Realme Narzo 70 Pro 5G Review: Best Camera Phone Under Rs. 20,000?

When Realme first launched the Narzo series in 2020, its primary target was budget-conscious online consumers wanting the best value for their money. Fast-forward to 2024, and the company has recently unveiled the latest iteration, the Realme Narzo 70 Pro 5G. While the device uses the same processor as its predecessor, has Realme once again claimed the title of the sub-20K king of 2024, or have iQOO and Lava seized the throne? Let’s find out with the Realme Narzo 70 Pro 5G review.

Realme Narzo 70 Pro 5G Review: Design and Hardware

When we first unboxed the Narzo 70 Pro 5G, the back design immediately caught our attention. Instead of opting for a regular back panel, Realme put a lot of thought and effort into making it unique. While this design may not appeal to everyone, especially in the golden color variant, the green option looks neat and aesthetic. However, it is important to note that the dual-tone back panel and matte surface make the Narzo 70 Pro 5G quite slippery.

Moving on to how it feels in hand, the first thing that would strike anyone is the presence of plastic flat sides. While these edges give the phone a premium appearance, they also make it difficult to hold for extended periods. Moreover, the shiny nature of these edges makes them prone to scratches and scuffs.

Furthermore, the camera module might lead one to assume the phone features a quadruple-camera setup due to the four holes. However, this is not the case; the Narzo 70 Pro 5G only sports a triple camera setup, with the fourth cutout present for symmetrical purposes.

Realme Narzo 70 Pro 5G Review: Display

The Narzo 70 Pro 5G houses a 6.67-inch FHD+ 120Hz AMOLED HDR10+ display with a local peak brightness of 2000 nits. Specs aside, the panel’s quality is impressive, delivering vibrant colors, excellent outdoor visibility, and deep blacks. Moreover, with Widewine L1 certification and a 3.5mm headphone jack included, the Narzo 70 Pro offers a stellar content-watching experience.

Refresh rate

The Narzo 70 Pro offers three refresh rate settings: High, Standard, and Auto-select. While one might assume that the auto-select setting would provide the best balance of smoothness and battery life, this is not the case. The setting limits the refresh rate to only 60Hz in many third-party apps, including Realme’s apps like the Gallery. Moreover, even the high setting only increases the refresh rate in certain apps, making using the Narzo 70 Pro a somewhat weird experience.

However, since the refresh rate settings work as expected on other Realme phones, we believe the issue could be a software bug. As a result, we have reported the problem to the Realme team, who are currently investigating it.

Fingerprint sensor and durability

The front also houses an optical fingerprint sensor, which performed well in our testing, unlocking the phone reliably even with wet fingers. Additionally, regarding durability, the Dragontrail Star 2-protected screen remained scratch-free. Moreover, Realme also includes a pre-applied screen protector.

Realme Narzo 70 Pro 5G Review: Performance and Battery

Similar to many phones in its segment, the Narzo 70 Pro features the MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chip, with two Cortex-A78 cores running at 2.6 GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores running at 2.0 GHz, along with the ARM Mali-G68 GPU. Additionally, the device comes with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. Our 8+128GB variant performed great during our two weeks of testing, showcasing fast loading times, quick opening and closing animations, and no stutters.

Moving on to synthetic benchmarks, the Narzo 70 Pro 5G scored 956 in Geekbench’s single-core test and 2426 in the multi-core test, positioning it on par with other devices featuring the same chipset. Additionally, in a 30-minute 30-thread throttle test, the device managed to sustain 90% of its maximum performance. Moreover, in 3DMark’s Wild Life test and the Antutu Benchmark, the device scored 2265 and 608769, respectively.

Finally, the overall experience was positive regarding gaming, with no lags or issues affecting gameplay. Additionally, the phone can handle games such as CODM, CODM Warzone, and BGMI in medium settings. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the device does warm up during gaming, but nothing excessive.

Battery Life

With a massive 5,000mAh cell, battery life isn’t a problem for the Narzo 70 Pro. The phone easily lasted a full day of heavy usage, including taking photos, playing games, and watching YouTube videos. Moreover, with the included 67W fast charger, you can recharge the phone in under an hour.

Realme Narzo 70 Pro 5G Review: Cameras

When Realme announced the Narzo 70 Pro 5G, it made bold claims about the camera performance, partly due to the new 50MP Sony IMX890 main camera sensor. And we can confirm that many of these claims hold true. However, before delving into details, it’s worth noting that the Narzo 70 Pro also features an 8MP UltraWide camera.

Starting with the main camera, the photos surprised us with their great detail, vibrancy, and HDR capability. The fast shutter time added to the ease of capturing photos. However, the device’s biggest strength lies in its skin tone rendering. Compared to phones like the Lava Blaze Curve 5G, the Narzo 70 Pro’s skin tones were aesthetically pleasing and more true to life. While some photos appeared slightly oversaturated, the main camera excelled in daylight conditions.

As the phone lacks a dedicated telephoto sensor, the main camera also serves as the portrait lens, and the results are impressive. Realme’s edge detection and image processing have improved, evident in the sharpness and accuracy of portraits, even in indoor lighting conditions.

While the Narzo 70 Pro 5G cameras generally perform well, the 2x zoom capabilities when capturing human subjects seemed somewhat bizarre. This is because the device tended to blow out highlights, resulting in pale-looking photos.

Nighttime photos

Considering the device performed great in daytime conditions, our expectations were high for nighttime photos as well. While the device captured some decent photos, the results lacked details in very low-light scenarios, and noise crept in. Nevertheless, such performance is expected for phones in this price range and shouldn’t be a deterring factor for any potential buyer.

UltraWide photos and Selfies

Similar to other phones, the UltraWide camera is hit-or-miss in every condition. During the day, it captures good photos with ample details and HDR. However, in low-light or indoor conditions, the quality deteriorates significantly, with noise becoming noticeable.

Fortunately, the 16MP selfie shooter performed pretty well in our testing, capturing ample details and vibrance, at least in daylight. However, in low-light conditions, the photos came out muddy due to a lack of detail.

Videos

With the help of OIS, the 4K@30fps videos from the Narzo 70 Pro 5G were stable with good dynamic range and sharpness. While we did observe some noise during the night, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Moreover, it is important to note that you can only record 1080p videos from the UltraWide and selfie cameras.

Realme Narzo 70 Pro 5G Review: Software and Speakers

When Realme launched the Narzo 70 Pro, they promised that they had significantly reduced the bloatware, and that’s a statement we can confirm. The phone, running on Android 14 with Realme UI 5.0 on top, comes with significantly fewer pre-installed apps, which enhances the user experience and gives it a more premium feel. Additionally, while there aren’t any “hot apps/hot games” folders, the search function does contain ads and trending app recommendations, which isn’t ideal. Moreover, Realme’s update policy is still limited to 2 years of software updates and three years of security patches.

Moving forward, the biggest talking point at the event was the Air Gestures. In our testing, they performed better than expected. If you find these air gestures to be a cool party trick, then they work great, especially since you can navigate the entire device with them. Moreover, with platforms like Instagram and TikTok popularizing short video content, you can also scroll through reels and TikToks with gestures without using your hands. Finally, regarding the speakers, the stereo setup proved ample for watching movies or playing songs.

Is the Realme Narzo 70 Pro 5G worth it?

At a starting price of Rs 19,999, the Narzo 70 Pro competes head-to-head with the Lava Blaze Curve 5G and the Vivo T3 5G. While it’s safe to say that the Blaze Curve has the better software experience, and the T3 boasts better performance, the Narzo 70 Pro is for people who value a great main camera, along with a unique design that is sure to turn heads.