Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 Review: The premium gaming laptop experience

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 is a very enticing gaming laptop. It offers a high-end gaming laptop experience at a very reasonable budget. The combination of the 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700HX and the NVIDIA RTX 4050 is enough to handle most modern games with ease at high settings. This is paired with a bright 165 Hz WUXGA IPS display, great overall build quality, a decent keyboard, and surprisingly decent battery life as well, for a gaming laptop, that is. At Rs.1,24,990, we certainly wouldn't call this a cheap or a budget gaming laptop, but we can very confidently say that you're getting the best bang for your buck. 

 

The new Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 sits in between Acer's high-end Predator lineup and the budget Nitro lineup. With the Nitro lineup, Acer usually opts for fewer features, comparatively weaker build quality and entry-level gaming hardware. On the other hand, the Predator lineup comes with all the frills, great build quality and displays, and top-end hardware. With the new Predator Helios Neo 16, Acer is hoping to fill the gap with a laptop that compromises on some of the frills but offers top-end hardware at a reasonable budget.

The variant we're reviewing comes with a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700HX paired with the new NVIDIA RTX 4050 Laptop GPU. There are 13th Gen Core i5 variants and variants with higher-end GPUs as well, including the RTX 4060 and 4070. Moreover, all the GPUs are configured with the highest TGP values so you're getting all the juice out of them. Considering the specs on board, at an asking price of Rs.1,24,990, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 is not a bad deal on paper, but is it actually worth your money? Read the complete review to find out.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 - Build and Design

Let's start things off with the build and design. The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 doesn't scream gamer like the Nitro does, but it definitely looks the part of a gaming laptop. Some might appreciate the more muted gamer aesthetic, especially if they use the laptop in more professional work settings.

The laptop is matte black in colour overall, with turquoise accents. The same turquoise can also be seen around the borders of the WASD, and arrow keys. In the centre of the lid, you have a glossy Predator logo. It's not lit up or anything, and it's actually pretty hard to see clearly on the matte black. Similarly, you also have a bunch of cryptic numbers and crosshairs on the side of the lid, along with a grid on the other side. This is actually a puzzle that Acer has put on the lid, which if you solve it, you can reach out to Acer for a reward apparently.

Coming to the build quality, Acer has opted for a mix of aluminium and plastic for the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16. The display lid is made out of metal and is very sturdy, while the rest of the body features plastic. The mix of plastic and metal makes sense if you consider what Acer is going for, and we honestly can't fault the build quality at all, save for the display which flexes more than we'd like. That said, the display itself remains very stable and sturdy with close-to-zero wobble.

The laptop features a 16-inch display and weighs around 2.6 kg, which is a bit on the heavier side as far as gaming laptops are concerned. Then again, you are getting a slightly larger than-usual display with this laptop as well.

The Predator Helios Neo 16 features chiclet keys, much like the kind that are present in the Nitro series of gaming laptops. We've mentioned in the past that we quite like the feel of the Nitro's keyboard, and that still stands. There's decent travel and feedback which makes for a good overall experience when using the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16's keyboard. You get 4-zone RGB lighting for the keyboard, but no per-key lighting which is reserved for higher-end Predator laptops, but RGB is a small sacrifice to make when cutting costs. The touchpad is slightly off-centre towards the left, which prevents the touchpad from getting in the way of typing too much. However, you're probably going to use a mouse while gaming and will be disabling the touchpad entirely. If you do need to use it in a pinch, the touchpad is accurate enough.

I/O options

The Acer Predator Helios 16 has a great selection of I/O port offerings. You've got two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI 2.1 port and a charging port behind the laptop's display. On the left side of the laptop, you have the RJ45 ethernet port, a USB-A port, a microSD card reader and a 3.5 mm combo port. On the right-hand side, you have two more USB-A and a Kensington lock. We couldn't have asked for a better selection of I/O offerings at this price range.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 - Display

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 comes with two display variants, 1920x1200 and 2560x1600  resolutions. As you can see, these are 16:10 aspect ratio displays, so you have a little more screen to work with. The variant we received came with a WUXGA or 1920x1200 display. Despite being the cheaper of the two display options, you still get around 400 nits of peak brightness which is great; we tested an average of around 382 nits. Additionally, you get close to 100 per cent sRGB coverage, we tested 99.6 per cent, and 83.2 per cent DCI-P3 coverage, which is great. That makes the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 a pretty solid laptop for your content creation needs as well.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 - Thermals

