SE stands for “Speed Edition” and the phone lives up to its name in two ways – having a faster chipset and a faster display (than its sibling and the 9 Pro). For the former, the Realme 9 5G SE is powered by a Snapdragon 778G.
This is a bit of a surprise as even the
Realme 9 Pro only offers a Snapdragon 695. This means the SE has double the
number of Cortex-A78 based cores (four) and an Adreno 642L GPU (vs. 619). Based
on previous experience with these chips, the SE will have a slightly faster CPU
and much faster GPU compared to the Pro.
Anyway, the chipset is paired with 6 or 8
GB of RAM and (LPDDR4x dual channel) and 128 GB of UFS 2.2 storage. There is a
triple card slot, so you can always pop in a microSD if you need more room. The
phone is launching with the older Realme UI 2.0 that is based on Android 11.
As for the second speedy component, the
6.6” display runs at 144 Hz refresh rate. Realme claims that both the 778G chip
and the 144 Hz display are firsts in the price segment that the Realme 9 SE is
competing in (more on pricing in a bit). The screen can switch between six
refresh rates, 30 Hz on the low end and 144 Hz on the high end. It also offers
240 Hz touch sampling rate, making it suitable for fast-paced gaming. It has a
resolution of 1,080 x 2,412 px (20:9) and promises a peak brightness of 600
nits.
The phone’s battery is no slouch either,
it has 5,000 mAh capacity and charges at 30W using the included adapter. With
its efficient chipset and large battery, the phone can last for 19.5 hours of
video playback. For comparison, the 9 Pro has a 5,000 mAh/33W battery. The
camera department is where the 9 SE falls short of the 9 Pro. It only has a 48
MP primary camera on the back (vs. 64 MP), along with a macro cam and a depth
sensor. Video recording tops out at 4K at 30 fps. The selfie camera has a 16 MP
sensor. A few other features to mention include a capacitive fingerprint
reader, also Wi-Fi 6 (ax) and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity.
Prices of the Realme 9 5G Speed Edition
begin from INR 19,999 (US$ 262/€ 237) for the 6/128 GB variant and INR 22,999
(US$ 300/€272) for 8/128 GB memory. Sold in Starry Glow or Azure Glow, it will be
available from March 14, 12:00 PM IST at Realme.com, Flipkart and some offline
stores.
