The first Realme smartphone came out 2018, and four years later, we are here to celebrate the brand’s 4th anniversary. The company, which was originally spun out from Oppo, has reached some impressive milestones in its short time — it’s the sixth-largest smartphone company in the world, with more than 150 millions of users worldwide.
We sat down with Sheth, Realme VP and Realme International Head, and asked him some pressing questions about future plans, the charging speed race and expansion in Europe. Read the entire interview below.
Are you planning to release the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 flagship in international markets? Now your only one can only be used in China.
We plan to do this soon. I can’t share the exact timing, but yes, there will be a global version soon.
So there should be a season on shelves in time for the holidays?
Again, I can’t tell you the exact time, but yes – that’s what we plan to do. The timing is still in the planning and discussion stages.
Where do you think your flagship GT line will go next year? Are you staying focused or designing, or are you trying to drive camera innovation or any other innovation?
I think the most important thing about the flagship series is that everything has to be at a high level. This includes handling, screen, camera and aesthetics. All of these are required for premium flagships. When people buy flagships, they look at the overall great experience — look and feel, camera experience, screen experience, battery optimization, charging experience — and we have to make sure we deliver those.
Of course, flagships have to sort it all out, but which area do you think makes you stand out?
design! Because I believe design is our foundation at Realme. With the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, you’ll see a lot of other phones come with it even though we’re launching it today. But aesthetics is something, and I want to make sure it’s more connected to the audience. I think that’s going to be a differentiator for Realme.
Recent chip shortages are forcing you to move your digital series to one generation per year. Now that things are improving on the supply side, do you plan to go back to two generations per year?
We want to continue the annual generation because we want to give consumers time before the next. We have seen that the replacement cycle is at least 09 to 65 months worldwide, so prefer to stick with one generation at least in a number series.
We will try to make some minor upgrades in six months, but we will not release more than one generation per year.
According to our research, it costs about 10% of battery capacity for smartphone charging speed is 125- 22W is more, let’s be humble, 65-18W charging speed. So it is 4, 116mAh 22W vs 5,mAh 207W. Do you think this tradeoff Is it worth it for most people?
In general I think people prefer to have at least one 4, 001-4,675 mAh battery with decent charging speed. I think that’s what the average user really wants. The higher the better, but if it affects the phone’s design, look and feel, or weight.
When we deal with the dynamic handling of the phone, we try to make sure it’s not too heavy – it should be light and we still try to provide a good charging speed. But even without this, the minimum we try to achieve is 4, -4, 116mAh capacity.
So you’d say we’re nearing the end of this charging speed race?
This is not about the end of the charging speed race. People think it’s a game, but for us it’s a very different issue. It’s about what technology can do to ease anxiety. Technology to help you make your life better, easier and faster. So charging speed isn’t about beating any other brand, what we really want is to make sure you don’t feel the anxiety associated with charging your phone. I was worried that my phone ran out when I just went out for a meeting. Plug it in for five minutes and you’re good to go for half a day
That’s the charging speed we really want to do – release your anxiety and ensure your Mobile experience is better. Even with all your multitasking, you don’t have to compromise on anything else.
Do you plan to distribute in Europe next? Will you pay more attention to offline channels?
Yes, there will be. We will continue to deepen our distribution network. Because touch is extremely important for the European market. I want consumers to experience the quality of our products.
Realme Store
At the same time, we have other ecosystem products – audio, wearables, laptop TV. Some of them we have already launched in Europe and some will be launched in the near future. So we want to make sure that people can experience these products.
Could it be an operator, retail partner or own store?
We are already working with operators and we want to expand these partnerships. We also have large store partners and local partners. So I think the next step is to have our own store while expanding our current partnership.
You mentioned that new IoT products are coming into Europe – any specific ones you will be focusing on?
We want to go deeper and wider in audio and wearables. Because I think we have a great opportunity to grow there because we have more touchpoints and cross-selling options. At the same time, consumers can get a more complete experience from us.
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