The Acer Predator Neo 16 performs exceptionally in the thermals department, especially if you consider this is a gaming laptop. Not only do the temps remain low, but even the noise is also lower than average as well. The highest temperature we recorded was the CPU, which peaked at around 70 degrees Celsius during the stress test. Both the CPU and GPU in the Acer Predator Neo 16 use Acer's AeroBlade 3D fans for cooling, and they both share six heat pipes. While the bottom of the laptop can get pretty warm, surface temps stay around the 25-degree mark for the most part, such as around the palm and touchpad, except for the WASD cluster which hits 32 degrees Celsius and the centre of the laptop which goes to around 36 degrees Celsius. 

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 - Performance

With that, we come to the performance. As we mentioned in the intro, Acer hasn't held back with the hardware in the Neo 16, so we've got the latest 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700HX paired with the new NVIDIA RTX 4050. While the RTX 4050 is the lowest-end variant in the new RTX 40 series lineup, it's certainly no slouch and is comparable to the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU when it comes to gaming performance. 

Starting things off with the synthetic GPU benchmarks ala 3DMark, we're comparing the 4050 with one of our best-performing 3060 laptops from last year, the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 16IAH7 which also features a 12th gen Core i7.

You can see that the 4050 beats the 3060 in just about every 3DMark benchmark save a few, where the scores are very close.

Coming to productivity, for which we use the PCMark 10 benchmark, we're once again comparing the same two laptops, this time pitting the 13th Gen Core i7-13700HX in the Predator Helios Neo 16 with the 12th Gen Core i7-12700H in the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3.

No surprises here, the newer processor wins out. Coming to the Cinebench R23 benchmark, we found that the single-thread performance in both processors is very similar, however the Core i7-13700HX inches ahead of the Core i7-12700H in multi-thread performance.

The trend continues in our encryption and decryption benchmarks as well, for which we use WinRAR and 7-Zip, where the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 is leagues ahead.

RAM

The Neo 16 comes with 16GB of DDR5 memory clocked at 4800 MT/s with support for up to 32GB. We tested RAM speeds using the AIDA64 memory benchmark, and it's certainly among the speedier RAMs we've tested this year.

Storage

This continues with the NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD storage onboard as well, which is among the fastest in the price segment. We saw read speeds close to 7000 MB/s and write speeds around the 5000 MB/s mark during the CrystalDiskMark NVMe SSD benchmark.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 - Gaming performance

Finally, we come to real-world gaming performance. We use a mix of both GPU and CPU-intensive games to gauge how well the Acer Predator Helio Neo 16 performs in real-world gaming. As we mentioned at the start of this section, the RTX 4050 certainly holds its own. We're once again comparing it with the RTX 3060 in the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3.

 

The RTX 4050 outperforms the RTX 3060 in every single gaming benchmark. Clearly, the RTX 4050 is the new best entry-level gaming laptop GPU. Of course, this specific combination in the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 is fantastic and should have no trouble handling any modern title you throw at it, at least for the coming year.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 - Verdict

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 is a very enticing gaming laptop. It offers a high-end gaming laptop experience at a very reasonable budget. You may miss out on a few features here and there, but honestly, who needs per-key RGB lighting or an OLED display when you're getting top-of-the-line hardware onboard? The combination of the 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700HX and the NVIDIA RTX 4050 is enough to handle most modern games with ease at high settings. Both the processor and GPU scored fantastically in our benchmarks, and this is paired with a bright 165 Hz WUXGA IPS display, great overall build quality, a decent keyboard, and surprisingly decent battery life as well, for a gaming laptop, that is. At Rs.1,24,990, we certainly wouldn't call this a cheap or a budget gaming laptop, but we can very confidently say that you're getting the best bang for your buck. 

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JioPhone 5G leaks: Could this be the phone that bridges our digital divide

JioPhone 5G images leak, giving us a close look at one of the most anticipated 5G smartphones. Besides the JioPhone 5G’s design, we also learn about its possible price and launch timeline. The leak comes from a Twitter handle @ArpitNahiMila who seems to have got hold of the device and reveals some of the aforementioned details. Come, have a look:

JioPhone 5G design and details leaked

On the back of the phone, there is the Jio logo in the middle and a vertical pill-shaped camera island. Within the camera panel, we see the 13MP sensor mentioned. Arpit adds there will be a 2MP secondary sensor too.

