The upcoming Realme 9 series of smartphones has been leaked multiple times over the past month, but the brand itself has now confirmed the existence of the phone and is set to launch at least two devices.
Realme has confirmed the existence of the Realme 9 Pro and Realme 9 Pro Plus smartphones, but there is currently no news about a standard Realme 9. The Pro Plus series will be new for 2022, as in previous iterations the Pro model has been the high-end phone.
The brand will include 5G connectivity on both phones, and each will be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 950 5G processor. This is the first revealed smartphone to feature this new chipset.
We've been told these new smartphones will launch "in the next few days," but we've yet to hear exactly when that will be and what information we'll get for each of the phones.
We'd still expect a standard Realme 9 model, but that strongly suggests it won't launch alongside its Pro siblings. It's also unclear if this phone will come with 5G connectivity or the same MediaTek chipset.
Earlier in January, a report from @OnLeaks and Smartprix provided images of the upcoming phone along with some specs. These included a 6,59-inch 120Hz display with an in-display fingerprint scanner, 128GB of storage, and a rear camera with 64MP, 8MP, and 2MP elements.
Interestingly, this leak also indicated that the smartphone would launch with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G processor inside. We now know that's not the case, so take this leak with a grain of salt as it may mean that the rest of the information is also inaccurate.
Analysis: Goodbye, dare to jump
If the leaked images of the Realme 9 Pro are correct, we will not get the bold branding that we saw on the Realme 8 series device.
It was a bold design decision and probably deterred some potential buyers from investing in this series of Realme devices.
Leaked images of the Realme 9 Pro don't show it, but that doesn't mean it won't make a comeback. It may be exclusive to the upcoming Realme 9 Pro Plus (we only saw images of the Realme 9 Pro), or those images may be inaccurate.
We will have to wait for more official details from Realme before knowing any of these details for sure.