Realme 16 Pro Plus Review: Good cameras but still not recommendable!

This is Realme’s latest mid-range phone - the Realme 16 Pro Plus. Like almost all new launches lately, the prices have increased by around 15–20%, and with this phone as well, we see a pretty big price hike compared to last year’s model.

The Realme 16 Pro Plus now starts at INR 40,000 in India for the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage variant. But I honestly think you should skip the 128GB variant because, well, in 2026, 256GB storage is pretty much required.

So I picked myself the 256GB variant, and after bank discounts, I was able to get it for around INR 40,000. And I have been using this phone for the better part of a week now! So, the big question is: is this the best phone you can buy under INR 40,000? Let's find everything out in my Realme 16 Pro Plus review.

Realme 16 Pro Plus Specifications

• Design, build: 162.5 x 76.3 x 8.1 mm, 198 gm, IP68/69K water and dust resistance
• Display: 6.8-inch curved AMOLED, 1.5K resolution, 144Hz refresh rate
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 (4nm)
• Memory: 8GB / 12GB RAM, 128GB / 256GB / 512GB storage (non-expandable)
• Software & UI: realme UI 7.0 on top of Android 16
• Rear Camera: Triple (200MP main, 50MP periscope telephoto with 3.5x optical zoom, 8MP ultrawide)
• Front Camera: 16MP sensor
• Security: Optical in-display fingerprint scanner
• Connectivity: Dual-SIM, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, GPS, USB-C, 4G LTE, 5G
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, Ambient light, Compass
• Battery: 7,000 mAh with 80W wired fast charging
• Price in Nepal (Expected): NPR 69,999 (8/128GB)

Realme 16 Pro Plus Review:

Design

Ok, let’s get started with the good stuff first, and the first thing here is, of course, the design, because just look at it. It’s so cool and feels quite different. I also like this new camera module. It actually looks quite similar to the OnePlus 15 when rotated 90 degrees.

But probably the most unique thing about this phone is the back panel. Realme says it’s made using renewable materials, and it feels really nice in the hand. The back panel has this soft and gentle touch, and because of that, it offers excellent grip.

In my one week of use, I have noticed a bit of dust and smudges, but Realme claims that over time, it is resistant and durable, so we’ll have to see how it ages. By the way, there is also a pink color available, and it looks really cool in the official renders.

Another thing I like here is that despite having a massive 7000mAh battery, it is not very heavy or bulky. It weighs only 198 grams, so it has that right heft to it and feels like I am carrying a premium phone.

Display

In terms of display, too, I got a pretty good overall experience with the Realme 16 Pro+. It’s a nice, bright OLED display with up to 1800 nits of brightness in high brightness mode, which is more than sufficient.

I also found it to go quite dim at night; there’s also high PWM dimming, HDR10+ video plays well, and a 144Hz refresh rate. Although I didn’t see it hitting 144Hz at any time.

The only thing I don’t like here is the curved display. I feel a flat display would have been much better. Likewise, I also felt the touch response is not as good as, say, the Nord 5 or iQOO, which just has a very fast touch sampling rate.

No Ultrasonic Fingerprint Sensor

Another thing I missed here is an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. I know that's quite a lot to ask, but on a phone with such a big form factor, having an ultrasonic sensor would have meant the position is slightly higher, and it would have made the experience so much better. Right now, the fingerprint sensor is placed quite low.

Audio

But my biggest complaint with this phone is that, despite its good display, the audio quality is quite poor for an INR 40,000 phone.

I love listening to music. The classical rock music! But the sound quality here is so bad that I had to stop listening. For watching movies or videos, it’s decent, but for music, it’s quite disappointing. And even the vibration motor is not very good.

Performance

Ok, let’s talk about the performance. And here we get the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, which, for the price, is definitely not the fastest processor you can get. I think this is where Realme had to compromise to keep the price in check.

So yeah, performance is decent for everyday usage, but it’s not great. If you’re coming from a faster phone, you will notice some sluggishness here and there. Even phones in the INR 30,000–35,000 range right now offer faster performance. So yes, this is an area where Realme could have done better again. A Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 or something like a Dimensity 8400 would have been a much better choice.

That said, you will like the software experience here. It runs Android 16 out of the box. Not the Android 15 like we just saw with the Redmi Note 15 series.

And with Realme UI, we pretty much get the same experience as on OnePlus and Oppo phones. The experience is clean, animations are smooth! So yeah, it’s the same DNA as my OnePlus 15 plus slower performance.