The back also has got the 5G branding and the phrase, “ultimate speed, unlimited experiences”.

On the other side, we see a waterdrop notch display. As per previous rumours, this could be a 6.5-inch LCD panel. Arpit claims there is a 5MP selfie shooter inside that cutout.

On the screen, we see the results of a 5G speed test. The download speed is shown to be 470.17 Mbps and the upload speed is 34.25 Mbps.

JioPhone 5G is said to be running on a Unisoc processor or the MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset. This could be coupled with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

Also Read: TRAI on promotional calls: Airtel, Jio, Vi, BSNL must build platform for user opt-in

The software could be Pragati OS (based on Android) co-developed with Google. It will have Google Cloud support. 

For unlocking the device, we may get a side-mounted fingerprint reader.

JioPhone 5G launch date and price

The leaker predicts JioPhone 5G could launch in India between Diwali and New Year. It is expected to be priced below ₹10,000. 

Last year when this was announced, Ambani professed this would be the “ultra-affordable 5G smartphone” with Jio’s private 5G stack and 5G-enabled solutions for India as well as the global market. 

Also Read: Music lover? New Jio plans with free JioSaavn Pro available now: Price and benefits

Now, ₹10,000 isn’t an accessible price point for every Indian and so, Reliance will have to price it lower than any other 5G phone. Some booking offers and telecom lock-in deals could subsidize the phone for rural and low-income buyers. Jio could introduce 5G to many new users, who maybe even be first-time internet users. These users could thus be part of the digital economy and experience e-learning, access government aids and information, as well as have new avenues of entertainment. However, as we said, all this is possible if the phone’s priced right. Let’s wait and see what Mr Ambani has in store.

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New HP gaming lineup starts at 59999 including a Victus and 2 Omen models

HP has introduced the Omen and Victus gaming laptops starting at ₹59,999. There is the Victus 16 (2023), an Omen 16, and an Omen Transcend 16. All three HP laptops feature an Intel 13th gen processor. But, since each of them caters to different price segments, their spec offering also differs. Let’s see what you get for their respective asking prices. 

HP Victus 16 refreshed anew but is still the most affordable of the lot

The 2023 HP Victus 16 ships with an Intel Core i5-13500H processor, Nvidia RTX 4050 graphics, up to 32GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB PCIe 4 NVMe SSD storage, and an 83WHr battery. 

On the front, the laptop has a 16” IPS display with 1080p resolution, 300 nits of brightness, 16:10 aspect ratio, 100% sRGB colour coverage, and 165Hz refresh rate.

For connectivity, you are getting WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, a USB-C with charging and DisplayPort support, 3 USB-A sockets, 1 HDMI 2.1, 1 3.5mm jack, and an ethernet port. Among other things, the laptop also features an HD webcam, 1-zone RGB keyboard, B&O dual speaker setup, and Windows 11 Home.

On the opposite end of this laptop is the new Omen Transcend 16.

Also Read: After spending a month with the 45-inch HP superwide display, I am throwing away my monitors!

HP Omen Transcend 16 launched with flagship cooling and performances in a thin and light chassis

It comes with up to an Intel Core i9-13900HX processor, up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, up to 32GB DDR5 RAM, up to 2TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe M.2 SSD storage, and a 97WHr battery.

 The front of the laptop is a 16-inch screen with WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio, 400 nits of brightness, 100% sRGB coverage and 240Hz refresh rate.

HP has armed the Transcend 16 with WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 2x USB-C Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort and charging support, 3 USB-A ports, 1 3.5mm jack, 1 headphone jack, and 1 Ethernet port. The laptop also comes with a 1080P webcam, B&O dual speakers, a per-key RGB backlit keyboard, and Windows 11 Home.

In the middle, there is the Omen 16.

Also Read: HP Pavilion x360 14 (2023) Review: Portable, efficient, and versatile

HP Omen 16 vs Omen Transcend 16

HP Omen 16 is powered by an Intel Core i7-13700HX. Compared to the Transcend 16, it has up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU, 83WHr battery, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD storage, a 165Hz refresh rate display with 300 nits of brightness, and a 4-zone RGB keyboard.

