ARTICLE AD BOX
New Delhi: For the owners of smartphones in India, the year 2026 seems to be bleak. Nearly all brands have seen an increase in prices, with phones that earlier cost Rs 20000 to 25000 now sold for Rs 35000 to 40000. Some like Samsung and Redmi have simply boosted their product prices and left the consumers with little option of choice in the mid-price pocket. However, amidst all these, Realme has done something that stands out and it’s not good. The company has introduced the Realme 16T at about Rs 30,000 and the phone looks as if it is great in terms of looks but when put to use it falters badly.
Display
Once you open the box, everything is there charger, case and of course the phone. No complaints there. It’s an attractive design, too. The square camera module on the back provides a modern look, and the bold, eye-catching Starlight Red color accents the design. The phone also features an IP69 Pro water resistance rating, a composite of a few water-protection factors all contained within one grade. As soon as you turn the mobile over, and see the screen, however, things go south.
While the Realme 16T gets an HD+ IPS LCD display, which is what you’d find on a phone in the ₹10,000-12,000 price range, not any priced at ₹30,000. More, bezels (fences around the screen) are thick and uneven, particularly when it comes to the bottom. To further confuse matters, product photos on retailers’ websites have far less border on them than they do on a physical product. Realme’s website does say that it’s an LCD screen, but the pictures it uses for marketing are definitely a bad representation.
When you compare this to the Realme GT70, which is on sale at the same price with a bright AMOLED screen, it becomes obvious how the screen comes across. Also, rather modest in this regard, and at this price, the 16T offers only a single speaker.
Performance
The Realme 16T’s processor is the Dimensity 6300, which was released last year for budget line 5G smartphones. Believe it or not, the Realme C65, which came out for ₹10,499 sold the same processor. It’s very surprising to see this chip for ₹30,000 in a phone in 2026.
The majority of the apps not running smoothly with more than one. Sure, in normal use, the phone has a trouble with keeping more than one app open. Many apps will begin from scratch when opened 5-7 apps and switching between them. The ability to play games is restricted as well: While BGMI can be played at maximum 60fps, most of the competing phones offer up to 90 or even 120fps.
Distortion
The Realme 16T comes with one main camera and a secondary monochrome sensor. Snapshots taken with this cellphone are frequently dark, and they don’t perform very well in high and low light, this is because they don’t eliminate the reflections. Images captured with this mobile phone are frequently under-exposed, and they have trouble with bright and dark spots in the same shot because they do not remove reflections. Screens may be off balance, skies may look too blue, and some photos may have a bluish overcast. When taking side-by-side comparisons with similarly priced phones such as the Nothing 4a or Motorola Edge 50 Fusion, there is a clear difference in photo quality. Currently, the bright spot of battery is that the data it gathers is unique, but not particularly bright.
The phone’s earth-shattering feature is the sizable 8,000 mAh battery that can easily provide a day and a half of usage. This is now less of a feature, though. The Nothing 4a also offers 8,000 mAh battery with faster 80W charging. The Realme 16T limits its charging power to 45W, whereas quite a few of its rivals launch at this price support more than 45W charging.
Final Thought
Overpriced phones can be divided into two types: type one, good phones, which are sold at high price levels; type two, which are just not available at that high a cost. The Realme 16T undoubtedly falls under the latter category. Buyers can get much better deals at ₹30,000. Overall, the Realme GT70 is a superior offering in terms of screen, performance and camera specs, as it goes without saying, for the same price. Both the Nothing 4a and Motorola Edge 50 Fusion are also great choices that don’t cost the same and come with a lot of value.
However, the Realme 16T is not really a phone to be recommended.
English (US) ·