realme 16 Pro Review – Budget behemoth with 200MP Portrait Master camera tested

Launched alongside its higher end sibling the realme 16 Pro Plus, the realme 16 Pro is the latest addition to their midrange line-up that blends a large 7,000mAh battery with a vibrant AMOLED display and a flagship-grade 200MP primary camera in a tough IP69K rated chassis. Ahead of launch, realme graciously issued us a unit for testing. 

After taking it for a spin, here’s our realme 16 Pro review where we share if it’s worth the money.

realme 16 Pro Review – Build and Design

realme has taken smartphone design up a notch, teaming up with renowned Japanese design master Naoto Fukasawa to spearhead the aesthetics of their latest designs. Embodying his ‘Without Thought’ philosophy, realme’s latest phones like the GT 8 Pro and the realme 16 Pro series all bear the hallmarks of his inimitable approach to design.

In Malaysia, the realme 16 series is available in a realme 16 Pro model and a higher end realme 16 Pro Plus. Our review sample is the former. When compared side by side, the realme 16 Pro Plus has a slightly larger AMOLED display, has a mostly similar front and rear camera setup save for the inclusion of a larger 50MP telephoto camera to the rear array, a different Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset versus the Dimensity 7300 Max in the non-Pro model and is slightly thicker and heavier. 

Regardless, both the Pro and non Pro model feature IP69K dust and water resistance that can survive in up to 1.5 meters of fresh water for up to 30 minutes and also resist high pressure jets of water and up to 80°C of hot water.

In terms of design, the realme 16 Pro review looks more premium than what its price point would indicate, with the matte Pebble Gray finish of our review sample lending the phone a rather posh look that also repels fingerprints and smudges well. Contrasting with the matte finish is the rear square-shaped camera housing that houses its dual camera setup and an LED flash. 

The phone bears premium looking tweaks to its design with a flat backplate and front along with rounded corners. Up front, our realme 16 Pro review sample features a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with 1,272 x 2,772 pixels resolution and up to a 144Hz refresh rate while featuring up to 6,500 nits  peak brightness.

Of note is the inclusion of 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut for accurate colour rendition. Up top, the phone has a single 50MP camera for selfies and video calls and a slit for the earpiece and one of the two speakers. 

Interestingly, the realme does not mention if the screen has any protective glass to resist scratches and drops though our realme 16 Pro review sample has pre-applied a screen protector to the display.

The rest of its design is fairly standard with a power button and volume rocker on its right. The base features a USB-C port in the base for charging paired with a SIM card tray and a grille for one of the two speakers with the left side and top being otherwise unremarkable.

In addition, realme also throws in a number of additional free gear with the phone including an 80W charger, a USB-C cable, the requisite SIM eject pin, a quick start manual as well as a soft protective casing.

Overall, the realme 16 Pro maximises every aspect of its aesthetics and design to make it posher than it looks while adding in quite a bit of value too with its additional accessories.

realme 16 Pro Review – Specifications and Benchmarks

In terms of hardware, our realme 16 Pro review has a set of hardware that distinctly places it as a midrange design. Powering the phone is a midrange Dimensity 7300 Max 5G octacore processor built on a 4nm process that is a tuned-up version of the original Dimensity 7300 processor that first saw service in 2024. 

Optimised for efficiency, the Dimensity 7300 Max is paired with 12GB LPDDR4X RAm and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage with the option to assign up to 14GB of RAM Expansion virtual RAM off the onboard storage. Alternatively, RAM Expansion can also be disabled entirely to save on storage. Running under the hood is Android 16 overlaid with their own realme UI 7.0 firmware.

Here’s how our realme 16 Pro review sample stacks up on paper:

Price	RM1,599 [256GB], RM1,899 [512GB]
Display	6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, 1,272 x 2,772 pixels, 144Hz refresh rate, 1,400 nits (HBM), 6,500 nits peak brightness, 100% DCI-P3
Processor	Dimensity 7300-Max 5G (4nm)
OS	Android 16 w/ realme UI 7.0
Memory	12GB LPDDR4X RAM / 256GB UFS 3.1 storage [review unit]
Cameras	200MP f/1.8 LumaColor Camera w/ HP5 1/1.56” sensor w/ Dual-axis OIS & Dual-axis EIS + 8MP f/2.2 ultra wide angle camera w/ 112-degree FOV [rear] / 50MP f/2.4 selfie camera [front]
Battery	7,000mAh w/ 80W Super Flash Charge
Size/Weight	162.6 x77.6 x 7.6mm / 192g

Beyond the more obvious hardware, the realme 16 Pro is also issued with an AirFlow VC Cooling vapour chamber that vents heat away from critical sections for sustained high performance. When subjected to synthetic benchmarks, our realme 16 Pro review sample scored the following:

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	349
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	349
3D Mark WildLife Extreme	861
3D Mark WildLife Extreme Unlimited	854
Geekbench 6 Single Core	1004
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	2,930
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	2,493
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	2,491
Geekbench AI (CPU quanticised)	2,082
Geekbench AI (GPU quanticised)	584
PCMark Work 3.0 Performance	13,562
PCMark Battery Life	16 hours 35 mins

From a performance standpoint, our realme 16 Pro review sample with its Dimensity 7300 Max performs in a similar fashion as the older Dimensity 7300+ SoC that powers the realme 15 that was launched last year.