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Deal alert Grab Apple iPhone 14 at a discount of 50000: Heres how

Apple iPhone 14 is available at an unbelievable discount of about ₹50,000 on Flipkart. You will have to opt for exchange offers and bank discounts. So it isn’t a straightforward offer, but one of the best iPhone 14 deals. Let’s break down the full details here.

iPhone 14 Flipkart sale offers

Apple iPhone 14’s original price is ₹79,900. But, Flipkart is offering a flat ₹10,901 off which makes the current retail price to be ₹68,999.

Now, you can use an HDFC bank credit/debit card and avail of a discount of ₹4,000, bringing down the iPhone price to ₹64,999.

Also Read: Apple iPhone 14 vs Samsung Galaxy S23: Price, Specifications and features

What further sweetens the deal is the exchange offer. Flipkart is giving up to ₹35,000 off on trading in your old phone. Note, the device has to be in good condition for getting the full exchange value.

But, if you are able to swap, then that makes the final iPhone 14 price to be ₹29,999. 

That would be one of the best iPhone 14 deals you can get right now.

And in case you want to know what you get for that much money, here’s a quick run through the Apple iPhone 14 specifications.

Apple iPhone 14 features that make it a great iPhone to buy in 2023

Apple iPhone 14 comes with a fairly comfortable size, a 6.1-inch OLED screen with Face ID notch up top, iOS 16 out of the box (upgradeable to newer versions), a powerful A15 Bionic chipset, one of the most reliable camera setup out there (including two 12MP cameras at the back, a 12MP camera on the front, and up to 4K60 fps video from both sides), and a lightning charging port.

Also Read: iPhone 14 review

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Amazon Echo Pop Review: Opening the doors with a bang

The Amazon Echo Pop is another solid addition to the Echo family of smart speakers by Amazon. Priced slightly below the Echo Dot (5th Gen), it makes for an interesting offering for folks who are looking to get started on their adventures with a smart speaker. The other standalone smart speaker that comes close to the Echo Pop is the Google Nest Mini, which retails at a much lower price than this. But, its limited capacity as a speaker and some knicks here and there make it lose ground in the race against the Echo Pop, which makes for a really interesting entry into the smart speaker market. Now, if you have the budget, I would say go for the more loaded Echo Dot (5th Gen), but otherwise, the Echo Pop should be enough for you.

The Amazon Echo Pop showed up at the Digit Test Centre a couple of weeks ago. A few days into the testing, I had written a first impressions article about the device, detailing my initial thoughts about the cheapest current-gen smart speaker in Amazon’s line-up of Echo devices. There were some doubts and questions I had when writing that article, which were all cleared up when I put the speaker through our rigorous test process. So, now having thoroughly tested the Echo Pop over the last couple of weeks, here’s what I think about the device –

Amazon Echo Pop: Build and Design

The build quality of the Echo Pop is solid, and it is aesthetically very pleasing, and it fits into my office desk setup with ease. If you are placing the device in an open environment, then the mesh of the device might collect some dust which can be easily cleaned off using a soft-bristled brush. When you are playing music, the feet at the bottom of the device hold it in place, and coupled with the weight of the Echo Pop, there’s negligible rattle.

I placed it on a variety of surfaces, played bass-heavy music at max volume, and the device did not rattle or move from its place at all. There were a couple of instances where the device was moved from its position unknowingly by the folks here at the Test Centre, but the cable stayed connected, and the device did not incur any damage. Apart from that, there was no visible degradation of any materials used in making the Amazon Echo Pop, and it looks like if maintained well, it would last you a while. Just make sure not to use any abrasive cleaners on its surfaces.

Amazon Echo Pop: Features

As mentioned in the first impressions article, the feature set on the Echo Pop is limited. When I tested the device thoroughly, it was established that these features are well implemented as well. The inter-device connectivity of the speaker is also solid, and when turned off and turned on again, it doesn’t take long to connect to the Wi-Fi network. I had mentioned in my first impressions article that the device at times had issues when communicating with other connected speakers, but over time, the issue seems to have resolved itself. 

However, there were a couple of instances where it was surrounded by multiple boxes and gadgets on my desk, and it took a bit longer to establish a connection with the Wi-Fi, but it did happen. I did not experience any unexpected drops in the connection as well.

The Echo Pop uses the Amazon Alexa app, which I spoke volumes about in my review of the Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen, 2023). The same continues here. There are plenty of customisation options baked in which you can spend hours playing with and ensuring that the device is configured exactly to your taste. My only gripe with the app continues here – the interface can be slightly overwhelming for first-timers. Quoting from my other review – “There are instructions every step of the way for the most part, but when they are missing, people can find themselves looking for that one specific setting for a fairly long time.”

