The realme X3 SuperZoom takes a picture of the night sky using its Starry Night feature.
The realme X3 SuperZoom is a flagship-class smartphone with a relatively affordable price tag of ₱24,990 when most flagship smartphones now cost more than ₱40,000.
I have been using this device for one month and here is my full review. It includes my observations of its design, camera quality with sample pictures, gaming performance tests, battery life tests, and more.
The back cover design of the realme X3 SuperZoom.
The realme X3 SuperZoom uses an anti-glare and anti-fingerprint glass with slightly curved edges for its back cover. Its curved surface makes it more comfortable to hold while the frosted glass-like texture makes it less prone to smudges.
Its vertically-stacked rear cameras sit in a protruding camera module keeping the device from lying flat on a tabletop.
Ports at the bottom of the realme X3 SuperZoom.
The power button with an embedded fingerprint scanner is on the right side of the device while the volume buttons are on the other side. Meanwhile, the SIM card tray, microphone, USB Type-C port, and loudspeaker are all at the bottom. Another microphone is on the top.
It doesn’t really give me a premium vibe though. Perhaps this is because it uses a flat display instead of a curved one? Anyway, performance and camera quality are more important.
The screen of the realme X3 SuperZoom.
On the front of the realme X3 SuperZoom is a 6.6-inch FHD+ display with dual punch-hole for the selfie cameras, 120Hz refresh rate, and scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 5 protective layer.
It looks sharp and color-accurate. However, it’s not that bright by default and I constantly have to adjust the brightness slider. Even then, the screen still looks dim under direct sunlight.
Temple Run 2 running at 120 FPS on the realme X3 SuperZoom.
The best feature of the display is its 120HZ screen refresh rate which is twice the usual 60Hz refresh rate of other smartphones. This makes the animations and transitions look smoother and snappier.
It makes one of the biggest differences between a budget and a flagship smartphone.
However, this feature also consumes more battery power. Thankfully, there’s an option in the settings to let the device enable and disable the feature automatically.
Graphics settings of Call of Duty Mobile on the realme X3 SuperZoom.
Instead of the newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, the realme X3 SuperZoom uses the Snapdragon 855+ which was released last year. Nevertheless, it’s still one of the most powerful chipsets right now and comes at a reasonable price.
This is paired with a whopping 12GB of RAM! That’s why I expected the device to have an impressive gaming performance and I wasn’t disappointed at all.
| Smartphone | Average Frame Rate in NBA 2K20 | |
|---|---|---|
| realme X3 SuperZoom | 89 fps | |
| realme 6 Pro | 65 fps | |
| OPPO Reno2 | 51 fps | |
| OPPO A9 2020 | 27 fps | |
It achieved average frame rates of 60 FPS on Mobile Legends and Call of Duty, 59 FPS on PUBG Mobile, 89 FPS on NBA 2K20, and 119 FPS on Temple Run 2. The first three games only support up to 60 FPS while NBA 2K20 supports up to 90 FPS and Temple Run 2 is one of the very few games that can run at 120 FPS.
Here’s a separate article about the gaming performance of the realme X3 SuperZoom.
When it comes to general performance, the device also impresses with lag-free experience. Apps open quickly and scrolling through newsfeeds and websites feels very, very smooth.
Using the realme X3 SuperZoom is virtually lag-free!
Camera UI of the realme X3 SuperZoom.
For photography, the realme X3 SuperZoom has a quad rear camera setup composed of a high resolution 64 Megapixel main camera, 8 Megapixel periscope telephoto camera, 8 Megapixel ultra-wide camera, and 2 Megapixel macro camera.
It comes with several special features including a 5x optical zoom from its periscope camera, 60x digital zoom, 4K 60 fps video recording, Ultra Steady Max video stabilization, and Starry Night mode for capturing the night sky.
