Realme Book Slim - Full Review with Pros and Cons
Realme has introduced its new slim notebook in the Indian markets. Well equipped with the latest specs and a classier design (much similar to MacBooks) along with an affordable price tag, it’s not what we expected from a smartphone manufacturer which also happens to be the sister brand of OPPO, OnePlus, and many others which come under China’s BBK group.
Build and Quality
The design of the Realme Book Slim will immediately remind you of Apple’s MacBooks, due to its slim form factor and all-aluminum build. It comes in both blue and green colors in the Indian market, both of which look clean and minimalistic in our opinion. The lids of both also did not leave any fingerprints, which is quite impressive given the shiny design. Weighing in at around 1.3 kg, it makes this notebook handy and travel-friendly for creators, students, and journalists alike.
Ports, I/O and Connectivity
There isn’t much connectivity present in the notebook, again going along the lines of the MacBook. It has 1 thunderbolt 4, 1 USB Type-C/ USB 3 on the left side and 1 USB 2/Type A and a 3.5mm earphone jack on the right side.
Maintenance
Getting into the laptop is relatively easy by just removing 8 screws from the bottom panel. Not much is upgradable here except for the M.2 NVMe SSD and the Wifi chip which is to be expected from a laptop of such a slim form-factor.
Input Devices
Keyboard – The keyboard on the Realme Book is decent enough for doing all your work. It comes with a MacBook-style keyboard and layout, which is also backlit. It gives a good tactile feel and overall we found it good for most users unless you are into serious typing competitions. It also has a fingerprint reader on the top of the power button for better privacy.
Trackpad – The trackpad on the Realme Book is quite accurate and is equipped with Windows precision drivers. They are big and do not have separate buttons, but rather the new design where the whole pad acts as a single button with different functions.
Display
The laptop comes with a 14-inch 2160×1440 3:2 quad HD display with an almost 90% high-screen to body ratio. The company claims up to 100% sRGB with 400 nits of peak brightness, which is quite good even for content creators. There’s a Realme tag underneath the display on the black bezel.
Performance
The performance on the Realme book is quite decent given its price point and slim form factor. It comes in two configurations- the i3 11th generation 1115G4 variant with Intel HD graphics and the i5 11th generation 1135G7 with Intel Xe graphics. Both of these processors are pretty good for everyday usage and are pretty energy efficient. Some light games can also be played on this laptop, though heavy gaming with this laptop is not recommended.
Storage
The laptop comes in two configurations currently in India. 256GB PCIe SSD for the i3 configuration and 512GB PCIe SSD configuration for the i5 configuration. Both also come in 8 GB dual-channel LPDDR4x configuration only.
Speakers
The speakers on the Realme Slim Book are quite good and are Harman powered and engineered along with DTS according to the company. It has a stereo speaker system, both of which are from either side of the laptop.
Battery Life
The battery life on the laptop is pretty good too. It comes with a 54 Whr battery pack which gives the laptop around 8.5-11 hours of battery life, depending on its usage. The laptop also comes with a 65W power adapter, which is capable of charging the laptop from 0-50% in just 30 mins. The charger also happens to use the USB-C port which is a major convenience.
This is quite impressive given its price segment and its competition.
- Pros
- One of the cheapest laptops with a 2K display and 3:2 aspect ratio.
- Slim-format factor and light weight makes it an ultraportable.
- Type-C charging is a major convenience.
- Vibrant, colour accurate display which is hard to find in budget devices.
- Great battery life for its price segment.
- Cons
- Only 8 GB variant with no upgradability.
- Customer service may be a bit dodgy considering it is a new brand.
Realme Book Slim
Nerd Score