The cameras on the new Realme X3 phones outpace all other functions
Anand Parthasarathy
July 23 2020: It is almost a cliché to say these days, that on smart phones  the tail wags the dog: a late entrant like the camera ( or these days, cameras)  outperform all other  surfing, talking, texting functions.  Realme knows this fact of life only too well – so the incremental features in its new releases usually tend to centre around the cameras. The recently launched duo: Realme X3 and X3 SuperZoom  are true to this mantra: they significantly improve the clicking capability. Consider:
Camera-wise….
The Realme X3 has a quad camera set up on its rear: a 64 MP primary camera; with an 8 MP  119 degree ultra wide angle lens, an 8 MP 5x telephoto lens and a 2 MP macro that can shoot closeups at up to 4 cms distance.  From telephoto to ultra closeup via a wide angle … that is a lot of lenses packed into a small 202-gram body. Who needs to separate digicam or handycam? Only the very fastidious photographer.  Consider also that you can shoot full 4K video at 2 speeds and a click a still at full resolution of 9280 by 6944 pixels. If you don’t downgrade the image resolution you will eat away a lot of megabytes with every shot. 
On the other hand, if you do shoot that once in a lifetime shot, you can blow it up to a wall sized canvas without losing any detail. So, it bears repeating: This is one powerful camera camouflaged as a phone. I have not even spoken of the front camera: unusually for this price band, it offers two lenses: a 16 MP primary for those close selfies with an 8 MP for 105 degree wide angle to fit the entire gang into the frame.
The rest of the specs for the X3 are fairly standard and vary with the price:  8GB RAM and 128 GB storage for Rs 25,999 and 6GB RAM and 128 GB storage for a thousand rupees less.  
SuperZoom
Realme has also launched the X3 SuperZoom which kicks up the size of the rear zoom lens from 51 mm to 124 mm enabling what the makers claim is a possible 60 x hybrid zoom.  I am a little skeptical of  hybrid zoom claims  which is optical plus digital zoom. Digital zoom is not true zoom and achieves its  telephoto effect by sacrificing   resolution. Still am guessing the X3 Superzoom will improve the X3’s zoom by a factor of 4 or so.  The front camera too is better at 32 MP instead of 16.  For the same RAM and storage of the X3, ie 8 GB and128 GB, the X3Zoom costs just Rs 2000 extra at Rs 27,999. If you do a lot of outdoor and sports photography I would recommend spending the extra to go for the SuperZoom.
There is no way to increase the storage in either variant. Both offer the latest Android 10 with an unobtrusive layer of Realme’s ownUI. I found the WiFi pickup very good indoors during the weeks I have ben using the X3 and then found the phones sport  double 802.11ac  antennas with Mu-MIMO. That’s why!
If you treat the X3 with respect – hold it firmly wit both hands or use a tripod if you go to the Pro mode and shoot  50 second bursts and let the AI adjust the light for night shots, you could get extremely good imagery. As I said, a very decent pair of cameras, disguised as a phone.