Rising memory and component costs are forcing smartphone brands to take some drastic steps to stay relevant in their respective price segments. As older stocks of last year's models gradually run out, manufacturers are making way for watered-down replacements that may not pack in anything new, but somehow end up meeting expectations of last year's models. This isn't a bad thing. And it is possible for manufacturers to balance things so that the core experience isn't affected by trimming in the right areas while maintaining prices.

With its Realme 16, the Chinese smartphone brand went with a new design but somehow failed to add any real-world upgrades beyond a silicon-carbon-based battery. Every other area is, on paper, a downgrade compared to the Realme 15. So, does the new Realme 16, with its “rear-selfie” branding and watered-down hardware, make an ounce of sense? Read on to find out!

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Realme 16 Design: New and Shiny!

Dimensions - 158.3 x 75.1 x 8.1mm
Weight - 183g
Durability - IP68 + IP69

The Realme 16's refreshed design loses some of its mid-range charm in an attempt to appeal to youth. It now gets a simpler, flattened design, with flat front and rear panels, which Realme refers to as “Air Design”. The Air Black unit we received has a rear panel made of polycarbonate with a rough matte texture. It has a cool light effect when the light hits the back at an angle. The frame on the sides is also made of polycarbonate and has a flat, matte finish.

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The Realme 16's rear panel attracts dust (because of the plastic), but resists fingerprints

While its design appears flat and modern, it does feel affordable from a materials standpoint. The buttons also lack travel and are a bit hard to press. Regardless of the materials used, the phone still manages an IP69 rating and, despite its slightly compact dimensions, squeezes in a 7,000mAh battery. But you need to keep in mind that damage due to water ingress isn't covered under warranty.

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One design element that undoubtedly does look cool is the very Pixel-like, visor-style rear camera module. Given that the phone has gotten thicker (physically), Realme was able to keep the camera module flat by letting the cameras submerge deeper into the thicker chassis. Visually, it barely rises by a millimetre from the rear surface. Compared to previous camera designs (squares and circles), this one looks very different and stands out from Realme's current smartphone lineup.

The new horizontal camera layout has only one user-accessible camera

The horizontal camera layout is a bit misleading, though. It appears to have 3 cameras, but there's only one user-accessible primary camera under that elongated visor. The other two are merely sensors for colour and depth calculations. The large mirror to the right of the cameras is to be used while snapping selfies with the primary camera, which should, in theory, enable better quality selfies. The mirror has a ring-like arrangement of two LED lights for use as a camera flash.

Realme 16 Display: Gets the Job Done!

Display size - 6.57-inch, 2,372 × 1,080 pixels, FHD+, 397 PPI
Display type - LTPS, AMOLED, 10-bit, 60-90-120Hz
Display protection - DT Star D+

The Realme 16's display does not offer any gimmicky features, like a 144Hz screen refresh rate, but it gets the basics done nicely. The display may not appear as special as the curved-edge screen on the previous model, but it is flat, which makes it practical and distraction-free when viewed outdoors.

Colours appear punchy and saturated with the default Vivid screen colour mode. You can tone down the colours with the Natural preset, which appears softer. Despite the sub-400 PPI density, I noticed no visible reduction in sharpness when browsing through social media feeds, images in the Photos app or when viewing videos in OTT apps.

The Realme 16's display has uniform borders all around, but its screen is a smudge magnet

On the topic of OTT apps, you don't have access to HDR content (even though the display gets very bright), but you do have Widevine L1 certification, which means you can stream video in full HD quality. Regular SDR video appears sharp and shows good contrast.

The fingerprint reader works reliably and can store up to five fingerprints.

Realme 16 Software: AI All the Way!

Android version - 16
Software - Realme UI 7.0
Software commitment - 4 years OS + 6 years SMRs

Realme UI 7.0 is very iOS 26-inspired. There are glassy elements sprinkled throughout native apps, icons, toggles, and themes. Realme even has a capsule-shaped floating tab bar in some apps like Photos, but the brand could not replicate the glass blob effect seen on iOS.

AI Portrait Glow tool in action

Apart from the usual AI add-ons, there are some new tools in place to entice the youth. There's the AI Portrait Glow tool, which basically auto-enhances photos to give you a “glow-up” in case the photo has been captured in a dimly lit environment. The results do appear promising and will clean up your imperfections by running a beauty algorithm, but the system also automatically decides to add a directional studio light, which may ruin photos.

There's also the AI Edit Genie, which can give your regular photo a LinkedIn-worthy upgrade and more.

Software operation feels smooth when operating one app at a time. Apps launch and close quickly as well, but I did notice stuttering when juggling between multiple apps. This was a bit odd because I was testing the 12GB RAM variant of the phone. Apps in the background also tend to restart at times, but such cases were rare.

The Realme 16 also comes with a bunch of third-party apps preinstalled. These include useful apps like Spotify, but users can uninstall them if they are not required. The same goes for the App Market app, which will keep on spamming you with daily notifications. However, these can be turned off in Settings.

Realme 16 Performance: Far From the Best!

Processor - MediaTek Dimensity 6400 Turbo, 2.5GHz, 6nm
RAM - 8/12GB, LPDDR4X
Storage - 128/256GB, UFS 2.2

While software performance is a bit of a mixed bag, the Realme 16's performance in synthetic benchmarks gave us a better idea about how it performs against competing devices. Simply put, the phone cannot compete with both newer and older smartphones available at this price point.

