realme 15T review – Affordable budget workhorse for Malaysia

realme has been issuing a slew of phones of late and the realme 15T is their latest budget offering that blends a slim design with a bright display, surprisingly loud speakers and a large battery.

Ahead of the official launch, realme graciously issued us a sample for field testing. After taking it for a whirl, here’s our realme 15T review where we share if their latest phone is a worthy upgrade.

realme 15T review – Build and Design

The realme 15T is a budget phone that is priced from RM1,199 and features aesthetics somewhat akin to something issued from Cupertino complete with a distinctive looking camera array arranged in a triangular formation.

@hitechcentury Unboxing the new realme 15T in Flowing Silver! #realme15t #asmr #hitechcentury #fyp #malaysia ♬ original sound – Hitech Century

The phone is available in two colourways for Malaysia – Suit Titanium and Flowing Silver. Our realme 15T review unit is the latter and has a metallic silver finish with a series of vertical silvery streaks that resemble poured metal running all across its polycarbonate backplate. Aesthetics side, the finish is hard-wearing and resists smudges and fingerprints well. 

The chassis itself is also built tough with IP66, IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance. This translates into the realme 15T having the ability to survive in up to 1.5m of water for up to 30 minutes while also being resistant to high pressure jets of water in the unlikely event you encounter such a scenario in daily life. 

As mentioned earlier, the camera housing has three camera housings much in the shape of an Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max’s camera array though this is somewhat of a subterfuge; only one lens housing has an actual camera – a 50MP f/1.8 camera with autofocus is the upper right camera housing while the other two lens housings, are essentially there only for aesthetics.

The right side of our realme 15T review unit features the usual power button and volume rocker. The base has a dual SIM card tray that can also accept a microSD card as well as a USB-C port and a grille for one of the two speakers. Interestingly, the top portion of the phone has an IR blaster, allowing you to control other appliances though the left side is otherwise unremarkable.

Up front, the phone has a flat 6.57-inch AMOLED display with FHD+ (1,080 x 2,372 pixels) resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate and up to 4,000 nits peak brightness for better clarity under direct sunlight.

It also has 2,160Hz PWM dimming to make it less strenuous for extended viewing especially at night. Inset in a small punch hole up top is a single 50MP selfie camera which is among the largest in its price category. Just above the punch hole you also get a tiny slit with an ear piece that also houses the second speaker to form a stereo pair.

What makes the realme 15T compelling for its price point is that it packs a massive 7,000mAh battery – larger than many flagships – while still retaining a relatively slim 7.89mm thickness and weighing just 183g. Interestingly, the Suit Titanium finish is even thinner and lighter at 181g and at 7.79mm thin than the Flowing Silver colourway of our realme 15T review sample which is slightly thicker and heavier. This is presumably on account of the different paint finish.

In addition to the phone itself, the box comes with a USB cable, a bundled free plastic case to protect the phone and an 80W charger too which is considered generous indeed seeing what you pay for.

In terms of overall build quality, our realme 15T review unit is appropriately appointed for its price point. While it does feel somewhat plasticky, it’s sturdily built, light and is comfortable to wield one-handed in addition to being robustly protected from the elements with its IP66, IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance ratings. To be fair, it does resemble something from Cupertino from a distance which makes it appealing for those looking to one-up the neighbours though closer inspection will reveal otherwise.

realme 15T review – Performance and Benchmarks

On the hardware front, our realme 15T review sample comes equipped with a Dimensity 6400 Max 5G octacore processor which is a midrange chipset built on a 6nm process with up to 2.5GHz clock speed. To keep the whole affair cool, the realme 15T also features an 6050mm² AirFlow vapour chamber to vent heat away from the processor.

This is paired with up to 12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB of storage. A variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage is also available in Malaysia for slightly less. Regardless, the realme 15T supports microSD cards for additional storage capacity. Connectivity covers the bases with WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.3

Running under the hood of the realme 15T is Android 15 overlaid with their own realme UI 6.0. On top of the usual support for Google Gemini AI assistant, realme UI 6.0 also has the ability to assign virtual RAM off onboard storage that realme refers to as RAM Extension with your choice of up to 14GB virtual RAM or the option to disable it entirely if you’re running short of space.

According to realme, the phone will get 3 years of OS and 4 years of security updates which isn’t the longest in the industry but is a relatively fair duration seeing its price tag and intended target market.

