When new of the realme 9 Pro series broke out, I thought something was up. Why is there no vanilla realme 9? well, that has been answered just recently, as the brand announced a new pair of phones joining the realme 9 Pro and Pro+. Welcome, the realme 9 5G and the realme 9 SE, where SE stands for “Speed Edition.”
realme 9 5G
realme 9 5G boasts a 6.5-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD with a 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, and up to 600 nits of brightness. It’s powered by a Dimensity 810 SoC along with 4GB of LPDDR4X dual-channel RAM and 64GB of UFS 2.1 storage. the device runs realme UI 2.0 on top of Android 11.
realme 9 SE 5G
realme 9 SE 5G, on the other hand uses a 6.6-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD with a refresh rate of as low as 30Hz all the way up to 144Hz, a first in the price segment, according to the brand. You also get 240Hz touch sampling rate and the same 600 nits of peak brightness. For connectivity, it has Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.
Under the hood is a Snapdragon 778G 5G, the same SoC that powers the realme GT Master Edition, along with up to 8GB of LPDDR4x dual channel RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage. Both devices pack a 5,000mAh battery, with 18W fast-charging on the realme 9 5G and 30W for the realme 9 SE 5G.
Specifications
| realme 9 5G | realme 9 SE 5G | |
| Display | 6.5″ FHD+ IPS LCD | 6.6 FHD+ IPS LCD |
| 90Hz Refresh Rate | 144Hz Refresh Rate | |
| 180Hz Touch Sampling Rate | 240Hz Touch Sampling Rate | |
| Processor | Dimensity 810 | Snapdragon 778G 5G |
| RAM | 4GB/6GB LPDDR4X Dual-Channel | 6GB/8GB LPDDR4X Dual-Channel |
| Storage | 64GB/128GB UFS 2.1 | 128GB UFS 2.2 |
| Rear Camera | 48MP Main | 48MP Main |
| Macro Unit | Macro Unit | |
| Depth Sensor | Depth Sensor | |
| Video Recording | Up to 1080p 30fps | Up to 4K 30fps |
| Front Camera | 16MP | 16MP |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1 | Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 |
| OS | Android 11 + realme UI 2.0 | Android 11 + realme UI 2.0 |
| Battery | 5,000mAh | 5,000mAh |
| Fast-Charging | 18W | 30W |
Pricing
realme 9 SE 5G is priced at INR19,999 and INR22,999 for the 6GB/128GB and 8GB/128GB variants, respectively. realme 9 5G on the other hand, will retail for INR14,999 and INR17,499 for the 4GB/64GB and 6GB/128GB models, respectively.
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