Bloatware

Plus, there's a lot of bloatware on Realme phones, but the good thing about Realme & OnePlus software is that you can uninstall or disable all the apps like this.

Not so great cooling

I also noticed that this phone doesn’t heat up during normal usage. However, for gaming, it’s not very good. If you’re into heavy gaming, this phone is definitely not for you. PUBG runs only at 60 FPS, and even during this winter season, after about 30 minutes of playing PUBG, the temperature crossed 40°C.

In comparison, gaming phones and flagship phones usually stay below 35°C. So it’s clear this phone is not designed for gaming.

Good Battery Life

Another thing that’s fantastic here is the battery life. With the 7000mAh battery, I was easily getting around 9 to 10 hours of screen-on time. However, in comparison, I noticed the battery life here is not as good as that of the OnePlus 15, which I have been using as my primary.

There’s also an 80W charger included in the box, and it can go from 0 to 100% in about an hour. So, pretty fast!

Camera

Alright, one of the main reasons why this phone could be a good choice for a lot of users is the camera performance, especially from its main camera.

Realme has used a 200MP Samsung HP5 sensor for the main 1X Wide camera, and this is a really good sensor. It is actually used on the Oppo Find X9 Pro for telephoto.

Main Camera

Hence, as you can see from these samples, we get really good photos. Details are excellent, and the colors look really nice. You get two modes - Natural and Vivid, and if you want punchy photos, like these flower or leaf photos, Vivid mode works really well.

Another thing I really like about this 200MP camera is the shallow depth of field in close-up shots. Just look at these photos; the close-up shots look very good, with nice background separation.

The 1x photos are also usually better than what we used to see in 40,000 phones. Even in low light, the main camera performs well.

The only issue I have with the primary camera is that there’s quite a bit of glare when shooting in direct sunlight, and sometimes even in low light. This could be because Realme is not using better-quality lens coating here, which results in noticeable flaring.

Ultrawide

Now, considering how good the main camera is, I expected a better ultra-wide camera here. It’s a basic 8MP ultra-wide lens, and while it’s not bad, it’s just decent.

For a 40,000 phone, I really think Realme should have given a bigger/higher-res 50MP ultra-wide camera here. As you can see, once I zoom in on the U/W photos, especially at night, the ultra-wide camera lacks detail and doesn’t really justify the price.

Telephoto

For Zoom, we get a 3.5x telephoto lens. It’s not a periscope lens like we usually see on premium phones, but it can still capture decent zoom photos. Up to 10x, the photos are usable, and portrait shots are particularly nice with decent edge detection.

Portraits and Selfies

Realme has done a fantastic job with skin tones, too. Even the front camera handles skin tones really well.

The selfie camera is also decently wide, and selfies turn out nice.

Anyway, compared to more expensive phones, this telephoto lens is not very fast. If there’s a lot of movement, the photos don’t always come out sharp. Otherwise, for portraits and zoom up to 10x, this telephoto lens is decent.

Video

Video is also not the strongest point of this phone. You can shoot 4K at 60fps from the main camera, the telephoto camera, and the front camera, but the ultra-wide camera is limited to Full HD. This kinda breaks consistency if I have to switch between 2 lenses in the middle of the recording, which I’m not a big fan of.

And although the video quality is okay, stabilization here could also have been better. Ultra-wide videos, in particular, are quite bad. So yes, video performance could definitely be better.

Realme 16 Pro Plus Review: Conclusion

So, overall, is the Realme 16 Pro Plus a good phone for the price? And more importantly, is it the best phone under INR 40,000 (NPR 63,000) right now? And my answer is – It’s difficult for me to give this phone an easy recommendation. Coz in the last couple of months, the price of phones has increased, and that amount is quite a lot of money for a phone like Realme 16 Pro+, to be very honest.

If this phone were priced around INR 32,000 to INR 35,000 (NPR 50,000 to NPR 55,000), it would have been a no-brainer recommendation. It would have been a very balanced phone. At INR 40,000 (NPR 63,000), many strong phones exist. The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE offers decent battery life, a cleaner One UI, and better cameras. The Nothing Phone (3), in the INR 40,000–45,000 range, is also a solid choice, noting improved cameras after updates. 

Realme 16 Pro Plus Review: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Good cameras
• Vibrant display
• Great battery life

Cons:

• Average performance for the price
• Stabilization on videos could have been better