This is more of a thing that Amazon needs to pay attention to because this is the entry-level Alexa-powered smart speaker that they sell. So, there will be plenty of people buying the speaker who are starting out with smart speakers for the first time. This means that the chances of users finding themselves lost are higher than it was with the Echo Dot.

With that aside, the overall feature set is exactly what one would expect from a device that is positioned like the Echo Pop.

Amazon Echo Pop: Performance

In terms of performance, the Amazon Echo Pop matches up to the expectations set by its pricier cousins. Be it vocal-heavy tracks or ones belonging to genres like Bollywood, hip-hop, and EDM, the speakers output a sound that you would expect from a speaker of this size. One thing I felt during listening to some bass-heavy tracks was that despite the heavy advertisement from Amazon about the bass-heavy nature of the sound, the speaker’s sound signature lacked the bass.

This is out of the box experience that I am talking about. If you go into Amazon Alexa app and change settings in the equaliser, you can get some decent amount of bass in the audio, but otherwise, you will be left looking for that thump from the speaker. The speaker is loud enough to fill up a small room, but don’t expect it to be the primary audio source for your next party. Other than that, be it podcasts or music from the most popular genres, I doubt you will have anything to complain about with this speaker.

Now, coming to the Alexa functionality and its precision. Here at the Test Centre, we test smart speakers with the following parameters (for voice commands) – 

Human close to the speaker in a quiet room, Human close to the speaker with music playing from the speaker at 50 per cent volume, Human 10 feet away from the speaker standing in a quiet room, and Human 10 feet away from the speaker with music playing from the speaker at 50 per cent volume. 

In all these conditions, the speaker, as prefaced at the start of this section, lived up to the expectations I had, having tested its pricier cousin, the Echo Dot (5th Gen). The responsiveness was on point in each one of these scenarios, and apart from minor hitches here and there where I had to repeat the commands for the Echo Pop to pick them up properly, the speaker picked up all the commands I sent its way. I won’t be commenting much on the responses generated by Alexa, as it is a completely different story altogether. Let’s reserve that for some other day.

Amazon Echo Pop: Verdict

The Amazon Echo Pop is another solid addition to the Echo family of smart speakers by Amazon. Priced slightly below the Echo Dot (5th Gen), it makes for an interesting offering for folks who are looking to get started on their adventures with a smart speaker. The other standalone smart speaker that comes close to the Echo Pop is the Google Nest Mini, which retails at a much lower price than this. But, its limited capacity as a speaker and some knicks here and there make it lose ground in the race against the Echo Pop, which makes for a really interesting entry into the smart speaker market. Now, if you have the budget, I would say go for the more loaded Echo Dot (5th Gen), but otherwise, the Echo Pop should be enough for you.

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iOS 17 sideloading guide: How to sideload apps on iPhone despite Apples restrictions

Apple doesn’t want you to have a sideloading option on your iPhones as that will be a crack in its walled garden. App Store is its biggest revenue driver and an alternate store or avenue to download 3rd party apps will leave a dent, however small that is. Apple wouldn’t want this to ever happen. But, it will have to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act coming in 2024 that demands Apple to open up iPhone to sideloading. 

Although Apple was expected to bring sideloading on iOS 17 owing to this pressure from the EU, the company skipped it without even a mention. So, if you were dejected by the absence of sideloading on iOS 17, we have a workaround to enable iOS sideloading called AltStore. Here’s how to sideload apps on iOS using AltStore.

How to install AltStore on iOS 17

You will have to enter an Apple ID and the associated password. In case you are not comfortable sharing your personal Apple ID details, feel free to create a new Apple ID for this purpose. AltStore isn’t available on Apple App Store. You must also have a Windows PC or Mac for the AltStore installation. The process of installing AltStore on these two platforms differ. 

AltStore with Windows PC

1. Download and install the latest version of iTunes and iCloud from Apple. Ensure you don’t install them from the Microsoft Store.

2. Download and install Altserver from AltStore.io. This will be a zip file and so you will have to extract the file and then install it. 

3. Run it as administrator and give access to private networks if you get the prompt. You will have AltStore icon in the taskbar.

