Realme X3 Superzoom review - Come for the cameras, stay for the rest - Android

Our Realme X3 Superzoom review reveals whether it's actually possible to deliver a 5x periscope zoom on a budget.

Realme, the fledgling Oppo sub-brand within the BBK Electronics empire, is on the boil. The company has launched some showstoppers like the X2 Pro alongside more than a few gap-fillers since it appeared a little over two years ago. The X3 Superzoom is the company’s latest entry, this time taking on the mid-range multi-camera competition head first.

Realme, like OnePlus before it, leverages BBK’s economies of scale to deliver the enviable specs sheets it does. In the X3 Superzoom’s case, it also looks to benefit from the pioneering R&D work Oppo has done with periscope cameras. But cheap components and borrowed R&D don’t necessarily guarantee success. Let’s dive in.

This is the Realme X3 Superzoom review.

How good are the Realme X3 Superzoom cameras?

As we know, kickass specs sheets don’t always pan out to great performance in reality. The Realme X3 Superzoom looks to have the camera goods on paper. A 64MP main sensor (the same Samsung GW1 found on the Realme X2 Pro), plus an ultra-wide, macro, and 5x optical zoom sound great. Unfortunately, the results are a bit of a mixed bag.

I did get some impressive shots with the X3 Superzoom's cameras, but not always.

I did get some impressive shots with the X3 Superzoom’s cameras, but not always. Some photos were as good as I’d expect from a more expensive camera while others ended up a muddy, noisy mess. Inconsistency is perhaps the Superzoom cameras’ greatest flaw. White balance will be perfect across all lenses at one moment and wildly variable the next, as you can see in the two sequences below.