The good people at Realme sent the Realme 9 4G to our studios a few months ago and the phone has been in our able and safe custody since then. We have tested it in the sunny days, the cloudy nights, through thick and thin, just joking, we have indeed daily driven the device since then and this is what we have summed up;
The display is 6.4″ in size which is the new small display tier for most devices with 90Hz refresh rate which is smooth when scrolling. For daily usage and specifically outdoor usage, the Realme 9 4G has a very bright panel that goes up to 1000 nits, and during my use, I have managed to view content even in harsh sun conditions. Streaming content on the Realme 9 4G is enjoyable and the inclusion of WideVine L1 security allows the phone to play Netflix content in FHD.
My main area of expertise apart from writing tech info is phone photography and this phone has not disappointed me at all. The details and processing are fast and I like how Realme has added more features to play with on the camera software. I have tried out all modes and enjoyed every bit of it. The 108MP mode brings more details to photos. The street mode which I have used more has a 16mm mode, 24mm mode, 50mm mode, and 120mm mode. All this helps a lot when shooting from wide to telephoto and the addition of manual focus allows you to play with background separation. Night mode kicks in well enough. Portrait mode understands the subject and with the help of post-processing, does a really good job of separating the subject from the background. Most of the processes happen behind the scenes. In pro mode, the phone gives you the option to shoot in JPG or RAW format. The RAW format will allow you to do extensive photo editing on supported apps like Adobe Lightroom. The phone however outputs soft images even when no additional filters are added.
For videos, the phone still lacks 60fps shooting and is only capped at either 1080/720p shooting at 30fps. 30fps is usable but if you want to slow down the footage when editing, it can be a challenge. On the Realme 9 4G, the company has introduced a film mode that allows you to control your settings when shooting videos just like you can do on a pro camera.
The Snapdragon 680 is a powerful processor for this segment and so far when gaming, the phone remains cool even on higher settings. App background operations have been stable and keep apps running for a much longer period. The model we received in the studio has 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. I hope in the future Realme phones will come with 256GB of storage but in case your storage fills up, there is a dedicated MicroSD slot to expand your storage.
If you have ever used an Oppo device then you will get along very well with the Realme 9 4G user interface. It feels more like ColorOS but with a slight twist to it including added features like the fingerprint heart rate sensor. For this phone, you can add the option of requesting for authorization when shutting down the phone which I like a lot and may prevent power off when the phone is lost.
Something I have loved a lot about the Realme 9 4G is the battery life. The phone for sure is reliable and can give you up to a full day’s usage. For me, I have managed to get over 21hrs of usage and 9hrs of screen on time from the phone from a single charge and when charging, the 33W power adapter does its job of filling up the phone in under 1hr 30min.
In conclusion, for Ksh 30,000 this is a phone which I can recommend. The phone can is available on sale via various Realme authorized shops both in-store and online.