4. Now it’s time to connect the iPhone to the PC using a USB cable. Ensure the screen stays unlocked throughout the following process. If you get a prompt on the iPhone saying, Trust This Computer, click on Trust. 

5. Next, open the iTunes you installed in one of the earlier steps. In the main screen (titled Summary), tick the “Sync with this iPhone over WiFi” box under the Options section. 

6. Right-click on the Altserver icon on the taskbar, select “Install AltStore” and then, tap on your iPhone name that is listed there.

7. In the subsequent box, fill in your Apple ID (email address) and password in their respective fields. This is a crucial step and is what allows AltStore to connect to Apple Servers and authenticate the third-party app installation. These details go straight to Apple. Ensure the iCloud is also signed in with the same Apple ID.

8. AltStore will be installed in a matter of minutes if not seconds. In case you have 2-factor enabled, you will have to enter a code from the iPhone on the field that appears on your PC. You will be able to see its logo on the App Library or on the iOS homescreen. In case you don’t see it, restart the device. 

9. You won’t be able to use the store yet. You may get an “Untrusted Developer” message. To fix this, go to Settings > General > VPN (Profiles) and Device Management  > Trust your Apple ID.

10. If you are on iOS 16 and above, you will have to also enable Developer Mode on your iPhone. Go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Developer Mode and toggle it on.

11. It’s time to install 3rd party apps on your iPhone now. Open AltStore, go to Settings and sign in with Apple ID. In the Browse section, you have 2 apps. You can install them. There is also an option to install IPA files from the Files app also.

AltStore with Mac

1. Connect iPhone to the Mac using a USB cable. Instead of Altinstaller.zip, download Altserver.zip. Unzip it and move the Altserver app to the Application folder on Finder.

2. Search for Altserver on Spotlight and open it. 

3. You will see the Altserver icon on the menu bar at the top. Leave it at that.

4. Go to the Finder again and click on your iPhone name on the left side menu. Go to the General tab and enable “Show this iPhone when on WiFi” and click on Apply. You don’t have to separately install iCloud or iTunes here.

5. Click on the Altstore icon and in the drop-down menu, click on Install Mail Plugin. Install your system password to allow the installation.

6.  Quit and reopen the Mail app. Go to Preferences > General > Manage Plug-ins > tick and activate the AltPlugin.mailbundle. Click on Apply and restart (the Mail app).

7. Go to the Altstore icon in the menu bar and from the drop-down, select Install Altstore > the iPhone name. Continue steps 7 to 11 from above to complete the process.  

If everything’s done right, you will be able to enjoy third-party apps on your iPhone. You just have to ensure you have both the computer and the iPhone running at least once every 7 days. 

so how does it work? tl;dr, AltStore uses your Apple ID to “resign” apps so that they can be installed onto your device. To then actually install apps, AltStore sends apps over WiFi to a desktop app, AltServer, which uses iTunes WiFi sync to install them back to your device.

— Riles (@rileytestut) September 25, 2019

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Realme 11 Pro Review: A substantial upgrade

Realme has delivered a truly elevated experience with the Realme 11 Pro in terms of design language, camera quality, display, and even battery life. When compared to the Realme 10 Pro, the improvements are tangible. Of course, that being said, the Realme 11 Pro+ is quite close in price but offers some serious upgrades compared to the 11 Pro, so the company could be competing with itself in that regard. Nevertheless, in the sub-₹25K price segment, this is the best-looking phone, in my opinion, that also offers reliable performance in most other avenues. 

Realme has a wide portfolio of value-for-money smartphones in India. The company's number series, Narzo series, and C series are ludicrously popular in our country given the features on offer at very competitive prices. Recently, Realme launched its latest number series phones in India – the Realme 11 Pro and Realme 11 Pro+ (review). At my briefing meeting with the company, I was told that both the Realme 11 Pro and Pro+ improve upon last year’s Realme 10 Pro+, so there are some massive upgrades on the vanilla 11 Pro version, and they’re not wrong in claiming that. So, naturally, when the Realme 11 Pro showed up at the Digit Test Labs, I was cautiously excited to review it and experience the upgrades. Compared to its predecessor, the Realme 10 Pro (review), the Realme 11 Pro sports an upgraded leather-back design, an improved AMOLED display, a faster processor, higher RAM, faster charging, and a new camera. That’s a lot of improvements on paper; but how does the Realme 11 Pro actually perform in real life and how much has it improved compared to its predecessor? Does it match up to the competition at ₹23,999? I answer these questions and more in my detailed review of the Realme 11 Pro. 

