This is a company on the march. However, it’s one that you might find weirdly familiar because of the firm behind it. BBK Electronics are a Chinese electronics company producing TVs, cameras and smartphones. The latter are marketed under a number of brand names.
Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus and Realme.
Sure, these might be brands that aren’t high up on your awareness list, but BBK are now shipping more smartphones than Huawei and Apple. They’re not always shown in charts though, because the brand names are split out. Despite that, you’re bound to see Oppo and Vivo riding high.
It’s basically like a car company. Volkswagen Group sell cars under the Bentley, Audi, Lamborghini, SEAT and Skoda marques for example.
Anyhow, over the next few weeks you’re going to see Realme entering the European market and pushing some vaguely familiar phones that have a whiff of OnePlus and Oppo about them.
Next week we should be in Madrid to see the launch of their X2 Pro but, in the meantime, they’ve announced that the Realme 5 Pro will be there too. They’re calling it a “Quad Camera Speedster”.
Packing a Snapdragon 712 AIE CPU (2×2.3 GHz Kryo 360 Gold & 6×1.7 GHz Kryo 360 Silver), it runs Android 9 with the ColorOS 6.0 customized design. Those cameras include a 48 megapixel main lens, with an 8 megapixel 119° ultra-wide-angle shooter, an ultra macro 2 megapixel lens with aperture of f/2.4 plus a 2 megapixel depth sensor. There’s Beauty, Nightscape and Chroma Boost modes plus 4K video recording support. The cameras also feature Electric Image Stabilization (EIS) plus slow motion videos at 960fps. Up front, a 16 megapixel selfie cam.
We’re hearing that there’ll be a range of models – a 64GB storage one with 4GB and 6GB RAM, plus a 128GB unit with 8GB RAM. Either way, you can whack a microSD in for extra space.
Other specs include a 3.5mm audio jack, dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0 plus GPS and Type-C charging. We’re trying to find out whether NFC is included.
The screen is a 6.3″ 1080×2340 pixel 409ppi unit with a 19.5:9 ratio. There’s also VOOC 3.0 Flash Charge for speedy charging without the associated heat.
Like the X2 Pro, this will have a deep and rich layered rear panel.
Although they’ve given us all the technical details on this one, the actual launch is on October 15th – the same day as the X2 Pro. Head to their website to be notified of the pricing and availability details, or join us on Tuesday to hear all about it.