Realme 5 series is official now, and the first-ever budget quad-camera smartphones are here. Both Realme 5 and 5 Pro are trending in the country since a few weeks, and they now seem to be taking it all over. The budget flagship Realme 5 Pro camera system was compared to the new Redmi K20 flagship, which costs Rs 8,000 more than it.
So, can Realme 5 Pro beat Redmi K20 for real? We find out.
While the company surely did compare Realme 5 Pro to Redmi K20 to distinguish between the camera capabilities, today we are comparing these two smartphones to know if Realme 5 Pro actually has it in itself. Realme 5 and Realme 5 Pro are currently the most affordable quad-camera smartphones in the world.
Here’s our in-depth comparison between Realme 5 Pro and Redmi K20.
Contents
Build & Design: Plastic vs Glass
The Realme 5 Pro comes with a high-quality polycarbonate body. It’s plastic, but does feel premium. The high-quality polycarbonate built is backed by some of the striking gradient colour schemes made to look like glass. There’s a rear mounted fingerprint sensor. The colour mixes are stylish, but a glass body would have been better.
Realme 5 Pro has been launched in two colour options: Crystal Green and Crystal Blue.
Coming to Redmi K20, the smartphone comes with a mix of glass and metal with a 3D gradient finish at the back with curved sides at back for firm gripping. The Redmi mid-range flagship has a pop-up sensor and an in-display fingerprint sensor.
On the other hand, plastic means its more durable. Glass will hardly survive accidental falls, while Realme 5 Pro would have some advantage here against Redmi K20. It’s glossy on the out. The company packs in a good-durable TPU case. Use it to stay away from fingerprints and smudges.
Realme has used a new design this time called ‘Crystal design’ with 3D curved glossy plastic rear panels. The diamond-cut design is back, and this time with a new triangular pattern. A slight upgrade over the older Realme devices, the new Realme 5 smartphones are a bit different.
Anyway, plastic is plastic, and glass is glass. In the same range there’s Redmi Note 7 Pro with a glass body, so can’t complain. In terms of looks and build quality, Realme 5 Pro does an average job here, but Redmi K20 wins here straight. In all, it’s good and feels good to be used. The overall ergonomics are perfect, while the new 3D built curves make it really easy to hold.
AMOLED vs Full HD+ Display: Notch Or Pop-Up Sensor?
Realme 5 Pro features a 6.3-inch Full HD+ Mini-Drop display with 450 nits brightness and Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It offers a screen-to-body ratio of 90.77 percent with a screen resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels with a new smaller-sized V-shaped notch to offer a full-screen display.
The display has very thin bezels. Realme has done a great job in terms of the overall screen experience. It’s also an apt choice for content consumption.
The company unveiled new Mini-Drop panels with Realme 5 smartphones.
Redmi K20 features a 6.39-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display without any notch in a 19.5:9 aspect ratio with 600 nits of maximum brightness with support for HDR content. It’s a full-scale panoramic display with a thin chin down under.
Both displays are quite vibrant with minimal bezels on the sides with a little chin down under, but the AMOLED would be our pick. There’s no difference, and you won’t notice anything unless you dive deep. K20 has an in-display optical fingerprint scanner, while 5 Pro has a physical scanner. Many prefer it, but again we would embrace the latest screen embedded fingerprint unlocking technology.
Realme 5 Pro and Redmi K20 both share a similar screen resolution of 2340×1080 pixels with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection on top.
The Realme 5 Pro display this time has a 30 percent smaller notch compared to the previous generation Realme devices. The curved, droplet notch is smaller this time with Realme 5 devices. It has turned flatter compared to past dewdrop displays on Realme smartphones. At the back, Realme 5 Pro has a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and also supports face unlock.
Hardware & Storage: Who Wins In Gaming?
Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 chipset has been used for Realme 5 Pro. It’s the second smartphone in the country to use the new Qualcomm chip after Vivo Z1 Pro. Based on an 10nm architecture, it couples with Adreno 616 GPU. Snapdragon 712 is almost 10 per cent faster than Snapdragon 710 chip.
It offers 45 per cent better graphical performance and 2 times better AI performance, helping the Realme smartphone deliver around 25 percent better overall performance.
Redmi K20 comes with the newly launched Snapdragon 730 chipset with up to 8GB of RAM. It is closer to the previous flagship Snapdragon 835 chip in terms of performance.
Both the smartphones share the same Adreno 616 GPU for graphics.
