While there’s normally not much that one can do to vary smartphone design, realme as a brand has shown that it consistently tries new things for the back of its phones in the name of varying things up. Some attempts are obviously better than others, such as the realme 10 Pro Coca-Cola edition compared to its vanilla models. While we don’t know yet if the realme 11 family, which just launched locally yesterday, will have any special editions yet, it’s probably safe to say that this generation doesn’t really need them on the visual front.
As we’ve seen since its initial reveal, the realme 11 Pro Plus features a look made by former Gucci Prints designer Matteo Menotto. The faux leather back may be an issue after you’ve used the phone for a very long time, but while it is new its texture adds to the phone’s feel in hand. The added benefit is that it’s also less slippery than if it was your regular aluminium or glass back. Though worth pointing out is the small strip of woven fabric in the middle, which is actually hidden behind a layer of glass. This inconsistency does take diminish the feel of the phone in hand somewhat.
Overall, the realme 11 Pro Plus feels very light, despite what its size would suggest. This, combined with the faux leather back and the curved edges in front and back, means that you can hold it comfortably for quite awhile before feeling any fatigue on that end. The power button and volume rocker are where you expect them, so they’re easy to access.
The screen on the realme 11 Pro Plus is a 6.7-inch Full HD+ AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and 360Hz touch sampling rate. Usually this would mean a smooth scrolling experience, and indeed that’s what you can come to expect for the most part. The MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chipset and the 12GB of RAM lend to this as well. But notably after a fresh restart there’s some slight stuttering while you flip between the home page and app drawer. Not necessarily an issue that’s exclusive to this phone, but it’s noticeable when upon booting the phone up it updates twice.
Another quality that the screen of the realme 11 Pro Plus sports is its 1.07 billion colour output. Which means that you get very vivid colours when viewing photos or videos. Though the aforementioned curved edges of the screen does end in some warping of whatever you’re watching at said edges. For the most part, this is something that you can probably live with, unless you need to do some serious editing on the phone. There is also a fingerprint sensor here, and it’s located pretty low towards the bottom of the screen compared to the ones on other phones. Nothing that you can’t get used to after a few days of, well, use.
On the software side of things, the realme 11 Pro Plus comes with the realme UI 4.0, which is based on Android 13. There’s some expected bloatware as always, but beyond that, it’s a pretty standard Android experience. Not much in terms of gimmicks, with is always preferable to overlays that try too hard to be different, tanking the user experience as a result.
The highlight of the realme 11 Pro Plus though is the triple camera setup at the back, specifically the main 200MP shooter. It features what the brand calls 4x SuperZoom, which is claimed to be able to achieve 4x lossless zoom. In the short time we’ve tested this camera, this seems to be true, but there are obvious limits that you will hit in no time. Though this is not an indicative description of what the whole triple camera setup can do, at least not without more thorough testing.
As mentioned during our report of the phone’s launch, the realme 11 Pro Plus is available starting today, with an asking price of RM1,999. Which, it must be said, is quite the far cry from when the brand’s numbered series first entered the local market.
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