realme launched the realme 16 Pro+, the company’s latest smartphone in the number series, in India this week, brining back the Pro+ model this year which gets a curved screen, and periscope telephoto camera along with a new 200MP camera. However, this retains the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, and the 7000mAh battery.
Is this the best camera and multi-media-centric smartphone to buy in the Rs. 40,000 range? Let us dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- realme 16 Pro+ 12GB + 256GB in Master Gold color
- Protective case
- 80W SuperVOOC Charger
- USB Type-A to Type-C Charger
- SIM Ejector tool
- User manual and warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
The realme 16 Pro+ sports a 6.8-inch (1280 x 2800 pixels) 1.5K curved AMOLED display from BOE with up to 144Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling rate and 453 PPI. 144Hz works in some stock apps, and otherwise it mostly stays in 120Hz.
The display is bright since it has HBM or outdoor brightness of up to 1800 nits, so the sunlight legibility is good, and peak brightness or HDR brightness is up to 6500 nits. You can select lowest allowed brightness, which is useful in dark room which you want the display not to be bright.
It offers good colour output since it has 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. You can select from vivid, Natural, Cinematic, and Brilliant screen colour modes. The phone has AI eye comfort function, and DC Dimming. The phone also has HDR 10 support, which works for YouTube, and Netflix.
The phone doesn’t have a notification LED, but this has an always-on-display that shows contextual info and notifications all day or as per schedule. The phone has 1.48mm ultra narrow side bezels and 1.72mm bottom bezel. It has X-axis linear vibration motor. There is Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protection for the screen.
The phone has a tiny punch-hole that houses a new 50-megapixel camera. Above the display, there is an earpiece on the top edge that doubles up as a secondary speaker. It has an in-display optical fingerprint scanner.
Coming to the button placements and ports, the power button is present on the right side along with the volume rockers. There is nothing on the left. The Dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and the loudspeaker grill are present on the bottom. The secondary microphone is on the top, along with a speaker vent, and the IR blaster is present on the back of the phone in the camera deco.
The side plastic frame has a glossy finish which is prone to fingerprints. Wish it had a metal frame, which is now available in some models in the price range.
The phone has Urban Wild Design inspired by the pure tactility of nature—from river-polished stones to waves of golden wheat. The Master Gold & Master Grey feature Eco-Friendly, Skin-Soft Bio-based Organic Silicon which feels smooth to touch and is premium.
It also comes in Master Gray derived from the smooth, muted sheen of river pebbles. There is India-only Camellia Pink that is inspired by the flower, symbolizing purity and renewal.
The model we have is 8.49mm thick, and the Pink version is slightly thinner at 8.09mm. Even though the phone packs a 7000mAh battery, it weighs 203 grams, and the weight distribution is good. It comes with an IP66 / IP68 / IP69 / IP69K ratings, which means it offers the highest level of water and dust resistance, can even withstand extreme high-pressure water jets (8–10 MPa), Extreme Temperature (80°C) and is resistant to 36 liquids.
Camera
- 200MP main camera with 1/1.56″ HP5 sensor, OIS, f/1.8 aperture
- 8MP ultra-wide camera with 1/4″ OV08D10 sensor, f/f/2.2 aperture
- 50MP 3.5x periscope telephoto camera with 1/2.75″ JN5 sensor
- 50MP front-facing camera with 1/2.88″ OV50D40 sensor
The camera UI in the realme UI 7 is familiar. There is Vibe mode, Panorama, Film, Slo-mo, Time-Lapse, Dual-View video, Underwater mode text scanner, and tilt-shift. The rear camera offers 14.6MP output after pixel binning, and the front camera images are also 14.6MP in size.
Daylight shots came out well, thanks to the new 200MP sensor, and LumaColor IMAGE tech. The dynamic range is better with auto HDR. There is AI landscape mode which recognizes different photo scenes and automatically adjusts camera settings to make boost the colours. There is no macro mode, but 2x macro shots from the main camera is decent. You also get 200MP Hi-res mode.
Portrait shots are good with plenty of details, and there is 3.5x and 4x zoom options as well. It offers up to 120x zoom, and the quality of the image might not be the best when you zoom in beyond 30x. The ultra-wide camera is decent in daylight, but it’s just 8MP so you can’t expect much. Low light shots are good as well, and the night mode is useful. The periscope telephoto camera does a good job when it comes to zoomed shots. The front camera is good as well with crisp images, since it uses a 50MP sensor, and the portrait shots from the front camera are good as well.
Check out the camera samples
It can record videos at up to 4K 60 fps from the font and rear cameras, and there is slow motion 1080p at 120fps. Portrait video mode is limited to 1080p 30fps. There is also ultra-steady video shooting at 4K 30 fps, and the phone also comes with HDR support from the main camera and telephoto camera at 4K 60fps. OIS does a good job for the rear camera.
Software, UI and Apps
The realme 16 Pro+ runs Android 16 based realme UI 7.0 out of the box. It has Android security patch for November 2025. The phone will get 3 Android updates and 4 years of security updates.
There is Light Glass Design, and adds several AI features such as AI Notify Brief, AI Framing Master, AI Gaming Coach, AI translate, AI Camera, AI Smart Loop, Flux Theme 2.0 and more.