In terms of daily performance, both Realme 5 Pro and Redmi K20 can run almost all tasks and mid-end games without any hiccups. There won’t be any noticeable difference in daily use given the memory-heavy apps and social media.
It does a great job when it comes to extended gaming and extensive multitasking. There are three models to choose from: 4GB RAM with 64GB storage, 6GB RAM with 64GB storage and 6GB RAM with 128GB storage.
Redmi K20 come in two configurations: 6GB RAM with 64GB storage and 8GB RAM with 128GB storage. Realme 5 Pro comes with a dedicated triple card slot that can support two nano SIM cards and a microSD card (up to 256GB of additional storage).
Realme packs in dedicated HyperBoost and GameBoost to offer an enhanced gaming experience.
Similarly, Xiaomi has added an 8 layer liquid cooling system to keep the phone cool during extended gaming sessions. There’s also a three dimension double-sided cooling graphite architecture with special Game Turbo 2.0 mode to optimize the smartphone for gaming.
On paper, Redmi K20 will have a definite advantage over Realme 5 Pro with added features and an improved chip. But there won’t be any big difference given day to day performance, but if both go heads up straight, Redmi K20 has an edge here over the newly launched Realme 5 Pro.
Software: Color OS vs MIUI
Realme 5 Pro runs on the same new Color OS 6 UI. The newly improved UI does offer some refreshing features compared to the previous OS with an easy-to-use overall structure and few tweaks. It’s a big upgrade over the last generation Color OS. You can notice the differences in the notification toggle and some changes in the settings menu.
Based on the latest Android 9 Pie, the new ColorOS 6 UI packs in a bunch of user-friendly features and functions.
On the other hand, Redmi K20 comes with the latest MIUI 10 based on the same Android 9 Pie. The smartphone also has priority access to the Android Q beta program, unlike Realme 5 Pro.
But again, the MIUI is loaded with irritating system and in-mobile ads. Though, Redmi K20 doesn’t come with in-system ads, but the notification ads are there. Both the companies have added a ton of features in their latest edition of the software, and it does look fresh and sorted.
Realme is reportedly working on its own UI, RealmeOS. It’s supposed to launch by the end of the year, and will be pushed to all the existing Realme smartphones via OTA updates. Though the company didn’t mention anything about RealmeOS at the Realme 5 series launch event, we need to wait to know further about the actual developments.
48MP Quad Camera vs 48MP Triple Camera: Who Got The Edge?
Realme 5 Pro features a rear four camera system. Realme 5 Pro is the first 48MP quad camera phone under Rs 15,000. Realme 5 Pro sports a 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor, an 8-megapixel 119-degree ultra wide-angle camera, 2-megapixel macro lens and 2-megapixel depth sensor.
Up front, Realme 5 Pro has the same 16-megapixel selfie camera with HDR and AI beautification as Realme X.
The selfies we took had a lot of details and it supports multiple shooting modes and filters to enhance selfies. The AI-powered modes do a good job in terms of capturing details. The colours were a bit overdone and slightly artificial, but in overall, the front camera does a good job, be it wide shots or low light shots.
The four camera setup has multiple sensors for multiple purposes.
Both the rear and front camera on both the Realme 5 smartphones have EIS support, while the much-hyped Nightscape mode also has been improved.
Redmi K20 has the 48MP Sony IMX 582 (not the IMX 586) camera as the primary lens with an f/1.75 aperture coupled with an 8MP telephoto secondary sensor with an f/2.4 aperture and a tertiary 13MP wide-angle sensor with an f/2.5 aperture and a 124.8-degree field of view. Redmi K20 has a 20MP sensor inside the pop-up machine supporting wide-angle shots
Realme 5 Pro can take good detailed and sharp pictures in bright light with accurate colours. In poorly lit conditions, Realme 5 Pro manages to click decent photos with almost accurate details and colours. We are yet to test the camera in-depth, but the initial results are very impressive.
The dynamic range is good and it captures quite accurate details and produce good colours.
Redmi K20 do a fair job as well offering a great dynamic range with almost accurate colours irrespective of lighting conditions. Both support Google Camera and has a dedicated Night Mode for long-exposed shots.
Redmi K20 with an additional ultra wide lens, while Realme 5 Pro has different sensors to improve the overall photography. The difference between the 48MP Sony IMX586 and IMX582 isn’t much significant, as the IMX582 only can’t shoot videos at 4K 30fps. The video quality of Realme 5 Pro on 4K 30fps is no good either. Rather the use of EIS does improve videography at 1080p resolution producing quite stable videos.
