realme‘s latest number series has arrived, and it’s a bit of a shake-up.

For starters, there’s no Pro Plus model this time around. That means the realme 15 Pro 5G, which launches September 16 in the Philippines, is now the brand’s top-tier offering. That puts a lot of pressure on this single device to deliver, and fortunately for realme, it seems more than up to the challenge.

On paper, this phone is packed. Everything from the curved AMOLED display, the chipset, and the battery, to the front and rear cameras have all gotten a significant upgrade. It’s built to be tougher, too. You’re looking at a reinforced metal frame sandwiched between a curved sheet of Corning Gorilla Glass 7i up front and a choice of either a fiberglass back on the Flowing Silver model or a faux-leather rear for the Velvet Green variant, which feels great in the hand.

SEE ALSO: realme 15 Series 5G now up for preorder in PH with up to P3,897 ($68) worth of freebies

It’s also rated for IP66, IP68, and IP69 resistance, meaning it can survive being submerged in two meters of water for 30 minutes. And, yes, the realme 15 Pro 5G does come with a dedicated Underwater mode, perfect for anyone looking to capture photos and videos on their next trip to the beach or for some casual pool photography.

But what’s really impressive is that all this new durability and upgraded hardware doesn’t make the smartphone feel like a brick. The realme 15 Pro 5G is about the same size and weight as its predecessor. The Flowing Silver is just 7.79mm thick, while the Velvet Green is a hair thicker at 7.84mm. That’s particularly noteworthy, especially considering the massive 7,000mAh battery squeezed inside. The curved display helps keep things thin, with a 44.8-degree curve on the sides.

While the overall feel is familiar, the camera module is where you’ll notice a big visual shift. Instead of the circular camera housing the company has favored for a few generations, realme has gone back to a rectangular module, reminiscent of the realme 9 Pro series.

The company has also added a large, circular LED ring light on the back, which acts as a customizable notification light with multiple colors and lighting effects. What’s more, the camera island houses two LED flashes — a standard white one on top and an orange-yellow one below it. Both work as fill lights to help produce more natural-looking skin tones in low-light photos and videos.

The improved AMOLED display sticks out as well. It’s incredibly bright, hitting a peak of 6,500 nits, and sharp with a 1.5K resolution. It boasts a 144Hz refresh rate, can display over a billion colors, and supports HDR10 Plus. Below the screen is an optical fingerprint scanner that can also double as a heart-rate scanner if you enable it in the settings. There’s even an IR blaster on the top edge of the frame.

For audio, the earpiece and a top-facing outlet work together as a stereo-speaker setup. The other channel is on the bottom, next to the USB-C port and dual-SIM tray. Unfortunately, you won’t find eSIM support or a microSD card slot for expandable storage here, but you probably were already expecting that.

The tagline for the series this year is “Live real in every shot.” realme says the 15 Pro 5G has you covered, from shooting 4K at 60 frames per second on every lens to pulling off clean wide-angle and bright low-light shots. The last generation brought us a lone 50-megapixel camera; its successor, notably, is raising the bar with a full count of three.

Leading the charge is a Sony IMX896 main sensor with optical image stabilization or OIS, while the Omnivision OV50D handles both ultrawide and selfie duties. The latter relies on Full Frame EIS for stabilization, which should be enough to keep your shots relatively steady.

We’re still putting our unit through its paces for our full review, but our initial camera samples suggest that this handset is more than just a numbers game. It’s a truly above-average camera phone. And we have to give realme credit for something not a lot of other companies can pull off — the colors and white balance appear to be pretty consistent across all three lenses.

Our initial sample shots. More in our full review!

While the upgraded sensors are great, realme is putting a heavier emphasis on the smartphone’s camera-centric AI capabilities. The realme 15 Pro 5G ships with some genuinely useful features like AI Smart Remover 2.0, which we’ve found to have an effective person-recognition algorithm for effortlessly zapping unwanted objects in your photos. There’s AI Party mode, too, which uses a trio of algorithms to improve skin tone and make subjects clearer and more visible in low-light scenes.

Perhaps the most interesting new addition is AI Edit Genie. This feature lets the AI handle the grunt work of editing your photos in one of two ways. The first is AI Inspiration, where the device automatically adjusts brightness, graininess, and exposure with a single click. The second is voice-controlled editing, where you can simply describe the edits you want to make and let the AI do the rest. This feature even supports 20 languages globally, from English and Hindi to Filipino.

There is, however, a catch to all this AI magic. That handy AI Edit Genie is only available for unrestricted use for the first month. Once that period is over, you’re hit with a daily limit of 20 “command retouches.” The limit resets every day, but it’s not cumulative, so you can’t bank your edits for later.

We’ll have more to share about the realme 15 Pro 5G when the local embargo lifts next week. For now, things are looking pretty positive for the brand’s latest mainstream series.

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