A New Dimension for realme!
Realme has finally crossed to a whole new dimension of products and services. You will remember that they went full blast on AiOT 2 years ago, then to televisions last year! This year, they are getting into a different level of disruption by introducing their line of laptops. This sends quite a significant amount of message to its competitors and customers that realme is more than what they think about.
The demand for laptops in the Philippines is very high. Various industry players like Acer, ASUS, and Lenovo have been gaining a significant amount of market share; and realme is trying to come in and challenge the market. While I, at this moment, do not think that it will come overnight, realme Book seems to have the right ingredients to make itself known and eventually become part of the brand and production options for laptops.
Everything You Need to Know
Before I give you a quick list of the specs of this realme Book, here’s everything inside the box: the realme Book on real blue colorway, a 65W USB-C Power Adapter, USB-C Charger Cable, Quick Start Guide, and Warranty Card.
Now, let’s get to know the realme Book. realme Book has a 14-inch Full Vision Display with a resolution of 2160 x 1440 pixels. This is 1.5 times bigger than a 1080p display in terms of resolution size. It covers 100% of sRGB color space and has a 3:2 aspect ratio that gives you more space for content, making it one of the best configurations for office use, graphic design, and entertainment.
It also features 400 nits of brightness, which is 33% more than most laptops; and an ultra-narrow 5.3mm bezel to deliver an immersive visual experience. As you can see, the laptop has a very slim profile – something that’s quite similar to how the MacBook Pro is designed. It uses an aluminum alloy body, coated in realme Blue colorway. The new laptop also comes in Silver colorway.
Get your dongles ready!
Its sleek appearance has some quirks though, which some users may either find cool or disappointing. The variant I’ve got has two Thunderbolt 4 USB Type C input that has a maximum data transfer rate of 40Gbps; 1 USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 and a 3.5mm Headphone and Microphone Jack.
With this setup, the dongle-game is quite serious. The first type-C port is already dedicated to charge the laptop, and you’re left with another one for peripherals. This means that you have to, at least, invest in a good quality USB-C hub like Belkin Multimedia Hub. As the laptop does not have an HDMI input, multimedia hubs would really help a lot!
Powered by Intel
Now, let’s talk about what’s under the hood! The realme Book is powered by an Intel Core i5-1135G7 2.4GHz processor with Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz and an intel Iris X Graphics. It is installed with 8GB Dual channel LPDDR4X RAM and has a partitioned 512GB PCIe SSD storage. Core configuration is impressive enough on a laptop with 54Wh battery and sleek form factor. While I won’t be covering benchmark results on this video, I am very excited to see how this will go toe to toe with other laptops in similar form factor and configuration.
In terms of network connectivity, the realme Book has Bluetooth 5.2 and an on-board Intel WiFi 6 6 AX201 160Mhz adapter. You can also feel pumped with its sound capabilities as well. It is equipped with Stereo Sound by DTS by Harman.
Battery Performance Expectations
While it is still too early to talk about battery performance, my initial experience was around 6 hours for light to moderate usage from a full battery charge. Fully charging the battery takes about 85 to 90 minutes. Charging load is faster on the first 30 minutes, and starts to slow down a bit in succeeding half.
Variants, Price and Availability
The new realme Book has two variants – an i3 and i5 variant. What I’ve got is an i5 variant. If you’re interested in getting either one of these laptops, the i3 version is PhP37,990 while the i5 version is PhP47,990.
Lazada and Silicon Valley have specific pre-order exclusives.
If you’re getting this via Lazada from September 24 to 29, the realme i3 variant will just be PhP29,990 – that’s an PhP8,000 discount; and the realme i5 variant will just be PhP41,990 – that’s a PhP6,000 discount.
If you’re buying one via Silicon Valley, both products are priced PHP37,990 and PhP47,990 respectively, but people who’ll pre-order from October 1 onwards will receive one-year Microsoft 365 subscription, realme laptop bag, and a mouse.
Catch our full coverage of realme Book on our website and social media channels. Our review will be out soon! Meanwhile, I highly encourage you to check our latest article about the first things we highly recommend that you do right after booting your brand new realme Book on this link.
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.