There is AI Ultra Clarity, AI Eraser, AI Glare remover, and AI Perfect Shot, and more.
Apart from the usual set of realme apps and Google apps, it comes with several preloaded apps such as Netflix, Snapchat, LinkedIn, PhonePe and more. These apps can be uninstalled, but come back once the phone is reset. There are also Hot Apps and Hot Games. Since it has an IR blaster, you get IR remote feature.
Out of 12GB LPDDR5X RAM, you get 10.98GB of usable RAM, and about 7GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. It also has DRE or dynamic RAM expansion feature, which uses the built-in storage as RAM. This has up to 14GB of additional RAM expansion. Out of 256GB UFS 3.1, you get about 218.18GB of free storage.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
It has an in-display fingerprint sensor that unlocks the phone quickly, but it is not as fast as a physical fingerprint sensor. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. You can also use the fingerprint for app local and payments in apps. Furthermore, you can change the fingerprint animation and also disable it, and also enable quick launch option to launch apps directly from the lock screen by holding the fingerprint. The phone also has face unlock feature.
Music and Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default Music Player. It has customizable Smart, Movie, Game and Music modes, but doesn’t have Dolby Atmos. It doesn’t have FM Radio support. Audio through the stereo speakers is good without any distortion even in full volume. Audio through earphones is good as well.
This has Widevine L1, so you can play HD content on Netflix and other streaming apps. HDR works for YouTube and Netflix.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
The realme 16 Pro+ has support for 5G SA and NSA n1/n3/n5/n8/n28B/n40/n41/n77/n78 Network Bands in India. It has 4G Wi-Fi and VoLTE, with support for Carrier Aggregation. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6 802.11 ax (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.4, GPS / GLONASS / Beidou. It has OTG support, doesn’t have NFC support. Moving on, the call quality is good, and we did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume was loud. It has stock dialer with call recording support.
The realme 16 Pro+’s body SAR is 0.690W/Kg and head SAR is at 1.192/Kg, which is well under the limit of 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g) in India.
Performance and Benchmarks
The phone is powered by Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 Mobile Platform, which is same as the realme 15 Pro. This has 1 x 2.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A720 prime core, 3 x A720 performance cores at up to 2.4 GHz, and 4 x Cortex-A520 efficiency cores at up to 1.84 GHz.
There is Adreno 722 GPU offers good gaming performance and promises 30% faster GPU graphic renderings, compared to the 7 Gen 3. The phone has a AirFlow VC Cooling to help keep the phone cool. We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD, BGMI and Genshin Impact.
In BGMI HDR Ultra works. There is 120 fps gaming in mainstream games, and there is GT Boost technology. The AI gaming coach uses AI to analyse games and offers assistance through voice or notifications.
In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 93.5% which is good. The temperature increased from 32 to 41 degrees, which is decent. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
It scored 1465721 points in AnTuTu Benchmark 11.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 7000mAh (typical) built-in Titan battery, same as the predecessor. It lasts for a whole day even with heavy use.
I got a 9 hours of screen on time with close to 2 days of use, mostly on Wi-Fi, and occasional 5G use in 144Hz, which is impressive. This has 80W SuperVOOC Charge. It can charge up to 50% in less than half an hour and up to 100% in less than an hour with the bundled 80W charger, which is good.
There is smart charging and an option to stop charging at 80% to improve the battery health. However, this doesn’t show the battery health. This also has bypass charging when gaming, so the charging current bypasses the battery to go straight to the motherboard, so it doesn’t affect the battery.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 39,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model, the realme 16 Pro+ is a costly upgrade if you look strictly at the performance metrics, given that it retains the older Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset from the 15 Pro. However, realme has attempted to justify the premium by focusing heavily on “experience” rather than just raw speed.
The return of the periscope telephoto camera is the headline feature here, offering zoom capabilities added with a 200MP main camera that are rare in this segment. Combined with a stunning 1.5K 144Hz curved display, incredible IP69K durability, eye-catching design, and a massive 7000mAh battery that easily delivers two-day battery life, the phone excels as a daily driver for multimedia consumption and travel.
That said, it isn’t perfect. The 8MP ultra-wide camera is a bit underwhelming for a phone costing over Rs. 40K, and the decision to stick with the same SoC means it faces stiff competition from rivals that might offer better raw performance for gamers.
If you are looking for a premium mid-range smartphone that prioritizes battery endurance, premium design, versatile zoom photography, and display quality over having the absolutely fastest processor, the realme 16 Pro+ is a compelling option—especially if you can grab it at the effective price with bank offers.
Pricing and availability
The realme 16 Pro+ is priced at Rs. 39,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model, 8GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 41,999, 12GB + 256GB costs Rs. 44,999. There is Rs. 4000 bank offer, which makes the effective starting price Rs. 35,999.
It will be available for purchase from Flipkart, realme.com and across offline stores starting from January 9th.
Alternatives
The vivo T4 Ultra that also has an periscope telephoto camera is a good competitor. Nothing Phone 3a Pro is also a good alternative with a telephoto camera.
Pros
- 144Hz curved AMOLED display is brilliant
- Smooth performance
- Good cameras
- Good build quality, IP69K ratings
- Excellent battery life with fast charging
Cons
- Same old SoC is not on par with competitors in the range
- 8MP ultra-wide camera is average