Roll out the carpet for the latest handsets of the Philippines’ leading smartphone brand, as they go official in the country today, March 15, a month after they debuted in India.

(Update: Our Realme 9 Pro Plus review and Realme 9 Pro review are already up!)

Both styled as midrangers offering flagship-grade features, the 5G-ready Realme 9 Pro Plus and Realme 9 Pro are targeted at budding photographers and content creators — the former more than the non-Plus model, of course. The Realme 9 Pro Plus boasts a flagship-grade 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 image sensor, the same one you’ll find in the OPPO Find X3 Pro, Find X5, and Find X5 Pro.

The two devices feature color-changing Light Shift Design on the Sunrise Blue variant, courtesy of a fluorite-glass material at the back that gives it the ability to shift from a light-blue shade to a pinkish-red hue when exposed to sunlight and UV light. Familiar, because the Vivo V23 5G has adopted a similar chameleon-like design quirk, except the phone features a gold main color.

The Realme 9 Pro Plus with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage and Realme 9 Pro with half the storage are priced at P23,990 (roughly $458) and P16,990 ($324), respectively. They will be available on Lazada and at the company’s concept stores and partner dealers nationwide starting March 16.

Take note that the Realme Buds Air 3 tagged along with the newly launched Realme 9 Pro series. Pricing and availability details are detailed in this press release from the company

Here’s what’s even better: If you make your purchase on Lazada between March 16 to March 18, you can get the Plus variant for only P21,490 ($411) and the regular Pro for just P14,990 ($286). Plus those who buy the Realme 9 Pro Plus during the early-bird sale on the e-commerce site will get an additional one-year warranty for their units.

Each purchase of the Pro Plus from March 16 to March 20 will come with a free Realme Cooling Back Clip Neo, Realme Cobble Bluetooth Speaker, and a year’s worth of extended warranty.

The Realme 9 Pro, on the other hand, will only be up for preorder from the 16th to the 25th, but don’t worry, because each purchase of the non-Plus version will still come with the following freebies: Realme Pocket Bluetooth Speaker, Realme Type-C Superdart Cable, and Realme Mobile Game Finger Sleeves. You can get the free items upon claiming of your unit on March 26 or March 27.

Would you rather pay for the Realme 9 Pro Plus or Realme 9 Pro in installments? The brand has you covered. You can order any of the smartphones in the series through Home Credit (6- and 9-month installment options) or via major credit cards (6- and 12-month installment options at 0% interest). Happy shopping.

Realme 9 Pro Plus specs

• 6.4-inch AMOLED display, FHD+ resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling, 1,000 nits peak brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass 5
• 6nm octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 920 processor with 5G
• Mali-G68 MC4 GPU
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB/256GB UFS 2.2 storage
• Triple 50-megapixel main, 8-megapixel ultra-wide, 2-megapixel macro rear cameras
• 16-megapixel front camera
• Under-display fingerprint reader with heart-rate sensor
• 4,500mAh battery with 60-watt USB-C charging
• Realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12
• Color options: Sunrise Blue, Midnight Black, and Aurora Green

Realme 9 Pro specs

• 6.6-inch LCD display, FHD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling
• 6nm octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor with 5G
• Adreno 619 GPU
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB/256GB UFS 2.2 storage
• Triple 64-megapixel main, 8-megapixel ultra-wide, 2-megapixel macro rear cameras
• 16-megapixel front camera
• Fingerprint reader
• 5,000mAh battery with 33-watt USB-C charging
• Realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12
• Color options: Sunrise Blue, Midnight Black, and Aurora Green

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