Realme 15 Pro review

Software

The Realme 15 Pro runs on Realme UI 6.0, which is a lightly altered version of ColorOS 15.0 and OxygenOS 15.0 found on Oppo and OnePlus phones, respectively, and is built on top of Android 15. Realme promises three years of major Android updates.

Being nearly identical to the latest versions of ColorOS and OxygenOS means there isn't a lot to say that we haven't already said in one of our previous reviews. It's also quite similar to the previous Realme UI 5.0, which we have covered here.

Realme UI 6.0

In summary, Realme UI 6.0 is reasonably well-designed with a lot of useful features, especially with regard to multitasking. You get Split View, floating windows, sidebar apps, and iOS-style live alerts that collapse into a pill around the selfie camera. These are all quite convenient and let you get the most out of the device.

However, there are also some annoyances. For starters, the phone came with a lot of pre-installed bloatware on our Indian review unit. Second, the phone also has numerous duplicate apps. This includes two pre-installed web browsers, two file managers, two contacts apps, two app stores, two game stores, two message apps, and two photo gallery apps. And many of the system apps love spamming notifications at you all day.

Realme UI 6

Moving on to some of the new features on this device, we find a lot of new AI-based additions, specifically around the photo-taking and editing experience. There is an AI Party Mode that makes color corrections to the skin tones in challenging indoor lighting conditions. The AI Landscape mode automatically aligns the subject in the frame with a more pleasing perspective and also removes haze. The AI Glare Remover removes streaks of glare from bright light sources, especially at night.

Perhaps the most interesting one is the AI Edit Genie, which works by the user speaking or typing in commands. You can say things like "brighten the image" or "remove objects in the background," and after a few seconds of thinking, the phone will present what you want it to do and then get on to doing it. It can also just take a look at the image, analyze what's in it, and enhance it on its own accord while informing you of the entire process.

AI Edit Genie

You can also add or remove objects, change the sky, the landscape, pretty much whatever you can think of. This can work surprisingly well at times, but other times the results are less pleasing. The final images will have tell-tale signs of AI hallucinations, especially if you ask for drastic changes, but the average person who's not in the know will likely never notice and think it's a real photograph. There are also no watermarks to inform people that what they are looking at isn't real.

AI Edit Genie

Google Gemini is also on board and you can use its full potential however you see fit.

Gemini

The overall AI feature set ranges from gimmicky to surprisingly useful at times. Ultimately, how it is used (or misused) will depend on the user.

The Realme 15 Pro also has an RGB LED ring on the back. Called the Pulse Light, it glows for various notifications as well as features such as camera countdown, Gemini, music playback, and more. You can also keep it on all the time or switch it off entirely.

Pulse Light

Realme UI 6 is powerful, feature-rich, and it runs smoothly. It has more pre-installed apps that we would have liked, but those can be easily uninstalled.

Performance and benchmarks

The Realme 15 Pro runs on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 (4nm) chipset. It is paired with 8GB or 12GB of memory and 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB of storage.

This new chip features an updated Kryo CPU with a 1+4+3 configuration. There's a Cortex-A20 prime core clocked @ 2.8GHz, alongside 4x performance Cortex-720 cores @ 2.4GHz and 3x efficiency Cortex-520 cores @ 1.8GHz. Qualcomm claims 27% faster CPU performance over the SD 7 Gen 3.

The Adreno 722 GPU gets a 30% boost compared to the previous gen chip. Qualcomm is also bringing select Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, including its Adaptive Performance Engine 4.0. The GPU also supports the HDR10, HDR10+, HDR Vivid and HLG codecs.

The updated Hexagon NPU inside the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 offers a 65% boost in AI tasks with the ability to run Stable Diffusion 1.5 locally.

And now, let's see some benchmarks!

The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 is quite a capable performer, scoring around the top of the charts in the mid-range bracket. The Realme 15 Pro gets close to some of the top-tier chips, which is nice.

The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chip proved to be a capable platform for both heavy-duty tasks and gaming.

It performers very well under stress, too. The chip inside the Realme 15 Pro lost only 28% of its maximum CPU performance when stress tested, and did not throttle when we did the same with the GPU.

CPU test • GPU test

While not the highest scoring platform, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 inside the Realme 15 Pro appears to be a balanced and capable piece of hardware that can pack a punch when needed.

The Realme 15 Pro does become warm after numerous stress tests, but never unpleasantly hot.