Realme X3 SuperZoom review

Android 10 with Realme UI on top

Much like other recent Realmes, the X3 SuperZoom runs Android 10 with the company's custom Realme UI on top. It shares a lot of traits with the sister company Oppo's ColorOS in terms of features with a shift towards a more stock Android look, a trend Oppos have started adopting too.

The launcher's look and feel is characterized by no-nonsense homescreens, simplistic notification/toggles area, and easy-to-use task switcher. An App drawer is available, too, and it is as clutter-free as one could hope for.

Realme UI: Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Quick toggles • Task switcher

Realme UI supports different icon packs, so if you are not happy with the default one, you can opt for material style, pebbles, or you can even fully customize them by your liking. Themes are also available.

Homescreen settings • Homescreen mode • Swipe down options • Theme store • Icon settings

You have a total of three options for navigation on the Realme X3 SuperZoom. We've already grown used to and prefer the standard Android 10 navigation (Swipe Gestures from Both Sides it's called here), which employs the side edges for going Back while upward swipes from the bottom take you Home.

Color OS used to have a gesture for quick switch between the last two apps if you swipe in for Back, but hold for a brief instant. Now that's replaced by side swiping on the bottom of the screen.

A classic three-button navigation bar is available if you're old school like that, and it lets you choose between two layouts. There's also a More option, which will take you to the Swipe-up gestures alternative - the proverbial middle option between the nav bar and real gestures.

Settings • More settings • Navigation options

Realme UI offers a Smart Sidebar feature on the edge of the screen - you can customize the actions and app shortcuts that appear there. The bar's position and opacity can be adjusted too.

Smart Sidebar

The Realme X3 SuperZoom display supports a 120Hz refresh rate, and you get a three-way setting between 120Hz, 60Hz, and Auto. As we detailed on the previous page, that setting is only ever set in stone if you have it at the 60Hz position, with the other two modes having their own specifics.

There's a system-wide dark mode, and it can be engaged permanently or according to a schedule. It'll invoke supported apps' dark themes too, but you can also enforce dark mode on third-party apps which don't have it built-in.

Display settings

The multimedia apps such as Gallery, Music, and Videos - are provided by Realme. There is also a redesigned File Manager, and a Phone Manager app. A few other tools are provided, including a custom calculator and a voice recorder. A Realme App Market is also present.

Gallery • Music • Videos • Phone Manager • File Manager • App Market

Synthetic benchmarks

The Realme X3 SuperZoom has the Snapdragon 855+ under the hood, the souped-up version of Qualcomm's high-end chipset for last year. It's a balancing act of trying to fit the budget while also offering flagship-grade performance. The 855+ is one better than this year's 765, particularly in the GPU department, and it isn't as expensive as the current top dog, the 865.

Meanwhile, the 5G-less 855+ leaves the 865-equipped X50 Pro 5G room to breathe in the markets where the two are available together. How big of deal 5G is right now, is a whole different topic.

The X3 SuperZoom is available in two configurations - the base model has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while our review unit is the 12GB/256GB variant. RAM is LPDDR4x and the storage is the UFS 3.0 type.

We ran the usual set of benchmarks, and the X3 SuperZoom mostly delivers. It did run neck and neck with the OnePlus 7T in single-core GeekBench, but got left behind in multi-core loads. It does comfortably outperform the Motorola Edge, standing in here for the 700-series Snapdragons of the day. The 865 devices remain out of reach for the 855+ Realme.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  3402
• OnePlus 8
  3399
• Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
  3322
• Realme X50 Pro
  3175
• OnePlus 7T
  2858
• Oppo Reno Ace
  2627
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  2579
• Motorola Edge
  1862
• Realme 6 Pro
  1666

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  928
• OnePlus 8
  919
• Realme X50 Pro
  911
• Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
  895
• OnePlus 7T
  776
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  756
• Oppo Reno Ace
  619
• Motorola Edge
  586
• Realme 6 Pro
  565

Over in Antutu, the X3 SuperZoom shows about average performance for its hardware - the OP7T is slightly ahead, the X2 Pro is slightly behind. Again, there's a visible gap between 855+ and 865-equipped handsets.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  592447
• Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
  578056
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  575601
• OnePlus 8
  564708
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 3s
  495229
• OnePlus 7T
  485585
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  477905
• Realme X2 Pro
  467653
• Oppo Reno Ace
  434063
• Motorola Edge
  305989
• Realme 6 Pro
  268785

In GFXBench, the SuperZoom is a couple of frames per second behind other 855+ devices for one reason or another. What matters though, is that the 855+ is still much more potent in graphics-related tasks than the 765 - the Motorola Edge manages only half the frames across all tests.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  88
• Realme X50 Pro
  86
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  86
• Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
  84
• OnePlus 7T
  79
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 3s
  79
• Realme X2 Pro
  78
• Oppo Reno Ace
  72
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  65
• Motorola Edge
  34
• Realme 6 Pro
  30

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
  73
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 3s
  65
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  61
• Realme X50 Pro
  60
• OnePlus 8
  60
• OnePlus 7T
  59
• Realme X2 Pro
  57
• Oppo Reno Ace
  56
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  56
• Motorola Edge
  32
• Realme 6 Pro
  27

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  52
• Realme X50 Pro
  51
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  51
• Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
  50
• OnePlus 7T
  48
• Realme X2 Pro
  47
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 3s
  46
• Oppo Reno Ace
  44
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  41
• Motorola Edge
  19
• Realme 6 Pro
  18

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  46
• Realme X50 Pro
  45
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  42
• Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
  42
• OnePlus 7T
  41
• Realme X2 Pro
  37
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 3s
  37
• Oppo Reno Ace
  35
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  35
• Motorola Edge
  18
• Realme 6 Pro
  16

Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  30
• OnePlus 8
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
  29
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  28
• OnePlus 7T
  27
• Realme X2 Pro
  25
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 3s
  24
• Oppo Reno Ace
  23
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  22
• Motorola Edge
  12
• Realme 6 Pro
  11

Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Realme X50 Pro
  31
• OnePlus 8
  31
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  29
• Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
  29
• OnePlus 7T
  28
• Realme X2 Pro
  26
• Oppo Reno Ace
  26
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 3s
  26
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  24
• Motorola Edge
  12
• Realme 6 Pro
  11

The relative differences between the chipsets remain in 3DMark in both OpenGL and Vulkan-based testing. The X3 SuperZoom with its Snapdragon 855+ is a much better choice than a 765-based competitor, with the 865-powered devices offering a further boost, but not as big. It's worth pointing out that in this particular benchmark, the SuperZoom's scores dropped significantly after the first run - by about 15%, and stayed there. We didn't observe drops quite as dramatic in the other tests.

3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  7290
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  7261
• Realme X50 Pro
  7221
• Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
  7132
• OnePlus 7T
  6296
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 3s
  6196
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  6120
• Oppo Reno Ace
  5392
• Realme X2 Pro
  4726
• Motorola Edge
  3004
• Realme 6 Pro
  2506

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p

Higher is better

• OnePlus 8
  6720
• vivo iQOO 3 5G
  6675
• Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
  6490
• Realme X50 Pro
  6472
• OnePlus 7T
  5540
• ZTE nubia Red Magic 3s
  5434
• Realme X3 SuperZoom
  5364
• Realme X2 Pro
  5337
• Oppo Reno Ace
  4905
• Motorola Edge
  2801
• Realme 6 Pro
  2334

Overall, we get Realme's choice of chipset for the X3 SuperZoom. The 855+ delivers performance a notch below the current flagship offerings while being significantly ahead of the latest upper-midrange chipsets.