A New Standard
Since the time realme announced the realme 6 pro, it received raved reviews and feedback from both consumers and tech reviewers. It was priced for its overall good performance, impressive cost and benefit ratio, and its 90Hz display that ultimate became its crowning glory.
It’s a bigger and more capable version of the realme 6, and its 3,000 difference from it is definitely worth it because of all the upgrades it offer.
realme 6 vs realme 6 Pro
| realme 6 | realme 6 Pro | |
| Display | 6.5-inch FHD+, 90Hz | 6.6-inch FHD+, 90Hz |
| Processor | Helio G90T | Snapdragon 720G |
| RAM | 4GB/8GB LPDDR4X | 8GB LPDDR4X |
| Storage | 128GB UFS 2.1 | 128GB UFS 2.1 |
| Rear Camera | 64MP Samsung GW1 Wide | 64MP Samsung GW1 Main |
| 8MP Ultra-Wide | 8MP Ultra-Wide | |
| 2MP Portrait/Monochrome | 12MP Telephoto | |
| 2MP Macro | 2MP Macro | |
| Front Camera | 16MP | 16MP Sony IMX471 Wide |
| 8MP Ultra-WIde | ||
| OS | Android 10 + realme UI | Android 10 + realme UI |
| Battery | 4,300mAh, 30W Flash Charge | 4,300mAh, 30W Flash Charge |
| Colors | Comet Blue | Lightning Blue |
| Comet White | Lightning Red |
The design looks really good with its UV-curing offset printing technology. According to realme, the back panel is made of 7 layers of coating, which includes UV texture, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and an AF coating. This is, by our standards, one of the best looking smartphones that employs shining and “light-sensitive” colorways in the market.
However, this isn’t the focus of this review as I wish to delve deeper into its full gaming performance. In this regard, I’m debuting a new benchmark standard, which will allow us to show you how this really performs in both artificial and actual gaming performance.
Our Methodology
In this gaming-focused review, I will be showing 2 sets of our benchmarks: artificial and gameplay. For artificial benchmarks, we’ll be using several applications that will measure its processor, GPU and read/write drive speeds. The power mode will be displayed on top of the benchmark result to give you an idea how it will perform in other modes. In special circumstances, I’ll be displaying multiple results per power mode. In this review, you will only see one mode.
For gameplay benchmarks, we’ll provide you the performance of at least 3 games we’ll play on this smartphone. All games will be played at maximum settings, which the device can handle. Settings per game will be included the benchmark result for your reference.
As usual, this review will be heavy on numbers but I will try my best to explain the result as much as possible.
Artificial Benchmarks
| realme 6 Pro | ||
| Power Mode On | ||
| Antutu | 285,652 | |
| 3D Mark (Sling Shot Extreme) | Open GL ES | 2,523 |
| Vulkan | 2,323 | |
| PC Mark | (Work 2.0) | 10,333 |
| Geekbench | Single Core | 567 |
| Multi-Core | 1,757 | |
| Androbench | Seq. Read | 512.62 MB/s |
| Seq. Write | 203.95 MB/s | |
| CPDT Benchmark | Seq. Read | 315.36 MB/s |
| Seq. Write | 161.86 MB/s |
realme 6 Pro’s overall performance is high but surprisingly just as fast, if not faster, than the realme 6. This is surprising because when I ran this test, both devices’ Power Mode is turned on. It’s either the benchmarking tool did not perform as we expected, or the device really reached it peak performance with the said power mode. Nevertheless, in terms of CPU and GPU, realme 6 pro outperformed most devices at the same price point.
Gameplay Benchmarks
Data Summary
| realme 6 Pro | ||||
| Black Desert Mobile | CODM: Battle Royale | PUBGM | Mobile Legends BB | |
| Avg(FPS) | 38.97 | 39.05 | 29.84 | 59.8 |
| FPS>=18[%] | 100 | 99.9 | 99.9 | 100 |
| FPS>=25[%] | 100 | 99.3 | 99.9 | 100 |
| Var(FPS) | 19.32 | 3.82 | 0.51 | 0.27 |
| Drop(FPS)[/h] | 153.4 | 33.7 | 2.2 | 0 |
| Jank(/10min) | 0 | 10.1 | 6.5 | 0 |
| BigJank(/10min) | 0 | 5.6 | 1.1 | 0 |
| FTime>=100[%] | 0 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 |
| Delta(FTime)>100ms[/h] | 0 | 47.2 | 6.5 | 0 |
| Avg(Memory)[MB] | 1091.94 | 1440.98 | 1077.39 | 28.81 |
| Peak(Memory)[MB] | 1136 | 1547 | 1163 | 29 |
| Peak(Memory+Swap)[MB] | 1141 | 1558 | 1168 | 36 |
| Avg(AppCPU)[%] | 17.2 | 21.4 | 16.1 | 26 |
| AppCPU<=60%[%] | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| AppCPU<=80%[%] | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Avg(AppCPU)[%] Normalized |
8 | 14.4 | 10.6 | 18 |
| AppCPU<=60%[%] Normalized |
100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| AppCPU<=80%[%] Normalized |
100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| (Recv+Send)[KB/s] | 7.83 | 8.6 | 4.53 | 3.6 |
| (Recv+Send)[KB/10min] | 4698.29 | 5157.75 | 2716.05 | 2160.24 |
Mobile Legends Bang Bang
- realme 6 Pro review 6
- realme 6 Pro review 7
Black Desert Mobile
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- realme 6 Pro review 8
PUBG Mobile
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- realme 6 Pro review 12
Call of Duty Mobile
- realme 6 Pro review 15
- realme 6 Pro review 14
- realme 6 Pro review 13
Benchmark Analysis and Verdict
I noticed significant amount of FPS jank when playing CODM: Battle Royale. This is not an unusual case because this is a game that greatly requires software-hardware optimization. Mobile Legends Bang Bang, at HFR Mode, played really well with zero FPS drop and jank. Our CPU performance benchmark while playing MBLL is inconclusive though as our benchmark tool did not properly display the data we needed.
realme 6 Pro’s performance is good, but not great. It tends to crank up the processing power higher compared to other devices with the same specs. This isn’t necessarily bad because in doing so, games will play smoother and better albeit the possibility of high battery consumption.
So is it good for gaming at its pricepoint? Yes, but I have some reservations. realme still needs to work with game developers to further optimize their games to their devices. While Mobile Legends plays very well on this device, this should not just be your main reason for buying one. Games like Wild Rift and Apex Legends are on the way, and these games will be playable on realme 6 Pro. There is no question that Snapdragon 720G is more than capable to handle triple A titles and “streamable” games, but at the end of the day, optimization matters.
This is, by far, among the smartphones with 90hz display at its pricepoint. For gamers, this is a big deal because this is something that only high midrange and flagship devices have. realme has set a new standard, which other brands like Huawei and Xioami need to emulate.
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
