Realme Narzo 30 Pro review: Compromises galore

The Narzo series is Realme’s answer to Xiaomi’s Poco in India. For a brand that has flooded the market with derivative variants, Realme’s Narzo range serves one purpose: premium performance at an affordable price. This is also the case with the newly launched Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G.

The premise is simple: provide a smartphone with first-class specs, 5G features, and a price that will inevitably take a closer look at you. However, a convincing data sheet is no guarantee of excellent performance. In this review of Realme Narzo 30 Pro, we’ll see if the end product lives up to its promise as it wants to keep up with the increasingly crowded mid-range segment.

About this Realme Narzo 30 Pro review: I wrote this Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G review after spending a week with the phone as the primary device. Realme India supplied the device running Android 10 with Realme UI v1.0 on board.

Does the Realme Narzo 30 Pro have a good design?

The Realme Narzo 30 takes up many design elements of the recently introduced Realme X7 Pro. Of course, significant downgrades were made in order to achieve a lower price. This includes switching to a polycarbonate midframe and a muted gradient on the back.

There’s a noticeable downgrade in materials, and I’ve seen the back wall flex.

While I didn’t mind the simple Jane look, some might find the lack of pizzazz a bit overwhelming. The phone doesn’t quite scream Premium, and I noticed a bit of flex on the back while clutching it tightly.

On the right side of the phone is a power button with an embedded fingerprint scanner. The scanner was fast enough to unlock the phone – no problems on that front.

In the meantime, there is a segmented volume rocker on the left, which I found a little too flush with the frame. Finally, at the bottom is a single floor-release speaker, USB-C port, and headphone jack.

Realme has been offering high refresh rate panels for its phones for a while now, and the Narzo 30 Pro is no exception. In contrast to the X7 Pro, however, users have to deal with an IPS panel here. It still has the 120Hz refresh rate, but the phone misses out on the jet black color levels only possible with an AMOLED display.

Even so, the peak brightness levels are excellent, and I found the standard color calibration to do just fine right away. As with other Realme phones, there is an option to switch the calibration to cooler or warmer color tones. In addition, the update rate can be set to 60 or 120 Hz, or there is an adaptive mode that dynamically switches between the two update rates.

The Realme Narzo 30 Pro hits the performance test point, but compromises have been made.

If it wasn’t obvious by now, some bells and whistles and premium features have been trimmed here to match the price. Some good, some less. I have nothing against the polycarbonate case, but the lack of stereo speakers, no official seal – both are offered by the rival Xiaomi Mi 10i – and a hybrid SIM slot over dedicated slots for microSD and dual SIM cards is a problem somewhat repulsive.

How powerful is the Realme Narzo 30 Pro?

I was intrigued by the Dimensity series chipsets recently introduced by MediaTek. The 800 series, in particular, focuses on bringing a lot of grunt along with a value proposition.

In fact, these chipsets are quite cheap compared to the Qualcomm alternatives, at least in terms of CPU performance. The Dimensity 800U in the Realme Narzo 30 Pro competes against the upper SoCs of the Snapdragon 700 series and brings four Cortex A76 cores to the table. This is in addition to the four Cortex A55 cores that perform light tasks.

The daily performance is absolutely outstanding and I haven’t once noticed the frame dropping or the phone having trouble catching up with me. Of course, this is in line with expectations.

CPU performance is excellent, but the GPU lags behind.

Where the phone has a problem, however, is GPU performance. I had a smooth gaming experience playing Call of Duty Mobile. With the medium setting, however, the graphic is at its maximum. Even at medium speed, invoking the game assistant professor shows that the GPU was busy at 99% capacity for most of the game. Genshin Impact, another popular and graphically demanding game, had choppy images in busier scenes.

Overall, the performance on CPU-bound tasks is more than adequate, but the phone shouldn’t be your first choice if ultra-smooth 3D gaming is a high priority – especially if you plan to keep the phone for a few years.

On the network side, the phone also offers 5G support. India doesn’t have 5G networks yet so I couldn’t test this, but it’s nice to be future proof.

How long does the battery last?

The Realme Narzo 30 Pro keeps up with the times and is equipped with a correspondingly large battery. The 5,000 mAh cell will last for two days with normal use. No complaints there.

In the meantime, the charging speeds are a downgrade compared to the Realme X7 Pro, but fast charging at 30W is no problem either. It takes a little over an hour to fill up completely from scratch. There’s no wireless charging, but that’s to be expected for the price.

How Good Is The Realme Narzo 30 Pro Camera?

Put simply, the Narzo 30 Pro’s camera suite is pretty lackluster. The setup is predictable and is what most competitors are offering for this price: a 48-megapixel primary sensor paired with an 8-megapixel ultrawide shooter and a 2-megapixel macro sensor.

I expected quality results from the main camera, but it has problems with HDR recording and hidden highlights. Pictures look pretty good at first, but zoom right in and you will notice significant digital noise reduction artifacts. Plus, it takes the phone way too long to get focus lock.

The default white balance selection is a little too warm and the overall picture is lighter with over-saturated blue. The picture looks perfect on social media, but if you want natural tones, you’re out of luck. The overzealous degrees of saturation are particularly noticeable in the ultra-wide image above, where the blue sky looks completely unnatural.

Macro mode does a good job of getting closer to the subject, but the low resolution disappoints. The picture is just too detailed, both on a big screen and on the phone. Realme’s attempt to mask this with noise reduction makes this all the more evident.

The Narzo 30 Pro’s 16-megapixel front-facing selfie camera does a good job of taking selfies as there are tell-tale signs of skin contact and overexposure. Meanwhile, portrait mode doesn’t work well with hair. The bokeh drop-off isn’t bad, but on curly hair like mine, the camera blurs the edges.

When I finally got down to video quality, I wasn’t that impressed. The exposure levels are everywhere and like with still images, the focus speed was a bit slow when recording video.

What I like about the Narzo 30 Pro

• The performance. For everyday use, and even for a fair amount of gaming, the Narzo 30 Pro offers a lot for your money.
• The screen. I’m in the camp which is absolutely fine with a high quality IPS panel over an AMOLED display. The refresh rate of 120 Hz, the high brightness and the standard calibration impressed me.
• The battery life. It’s not particularly exceptional, but the phone can keep up with the competition.

What I do not like

• The build. Realme has taken some drastic measures to bring the Narzo 30 Pro down in price, and it shows. A lot is missing here, from the quality of the materials to omissions such as stereo speakers.
• The cameras. If you’re just looking at photos on your phone, the cameras do a viable job here. The tuning could definitely use some tweaking to put it on a par with the competition.

Realme Narzo 30 Pro specifications

Realme Narzo 30 Pro review: the verdict

The Narzo 30 Pro will appeal to a very specific type of user. The phone strikes a balance between powerful performance and desirable features like battery life and 5G. However, 5G is far from reality in India right now, which makes this particular selling point a little controversial.

While the performance is great, it’s not that the competition is lagging either. Priced at Rs. 16,990, the phones go right up against phones like the Xiaomi Mi 10i, which costs just a little more but offers a much richer user experience that is well worth the extra expense.

The Realme Narzo 30 Pro is not a bad phone, but its sole raison d’etre is not enough for me to overlook its shortcomings. I would highly recommend checking out some of the best phones under Rs. 20,000 for more options before you part with your money.