realme 11x 5G Review: Budget 5G Phone with a Great Camera

September 12, 2023, 12:12 PM
by Shahriar Rabab

UNB News
Publish- September 12, 2023, 12:12 PM
Shahriar Rabab
Update- October 03, 2023, 10:08 AM

realme 11x 5G

realme has made its name in the East Asian market as one of the go-to budget and mid-range smartphone brands. The company has maintained its value-for-money proposition and always brought something unique for the users. In line with their innovative lineup, realme recently launched the 11x 5G in India on 30th August 2023. The device brings a revamped design with a new processor. Let’s have a detailed look at realme 11x 5G and see what else has changed from the previous iteration.

Key Specifications of realme 11x 5G

Design and Build Quality

realme launched the 11 and 11x as the direct successor to their highly popular realme 10. It seems this year, the brand is trying to bring unison in all their lineups ranging from the GT, Narzo as well as the C series. The overarching design element brings a flat design which realme is calling their S-curve Gradient Design with a large camera housing on the back.

The 11x comes with a plastic back, aluminum frame, and glass front protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The back panel has a distinct refractive frosted finish that gives it a glass-like look. From the looks of it, the device exudes premium quality all around. There’s nothing to worry about accidental smudges or scratches as the device comes with a clear case on the box.

The dimension of the 11x is 165.7 x 76 x 7.89 mm and the weight is 190 gm. All the ports and buttons are standard on the 11x with the power button which doubles as the physical fingerprint scanner, volume rocker, Type-C charging port, and the ever-important headphone jack. There’s a dedicated slot for the micro SDXC which is another useful addition as the user can now have dual stand-by sims.

Overall the design and the build quality of the 11x is impressive. It doesn’t quite feel like a sub-250 USD device by the looks and that’s probably one of its strong suits.

The Display

The display on the realme 11x is an IPS LCD one with 6 level refresh rate. The choice of an LCD panel might be a deterrent for many but the panel itself doesn’t fall very short of AMOLED competitors. The 6.72-inch Dynamic Ultra Smooth panel has an FHD+ resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels. This brings the pixel density on the 20:9 aspect ratio to 392 ppi. As the specs suggest, the panel is a sharp and crisp one that will suffice for most users.

Additionally, the display has a 120 Hz refresh rate, 550 nits of typical brightness, and 680 nits of HBM. The HBM allows for perfect legibility under direct sunlight even though it is an LCD panel. Like other entry-level budget smartphones, the display unfortunately doesn’t have a symmetrical design. The lower chin reduces the screen-to-body ratio to 86.6%. Regardless, it doesn’t look out of place thanks to the sleek colors and the updated center punch hole design.

Overall, the display won’t compete with an AMOLED panel. But in effect, users would be hard-pressed to find faults or lacking in day-to-day use.

The Camera

The large circular camera housing on the back holds the dual sensors of the 11x. The sensors and the LED flashlight have been placed in such a way that it looks like an emoji face up close. The main sensor is a 64 MP f/1.79 wide-angle shooter with 25.1 mm focal length. The supporting sensor is a 2 MP depth sensor which aids in portrait shots.

Smartphones under 250 USD these days tend to skip the ultrawide shooter in favor of an “unnecessary” depth/portrait sensor. While on paper the 11x is a dual camera device, in effect, users will be using the single main sensor only.

Coming to the picture quality, the performance of the main sensor in daylight was excellent. There was decent clarity in each frame with good dynamic range and details. The edge detection was also pretty good. However, pictures taken in portrait mode sometimes appeared to be a bit softer than the standard 1x shots. But in most cases, the camera did an excellent job of capturing perfect daylight pictures.

The picture quality also maintains consistency in low light or artificial lighting conditions. The camera captures the exposures well depending on the lighting scenario. There were not any noticeable grains or softness except for photos taken in extreme dark conditions.

The front camera is an 8 MP AI shooter with an f/2.05 aperture. It produces passable results for social media and casual selfies, nothing beyond that.

The videography on the realme 11x is limited to 1080P at 30 fps. realme could’ve easily pushed the videography to at least up to 4K. But the lack of EIS or OIS somewhat ties down the prospect of stable higher-resolution videos.

Overall, the camera is easily the star of the device here as it packs a punch above the rest in its price range.

Processor and Performance

The realme 11x boasts an all-new chipset from MediaTek. The Dimensity 6100+ based on the 6 Nm architecture is the latest lower mid-range processor from MediaTek which they introduced in their flagship Dimensity lineup.

It’s like how Snapdragon moved to the 7 Gen series to streamline its processors. In comparison, the Dimensity 6100+ can be considered slightly below the Snapdragon 695 and slightly above the Snapdragon 680.

The octa-core processor has 2 2.2 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 chip design with Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. The performance of the processor was just as expected from an entry-level or lower mid-range processor. It's hard to categorize the processor in a single group as the performance level is thinning at each level with each new processor iteration.

The processor performed well in 3D titles like Genshin Impact, PUBG, COD, and Asphalt 9. Genshin Impact and PUBG were producing constant frames in mid-settings. A higher setting caused occasional frame drops here and there. But for day-to-day casual use, the device breezes through everything much in part due to the smooth animations and the 120 Hz display. The 6/8 GB of onboard RAM can be coupled with another 8GB of dynamic RAM converted from the ROM space.

The processor is coupled with the realme UI 4.0 based on Android 13. The UI has its share of bloatware but they can always be uninstalled at the user’s discretion. Overall, the performance of the device is exactly what you’d expect from a utilitarian smartphone.

Battery and Charge Time

The realme 11x has a 4880 mAh battery on board. The battery is coupled with 33W SUPERVOOC charging. It can take the device from 1 to 50% in just 29 minutes. In the test, the device was consistently churning out around 6 to 7 hours of SoT with normal use.

Pros and Cons of realme 11x

Pros:

· Sleek design

· Great battery

· Decent display

· Refreshing design

· Fast charging

· Dedicated microSD slot

Cons:

· Limited video quality

· Bloatware in UI.

Price of realme 11X

The realme 11x is available in two variants – the 6/128 GB one and an 8/128 GB one. The base variant comes in at 14,999 INR whereas the 8/128 GB comes in at 15,999 INR. The price roughly translates to about 19,822 BDT and 21,143 BDT respectively. However, due to tax and other issues the price may differ once it becomes officially available in Bangladesh.

Verdict

The realme 11x is another budget-friendly smartphone aimed at budget buyers. The device brings a great battery, excellent camera, a capable processor, and a revamped design that looks premium and sleek beyond its price point.

On the flip side, the video performance could’ve been a bit better considering the 64 MP main shooter on board.

So who is this device for? The device is aimed at anyone looking for a device that brings an amalgamation of performance and price. The realme 11x 5G is not a high-performance device by any means, but it can be a good choice as a daily driver smartphone.