Realme 3 review

Android Pie and Color OS 6

The Realme 3 is the first smartphone we meet running on Oppo's latest Color OS 6. The ROM is based on Android 9 Pie and features a lot of improvements since v.5.2.

The new OS is based on a light color scheme, mainly mixing a white backdrop with light color gradients. Oppo says the choice of white is meant to create an airy atmosphere. A major part of Color OS 6 is the new universal font - Oppo Sans - which Oppo has developed in cooperation with known Chinese typeface firm Hanyi.

And finally, Color OS is getting an app drawer. While this is just an option for the upcoming Oppo phones, Realme 3 has it turned on by default.

As usual ColorOS 6.0 has built-in machine learning that will freeze apps in the background, instead of closing them. The so-called AI application quick freeze will analyze your app activity for 2 weeks to learn your habits. You can configure/opt out of this behavior from the battery settings.

Despite the Pie-inspired graphic changes, the user interface is very familiar.

Lock and home screens, the app drawer

The fingerprint sensor is always-on, and it's fast and accurate. You can also set up face unlock in addition to fingerprint security - it's equally fast as the Realme 3 wakes up the moment you pick it up.

The face recognition is indeed blazing fast. It relies on 120 recognition points and supposedly can't be fooled by a picture. Surely, this implementation is not as secure as Apple's Face ID, but it works well and it's user-friendly.

Biometric security

Oddly, our Realme 3 came without a Theme Store, but maybe it will become available with an update later on. But for now - no matter the region - the Realme 3 isn't theme-able.

The notification shade features notifications, quick toggles, and a brightness scrubber and has a band-new look. The task switcher reminds of Apple's, though it has an End All button. And split screen is available for all compatible apps.

Notifications • Toggles • Task Switcher • Split screen • Split screen • Split screen

The Full-Screen Gesture model is available for the Realme 3, though the default option is a mixture between gestures and keys - it's the same back and Home key combination as on stock Android as seen on the Google Pixel. A swipe from the Home key will launch the task switcher, while a long press will fire the Google assistant.

All other options are here to stay - various onscreen key combinations all the way to the full-screen gestures.

By the way, if you are keen on launching the Google Assistant with a hardware key instead of a virtual one, you can assign a short press on the Power Key to summon it.

Navigation settings

Clone apps and file safe functions are on board, as well as real-time translation thanks to an improved voice assistant.

There is a Phone Manager quite similar to what Huawei and Xiaomi have on their phones under the same name. It handles memory cleaner functions, app permissions and encryption, and virus scanning, among other things.

Game Space allows you to handpick which notifications to pass through when you are playing games and you don't want to be interrupted. There are also different performance modes and an option to lock the brightness only for certain games.

Oppo provides multimedia apps of all sorts - Gallery, Music, Video, and even an FM radio.

Phone Manager • Gallery • Videos • Files • FM radio

Performance and benchmarks

The Realme 3, depending on your market, is either coming with Hellio P60 or the Helio P70 chipset. Don't you worry though as there is just a minor difference in the performance, negligible if you will.

Both chips feature the same octa-core processor, but the clock of the big cores has been raised by 100MHz for the P70. Which means the P70 CPU has 4xA73 cores at 2.1GHz, while the P60 has its clocked at 2.0GHz. The efficient quartet of A53 cores is running at 2.0GHz for both.

The GPU hasn't changed since the P60, too. It's still the tri-core Mali-G72 MP3, but its clock speed has also been raised by 100MHz and now it ticks at 900MHz within the P70.

The Helio P70 and P60 have the same AI core and algorithms, too.

The Helio P60/P70 processor easily aces GeekBench for this price bracket and the Realme 3 posted some excellent scores. The multi-core score was somewhat below its fellow Helio phones, but this might have something to do with the pre-release ROM.

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  1650
• Huawei Mate 20 Lite
  1595
• Realme U1
  1567
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  1532
• Realme 1
  1511
• Realme 3
  1482
• Realme 2 Pro
  1462
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro
  1342
• Motorola Moto G7 Power
  1252
• Motorola Moto G7 Play
  1199
• Realme 2
  790

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Realme U1
  6004
• Realme 1
  5741
• Huawei Mate 20 Lite
  5574
• Realme 2 Pro
  5531
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  5411
• Realme 3
  4936
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro
  4933
• Motorola Moto G7 Power
  4534
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  4418
• Motorola Moto G7 Play
  4154
• Realme 2
  3881

The Realme 3 has a massive benefit when it comes to graphics because of its lower screen resolution. It beats everything in its price bracket, offers doubled performance over the Realme 2 (also 720p screen), and unmatched speed across the entire competition.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme 3
  26
• Motorola Moto G7 Power
  14
• Motorola Moto G7 Play
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  13
• Huawei Mate 20 Lite
  13
• Realme 1
  12
• Realme 2
  12
• Realme 2 Pro
  12
• Realme U1
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro
  9.7
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  8.7

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme 3
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  7.7
• Motorola Moto G7 Power
  7.7
• Motorola Moto G7 Play
  7.7
• Realme 1
  7.5
• Realme 2 Pro
  7.2
• Realme U1
  7.1
• Huawei Mate 20 Lite
  6.7
• Realme 2
  6.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro
  5.9
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  5.2

If you are curious about the raw performance of the GPU, it is quite impressive as well.

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  9
• Realme 3
  8
• Realme U1
  7.9
• Huawei Mate 20 Lite
  7.6
• Realme 1
  7.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro
  6.3
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  6
• Motorola Moto G7 Power
  3.9
• Motorola Moto G7 Play
  3.9
• Realme 2
  3.5

3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  1409
• Realme 2 Pro
  1291
• Realme 3
  1189
• Realme U1
  1133
• Realme 1
  1072
• Motorola Moto G7 Power
  567
• Motorola Moto G7 Play
  562
• Realme 2
  497

Over at the compound AnTuTu test the Realme 3 shows some real muscle and scores yet another excellent mark.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Realme U1
  144436
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  139075
• Realme 1
  138524
• Huawei Mate 20 Lite
  136583
• Realme 2 Pro
  132958
• Realme 3
  132764
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro
  115605
• Motorola Moto G7 Power
  107495
• Motorola Moto G7 Play
  97230
• Realme 2
  75434

The Realme 3 is probably the most powerful Realme phone so far because of the lower screen resolution benefits. The difference between the Helio P60 and the Helio P70 chip can't be felt in real life, so you shouldn't have to worry which chip is inside your Realme 3 - it will be a beast regardless.

We didn't notice any particular areas of the Realme 3 body heating up even when running those benchmarks for longer durations and there was no throttling at all.

Overall, the Realme 3 offers class-leading performance and nobody should be experiencing hiccups of any kind whatever the tasks at hand. And it's the phone you should get if gaming is your thing and you are on a budget.