On that note, realme OS 6.0 still retains a massive amount of bloatware including a slew of games, shortcuts to sites of dubious utility and more. Fortunately, these can be deleted when you first set up the phone. In terms of hardware, our realme 15T review unit comes with the following:

 

Price	RM1,199 (8GB RAM/256GB storage), RM1,299 (12GB RAM/256GB storage)
Display	6.57-inch AMOLED display, 1080 x 2,372 pixels, 120Hz refresh rate, 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 93% screen-to-body ratio, 4,000 nits peak brightness, 2,160Hz PWM dimming
Processor	Dimensity 6400 Max 5G 2.5GHz
OS	Android 15 w/ realme UI 6.0
Memory	12GB LPDDR4X RAM / 256GB storage | 8GB RAM/256GB variant available
Cameras	50MP f/1.8 [rear] / 50MP f/2.4 [front[
Battery	7,000mAh w/ 60W fast charge
Size/Weight	158.36 x 75.19 x 7.79mm / 181g

When subjected to synthetic benchmarks with the full 14GB of virtual RAM Extension, our realme 15T review sample managed to score the following:

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	152
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	152
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme	361
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	354
Geekbench 6 Single Core	649
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	1,811
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	1,405
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	1,413
Geekbench 6 AI (CPU)	1,043
Geekbench 6 AI (GPU)	461
PCMark Work 3.0	11,372
PCMark Battery Life	24 hours 41 min

When considered in practical terms, the phone is an adequate workhorse for what you pay for. The sheer amount of both physical and virtual RAM allows it to run most tasks smoothly, handle web browsing without issue and other general tasks expected of a phone including gaming on low settings.

It’ll comfortably handle PUBG, Call of Duty Mobile and Genshin Impact though it wasn’t able to complete the 3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Stress Test benchmark in field tests and froze halfway several times.

On the bright side, the phone has a decent display that offers good clarity under sunlight thanks to its 4000 nits peak brightness. It’s also sharp and smooth enough for movie watching duties and is responsive enough for casual gaming thanks to its 240Hz touch sampling rate. 

The stereo speakers are somewhat unusual as they have the ability to be cranked up to 300% to almost furniture-shaking volumes, limited only by the modest size of the drivers.

In practice, it’s loud enough to fill a living room with sound and realme has been able to ensure that even when cranked to 300% volume, there’s minimal distortion though bass and detail are understandably reduced in favour of maxing out the mids. In practice, it’s useful for casual movie watching and perhaps listening to your Spotify playlist but it’s no replacement for a dedicated speaker.

In terms of battery life, our realme 15T review sample was able to get an impressive 24 hours and 41 minutes in PC Mark’s battery life test while it managed to last a decent two days with average use texting, a bit of video watching and web browsing along with a few minutes worth of phone calls.

realme 15T review – Cameras

The realme 15T has a relatively well rounded setup with a single 50MP camera on the front and a rear 50MP camera though only the rear camera has autofocus.

Closer inspection reveals that the rear camera allows for 2x lossless zoom by cropping the sensor and up to 10x digital zoom with the ability to capture up to 1080p@60ps video. The front-facing 50MP selfie camera has a mostly similar setup with up to 2x lossless zoom and 1080p@60fps video capture too though it lacks autofocus.

Settings for the rear camera are fairly straightforward with the AI Lighting Effects we first observed for the earlier realme 15 as a selectable option.

With AI Lighting Effects,  you can create hearts or starbursts when shooting at light sources. It’s a fun, whimsical addition that adds some variety of shots but it’s a bit of a one trick pony in this regard and odds are you likely won’t use it beyond a couple of times.

Of greater practical use is AI Edit Genie mode. This is the very same feature that also debuted on the realme 15 that enables you to type in, or better yet, give voice prompts to edit a photo.

 

If you’re stuck ,the AI Edit Genie is even able to suggest what you can edit to improve a shot. It’s surprisingly good and rather than having to tweak a bunch of settings like saturation and brightness, AI Edit Genie manages to handle most of these in a restrained, tasteful manner.

It can’t quite yet generate aggressive modifications like adding in something like a cow playing poker when we tested it in a groupshot but it was able to add snowflakes into an indoor scene and is well worth experimenting with. Best of all, it’s free and baked into the phone.

In terms of results our realme 15T review sample doesn’t break new ground but acquits itself in a competent fashion when capturing shots on the rear camera. If you stick to daylight and up to 2X zoom, you can generally yield decent shots.

When taken for a whirl at the beach and at a beach resort, it managed to offer good detail and colour rendition. In low light, it’s able to enjoy pretty good dynamic range, salvaging a fair amount of detail from shadows and darker spots in shots but external light sources tend to overwhelm the sensor like these green ambient lights that dominated most of the shot.

Closer inspection of night shots also showed very fine details like leaves and foliage smooshed together but the broader details remained intact. A Night mode is also available but doesn’t yield radically different outcomes.

The front camera needs a steady hand and patience but you can get serviceable selfies with it in daylight conditions. The phone also helpfully turns most of the display white to help with getting brighter, clearer mugshots in low light conditions.

In general, it’s sufficient for most casual users but if you’re a content creator or something who needs to take a lot of low light or action shots, you’ll likely need to get something a bit more upmarket.

Should you buy the realme 15T?

The realme 15T is a modestly priced budget workhorse phone with excellent battery life, impressively loud speakers and a vibrant display as well as realme’s unique AI Edit Genie feature to edit photos with just voice prompts alone.

It’s a decent all-rounder for what you pay for and is a sound choice for those who need an affordable, durable phone that handles the basics and handles it well. If you need something with a bit more performance and better cameras, the realme 15 is a slightly more capable choice for RM1,499.

realme 15T review sample courtesy of realme Malaysia. For more details please visit https://www.realme.com/my/realme-15t-5g