The Dimensity 7300 Max has a maximum 2.8Hz clock speed; slightly faster than the 2.5GHz clock speed of the Dimensity 7300+ though both performed in a similar fashion in benchmarks, putting it squarely as a midrange phone. 

While you’d expect underwhelming performance, the phone and its new realme UI 7.0 firmware has the addition of realme’s Flux optimisation engine that relies on chip-level dynamic frame generation to offer faster app scrolling and faster navigation to make the whole affair look and feel smoother. 

In practical tests, the phone ran in a pleasantly smooth fashion and web browsing on Chrome as well as apps opened fast with smooth multitasking thanks to the generous amount of RAM and relatively efficient processor, making it a good everyday phone. Games like Genshin Impact were also possible on default settings and the phone even supports bypass charging for extended gaming sessions which helps mitigate battery wear and tear over time. 

Unfortunately, it only has one USB-C port that gets in the way when held in landscape mode but that doesn’t detract from what is otherwise a decent phone for impromptu gaming sessions.

Despite improvements, realme UI 7.0 still has significant amounts of bloatware baked in including realme’s own app market, Agoda, LinkedIn Shopee and a bunch of other erroneous apps of dubious utility. 

On the bright side, the phone has all the usual Android 16 embellishments including Google Gemini and Circle to Search with Google as well as realme’s own AI Edit Genie that enables you to edit photos with a written or spoken prompt.

In terms of screen quality, the 6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED display in our realme 16 Pro review sample offered up vibrant, punchy colours onscreen with good detail even under day light conditions. The stereo speakers flanking the display were able to be cranked up to maximum volume without distortion and offered up a fair amount of detail, making the realme 16 Pro a decent means to catch up on your Netflix backlog on the go.

When it comes to endurance, our realme 16 Pro review unit offered modest endurance, averaging out to slightly less than the realme 15 which has a closely related Dimensity 7300+ chipset and a similarly sized battery. In PCMark’s battery life test, it scored a fair 16 hours and 35 minutes which offers a fair full day or so of usage.

realme 16 Pro review – Cameras

For imaging duties, our realme 16 Pro review sample comes with a quaint dual camera setup built around a primary 200MP f/1.8 main camera with a large 1/1.56” sensor that comes with optical image stabilisation and electronic image stabilisation.

This is paired with a modest 8MP f/2.2 ultra wide angle camera. Combined, this setup allows for 4x zoom via sensor crop and up to 30x digital zoom for stills with the ability to capture up to 4K@30fps video with up to 10x digital zoom. Up front, you have a 50MP f/2.4 camera for selfies and 4K@30fps video.

In daytime conditions, the primary 200MP camera is able to deliver good detail and colour rendition out to about 4x zoom and even manages to deliver a decent job in dim light conditions.

However, the ultra  wide angle camera offers noticeably different results and occasionally gets overexposed in environments with high dynamic range while offering dimmer results in low light. You’ll yield the best results if you stick to the main camera and between 1x to 4x zoom.

If you stick to the main camera between 1x to 4x zoom, you’ll yield the best results for most snaps and it acquits itself well for most shots including scenery, food and portraiture.

Videos are otherwise decent for social media and the TikTok video or two but aren’t the realme 16 Pro’s forte.

 

Should you buy the realme 16 Pro?

The realme 16 Pro is a well-rounded midrange phone with a large display, solid performance for a midrange phone and capable cameras for everyday use, all wrapped in a durable IP69K-rated chassis.

At the time of writing, realme has yet to confirm official pricing for Malaysia, though it is expected to retail below RM2,500. In India, our test configuration is priced at ₹40,999 (around RM1,800), which gives a rough indication of where it may land locally.

If it launches closer to that lower price point, the realme 16 Pro is an easy recommendation and well worth considering as an everyday workhorse phone with the added bonus of a rather premium looking design that belies its intended price point.

[Update] At the official launch, realme revealed that the price of our realme 16 Pro review unit with 256GB storage was RM1,599 with the 512GB variant retailing for RM1,899. At this price point, it’s a fair bargain for what it offers.

realme 16 Pro review sample courtesy of realme Malaysia. For more details please visit https://www.realme.com/my/