Here are some sample pictures I took using the realme X3 SuperZoom:
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (pineapple statue, normal).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (realme Watch, normal).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (church, normal).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (church, ultra-wide).
realme Z3 SuperZoom sample picture (boat, 1x zoom).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (boat, 2x zoom).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (boat, 5x zoom).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (boat, 10x zoom).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (boat, 60x zoom).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (moon, 60x zoom).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (fountain, low light).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (fountain, Night mode).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (stars & planets, Starry Night mode).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (Milky Way, Starry Night mode).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (Comet Neowise, Starry Night mode).
realme X3 SuperZoom sample picture (Comet Neowise, Starry Night mode, 100% crop).
The realme X3 SuperZoom produces great-looking pictures both in well-lit and poorly-lit scenes. Its dynamic range is good, sharpness is on-point, and colors look good albeit with a slight yellowish tint in some pictures.
Its ultra-wide camera also captures decent-looking pictures but not as sharp nor as vibrant as the main camera.
On the other hand, the periscope telephoto camera captures the perfect colors and successfully preserve great details up to 5x zoom. Higher zoom levels already have artifacts and less sharpness.
What really impressed me with the realme X3 SuperZoom’s cameras is its low-light performance. Even without using the dedicated night mode, low light shots already look good. Enabling night mode makes it impressive and the new Starry Night mode produces good-looking pictures of the night sky.
I tried taking a picture of comet Neowise for several nights but the one above is the best I could get due to the bad weather in our area. It’s still impressive for a smartphone camera!
Meanwhile, the main selfie camera takes good-looking selfies and the secondary selfie camera has a similar quality but captures a wider scene. The skin tone looks accurate and facial details are sharp.
The selfie cameras are limited to 1080p video recording while the rear cameras can record up to 4K resolution videos at 60 frames per second with stabilization when dropped to 1080p.
Videos look sharp, bright, and vibrant with good stabilization when the Ultra Steady feature is turned on. The autofocus transition is smooth too. It’s a good smartphone for vlogging and content creation.
SIM card tray of the realme X3 SuperZoom.
The realme X3 SuperZoom is a dual-SIM smartphone with 4G LTE connectivity. It can provide a speedy mobile internet connection as long as there’s a decent 4G LTE signal in the area.
It also has NFC support, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, and dual-band GPS.
Voice calls sound loud and clear on the phone’s earpiece. However, its loudspeaker sounds tinny and doesn’t get very loud. It doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio jack so the user needs a USB Type-C adaptor or wireless earphones.
There are two biometric unlocking methods on the realme X3 SuperZoom – a fingerprint scanner and face recognition.
The fingerprint scanner is embedded in the power button. It’s quick and reliable with 10/10 successful fingerprint unlocks.
On the other hand, its face recognition feature only uses the front camera which means it’s inherently less secure. I wasn’t able to use it often because pressing the power button automatically identifies the fingerprint before the face recognition kicks in.
Battery Life Test score of the realme X3 SuperZoom.
A 120Hz screen refresh rate consumes more battery power than regular 60Hz screens. Thankfully, the battery life of the realme X3 SuperZoom is still impressive.
Its 4,200mAh battery usually lasts more than a day on my normal usage. It scored 14 hours and 37 minutes on PCMark Battery Life Test 2.0. The test was done with airplane mode turned on and the screen brightness set at 50%.
Meanwhile, re-charging the device from 0% to 100% battery capacity takes a little less than 1 hour only. This is true when using the original charger which has a 5V/6A or 30W output.
realme X3 SuperZoom box.
The realme X3 SuperZoom is a great smartphone with flagship-level specs at around half the price (₱24,990 at launch) of more mainstream flagship smartphones.
It has very capable cameras with interesting special features, powerful specs for gaming despite not using the latest chipset from Qualcomm, smooth user experience thanks to the high screen refresh rate, and a long-lasting battery. This smartphone gets two thumbs up from me!
The only issue I have with the device is the non-AMOLED display. There are several alternative smartphones with AMOLED displays at this price range but none offers a high screen refresh rate yet.
