Realme P4 First Impressions: A Phone Full of Personality, With a Few Rough Edges

Realme’s P4 series dropped a few days back, with the regular P4 and the P4 Pro. I’ve been spending some time with the standard P4, and honestly? It’s been a bit of a mixed bag.

On paper, this thing looks stacked: a huge 7000mAh battery, a super bright AMOLED screen Realme calls “HyperGlow,” and even a dedicated Hyper Vision chip for visuals. But in real life, some of that shines and some of it doesn’t. Let me walk you through what stood out in my early impressions of the phone.

Price

The Realme P4 5G comes in three configurations:

• 6GB + 128GB – ₹18,499
• 8GB + 128GB – ₹19,499
• 8GB + 256GB – ₹21,499

Unboxing the Realme P4 5G

The box itself is nothing crazy, but it’s got what you actually need. Phone, transparent case, SIM ejector, and most importantly — the 80W SuperVOOC charger. Considering this phone packs a giant 7000mAh battery, you’re going to need a fast charger for whenever the P4 decides to die on you eventually.

Design and Build

Realme’s calling this the “Metal Heart Design,” which sounds bold, but let me be real with you — it’s all plastic. My Steel Grey version looks like brushed aluminium at first glance, but pick it up and you’ll know. That said, the finish is convincing, and the phone doesn’t feel cheap.

What really surprised me was the weight. For a phone with such a large battery, it weighs only around 185 grams. It feels light and balanced, not the top-heavy brick I was expecting. The back curves just enough for a comfy grip, and the front is fully flat, which I prefer for screen protectors.

The rear design is clean. Just the Realme logo, a “50MP AI Camera” label, and a large camera island that takes up the top section. There’s also this little orange circle at the bottom corner that looks like a screw, but isn’t — just a quirky design touch that adds character. Overall, it’s simple, practical, and not trying too hard.

Display

The display is where the P4 really shines. Realme calls it HyperGlow, and yeah, it’s bright. At 6.77 inches, it’s big, flat, and super easy to use outside in direct sunlight. They claim 4500 nits peak brightness, and while I can’t measure that, I’ve had no trouble outdoors.

Colours are on the punchy side, maybe too much at times, but they look great on social media and YouTube. It also supports HDR10+, so Netflix and Prime Video look solid.

Now, about the refresh rate — on paper it’s 144Hz, but so far I’ve only seen it hit 120Hz in the UI. It still feels smooth, but if you were hoping for 144Hz everywhere, you’ll be a little disappointed. In fact, some apps like WhatsApp and Google Keep only refresh at 90Hz, so the experience isn’t fully consistent across the board.

There’s also an “Extra Brightness Mode” that cranks things up even more when you’re outside, though it eats through battery faster.

So far, this screen’s been one of my favourite parts of the phone.

Performance

The Realme P4 is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Ultra, a 4nm chip with an octa-core CPU clocking up to 2.6GHz and Mali-G615 MC2 GPU. On paper, it’s not a flagship beast, but paired with LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage, it keeps things moving smoothly.

I’ve been using the 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant, and in day-to-day use, I haven’t run into slowdowns. Social media, multitasking, and even camera-heavy use feel quick and responsive.

Gaming is still on my to-do list, but I’ll be testing titles like Call of Duty: Mobile and Genshin Impact to see how well the Dimensity 7400 Ultra holds up. Realme’s GT Mode does give animations and colours an extra kick, but I’ll need more time to figure out how much it helps in sustained gaming sessions.

For now, the phone feels solid for everyday use without any noticeable hiccups.

Cameras

You get three cameras on the back, but let’s be real — only two count. The 50MP main and the 8MP ultrawide. The third one? Pretty much a filler, similar to its elder sibling, the P4 Pro, and cousin, the Realme 15 Pro. Selfies are taken with a 16MP front camera.

I do like the fact that you can switch between “Vibrant” and “Crisp” shooting styles. Vibrant gives you bold, punchy, social-ready shots, while Crisp dials things back for more balanced photos. Both do their job, and it’s nice to have options.

There are also these “Smart Scenes” Realme pushes, like Stage or Fireworks. Sometimes the phone even suggests them automatically. When I was shooting buildings, it popped up with AI Landscape, which actually made sense.

The weak spots? No 4K 60fps. You can only do 4K 30. You also can’t switch to ultrawide once you hit record, only digital zoom up to 10x. And the selfie camera maxes out at 1080p 30fps, which feels dated in 2025.

I’ll keep testing, but so far the cameras seem fine for the price, nothing game-changing.

Audio and Haptics

Speakers are loud, and there’s an Ultra Volume mode that makes them even louder. The problem? Once you crank it all the way, distortion creeps in. Keep it just below max, and it’s fine.

Haptics on this phone aren’t very refined. They deliver a coarse, sometimes inconsistent buzz that takes away from the user experience. Turning them off made the phone feel more pleasant overall.

AI Features

Here’s where things get interesting. Realme made a big deal about the new Hyper Vision chip, but honestly, I don’t see much difference. SDR-to-HDR didn’t impress me, and YouTube playback at 1440p sometimes even felt choppy with it on. GT Mode — which basically just boosts colors — was actually more noticeable. We weren’t too impressed with the chip in the P4 Pro (review) either, where it showed up but didn’t really add much to an otherwise solid display.

The AI feature I did enjoy was Edit Genie. You can literally tell it what to add to a photo — sunglasses, a hat, even face paint — and it does it in seconds. The edits look pretty convincing, too. If I didn’t tell someone a hat was AI-generated, they probably wouldn’t notice.

But it’s not perfect. Edited shots lose some resolution, and if you keep making changes, the photo eventually turns into mush. And sometimes it just goes rogue — like when I asked it to change my clothes, it replaced me with a random AI-generated woman. Funny, but also shows how the feature could be misused.

I’ve already seen people online complain that it can generate skimpy clothing even from innocent prompts. Realme really needs to tighten up safeguards here.

Other AI stuff includes Smart Loop for sharing content between apps and the camera’s Smart Scene detection. They’re handy, but Edit Genie is definitely the star of the show, even if it’s rough around the edges.

Battery

This is where the P4 flexes. That 7000mAh battery easily gets me through more than a day on a charge — and I’ve been using it pretty heavily. I haven’t stress-tested it yet, but the early signs are good.

When you do need to charge, the 80W SuperVOOC charger tops it up faster than you’d expect for such a big battery.

Wrapping Up

So, here’s my take so far. The Realme P4 5G has personality. The design stands out, the display’s excellent, and Edit Genie is fun to play around with. But the haptics are bad, audio gets messy at high volumes, and that Hyper Vision chip feels more like hype than help.

Still, it’s early days. I’ll keep testing, especially the cameras and gaming performance, and share a full review soon.