Realme 9 5G Speed edition hands-on review

Design, build, controls

The Realme 9 5G Speed Edition is an eye-catching device. Particularly in the Starry Glow version that we have. The other option is Azure Glow. Realme is particularly proud of what it calls an "industry-leading topography texture process and multiple micron-sized pyramids". The back side panel apparently undergoes a sophisticated multi-stage process to get its particular look. In practical terms, the back side has a starry pattern but also changes its purple hue gradually from the center outwards and as light hits it differently.

The finish on the back surface isn't glossy and doesn't pick up too many fingerprints or grease.

The back panel is made of plastic and has a bit of hollowness underneath it which is noticeable and could be a turnoff for some buyers. Even so, however, we don't think it feels cheap in hand. Plus, you only feel the slight hollowness without a case on and if you are determined to look for it.

The Realme 9 5G Speed Edition measures 164.4 x 75.8 x 8.5 mm and tips the scale at 199 grams. Realme claim in their press materials that the phone is "super slim" and "lightweight", but both seem a bit of a stretch. Quite literally, since the Realme 9 5G Speed is not a one-hand device.

It's not exactly the most comfortable device to hold either. Perhaps a slightly curvier body would have made for a more comfortable in-hand feel, but that's just us nitpicking more than anything else.

The Realme 9 5G Speed has a pretty standard control layout. The side has a pair of volume buttons and a SIM slot. The former feel great and clicky, while the latter has room for two Nano-SIM cards with dual 5G standby and a separate microSD card slot.

The phone's right side houses the power button and capacitive fingerprint reader combo. It sits inside a recess of its own, making it very easy to feel out. The fingerprint reader part is very fast and accurate. We have no complaints there.

The bottom side of the Realme 9 5G Speed houses the phone's single bottom-firing speaker. It also lacks a second speaker and any form of hybrid stereo setup.

Also, on this side of the bezel - the main microphone, a 3.5mm audio jack and a USB Type-C port with USB 2.0 data rates, up to 30W fast charging, USB Host support, but no other additional output, like video.

The top bezel is pretty much empty.

The camera island on the Realme 9 5G Speed is quite pronounced and does make the phone wobble when placed on a flat surface. Due to its design, the provided plastic case does not address this issue either.

Display

The Realme 9 5G Speed and its display shine in one particular aspect - refresh rate. With 144Hz support, this is officially the first phone in Realme's lineup to reach this milestone. It also has a 240Hz touch sampling rate. Besides that, you are getting a modest, though large 6.6-inch IPS LCD panel with a FullHD+ resolution, which works out to a perfectly sharp 400 or so ppi.

Realme advertise a typical display brightness of about 480 nits and a maximum of 600 nits in high brightness mode. That's not a chart-topping figure by any stretch, but still good enough to be usable outdoors.

In terms of settings, the Realme 9 5G Speed has quite a few tweaks and options available for the display. There are two color profiles to choose from - vivid, which targets the wider DCI-P3 color space and Gentle, which aims for sRGB instead. Also, there are plenty of font options to explore.

Display settings

Having a high refresh rate display is generally only as good as how you handle its software utilization. Realme's press materials claim that the company has six distinct refresh rate levels that it can auto switch between. Indeed, software reports the display can be run at 30Hz, 48Hz, 50Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, and 144Hz. The reality isn't quite as impressive but is still decent.

You get a total of three refresh rate modes. Standard is just a locked 60Hz mode, as simple and straightforward as that. The "Auto select" mode, which is on by default, runs the UI and most apps in 90Hz mode for that extra smoothness. A general "idle" logic is also in place that drops the refresh rate back to 60Hz if you don't interact with the phone for a bit or nothing is moving on the screen. Some apps, notably Chrome, manage to reach 144Hz in Auto mode, and others, like Google Photos or the Play Store, just stay at 60Hz all the time.

Finally, there is also a "High" refresh rate option. It generally behaves the same way as Auto employing idle switching logic, but most apps now run at 144Hz instead of 90Hz. There are still some exceptions that run at either 120Hz or rarely 60Hz.

Unfortunately, none of the modes managed to run any of our usual high refresh rate test games at anything past 60Hz, which is a major issue Realme need to address. Also, for some reason, opening the keyboard and typing always brings the refresh rate down to 60Hz regardless of other conditions, which is a bit weird.

The Realme 9 5G Speed lacks HDR support on its display. Still, its Snapdragon 778G chipset can decode HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG, then map those to SDR color for displaying. There is also the highest Widevine L1 certification, which means that streaming services like Netflix are happy to provide FullHD content to saturate the phone's native resolution.