Realme 11 Pro Review: Build and design

When you set your eyes on the Realme 11 Pro, one of the more obvious improvements is the design. Gone is the cheap-looking plastic rear panel and now we’ve got a sophisticated vegan leather finish on the back of the Oasis Green and Sunrise Beige colour variants. We got the latter for review, and it exudes class that’s quite rare to see at this price point. The look has been co-developed with ex-Gucci designer, Matteo Menotto. There’s also an Astral Black variant that comes with a simple matte-textured back; but simply because of how classy the leather variants look, we’d suggest that you stray away from the black variant.

The phone also features an eye-catching circular camera module which houses the two camera lenses and a third pseudo-lens design – for symmetry reasons, I guess? There’s also a flash on top and “100 MP OIS Camera” written on the bottom. A golden zip-like pattern cuts through this module. This design flair can be a bit polarising, but I personally loved it; I thought it gave the phone a certain character. One thing missing is any kind of Ingress Protection – so the phone is neither dust nor water-resistant, which is disappointing but not a deal-breaker for most.

The Realme 11 Pro has nice and rounded corners both on the front and the back which makes the phone ridiculously comfortable to hold, however, the curved display does register some mistaps. The phone is lightweight too, at just 189 g (leather variant). The frame of my Sunrise Beige variant is a striking gold colour, which once again, makes the phone look much more expensive than it is. All that being said, the Realme 11 Pro is possibly one of the most stylish phones ₹25K with oodles of character. A head-turner for sure! 

Realme 11 Pro Review: Display

Now that you have a fair idea about the looks of the display, let’s get into the nitty-gritty. The Realme 11 Pro packs a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with up to 120 Hz refresh rate and 360 Hz touch sampling rate. Do note that the Realme 10 Pro only had an IPS LCD display, so it's a tangible improvement. The display is topped with AGC DragonTrail Star glass for protection. Realme also promises a 1,260 Hz Instantaneous touch sampling rate – and boy, did we feel it during gaming. Touches were registered almost instantaneously with little to no lag or delay, making it a smooth experience at under ₹25K. There’s an optical in-display fingerprint sensor that worked a bit slower than ideal, during my testing.

The display has an FHD+ resolution which is plenty crisp for the price point. Colours look vibrant and there’s unmistakable detail in every frame. The display also supports 1 billion+ colours which should help avoid colour banding and it is a definite improvement over the Realme 10 Pro. You've got evenly thin bezels all the way around the AMOLED panel as well.

As for brightness, there’s little to complain about. Realme promises 950 nits of peak brightness and in my testing, I got a reading of 916 nits under direct sunlight on Auto-Brightness Mode. Pretty sweet. The AMOLED display can also get pretty dim, so the screen won’t bother you even when you’re using it at night with the lights turned off. 

Realme has added HDR10+ support, but Dolby Vision support is missing. While it is good to have HDR10+ support, streaming services such as Netflix still don’t support HDR on the Realme 11 Pro. It could take a few updates to support to finally land, but this is something that should ideally be done pre-launch.

Realme 11 Pro Review: Performance

At under ₹25,000, the Realme 11 Pro performs decently well; but this performance is colossally hindered by bloatware. I have never experienced these levels of hardcore bloatware pushing. OPPO and OnePlus devices have similar numbers of pre-installed apps, but it is not as intense. 

Let me explain: not only does the phone come pre-installed with a bunch of third-party apps, but you also have about 8-10 games being auto-installed during set-up despite never explicitly giving permission. Add to that excessive pop-up notifications, folders of “suggested apps” that cannot be removed and more, and you’ve got yourself an unpleasant UI experience. 

The phone comes with Android 13 with Realme UI 4.0 on top. The company promises 2 years of OS updates and 3 years of security updates as well, which is pretty decent. Software and UI aside, let’s now delve into the hardware of the phone that makes the phone tick.

The Realme 11 Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7050 SoC which is manufactured on the 6 nm process and comes with a maximum clock speed of 2.6 GHz. At this price range, the processor performs admirably well, beating out a couple of similarly-priced alternatives. I compared the Realme 11 Pro to the OPPO F23 5G, POCO X5 Pro, and last year’s Redmi K50i. 

