Realme 10 Pro review: the Coca-Cola phone! VIDEO

Realme has accustomed us over the last few years to special edition smartphones, and the one we’ve had for testing over the last few weeks has turned out to be one of the most interesting. Somehow, the Chinese manufacturer has managed to convince one of the world’s biggest companies to agree to partner on a special edition of a mid-range phone, and the result is a special package for both collectors of quirkier phones and fans of the Coca-Cola brand. For those in the market for a new smartphone though, choosing the Realme 10 Pro in the Coca-Cola edition is a little harder.

Realme 10 Pro in a special Coca-Cola ‘clothes’ package

A big part of the value of this special edition phone is the bundle. The Coca-Cola edition Relame 10 Pro comes in a special box, much like a collector’s edition of a video game, for example. And the resemblance isn’t chosen at random, as this is one of the few phones that comes shipped with a rather large statuette. Before you get to the phone’s box, when you open the box of this edition of the Realme 10 Pro, you’re first introduced to Realmeow, Realme’s mascot cat, made from a clear plastic that mimics a Coke bottle. We’ve seen other Realmeow statue editions before, and this is by far the most interesting one yet.

The phone’s box also has Coca-Cola lettering all over it, and before you get to the phone, you’re faced with a box that houses several themed stickers, a certificate of authenticity, and the Coca-Cola cap SIM key. And a clear pouch, 33W fast charger and charging cable are found underneath the phone.

Those who have seen a Realme 10 Pro in photos or in real life know what to expect from the special Coke model, however. Aside from the back cover, which is done in dual-tone style with black on one side and the carbonated drink logo on the other, we’re dealing with a pretty standard phone. You’ll most likely want to use it with the bundled case, as that’s the only way to see that this is a special edition and not a regular Realme 10 Pro. Even though we’re talking about a limited edition phone, the materials it’s made from don’t change much: we’ve got plastic on the back and sides, with glass over the screen.

I did like the attention to detail though, with the rings around the cameras being red. Certainly not the “prettiest” special edition phone I’ve seen, but I don’t dislike it either. As long as you’re really a Coca-Cola “fan” and don’t mind advertising the drink for your money, you should be happy with the way this phone looks.

Despite the special edition, the Realme 10 Pro remains a mid-range phone

But I found it very interesting that Realme chose a fairly affordable phone for such a large partnership. Then I realized that Coca-Cola is one of the most popular drinks in the world and is accessible to anyone. So choosing a flagship or even higher mid-range model with a higher price tag for a Coca-Cola edition wouldn’t have made sense.

Having not previously tested the Realme 10 Pro, I was glad to have the opportunity now, and the phone was in tune with expectations. This won’t be a review in great detail, as I’ve done for more complex phones, as this phone isn’t exactly complex either. What we’re dealing with is a decent display, with Full HD+ resolution on an LCD panel at 120 Hz, so fast, but on cheaper technology. The panel quality is good and will be good enough for gaming and videos, but those who are used to OLED panels will miss the perfect shades of black. Curious, given that even Coca-Cola drinks tend towards black. Perhaps at least in the special version, this model should have come with an OLED panel.

The Snapdragon 695 processor is a known quantity. We’ve already seen it on several devices, from the Motorola Edge 30 Neo, to the OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite and the recent Honor Magic5 Lite. It’s a decent average processor, but it comes with a number of limitations. For example, it won’t allow you to run games on high settings, nor will it allow 4K video recording. Its advantages, however, are its low power consumption and the fact that it doesn’t get hot in use. In tests, the Realme 10 Pro in the Coca-Cola edition is within expectations. The user experience is pleasant, the phone is fast enough not to feel sluggish, and most games run great on this device, as long as they are set up correctly.

Benchmarks

• AnTuTu – 418.157
• GeekBench 6 – Single-Core: 894 / Multi-Core: 2,054
• 3DMark Wild Life -1.215
• 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test – Best loop: 1.211 / Lowest loop: 1.206 / Stability: 99.6%
• PCMark – 11.191

Battery life is pretty good too, with a 5,000 mAh battery on hand for a modest setup, you can expect about two days of use per charge. What’s more, fast charging at 33W is very good for this class of mid-range device, with a 50% charge possible in just half an hour. We still have flagships over €1,000 on the market that don’t charge that fast.

I had slightly higher expectations from the custom software experience in Coca-Cola colors, but on this front I can say I’m pretty disappointed. ColorOS with the Coca-Cola icon pack doesn’t look very good, and in the case of many of the icons it’s not quite clear what the app is supposed to describe without reading the name. Some are OK, but most are not. And the dedicated sounds for ringtones, notifications or messages are few in number and fairly generic.

The Coke bottle cap sound seems somewhat muffled. Perhaps a sound more like something out of a commercial would have been a bit more pleasant. This sound is also used for the camera.

Camera

And speaking of the camera, it’s one that doesn’t outgrow its mid-range phone limitations. We’re dealing with a 108-megapixel sensor, something Realme has been offering on its budget phones for a few years now, along with a depth camera. Basically we’re dealing with a single camera that can also zoom via crop. The results are just OK. It feels like we’re dealing with a processor limited in photo processing capabilities and that this is not a photo-focused phone.

By day, the images are decent and even the zoom seems to be good enough to retain much of the detail. At night there’s only the possibility of shooting at 1x. Unfortunately, the lack of stabilization and poor processing leads to noisy results with little detail. I would, however, prefer to have an ultrawide camera at my disposal during the day, rather than a depth camera which does nothing anyway.

Daytime photo

Photo night

Conclusions

The Coca-Cola phone reminds me most of the carbonated drink promotion campaign of the 1990s, when the brand offered pager-e prizes. At the time, all the young people wanted one, even if they weren’t exactly the most powerful handheld devices of the day. In this day and age, it’s unclear whether young people are such big Coca-Cola fans anymore, especially when you consider that attitudes towards sugary drinks have changed recently.

Certainly the Realme 10 Pro Coca-Cola Edition is an interesting “collector’s” device, and a just OK average phone, not exactly impressive. Certainly, the Coca-Cola phone will be a talking point with those you meet, and if you don’t care so much about performance, but rather the level of “coolness”, you might find the Coca-Cola phone even more eye-catching than the newest iPhone. The only disappointing thing, however, is that we don’t know when or if it will arrive in Romania and at what price. Realme representatives in Romania said they don’t have that information yet, at the moment.