Realme X50 Pro 5G Is India's First Smartphone With ISRO's NaVIC Navigation Support

Update: Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth has officially confirmed that the Realme X50 Pro 5G indeed supports NaVIC and he has also confirmed that the upcoming smartphone (Realme 6 Pro) will also support NaVIC. This makes the Realme X50 Pro 5G the first smartphone in the world to launch with NaVIC technology.

Yes, our ultimate flagship, #realmeX50Pro features #NavIC & even our upcoming phone will feature it as well.
So World's first, World's second, coming in a row, all for India.
Plan to talk more on 5th March. See you there with 1500 #realme fans. https://t.co/SXwcu1vYyI

— Madhav 5G (@MadhavSheth1) February 27, 2020

Xiaomi recently confirmed that it will launch the world's first smartphone with India's own navigation technology NaVIC, developed by ISRO. This also indicates that the upcoming smartphone from the company will be powered by a Qualcomm chipset.

It looks like Realme has outdone Xiaomi by launching the Realme X50 Pro 5G in India. According to the official listing, the Realme X50 Pro 5G does include support for NaVIC, making it the first smartphone to do so.

A Little Bit Confusing

Though Realme India's website suggests that the Realme X50 Pro 5G supports the NaVIC navigation system, it is still a little confusing for the following reasons.

When we checked Qualcomm's website, it says that the Snapdragon 865 SoC will support Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS, Dual-frequency GNSS, GNSS, GPS, QZSS, and SBAS navigation system and there is no mention of NaVIC whatsoever. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 720G, Snapdragon 662, and Snapdragon 460 are the first set of processors that supports the NaVIC navigation system.

It is also important to know that NaVIC will only be used in India, as it is a regional technology and services like Google Maps will use conventional navigation systems to accurately position in other parts of the world.

We have contacted Realme India to confirm if the Realme X50 Pro 5G actually supports NaVIC navigation support and will update the story once we get an official confirmation from the brand.

NaVIC Will Be Useful For Bureaucrats More Than Civilians

One of the major applications of NaVIC navigation is reliability when it comes to the security of data. Govt officials and bureaucrats will be able to use this service for various operations and no other country will know about it. An end-user might not see much of a difference while using services like Google Maps with NaVIC technology over GPS.