Benchmarks	Realme 16	OnePlus Nord CE6	Motorola Edge 70 Fusion
Display resolution	FHD+	1.5K	1.5K
Chipset	Dimensity 6400 Turbo (6nm)	Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (4nm)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (4nm)
AnTuTu v10	NA	11,56,283	11,35,275
PCMark Work 3.0	10,581	FTR	13,577
Geekbench 6 Single	803	1,080	1,237
Geekbench 6 Multi	2,042	3,171	3,373
Geekbench AI CPU (Quantized)	1,090	1,431	1,300
Geekbench AI GPU (Quantized)	484	755	917
3DM Wild Life	1,380	4,355	4,583
3DM Wild Life Unlimited	1,356	4,427	4,683
3DM Steel Nomad Light	152	405	434

I tried out Genshin Impact, and the phone defaulted to Low graphics and 30 fps. I managed to run the game at the Medium graphics settings at 30 fps, but even here, I noticed stuttering and skipped frames. The phone struggled to render graphics in time when exploring the lush landscapes and environments of the mobile game and could not maintain 60 fps at any resolution or graphics setting.

The Realme 16 has stereo speakers, but they don't sound great

The phone heats up when playing graphics-intensive games, and Realme has included a sufficiently large vapour chamber cooling in place to maintain performance. But with lacklustre hardware backing it, I don't see anyone using this phone for serious gaming, and so, the vapour chamber cooling system really does not make sense.

The Realme 16 has stereo speakers, and they do get loud enough. The sound isn't rich; it's more treble-heavy and lacks bass.

Realme 16 Cameras: Fails With the Basics

Primary camera - 50-megapixel, f/1.8, PDAF
Selfie camera - 50-megapixel, f/2.4, FF

One of the bigger and notable omissions compared to the Realme 15 takes place in the camera department. The primary camera now lacks optical image stabilisation (OIS), which would have managed better low-light photos or video. There is no ultrawide camera as well. Even though the Realme 15's ultrawide camera had a tolerable 8-megapixel resolution, it did provide a wider and exaggerated field of view for those who needed it. Also missing from the previous model is 4K video recording, as the phone now only records at 1080p.

Realme 16 primary camera samples (tap images to expand)

The primary camera captures binned 12-megapixel photos that somehow fail to meet expectations, even for a budget device. Firstly, the lack of OIS means that the camera resorts to Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS), which results in the image (or field of view) getting cropped substantially. The native 1X focal length feels like 1.5X. So, you are missing out on the rest of the frame that cannot be captured because of hardware limitations and badly optimised software.

There is enough detail in the shadows when capturing contrasting scenes, but the brighter spots do get clipped, as can be seen in the case of the white car in the street photo above and the flooring of the compound in the second image. The level of resolved detail is a bit low for a mid-ranger with textures that lack both detail and definition. All of this results in photos that lack depth, contrast, and end up appearing flat. In low-light or street-lit conditions, things get worse, with blurry and blotched textures and photos that lack detail overall.

The Realme 16 has a special mirror on the back to let users snap selfies using the rear camera

Lastly, there's the whole “India's 1st Selfie Mirror Phone” branding, about using the rear camera for selfies with a tiny mirror on the back of the phone. Well, as you can see from the Portrait photo above, the result isn't good enough or worth the trouble. The software-based edge-detection is quite shoddy as well, with a noticeable halo effect near the edges of the subject, conveniently giving me a haircut.

Realme 16 2X zoom primary camera sample (tap image to expand)

If the camera fails at capturing decent daylight photos at its native focal length, it obviously fails at 2X digital crops with messy processing, as can be seen from the above sample.

Realme 16 selfie camera sample (tap images to expand)

Weirdly, the camera that performed best was the front-facing selfie camera. It's definitely not the best one around, but it does capture better colours, contrast and detail. Edge detection isn't accurate, but it's much better than what the rear camera manages in Portrait mode. Low-light selfies come out a bit soft.

Video recordings from the rear camera suffer the same fate as the photos, with cropped framing, clipped highlights, and added purple fringing. Stabilisation is good at 30 fps, but is a genuine problem when shooting at 1080p 60 fps, as the footage captured appears quite shaky. Low-light footage comes out quite noisy and blurry.

Realme 16 Battery: Great, but Not the Best

Battery capacity - 7,000mAh, Si-C, Li-ion
Wired charging - 60W
Charger in the box - Yes

Even though the underlying processor isn't a performance powerhouse, I was a bit worried about its 6nm fabrication process, which is usually found in entry-level to budget smartphones these days. Thankfully, Realme's use of a high-capacity and high-tech silicon-carbon battery managed to deliver impressive battery usage times. With heavy use, including some gaming and camera use, the phone still managed well over a day on a full charge.

The Realme 16 has a high-capacity 7,000mAh battery

Charging rates were decent. The Realme 16 managed a 42 percent charge in 30 minutes and an 82 percent charge in an hour, reaching a fully-charged state in 1 hour and 31 minutes. For reference, OnePlus' Nord CE 6 managed to charge its bigger 8,000mAh battery at a much faster rate, 1 hour and 5 minutes, using the bundled 80W charger.

Realme 16 Verdict

Indeed, “India's 1st Selfie Mirror Phone” could have worked wonders if Realme had gone with a better primary camera sensor. It is also a bit ironic that the selfie camera performs better than the one that's supposed to do the heavy lifting and manages better quality. The area where the Realme 16 does perform well is battery life. But there are recently launched 2026 devices like the OnePlus Nord CE 6 (Rs. 31,999 onwards) that perform better in this regard, and even when it comes to raw performance and imaging. Motorola's Edge 70 Fusion is also a better choice than the Realme 16, with interesting finishes to choose from and better imaging at a lower base price of Rs. 30,999.

Given the whole “air” philosophy behind the Realme 16, its biggest competitor is the Motorola Edge 70. A super-slim and light, premium-feeling device (albeit with a lower capacity battery) with better raw performance and cameras than the former, which at the time of writing this review retails at Rs. 29,999 for the lone 8GB RAM and 256GB variant.