the phone is still very much capable of producing strong and rich colors, but contrast levels and color accuracy can be better. Then again, these things can sometimes come down to preference. 

The screen itself measures 6.6-inches with a sizable notch housing the dual selfie cameras located at the top-left corner. As with most notches, it can take some getting used-to, but it’s actually not as intrusive as it appears. Overall, the screen is serviceable for most productivity and entertainment tasks. 

Performance-wise, the X3 SuperZoom holds its own against other more expensive flagships, thanks to it housing a Snapdragon 855+ chipset and 12GB of RAM. Sure, it’s not the newer Snapdragon 865, but it’s still more than capable of multitasking between multiple apps and running some of the most graphically-demanding games at optimal settings. 

What’s more is that the 4,200mAh can get you at least a full day’s worth of usage even with the screen toggled at 120Hz. The 30W fast-charging also juices the phone up quite fast. I got it from about 20% to full charge in a little less than an hour. Your mileage will surely vary, but, from my time with the phone, I did not have any issues with battery. 

For cameras, the quadruple rear setup is rather impressive for the price. The 64MP main lens gets a lot of detail with some good color accuracy and exposure in full-auto mode. The 8MP ultra-wide lens is also not too shabby, fitting more in the shot, albeit with less detail, while the 8MP periscope and 2MP macro lens can be hit or miss, depending on the distance between you and the subject and the lighting conditions. 

Here are a few shots (images have been cropped from 4:3 to 16:9):

As for the cameras’ zooming capabilities, it’s still a little gimmicky. As with many phones touting ultra-high zooming capabilities, the actual usable zoom levels can be found down the ladder, and not the highest claimed number. With the X3 SuperZoom, you can still get decent results for up to 5x zoom, with 10x being a little on the edge of usable picture quality. Anything beyond results in a blurry mess. 

Here’s a series of photos from 1x zoom, 5x zoom, and 10x zoom:

When it comes to design, the X3 SuperZoom is pretty standard-fare, flaunting a predominantly glass body with a pearly white matte finish for the back, which is held together by a plastic frame. It’s not the most attractive phone out there, but it’s hard to argue that the build quality is not too shabby, and it looks elegant. 

What I don’t like is that the fingerprint sensor is built into the side-mounted power button. It works well enough in practice, but, similar to the phone’s notch, it takes some adjusting. 

It’s also a shame that the phone’s mono speaker isn’t that great. While it’s loud, there’s a lot of distortion at high volume levels. It doesn’t help that there’s no headphone jack, meaning you either have to buy a USC-C to 3.5mm adapter or use wireless headphones to get good audio. 

Looking at the entire package, however, I think these aren’t bad compromises for everything you’re getting, and you’re actually getting a lot here. Just to recap, the X3 SuperZoom boasts a 120Hz screen, a Snapdragon 855+ chipset, and a quadruple rear camera setup, among other specs and features. 

Priced at P24,990, it goes in direct competition with the P26,990 POCO F2 Pro, which has the more powerful Snapdragon 865, an under-display fingerprint scanner, and a bigger 4,700mAh battery. 

I think both phones offer excellent bang-for-your-buck value, and picking between them boils down to which features you prefer more. If you’re after speed and performance, the F2 Pro’s Snapdragon 865 will likely record better numbers. But, if you’re after a high refresh rate screen and enhanced zooming capabilities, the X3 SuperZoom is the way to go. 

Here are its key specs:

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+
  • 6.6-inch FHD+ display that supports 120Hz refresh rate
  • 12GB RAM + 256GB storage
  • 64MP main + 8MP periscope with 5x optical zoom and 60x digital zoom + 8MP ultra wide-angle lens + 2MP macro cameras
  • 32MP wide-angle lens + 8MP super wide-angle lens
  • 4200mAh with 30W fast charging
  • USB Type-C
  • Dual SIM
  • Arctic White and Glacier Blue colorways

– Rappler.com

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