Prolific smartphone newcomer Realme’s new phone is the X3 SuperZoom, and as you can tell from the name, the company is keen to muscle in on a trend toward cameras with impressive periscope zoom features. Impressive zoom isn’t the only flagship feature on the X3 SuperZoom. It’s packed full of tech, and all for the very reasonable price of 480 British pounds, or around $590.
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The design is similar to the Realme X50 Pro, and a little like the Realme X2 Pro, with a multiple-lens camera located in the top left of the rear panel. As seen here in a color called Arctic White, it takes on the cool, frosted look we’ve seen on the OnePlus 8 and the Huawei P40 Pro already this year. The main camera has 64 megapixels and can shoot at up to 60x zoom. Realme says this is a hybrid zoom, rather than a solely digital zoom, and it can also shoot at 2x, 5x, and 10x using quick-access buttons in the camera app.
Realme has added a Starry Mode, which shoots photos of the night sky, similar to the Astrophotography mode on the Google Pixel 4. It uses a combination of multiple exposures and clever artificial intelligence to brighten the stars and remove the star tracks, and can be used with both the main lens and the 5x periscope zoom. Other features include a manual Nightscape Pro mode, a tripod mode, and slow motion video.
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The selfie camera on the front has two sensors, a 32-megapixel main lens and a second 8-megapixel lens, enabling great-looking bokeh selfies, as well as a Night mode. Powering the phone is the excellent Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus processor, seen in some of the most impressive gaming phones available, including the Asus ROG Phone 2. It’s accompanied by a whopping 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage space.
On the front is a big LCD screen that comes with a 120Hz refresh rate, an extremely welcome feature at this price. Interestingly, it does not have a fingerprint sensor underneath, and the biometric sensor is instead set inside the power button on the side. The 4,200mAh battery charges in just under an hour, thanks to Realme’s fast-charging system, and there’s a liquid-cooling system inside to keep the whole device from getting too hot.
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Realme has its own user interface over the top of Android 10, although the style is close to the stock Android experience we see on the Google Pixel 4. There’s a lot to like about the Realme X3 SuperZoom, which seems to represent superb value for the money, given it has higher specifications than the more expensive OnePlus 8. The Realme X3 SuperZoom will launch on June 2 in the U.K. and be sold through Realme’s own website and through Amazon. Anyone in the U.S. who wants one will have to turn toward a friendly importer.