Realme 9 Pro series now official with colour-shifting body and flagship-class 50MP main camera

So far, only the Realme 9i has officially been launched in Malaysia, but from previous teasers we already know that Realme will also be launching the Realme 9 Pro and Realme 9 Pro+ soon. However, we don’t have to wait till it officially launches to take a look at it, as it’s already launched earlier this week in India.

Realme 9 Pro+ specs

The Realme 9 Pro+ packs a reasonably sized 6.4-inch, FHD+ AMOLED display capable of reaching a refresh rate of 90Hz and has a touch sampling rate of 360Hz. You’ll also find a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 over it for some scratch resistance too. All of that is housed in a body that, on the Sunrise Blue colourway, has a layer of photochromic material. This means that when exposed to sunlight or UV light, it’ll change from blue to a reddish pink. It’s a pretty cool party trick, but I personally don’t see it as anything more than a gimmick.

Under the hood, the Realme 9 Pro+ comes with a MediaTek Dimensity 920 system-on-chip, which is a fairly upper mid-range chip comparable to something like Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G. This gets mated to up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. It will come with Android 12 out of the box via the Realme Ui 3.0 skin.

Where the Realme 9 Pro+ does shine though is in the camera department. It has a triple rear camera setup on the back of the device, with a 50MP, f/1.8 main camera using the Sony IMX766 sensor. That particular sensor is pretty solid, having been used on other flagship smartphones such as the OnePlus 9 Pro, Oppo Find X3 Pro and even the recently launched Xiaomi 12. That gets flanked by an 8MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide angle lens and a 2MP, f/2.4 macro lens. The front camera meanwhile is a 16MP, f/2.4 shooter for selfies.

Other features of note includes a 4,500mAh battery with 60W SuperDart fast charging, with Realme claiming that you’ll be able to achieve a full charge on it in just 45 minutes. There’s also an under-display fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos and a 3.5mm headphone jack too. As for connectivity, there’s WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 as well as 5G support. They come in the colour changing Sunrise Blue or the more conventional Midnight Black and Aurora Green.

As for pricing and availability, the Realme 9 Pro+ starts at INR24,999 (~RM1,401.17) for the base model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while for INR26,999 (~RM1,513.27) you can bump up the memory to 8GB. The most expensive model meanwhile costs INR28,999 (~RM1,625.37) for 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It’s not available in Malaysia just yet though, but we expect it to launch in the coming weeks.

Realme 9 Pro specs

The Realme 9 Pro may technically be positioned below the Realme 9 Pro+ in the product stack, but you might not have been able to tell at first glance as it has a larger 6.6-inch, FHD+ display that’s capable of reaching a higher 120Hz refresh rate. However, this larger display is using an LCD panel rather than AMOLED, and has a lower 240Hz touch sampling rate.

Powering the Realme 9 Pro is the mid-range class Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 system-on-chip. This gets mated to up to 8GB of RAM and just a single storage option of 128GB. Just like the Realme 9 Pro+, the Realme 9 Pro will also come with Android 12 out of the box via the Realme UI 3.0 skin. It also has a 5,000mAh battery with 33W Dart Charge fast charging keeping the lights on.

The Realme 9 Pro has a triple rear camera setup too, but the main camera has been swapped for a 64MP, f/1.79 shooter. This gets flanked by an 8MP ultra-wide angle lens and a 2MP macro lens. You’ll also find a 16MP front facing camera for all your selfie needs.

It does have a 3/5mm headphone jack, and you’d likely want to use it too as it only comes with a mono speaker. The fingerprint sensor has also been moved to the side rather than under the display, likely due to it using an LCD panel rather than AMOLED. The Realme 9 Pro is still 5G capable though thanks to the Snapdragon 695 chip, but you’re limited to just WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1 here.

The Realme 9 Pro is priced at INR17,999 (~RM1,008.83) for the base model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while for INR20,999 (~RM1,176.98) you’ll get the higher spec model with 8GB of RAM. Looking at the price and specs in the Realme 9 Pro, it seems to be positioned as a direct rival against the Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G. Just like the Realme 9 Pro+, it’s not available here just yet, but we expect Realme Malaysia to bring them here soon enough.