This week, realme officially introduced its new number series in the Philippines, and this time, the focus is squarely on giving you a top-notch experience without burning a hole in your wallet.

The realme 15 Pro 5G, in particular, promises improved specs across the board, with everything from the curved AMOLED display, the chipset, and the battery, to the front and rear cameras all getting an upgrade. That sounds about right, as this series doesn’t have a “Pro Plus” model. The realme 15 Pro 5G is now the brand’s top-tier offering, effectively replacing the realme 14 Pro Plus 5G from the last generation. It’s available now with a limited-time introductory price, starting at P20,999 (around $368) for the 12GB/256GB base configuration we tested. The 12GB/512GB variant is priced as low as P23,999 ($420) for a limited time.

SEE ALSO: realme 15 Pro 5G, realme 15 5G debut in PH with P18,999 ($334) starting price

As the torchbearer for the lineup, there’s a lot of pressure on the realme 15 Pro 5G to deliver. And we’re here to tell you if it does.

A return to form

Right off the bat, the realme 15 Pro 5G feels like a deliberate step back in time — but in a positive way. While its most recent predecessors sported a circular camera module on the back, this smartphone has a distinctly different look. The company has ditched the circular design and gone with a rectangular one, which will immediately feel familiar to anyone who remembers the realme 9 Pro Series. The throwback extends to the Velvet Green colorway, too, which is a clear nod to the 9 Pro’s vibrant green variant.

But that’s where the similarities end. The realme 15 Pro 5G swaps out the usual plastic back for a soft, comfortable faux-leather finish. This material subtly curves into the phone’s reinforced frame, making it a joy to hold. The craftsmanship here is impressive. The faux-leather seamlessly wraps even around the camera bump — a detail you don’t often see on a midrange offering. If you prefer a more classic feel, the Flowing Silver variant comes with a fiberglass back.

The camera module itself offers some interesting tricks. It features two LED flashes — a standard white flash and an orange-yellow one. realme says they work together to produce more natural-looking skin tones, especially in dim environments, though the results vary depending on how close your subject is to the flash.

More notably, there’s a large, circular LED ring light that doubles as a customizable notification light. You can set it to a single color, a mix of colors, or even have it on all the time — at least until the battery gives out. It’s a neat party trick, perfectly aligning with the smartphone’s “AI Party Phone” theme.

Still, the biggest shocker isn’t the flashy lights or the fact that this device is rated IP66, IP68, and IP69, which means it can survive being submerged in two meters of water for 30 minutes.

What’s truly wild is that despite packing a massive 7,000mAh battery, the realme 15 Pro 5G is about the same size and weight as its predecessor. The Velvet Green version is a hair thicker at 7.84mm compared to the 7.79mm Flowing Silver variant, and both weigh in at a perfectly normal 187 grams. It doesn’t feel like a brick, which is an impressive feat for a phone with a battery this big. The curved display also helps keep the profile slim, with gentle curves on all four sides. The brand even threw in an IR blaster on the top edge — a potential lifesaver if you’re always losing your TV remote.

The improved AMOLED display is another standout feature here. It’s incredibly bright, hitting a high maximum brightness of 1,800 nits and a peak brightness of 6,500 nits. The 1.5K resolution makes everything look razor-sharp, and with over a billion colors and HDR10 Plus support, you get beautiful HDR streaming on YouTube and Netflix. You can also enable the Pro XDR toggle to make HDR work in your photo gallery. An optical fingerprint scanner is tucked under the panel, and it can even double as a heart-rate sensor.

While the screen is rated for a 144Hz refresh rate, it’s worth noting that it will only hit 120Hz in most apps. Only a few system apps, like the Calculator and Compass, can be manually set to 144Hz. Browsers, social apps, and, crucially, games are capped at 120Hz. Oh, and the panel is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, so it’s built to resist scratches and minor bumps, too.

For audio, the earpiece and a top-facing speaker work together for a stereo setup, with the other channel on the bottom next to the USB-C port and dual-SIM tray. The speakers get reasonably loud and offer above-average quality. Unfortunately, you won’t find eSIM support or a microSD card slot for expandable storage, but that’s a tradeoff we’ve come to expect.

AI-powered photography

The tagline for the realme 15 Series 5G is “Live real in every shot,” and this Pro lives up to it, especially for travelers who love using their phone’s ultrawide and front cameras. From crisp wide-angle and low-light photos to 4K video at 60 frames per second on every single lens, this realme has you covered. The Pro model raises the bar with not one, but three 50-megapixel sensors — one for the main camera, one for the ultrawide, and one up front for selfies. This is a big leap from the previous generation’s single 50-megapixel shooter.

The main camera is a Sony IMX896 sensor with optical image stabilization, while two Omnivision OV50D sensors handle both the ultrawide and selfie duties. And while the OV50D lacks OIS, it does have electronic image stabilization or EIS, which should be enough to keep your shots steady, even when shooting in 4K. Take note that the ultrawide doesn’t have autofocus, so it’s not the right tool for those macro or closeup shots.

The realme 15 Pro 5G doesn’t have a dedicated telephoto camera, but that’s not a dealbreaker. You can get decent results using the primary camera for 2x or even 5x zoom, and the digital zoom range goes all the way up to 20x. The main camera also handles portrait shots, and it does a fantastic job of it.

Sample shots

The initial set of sample photos we included in our hands-on

Selfies are solid as well. They have natural-looking colors, preserve facial details, and maintain good exposure in challenging lighting. Additionally, realme equipped the front-facing camera with a wide lens, so you can tap the 0.8x toggle in the viewfinder to get more of the background or more people in your shot.