The Realme 11 Pro beat out the OPPO F23 and POCO X5 Pro in both AnTuTu and GeekBench Single Core. However, in the Multi-Core test, the POCO X5 Pro pulls ahead. The Redmi K50i beats the Realme 11 Pro soundly in AnTuTu and GeekBench Multi-Core but lags behind slightly in the Single Core test. One area where the Realme 11 Pro shone was PCMarkWork which emulates day-to-day tasks such as using sheets, photo editing, and more. The Realme 11 Pro beat out all three competitors with ease here.

In GPU tests though, the Realme 11 Pro falls behind with the POCO X5 Pro and Redmi K50i clocking better scores in GFXBench and 3D Mark. Real-world gaming was smooth though. I was getting consistent frame rates at High Graphics with ease and the phone also didn’t heat up much during extended gaming sessions. We tried Asphalt 9 Legends on this phone as well, and the experience was excellent. 

Realme has done well controlling the thermals of the phone, so the phone barely throttles even at peak load. In the CPU Throttling Test, the Realme 11 Pro throttled to 92 per cent of its peak performance, which is excellent. Overall, the phone offers smooth and reliable performance in the sub-₹25K price segment; it is nothing game-changing but it is decent. However, this experience is marred by excessive bloatware and push notifications.

Realme 11 Pro Review: Cameras

Realme has packed new cameras in its latest number series. While the Realme 11 Pro+ gets a 200 MP shooter, the 11 Pro houses a 100 MP Omnivision camera alongside a token 2 MP depth lens. The primary camera has Optical Image Stabilisation support as well. Realme also heavily promoted its 2x lossless or “in-sensor zoom” heavily. There's also an Auto Zoom feature that crops onto a subject and attempts to centre it in the frame.

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The selfie camera is a 16 MP Sony IMX471 lens which we've seen on some Realme phones before. The 100 MP camera saves 12 MP shots by default and the photos taken in daylight look fantastic, for the most part. The dynamic range is solid, detail retention is good, and colours are vivid - a bit oversaturated, but many may enjoy this look. Here are some photo samples. Do note, these have been compressed for the web:

The 2x lossless zoom shots are packed with detail but they do look a bit oversharpened. There's also an option to click full resolution 100 MP shots that have natural colours but slightly inadequate dynamic range. 

2x lossless zoom photo sample

Portrait images that are assisted by the 2 MP depth lens look good with decent edge detection, however, skin tones aren't the most accurate. Selfie photos from the 16 MP shooter look slightly soft and struggle with dynamic range in tricky lighting. 

Low light shots from the 100 MP camera are quite impressive; colours look good, dynamic range is decent and the detail is also adequate. There is some noise but I've seen worse at this price. Turning on Nightscape alleviates some noise issues, but the photos can look slightly unnatural.

Realme 11 Pro Review: Battery life

The Realme 11 Pro features a 5,000 mAh battery, the same as its predecessor. The phone comes equipped with 67 W fast charging, a marked improvement over the 10 Pro. There’s no wireless charging, but that’s a rarity in the mid-range smartphone segment.

The phone's battery life is impressive and long-lasting; the device lasted 14 hours and 15 minutes in our 4K video loop test on a full charge. I played Call of Duty: Mobile for 15 minutes, and the phone’s battery level only dropped by 4 per cent (from 88% to 84%) and GPS Navigation for an hour on Google Maps dropped it by 5 per cent (83 % to 78%). A full charge using the bundled 67 W charger took 46 minutes, and charging the phone up to 50 per cent merely took 18 minutes.

Realme 11 Pro Review: Verdict

Realme has delivered a truly elevated experience with the Realme 11 Pro in terms of design language, camera quality, display, and even battery life. When compared to the Realme 10 Pro, the improvements are tangible. Of course, that being said, the Realme 11 Pro+ is quite close in price but offers some serious upgrades compared to the 11 Pro, so the company could be competing with itself in that regard. Nevertheless, in the sub-₹25K price segment, this is the best-looking phone, in my opinion, that also offers reliable performance in most other avenues. Low-light photography could be slightly improved and an IP rating would be an added assurance. But we are nitpicking, and these misses wouldn’t necessarily affect too many people’s buying decisions. For the price, the Realme 11 Pro is an easy recommendation; a well-rounded phone. However, if you are an ardent mobile gamer who only cares about performance, the Redmi K50i (review) and the more expensive iQOO Neo 7 (review) are better options.

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