Realme Narzo 60 Pro Review: A masterpiece?

This review was written after analyzing its features as well as evaluating hands-on video reviews by trustworthy reviewers.

The first question we have asked is why would we choose the Realme Narzo 60 Pro 5G today to review out of a few hundred that we could review on this day? Let us give you some pinpoints:

• It’s one of the latest gadgets (first released mid-July 2023).
• The brand is Realme, one of the top five most popular mobile brands in Bangladesh.
• It’s already a popular phone.
• The Narzo series is well known in India and on the subcontinent.
• And finally, we somehow came to the conclusion to call it a masterpiece.

But in this review we’ll figure out together if it’s really a masterpiece or not, so stay with us.

Pricing

If you go to the Realme official website in India today on 5th November 2023, and click on the Buy Now option, the price of the 8/128 GB model is ₹20,999 (discounted price) which is roughly 27,800 Bangladeshi Taka. The initial release price was  ₹23,999 (about BDT 31,700) and it is sold in the unofficial Bangladesh market right now for around BDT 33,500. You might be from some other country than Bangladesh but our site is mainly based for the Bangladeshi consumers. So, please excuse that. So, broadly we’d say that the pricing looks fair and we are saying it after observing all of its aspects. There is no complaint about the price.

Design & Build

Here is where we got interested in the first place and we are principally talking about the design. We have already discussed in the highlights of the phone that its spacey vibe brings an unusual but exclusive and interesting vibe to it. You can feel that it’s very original. Realme advertised it with some Mars wallpapers, background and advertising campaigns. So, it could be that the design was also inspired by the surroundings of the planet Mars. There is a plastic back and vegan leather back model. We are more interested in the vegan or faux leather model and plastic at this price is a pure disadvantage. The circled camera layout, curved screen, 8.2 millimetres slimness, even the so-called Mars Orange and Cosmic Black colors, all fit well with the spacey Mars vibe. Now that’s creativity and they have done it quite professionally. The design gets A1 marks from us.

But the build quality disappointed us when we saw there is no water or dust resistance. Let’s take it since Mars has no water, so splash resistance is meaningless. But we bet there is dust and perhaps it’s full of dust. So, an IP53 or IP54 rating would have been favorable, especially if we check out the cost. Then we saw there was no Gorilla Glass but how could Realme miss a screen protection in such a gadget? So, we looked deeper, and we found out that they used a double reinforced glass, which is actually an additional layer that works similar to the Gorilla Glass. So, yes, the IP53/54 rating is missing but Realme still saved the day.

Display

The particular thing that caught our recognition about the screen is its color accuracy. This could be a combination of the chipset, processor, and the FHD+ resolution Super AMOLED technology. There is HDR0+ and 950 nits max. brightness. Yes, it’s also up to the mark with the pricing. Apart from that, the 6.7-inch size is considered big, which will provide an immersive view. There is 100% P3 Color Gamut and 1.07 Billion colors. It’s lovely.

Camera

The next big thing is the camera. There isn’t too much to mention about the 16 MP selfie camera. It serves natural looking shots with a fine amount of detail in good daylight conditions and is surely better than many phones that we checked out around this price. Video recording capability is standard 1080p@30fps.

Now let’s come to the 100+2 MP rear camera. The main 100 MP lens has an OmniVision B40 sensor and the 2 MP depth is a Galaxy Core M1 sensor. There is no ultrawide or macro lens. Some users may miss the ultrawide lens, but we don’t. It’s usually of much lower quality than the main lens unless we are dealing with premium flagship devices.

The daylight photo shots apparently stood out and there are plenty of reviews on YouTube for you to check out for yourself. It’s been a long time since we saw a handsome cam like this at a lower price. The colors, the details, the sharpness, the processing, all in good harmony, and the processing looks exceptional. We couldn’t compare it with other cameras. Still, they sort of upgraded the natural tone of the images. That’s what carried us the most about the quality. Even at night time, it’s reasonably okay. Although, don’t expect very favorable results at nighttime or in dark conditions. The video quality was also likeable, which is uncommon for us unless that’s a camera specific flagship. But we are viewing it in the light of its pricing, of course. There is up to 4K recording, and we got stability.

Battery

5000 mAh size is standard. But the battery performance also depends on the processor, chipset, software optimization and so on. It should provide you about a 7 hours screen on time for heavy usage and between one to one and a half day backup for regular usage. It supports 67W charging but Realme delivers an 80 charger, which doesn’t matter. You’ll still get maximum 67W power with that 80W charger. A full charge may take around 45 minutes to 1 hour. Altogether, no complaints in this section as well.

Performance

Well, a 6 nm MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chipset, how good is it? We got bad news. It scores 31* out 100 in Nanoreview gaming score. Now take the base version of Xiaomi Poco F5, priced very similar to this one right now, just a little higher, but it has a higher 256 GB ROM as well. Now, Poco F5’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 has a Nanoreview gaming score of 89* out of 100. What? 89? Precisely. But the Poco F5 is such an exceptionally high-mid range performance phone that you can’t really compare any smartphone with it. But still, the 31 score of Narzo 60 Pro is low, especially considering its few other premium features. You’d expect a gaming score around 45 to 50 at the bare minimum (*scores are calculated as of 5th November 2023 and are subject to change in the future).

However, the performance is still pretty smooth. If you want better, you can check out the 12 GB model instead of the 8 GB one. There is also virtual RAM which provides a little extra hand. Gaming is still smooth enough and any regular user wouldn’t complain about it. It’s just not made for long-term hardcore gamers. Android 13 version is installed, and it is supposed to receive 3 further upgrades and 4 years of security updates if it meets the requirements for the next Android OS upgrades. We’d say if you get it in 2023, you’ll be good for at least 3 to a maximum 4 years.

Other features

It has an in-display fingerprint sensor, impressive audio quality as some other noticeable features. There is up to 1 TB internal storage option, but there is no external memory card slot. A 3.5mm jack is also missing as expected.

So, what do you think? Is Realme Narzo 60 Pro 5G a masterpiece in your assessment? As a performance lover, we’d skip this phone without a second thought. But if you are not a dedicated gamer or do not perform other graphics intensive tasks such as video editing, etc., this one right here is a true winner. If you are on a lower budget, you may check out the Realme Narzo 60 5G which looks and feels very similar to the Pro model.