It’s also worth giving realme a shoutout for something not a lot of other companies can pull off: The colors and white balance are pretty consistent across all three usable lenses. This means you get a uniform look no matter which lens you’re shooting with.

For low-light shooting, the realme 15 Pro 5G performs admirably. It delivers clean, detailed images with a wide dynamic range and bright shadows. In some cases, the colors can appear a little oversaturated and oversharpened, but some people (including us sometimes) actually prefer that look, so it’s hard to complain too much.

And while having three 50-megapixel sensors in this price segment is great, realme is putting a much bigger emphasis on the phone’s AI capabilities. The realme 15 Pro 5G ships with some genuinely useful features like AI Smart Remover 2.0, which we found to have an effective person-recognition algorithm that effortlessly zaps unwanted objects from your photos. There’s also AI Party mode, which uses a trio of algorithms to improve skin tone and make subjects more visible in low-light scenes, such as dimly lit bars and restaurants.

Sample AI Edit Genie-generated images. Added: dog and Superman

Perhaps the most interesting new addition is AI Edit Genie. realme describes it as “an industry-first voice-led photo-editing feature,” and it’s what really sets this smartphone apart from other editing tools out there. It takes voice commands and even supports 20 languages, including English, Hindi, and Filipino.

We played around with AI Edit Genie and were genuinely impressed with what it can do, especially with simple voice prompts that require it to add or superimpose another object onto a photo. Whether the results look convincing is another matter, but considering the feature is still in its infancy, it’s a solid start. You can also use AI Edit Genie to enhance a picture by simply tapping the light-bulb icon in the bottom-right corner. It’s fine for quick, simple edits, like making colors pop in a landscape shot or turning a dull overcast into a vibrant blue sky.

Power plus efficiency

The realme 15 Pro 5G is powered by the new 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset. In the Philippines, this chip is paired with 12GB of physical RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of non-expandable storage. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 features an updated Kryo CPU with a 1+4+3 configuration, led by a Cortex-A20 prime core running at 2.8GHz, alongside four performance Cortex-720 cores at 2.4GHz and three efficiency Cortex-520 cores at 1.8GHz. Qualcomm claims a 27% faster CPU performance and a 30% GPU boost over the previous generation.

In terms of artificial intelligence, the updated Hexagon NPU offers a claimed 65% boost in AI tasks and brings generative AI capabilities, like running Stable Diffusion 1.5 locally. We managed to get a couple of CPU-based AI models running on our unit, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to get any NPU-based models working.

Benchmarks-wise, the realme 15 Pro 5G is a capable performer. It scores near the top of its price bracket, even getting close to some sub-flagship chips. Running Antutu Benchmark, our device achieved more than 1 million points.

In real-world use, this handset soars through the most demanding tasks. App launches are instant, thanks in part to the slick optimizations in the Android 15-based realme UI 6.0 overlay. Games load quickly, and navigating the interface is butter-smooth. Multitasking, even with multiple apps loaded in the background alongside social media, Chrome, and Gmail, proved to be mostly hiccup-free. We had no trouble running demanding games like Genshin Impact, Destiny: Rising, and GRID: Autosport with all the graphics settings maxed out at 30 FPS or higher.

Meanwhile, the large 7,000mm² vapor chamber does a great job of keeping the heat manageable, and our benchmarks back this up. Not only did our unit remain warm and never unpleasantly hot after an hour of gaming, but in 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme and Solar Bay stress tests — which are designed to push the chipset to its limits — it recorded a near-perfect score of 99% in both tests. This is a rarity for any phone, regardless of its price point, and it highlights how efficiently the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 performs under heavy load. In the CPU Throttling Test, the handset maintained 72% of its maximum performance after a grueling 30-minute run.

Other benchmarks

Now, let’s talk endurance. In the PCMark battery-rundown test, with the screen at half brightness and the refresh rate set to auto, the realme 15 Pro 5G clocked in at 19 hours and 30 minutes. That’s the highest mark we’ve seen all year from a midranger. The efficiency of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 definitely plays a big part, but the giant 7,000mAh cell obviously helps, too. In our real-world use — which included a healthy mix of social media, streaming, web browsing, and plenty of gaming — we consistently squeezed two days of battery life from a single charge.

When it’s finally time to top up, the realme 15 Pro 5G supports 80-watt SUPERVOOC fast charging. Using the bundled charger and cable, our unit was able to charge the battery completely in just 65 minutes, with 70% achieved in just 30 minutes. That’s an absolutely incredible charging speed for a battery you’d normally only see in a small tablet.

Final thoughts

Overall, the realme 15 Pro 5G is a smartphone that just makes sense. It brings a combination of features you’d normally expect to find on a flagship — a massive 7,000mAh battery, unbelievably fast charging, and a surprisingly capable camera with some cool AI tricks — and puts them all in a well-built, reasonably priced package, especially if you can get it at a discount.

While it might have a few quirks, those are easy to overlook when you consider the whole picture. With its premium design, powerful and efficient performance, and a battery that simply refuses to die, this phone is well worth a look. It’s a compelling all-rounder that proves you don’t need to spend a fortune — or a “Pro Plus” branding — to get a truly top-notch experience.

realme 15 Pro 5G specs

• 6.8-inch curved-edge OLED display, 1.5K resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, 6,500 nits peak brightness
• 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 5G chipset
• Adreno 722 GPU
• 12GB LPDDR4X RAM
• 256GB/512GB UFS 3.1 storage
• Dual 50-megapixel main, 50-megapixel ultrawide rear cameras
• 50-megapixel front camera
• Under-display fingerprint reader
• 7,000mAh battery with 80-watt fast charging
• realme UI 6.0 based on Android 15
• IP69 rating
• Colors: Flowing Silver, Velvet Green

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