Realme has only been around for a couple of years, but this Chinese upstart has been prolific in creating a diverse range of Android smartphones that offer unique features at competitive prices.
While the connection isn’t as immediately apparent as, say, Honor’s ties to Huawei or Motorola’s ties to Lenovo, Realme operates as an affiliate of Chinese tech giant Oppo, and as such, can leverage a lot of the company’s engineering and distribution infrastructure.
It’s probably what’s allowed the brand to build and release as many phones as it has in such a short time and helped it find a foothold in fiercely competitive markets, such as India.
Like Oppo itself, Realme has more recently pushed into Europe and has expanded its product portfolio beyond just phones, to include offerings like true wireless headphones and smartwatches as well.
Realme phones all offer a compelling price/performance balance, usually focussing on folding one or two premium features that you wouldn’t expect to find in a device as affordable as Realme’s respective wares.
Here, we cherry-pick the best that the company has to offer, spanning the super-affordable to the cut-price flagship.
Best Realme phones 2020
1. Realme X50 Pro
Realme’s first 5G flagship (and second-ever flagship phone) is an impressively affordable device that doesn’t skimp on high-end specs and features.
The Realme X50 Pro forgoes aspects like IP water resistance and a thin body, but in return sports the latest and greatest Snapdragon 865 chipset, 5G, up to 12GB of RAM, fast UFS 3.0 storage and insane 65W ‘SuperDart’ fast charging, which delivers 60% charge in just 15 minutes and a full charge in only 35.
Best of all, with an initial starting price of £569, the X50 Pro costs nearly half that of most top-tier Android flagships on the market in 2020.
Read our full Realme X50 Pro review
2. Realme 7
The Realme 7 isn’t the best budget phone around right now, but it’s pretty darn close. It looks great, runs fast, and packs a 90Hz display for an astoundingly low price.
Provided you swing for more memory than the base 4GB, the 7 offers up strong performance, packed into an attractive design at an affordable price.
The cameras could be better too, but beyond that, there’s not much to complain about here.
Read our full Realme 7 review
3. Realme X3 SuperZoom
It’s hard to consider the Realme X3 SuperZoom without also taking into account the OnePlus 7T.
The OnePlus costs the same and offers a more premium design and user experience, while the Realme wins out with extra memory, an even higher 120Hz refresh-rate display and an impressively versatile camera that you don’t find at this price point.
Read our full Realme X3 SuperZoom review
4. Realme 6
While it may have been superseded by the Realme 7, the Realme 6 is still one of the best budget phones on the market.
It’s slightly chunky size won’t be for everyone aside from its successor you’ll struggle to find a 90Hz display at this price, not to mention it also comes with decent cameras, speedy performance and solid battery life.
There’s very little to dislike, especially when you can now get it for even less than its already competitive RRP.
Read our full Realme 6 review
5. Realme X2 Pro
Although it may sound cliché, Realme is trying to redefine the mid-range phone market with phones like the X2 Pro, offering an unprecedented level of performance that will only be surpassed by much more expensive handsets.
We especially like the variety of models and configurations to choose from, something which means you can get a 90Hz screen for under £400. For this and many other reasons which are outlined below, this phone is easy to recommend.
Read our full Realme X2 Pro review
6. Realme 6 Pro
The Realme 6 Pro is an incredible smartphone at an attractive price – it’s one of the cheapest in our chart right now. The 90Hz refresh rate is very much the star of the show – to see it on such a budget-friendly option is surprising, and helps provide the premium experience on offer.
It sports a cool light-refracting rear that shimmers in the shape of a thunder bolt, it runs smoothly and the six cameras split across the front and rear are more than enough for the everyday consumer, even if the lens performance does vary. Throw in features like a side-mounted fingerprint reader, 30W VOOC 4.0 fast charging that provides around 65 percent battery in half an hour and the latest connectivity options – bar 5G – and you’ve got a great smartphone at a fraction of the cost of a 2020 flagship.
The issue is that it’s very similar to the £219 Realme 6 with what we’d consider minimal upgrades, so if you want to save even more and can live without a camera lens or two, it’s a solid alternative.
Read our full Realme 6 Pro review
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