realme 11 Pro+ 5G REVIEW: Fashionable Smartphone with 200MP Camera & 100W Fast Charging

The realme 11 Pro+ 5G is a uniquely designed smartphone with very high numbers in its specs sheet. It has a Vegan Leather back, 200 Megapixel camera, and 100W of fast charging.

In this review, we will take a closer look at the Italian-inspired design and test the capabilities of its cameras, battery, display, and processor. Does it live up to the hype? Let’s find out.

 

What’s in the box?

 

The realme 11 Pro+ 5G comes in realme’s usual black and yellow box. The phrase “Dare to Leap” will greet you upon opening the box. It’s printed on an inner compartment containing a FREE transparent phone case, SIM ejector pin, and quick start guide.

Underneath that is the smartphone itself with a pre-applied screen protector. Then we have the USB type-C cable and 100W fast charger. It has European style prongs so you might have to get an adaptor.

It comes with several freebies but they come in separate boxes. You’ll have to confirm this with the store including a mystery box that might have an air fryer, electric kettle, or desk lamp.

 

Design

 

I have the Oasis Green color variant of the realme 11 Pro+ 5G and I prefer this color compared to Sunrise Beige. Both are fashionable but there aren’t many green smartphones and light colors tend to require more TLC.

The Vegan Leather back is soft to touch with its Lychee texture and doesn’t attract fingerprints nor smudges. It gives the device a premium vibe and unique character especially in this price segment.

I also like the zipper-like line in the middle with realistic stitching and the large, circular camera island. It reminds me of more premium smartphones while realme says this is inspired by the rising sun in the streets of Milan, Italy.

 

 

The edges of the back panel are curved just like the front glass making it more ergonomic to hold. Its clicky volume and power buttons are on the right side while there’s nothing on the left side.

At the top are a microphone and speaker grille for the earpiece that also serves as the stereo loudspeaker pair. The main loudspeaker, USB type-C port, main microphone, and SIM card tray are all at the bottom.

It’s a light smartphone weighing 183 grams only but still feels solid and well-built. There’s no official water resistance rating though so it needs extra care when used near a pool or at the beach.

 

Display

The realme 11 Pro+ 5G flaunts a 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with curved edges on both sides and narrow bezels all around including the chin for a premium look.

It’s sharp, vibrant, and bright with up to 950 nits of peak brightness. It’s legible outdoors but not as bright as I expected. Netflix also shows no HDR capabilities even though YouTube can play HDR videos just fine.

It’s very responsive to touches and swiping from both sides feels smooth thanks to the curved edges. There’s 120Hz of refresh rate for snappy animations, 360Hz of touch sampling rate for responsiveness, and 2,160Hz of PWM dimming for eye protection in low brightness mode.

Nice to have features like a customizable Always on Display and Edge Lighting for notifications are present too.

 

Cameras

The realme 11 Pro+ 5G is equipped with a triple rear camera system composed of a 200 Megapixel main camera with OIS, 8 Megapixel ultra-wide camera, and 2 Megapixel depth camera.

All three cameras are arranged horizontally in the large circular camera island. Be careful when taking ultra-wide pictures in landscape orientation because that camera has a tendency to be covered by the user’s pinky.

It uses pixel binning technology to output 12 Megapixel pictures when using the default Photo mode. It benefits from the large light gathering capability of the 200MP sensor while keeping storage usage low.

 

 

 

The pictures look good with sharp details and vibrant colors. It usually applies enhancements that slightly sharpens the image and increases color saturation but can sometimes be too much.

One key feature of this camera is its 4x “lossless” zoom. There are buttons on the camera app to quickly switch from 0.6x zoom or ultra-wide to 1x, 2x, and 4x zoom and this can be done handheld thanks to its OIS that minimizes shakiness.

The 4x zoom pictures look surprisingly good especially for sharing on social media. However, I wouldn’t exactly describe it as “lossless” because they are clearly less sharp. On the other hand, the 2x zoom pictures look amazing.

 

 

 

 

The camera’s zoom capability is useful when you have to take a close-up picture from a distance. It can even zoom up to 20x for a decent moon shot but it takes a few tries to produce a good picture.

The ultra-wide camera is also good but it shows its limitations in low-light scenes and lacks autofocus.

There’s a Hi-Res mode where the camera captures a full 200 Megapixel picture but a big file size. It also has a 50 Megapixel mode for manageable files with plenty of details.

 

 

 

 

For more pleasant pictures of people, I switched to Portrait mode which adds a “DSLR-like” effect of blurred backgrounds.

