Realme Book: The complete laptop for students?

Realme has recently released their first laptop(s) globally. However, only the higher-end model powered by the 11th Gen Intel Core i5 (1135G7) has been released by Realme Bangladesh for Tk55,999. 

It seems that at the moment, it just might be the best laptop for students and professionals looking for a stylish, slim, and energy-efficient laptop at a competitive price. 

Display

What sets the Realme book laptop apart from the competition is its display. It has a 14-inch IPS 2K display (2160x1440), beautiful colours with a 3:2 aspect ratio and an impressive 90% screen–to–body ratio.

What is more impressive is its 100% sRGB colour gamut. 

However, its 400 nits peak brightness is ideal for indoor usage. As a result, it might be a struggle to see it in direct sunlight. 

However, if I had one word to describe the display, dazzling would be the correct word. 

Rating: 5/5

Performance

It is powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor integrated with the new Intel Iris Xe graphics card. Intel claims that this graphic card can deliver a 50% performance boost over previous intel integrated mobile GPU's. 

This feature is the latest by Intel's mobile CPU offerings. Additionally, it comes with an 8GB Dual channel 4266MHz LPDDR4x ram. Kudos to Realme for providing dual channel - 4266MHz bus speed ram.

For storage, it has a 512GB PCIe SSD with 3100MB/s read speed and 1800MB/s write speed.

Furthermore, Realme paid good attention to the laptop's cooling system with 8mm heat pipes and high airflow fans, enabling it to run at peak performance for longer. This is commendable given the size and weight of the laptop.

For the gaming side of things, sure it will not run AAA title games at max settings. 

By no means are they claiming it is a gaming laptop, but it should breeze through e-sports titles and older games with ease if you tweak around the graphics settings.

Rating: 5/5

Design and build quality

At first look, it looks like a premium built laptop. But if you look closer, it seems like a Windows version of Apple's MacBook. 

This is not a bad thing, but we hope Realme will bring out more original and innovative designs like they have managed to do for their smartphones. 

The power button has a built-in fingerprint scanner for quick logins. It measures 307.21mm x 228.96mmx 14.9mm with a weight of approximately 1.48kg, which is even more impressive if you keep in mind this is built with aluminium and not plastic.

Rating: 4.5/5

Battery life and charging 

Keeping up with the trend of losing the old clunky power bricks, the Realme book laptop can be charged by the type C adapter provided in the box at 65W and other type-C power delivery inputs. 

Essentially you can leave the house with one charger for your phone and laptop as long as both have type C inputs. 

Realme claims it can be charged to up to 50% in 30 minutes and multiple reviewers on YouTube have confirmed this. 

Realme claims the 54 Wh battery can give up to 8.5 hours of battery life (a modest claim compared to the competition) but as usual, this will depend on your usage. 

For regular usage, expecting a 5-6 hours of battery life is a safe bet (assuming you are not using it for gaming). 

A word of caution, expect the laptop to heat up a little while charging, given its thin and light build. But it should not be a cause for concern unless you are stressing the CPU with intensive tasks. In that case, thermal throttling will kick in. 

Rating: 4.5/5

Keyboard, trackpad, speakers, webcam, mic and ports

The keyboard is very well made. It is probably inspired a little from Apple's MacBook but that is not necessarily a bad thing as they are comfortable to type on and the keys are well spaced. 

Moreover, the keyboard is backlit and you can choose from three levels of brightness.

The trackpad is a large (123.8 × 78.2mm), solid one on the Realme book and supports windows gestures. It will not disappoint you considering its price range. 

The speakers are powered by a 2x Harman Speaker with Stereo Surround Sound by DTS. It is loud with rich sounds and can cover a small room adequately. 

The 720p webcam is nothing special here. Like all the other laptops, they are just barely good enough to get your online meetings done. 

Despite the compact design, Realme managed to pack in dual microphones in this laptop impressively.

For ports, it supports Thunderbolt 4/ USB 4, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, a USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 and a 3.5mm headphone and microphone jack. I would condone Realme for not providing more ports here, given the slim, light compact design of the laptop.

Overall rating: 4/5 

Overview

The fact that this laptop has been selling like hotcakes is no surprise. It is undoubtedly the best laptop in this price segment (for now). 

Furthermore, you get to buy it officially, which ensures warranty from the brand directly. 

That is not all, without getting into a discussion of pirated vs original OS software, this laptop comes with a genuine windows key which might be many people's first experience of running an official windows software. 

For the record, in our local market this alone will cost you upwards of Tk15,000, which Realme is already providing with the laptop. 

I hope the success of this laptop's performance, its sales in the market and acclamations from renowned YouTubers come as a wakeup call to local PC shops and in the future, encourage existing brands to be more competitive. 

Kudos to Realme Bangladesh for this shakeup in the Bangladeshi laptop marketplace. 

However, it would be great if they could supply ambit to smaller Realme outlets instead of only keeping it available for the bigger ones. 

Specification:

Size：14 inches

Resolution：2160 × 1440

Length: 307.21mm

Width: 228.96mm

Height: 14.9mm (thickest point: 15.5mm)

Weight: Approx 1.48kg

Speakers:

Stereo Surround Sound by DTS

Dual HARMAN audio speakers system

Storage:

512GB PCIe® SSD Storage

Processor and Ram:

11th Gen Intel® Core™ Processor with Intel® Iris® Xᵉ Graphics

8GB dual-channel LPDDR4x memory

Battery Life and Charging time:

11 Hours Battery Life

65 W USB-C charging

54Wh Battery

Ports:

Thunderbolt 4/ USB 4 (Data: Max.40 Gbps)

USB-C 3.2 Gen 2

USB-A 3.1 Gen 1

3.5mm Headphone and Microphone Jack