The HDR works fine on Realme 5 Pro, and the 8MP ultra-wide lens work great. It loses out on details in low-light, but does a good job overall. The boosted colours remain a problem for Realme smartphones, but they are working on the image processing to provide more natural colours.
The macro lens and portrait sensor does their job decently. Redmi K20 has no such 4cm macro lens. It’s a 2MP sensor on Realme 5 Pro, but it does capture the right depth of field.
Realme 5 Pro certainly has an edge here in terms of photography. If you would love to experiment with some professional-level mobile photography, the new Realme phone should be your key driver. No need to spend a bomb on premium smartphones.
The stock camera interface is quite minimal on both, and it’s loaded with AI-powered modes to enhance the overall photography. AI works on both sides to adjust to the particular lighting and adjust the filters. In all, all thee three do good and make use of their respective lenses to take up some great shots.
Battery: Qualcomm QC 3.0 18W vs 20W VOOC 3.0 Fast Charging
Realme 5 Pro houses a big 4,035mAh battery. Compared to Realme 5, it’s slightly smaller, but the smartphone supports VOOC 3.0 fast charging with a Type C 20W fast charger included in the box. Realme 5 Pro can charge up the whole device under 80 minutes from 5 to 100 percent.
Coming to how it performs, the Realme 5 Pro can easily last more than a day on heavy usage, and even a day and a half on moderate use.
With continuous video playback, gaming and performing multi-tasking processes, the Realme smartphone can easily shoot up for a whole day without being charged.
Redmi K20 houses a similarly-sized 4,000 mAh battery backed by AI smart optimization to extend the phone’s battery to last longer supporting 18W fast charging technology. The charge time may vary from 90 to 100 minutes.
Both the smartphones ship with the respective 20W and 18W fast chargers inside the box.
Pricing: Winning Big Here?
Realme 5 Pro in India starts at Rs 13,999 for the base model with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. There are two other models with 6GB RAM and 64GB, and a top model with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage priced at Rs 14,999 and Rs 16,999 respectively. It’s way cheaper than Redmi K20, but it does challenge up the mid-range device in a number of departments.
Realme 5 Pro will be available in two colour options: Crystal Green and Sparkling Blue colours via Flipkart and Realme.com from September 4, and offline later.
Talking about the price, the company has done a great job again.
The regular Redmi K20 is available in two different storage options. The device starts at Rs 21,999 in the country. The Redmi K20 base model will be available with 6GB RAM and 64GB at Rs 21,999. The top model, on the other hand will come with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage at Rs 23,999.
Realme 5 Pro packs in the right set of features at this price. With top competitors in the space as Redmi Note 7 Pro, Poco F1 or Vivo Z1 Pro, this new Realme smartphone obviously has some of its own unique features to stand out high. Redmi K20 definitely is a lot priced higher, and can’t stand against Realme 5 Pro if you consider value for money proposition.
Verdict: Does Realme 5 Pro Beat Redmi K20?
Backed by flagship-level features and specs, Redmi K20 seems to have everything to offer for all. More interestingly, the devices come with the features you would like have to have on a flagship. But the pricing remains a big bummer for many, and can be a deal-breaker for people who are looking to buy a good mid-range smartphone.
If we go head go head, Redmi K20 has slightly a few better features compared to Realme 5 Pro, but again, they are poles apart given the base price.
To be honest, Realme 5 Pro does offer some excellent features onboard at a very affordable price.
The budget-friendly quad camera smartphone does make a good choice considering some of the departments as performance, price, cameras, display and battery.
In all, Realme 5 Pro packs in a solid performance backed by a good processor, bigger display, a large battery and finally the four cameras for different occasions with the 48MP lens backing it up. Redmi K20 is no bad, but paying 22,000 for the smartphone doesn’t make a lot of sense.
If you need a AMOLED panel, pop-up sensor and notchless display with an in-display fingerprint sensor not they lose to Realme 5 Pro directly, but the new Realme smartphone has a few better features if compared heads on.
With the new quad camera smartphone technology at a budget price, Realme 5 Pro will have a heads up against the competition.
Given the price to performance ratio, Realme 5 Pro offer good value for money proposition at this range.
In all, Realme 5 Pro ticks all the boxes right. It packs in a solid performance backed by a really good processor, bigger display, the brand new quad camera technology powered by the 48MP sensor, larger battery and 20W fast charging support.
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