The Narzo series of phones is Realme’s attempt to get into the gaming smartphone market, with the company having launched the Narzo 10 series earlier this year to target those on a budget but still looking to get high-end gaming performance out of their smartphones. The Narzo 20 series is touted to be an upgrade on the 10 series in terms of performance, but once again without burning a hole in your pocket. The Narzo 20 Pro is supposed to offer best-in-class gaming hardware at a budget price.
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Design and Hardware
However, the hardware is not exactly of the super premium variety. There are some good bits, but the phone struggles overall to be convincing as an option for hardcore gamers. It does boast a screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, but the LCD screen itself is average, and this bears out in the colors, which look a bit washed out, and there is also a slight blue tint to the images. However, the rest of the software on the phone struggles to handle the 90Hz display, with the potential better choice possibly having been to stick to a 60Hz display, as that would have been optimum for this device. It feels as though Realme included this just to tick the box and say that they have a 90Hz screen, without really optimizing the rest of the phone to work well with it. The display is also very easily smudged, and regular cleaning will be needed to keep it looking its best. The design is subtle and well-done, with the V-shaped pattern at the back of the phone being a nice touch. However, it is not something that may necessarily appeal to gamers, with no loud or radical design elements.
Software and UI
The software experience is decidedly patchy, with the UI stuttering and struggling at some points. This raises questions about whether this phone will be able to cope with playing high-end games, especially as the 90Hz screen is mostly to blame for this. In fact, users should click here to see a list of mobile games which could be supported on this phone, to make sure that they can get the best out of their experience with it. This is also important since many people have turned to mobile gaming as a form of entertainment this year, with even casino games doing extremely well, with land-based casinos still largely off-limits in most parts of the world. The phone does seem to have some software optimization issues, which would hopefully be solved with a software update soon.
Performance and Gaming
It has a MediaTek Helio 690T chip, which has a reputation for delivering extremely good gaming performance, but at the same time, it was also a power drain on phones where it has been used previously. However, that does not seem to be the case here, as Realme’s software optimizations seem to have taken care of the power issues. The new chip increases the clock speed up to 900 Mhz, which helps deliver high gaming performance. Most high-end games such as Asphalt 9 Legends, for example, run smoothly on the phone even with graphics settings set to High. The phone does warm up a little bit after around 20 minutes of gameplay, but it does not get too hot. However, on certain games, such as Call of Duty: Mobile, it does lag a lot during gameplay and heats up to unbearable levels as well.
Battery life
The battery is quite hefty, with 4,500mAh meaning that it usually lasts one full day, even with considerable gaming during the day. Using the 65W Super Dart charger means that the phone goes from 0% to 100% charge in less than 40 minutes, which is brilliant.