Subject separation is decent but with some fringing with difficult materials like hair and foliage. There are also some built-in filters like dynamic bokeh and bokeh flare portrait.

The Portrait mode also works well at night and looks especially good with some lights in the background for bokeh effects.

 

 

 

 

Low-light photography is a strength of the realme 11 Pro+ 5G. It has automatic low-light enhancement and a dedicated Night mode for even better-looking night shots.

Its zoom feature works well at night but the 4x zoom already looks grainy. Night mode is also limited to 2x zoom.

There are several modes available on the camera app including Street mode, Starry mode, and Long exposure. These are fun to explore for those who are interested in mobile photography.

 

 

 

In terms of selfies, the realme 11 Pro+ 5G has a 32 Megapixel front camera. It has a wide angle FoV at 90° so you can fit more people in a selfie although you still have to fully stretch your arms.

Selfies look clear and sharp but the colors are noticeably muted unlike the more saturated look of the rear camera.

It also supports Portrait mode and a dedicated Night mode for low light selfies.

 

realme 11 Pro+ 5G sample video (YouTube link).

 

The phone can record videos at 4K resolution using the main camera but video stabilization only works up to 1080p resolution. Its front camera is also limited to 1080p.

Videos look good with sharp details and balanced colors. However, it struggles in maintaining a constant exposure with moving subjects.

Slow-motion videos show flickering if lighting is less than a bright sunny day.

 

Performance

A MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chipset powers the realme 11 Pro+ 5G along with 12GB of RAM and plenty of storage at 512GB. There’s no microSD card slot but you won’t really need it.

It has enough power for a smooth experience in using popular apps. Browsing across social media, scrolling mobile websites, and navigating the UI is buttery smooth.

However, it’s not a huge upgrade from the realme 10 Pro+ 5G. It scored 939 points in GeekBench 6 single-core and 2,343 points on GeekBench 6 multi-core, slightly less than what I expected for a premium midrange device.

 

Gaming Experience

I’ve played some popular games with the realme 11 Pro+ 5G including Mobile Legends, Call of Duty Mobile, and Genshin Impact.

Usually, it can run games at the “highest” or “ultra” graphics quality but with some frame drops. Changing the graphics quality to “high” or “medium” results in smooth gaming performance.

Here are the highest graphics settings that the realme 11 Pro+ 5G can run smoothly:

Mobile Legends: highest
Call of Duty Mobile: high
Genshin Impact: low

Thankfully, it doesn’t have any heating problems so you can play for hours.

 

UI and Apps

The realme 11 Pro+ 5G comes with Android 13 OS and the realme UI 4.0 software. It has a clean user interface packed with useful features like the smart sidebar, flexible floating windows, and simple mode.

It comes preloaded with Google apps, utility apps, and third-party apps including Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Linkedin, and a focusing app called Zen.

The haptics or vibration also adds a satisfying feedback when using the phone. It’s called O-haptics and claims to mimic true-to-life interaction with real materials.

 

Connectivity, Security and Sound Quality

The realme 11 Pro+ 5G is a dual SIM smartphone with 5G connectivity. It has great signal reception and can provide ultra-fast mobile internet speed.

There’s also an under-display fingerprint scanner for securely unlocking the phone. It’s reliable and can be mapped to open a specific app by scanning a specific finger.

In terms of sound quality, the phone’s stereo speaker system provides decent audio for watching videos and playing games. The bottom loudspeaker is slightly louder but the top speaker grille makes the soundstage wider.

Connecting wired or wireless earphones can take advantage of Dolby Atmos sound enhancements.

 

Battery Life and Charging Speed

 

 

The 5,000mAh built-in battery of the realme 11 Pro+ 5G can easily last more than a day with my normal use. It has excellent battery life and I’m usually left with around 30% battery life at night.

When playing games continuously, it will need a recharge after about 6-7 hours.

The 100W SUPERVOOC fast charger can recharge it to 100% battery capacity in 26 minutes only! For those in a hurry, it will recharge up to 45% in 10 minutes.

 

Conclusion

The realme 11 Pro+ 5G is a fashionable smartphone with impressive specs like 200MP main camera, 100W fast charging, and 512GB of storage.

It mostly lives up to the hype with impressive photography, feature-packed software, long battery life, ultra-fast charging speed, plenty of storage space, and a head-turning design. However, it’s not as powerful as some of its competitors and doesn’t have water resistance.

It gets a thumbs up from me and I highly recommend choosing the Oasis Green color instead of Sunrise Beige.

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The realme 11 Pro+ 5G is now available in the Philippines with an official price of ₱24,999.00.