Realme 9 Pro+ review

Display

The Realme 9 Pro+ has the same 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen as the Realme 8 Pro and the Realme 7 Pro. However, it has been improved - the panel now supports a 90Hz refresh rate and up to 360Hz touch sampling rate.

So, the Samsung-made AMOLED panel has a diagonal of 6.4 inches and the usual resolution of 1,080 x 2,400 pixels or 411ppi. It is protected by a flat sheet of Gorilla Glass 5.

The panel has a small punch hole in the top left corner - it accommodates the front camera. The fingerprint scanner and the ambient light sensor are hidden under the screen.

The upgrades over the Realme 8 Pro's display include a faster 90Hz refresh rate and smooth 360Hz touch sampling rate for flagship-grade responsiveness. There is also support for HDR10 and DCI-P3 color space.

We did our display test, and we found the screen capabilities to be on par with Realme 8 Pro's. The screen's maximum brightness when adjusting it manually is 433 nits. We measured an even higher brightness of 613 nits when using Auto-Brightness and exposed the phone to bright light.

The minimum brightness at point white was impressive - just 1.9 nits. This means the phone will be easy on the eyes when using it in a very dark setting.

The Realme 9 Pro+ offers three color options - Vivid that corresponds to DCI-P3 color space, Natural - sRGB color space, and Pro mode where you can choose between Cinematic (warmer P3) and Brilliant (widest color available) options. Each of these modes offers a color temperature slider.

The default Vivid mode has a good accuracy towards P3 targets, the white and grays were the only notable deviations with a slightly bluish tinge. The Standard mode with sRGB targets is similarly accurate, but here the white and grays are somewhat reddish. If you want the best possible accuracy, we suggest the Cinematic option from the Pro model.

The Realme 9 Pro+ supports HDR10 and is recognized as such device by most apps but Netflix. In fact, Netflix is not available for the Realme 9 Pro+ at all, but if you sideload it - you will be able to stream in Full HD thanks to the Widevine L1 DRM support.

Realme UI offers O1 Ultra Vision Engine - this is an SDR to HDR video color enhancer that can be active across selected video apps. We didn't see much of a difference with it, but maybe we didn't use it with the correct app.

Finally, let's talk about the refresh rate. The Realme 9 Pro+ supports Auto, High (90Hz) and Standard (60Hz) options. Choosing either High or Auto will do the same - offer 90Hz through the Realme interface and revert back to 60Hz when the image is static. Video playback is always done at 60Hz, gaming is always done at 60Hz, but you may be lucky and find some apps that run their (non-game) interface at 90Hz.

Battery life

The Realme 9 Pro+, just like the Realme 8 Pro and the Realme 7 Pro, is powered by a 4,500mAh battery. It has a similar 6.4" AMOLED screen, though it's a snappier 90Hz panel this time around. The chipset is different in the 9 Pro+ - Dimensity 920 vs. Snapdragon 720G, and it could lead to completely different battery behavior sometimes.

That's not exactly the case with the Realme 9 Pro+, though. It scored a total endurance rating of 117 hours, which is on par with the 8 Pro and 7 Pro.

The Realme 9 Pro+ did very well on the on-screen tests. Its standby performance has improved since the previous models, but the 3G call time has seen a drop - these are the two tests that are always affected the most by the chipset's modem. The vivo V23 has the same Dimensity 920 chipset and a similar battery, and its results are on par with the Realme 9 Pro+.

All test results shown are achieved under the highest screen refresh rate mode. You can adjust the endurance rating formula manually so it matches better your own usage in our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.

Charging speed

The Realme 9 Pro+ supports 65W SuperDart Charge, and that power adapter ships with the phone. The Realme 8 Pro was capped at 50W, but that limitation has been lifted off the Realme 9 Pro+. At least on paper, that is.

See, the Realme 9 Pro+, 8 Pro, and 7 Pro all have 4,500 mAh batteries, and they are all bundled with the same 65W SuperDart power adapter even if the Realme 8 Pro charging capabilities max out at 50W. And yet both older models recharge faster than the Realme 9 Pro+. Go figure!

Don't get us wrong, 77% in 30 minutes is plenty enough, it's just not consistent.

30min charging test (from 0%)

Higher is better

• OnePlus Nord 2
  98%
• Realme 7 Pro
  94%
• Realme 8 Pro
  88%
• Realme GT 5G (65W)
  87%
• Realme 9 Pro+
  77%
• Poco X3 GT
  75%
• Motorola Edge 20
  68%
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  67%
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  58%
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  53%
• Realme 9 Pro
  52%
• Motorola Moto G200 5G
  52%
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  50%

Same goes for the full charge time - it takes about 49 minutes for the Realme 9 Pro+ to reach 100%.

Time to full charge (from 0%)

Lower is better

• OnePlus Nord 2
  0:31h
• Realme 7 Pro
  0:37h
• Realme 8 Pro
  0:38h
• Realme GT 5G (65W)
  0:39h
• Poco X3 GT
  0:48h
• Realme 9 Pro+
  0:49h
• Motorola Edge 20
  1:01h
• OnePlus Nord CE 5G
  1:03h
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  1:04h
• Realme 9 Pro
  1:14h
• Motorola Moto G200 5G
  1:14h
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1:21h
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  1:28h

The case is not that simple, though. The previous models needed 11 extra minutes after hitting 100% mark to get to the Charged! state. That's not the case with the Realme 9 Pro+ - it stops charging and displays Charged! the second it gets to 100%. This could explain the difference in the full charge times.

Speaker

The Realme 9 Pro+ offers two speakers, an upgrade over the Realme 8 Pro. One of the speakers is bottom-firing, while the other also doubles as an earpiece and sits behind a tiny grille above the screen.

The two speakers are balanced and offer similar audio quality. The bottom one is a bit louder than the front speaker, that's to be expected, but because of their positioning, when watching movies, playing games or just listening to music, the sound balance is superb.

The Realme 9 Pro+ scored a Very Good mark on our loudness test. It does sound loud enough at maximum volume, and we are happy with the balance, too. The sound quality is good - the high notes are reproduced okay-ish and the mid-tones and voice sound excellent.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.