The first Realme smartphone arrived in 2018, and here we are, four years later, celebrating the brand’s 4th fourth anniversary. The company born as a spin-off of Oppo has achieved some impressive milestones in its short timeline: it is the sixth largest smartphone company in the world, with over 140 million users worldwide.
We caught up with Sheth, Realme’s Vice President and Head of Realme International, and asked him some pressing questions about future plans, racing for charging speed, and expanding into Europe. Read the entire interview below.
Are you planning to release a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 flagship in international markets? Right now the only one you have is only available in China.
Very soon we are going to do it. I can’t share exact times, but yes, there will be a global version soon as well.
So should there be one on the shelves in time for the holiday season?
Again, I can’t tell you the exact moment, but yes, this is what we are planning to do. The times are still in the planning and discussion phase.
Where do you see your GT flagship line going in the coming year? Are you keeping focus or design or would you rather try to push camera innovation or any other innovation?
I think the most important thing for the top line is that everything has to be of a high standard. This also includes processing, screen, camera, and aesthetics. All of these things will be needed for a premium flagship. When people buy a flagship, they will look to an overall great experience: look and feel, camera experience, screen experience, battery optimization, charging experience – and we need to make sure we deliver that.
Sure, a flagship must have all of this fixed, but which area do you think will allow you to stand out?
The drawings! Because I believe that designs are the basis for us at Realme. With the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 even though we launched it today, you will see many other phones with it. But aesthetics is something and I want to make sure it’s more connected with the audience. And this I think will be a differentiating factor for Realme.
The chip shortage of the recent past has forced you to move the number series to only one generation per year. Now that things are improving on the supply side, do you plan to go back to two generations a year?
We want to continue with one generation per year because we want to give consumers time before the next generation arrives. We have seen that replacement cycles are at least 18-24 months globally, so we will prefer to stick to one generation at least for number series.
We will try to bring a few smaller updates in maybe six months a month, but we won’t be releasing more than one generation per year.
According to our research, it costs about 10% of the battery capacity to make a smartphone with a charging speed of 125-150W compared to a more, say modest, charging speed of 65-80W. So that’s 4,500mAh 80W versus 5,000mAh 150W. Do you think this tradeoff is worth it for most people?
In general, I think people prefer to have at least a 4,000-4,500mAh battery with good charging speed. I think that’s what the average user really wants. Higher is better, but not if it compromises the design and appearance or weight of the phone.
When working on the dynamics of handling a 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 that, the minimum we try to achieve is a capacity of 4,000-4,500mAh.
So would you say we’re nearing the end of this reload speed race?
This is not the end of the run at reload speed. People think it’s a race, but for us it’s a very different matter. It’s about what technology can do to relieve anxiety. Technology that helps you make your life better, easier and faster. So charging speed doesn’t mean beating any other brand, what we really want is to make sure you don’t experience the anxiety associated with charging your phone. Worry about your phone going dead when you leave for a meeting. You can just log in for five minutes and you’re good to go for another half day.
This is what we really want to do with charging speed – release anxiety and make sure your phone experience is better. Even with all your multitasking, you don’t have to compromise on any other aspect.
Where do you plan to take your distribution to Europe in particular in the future? Will there be more focus on offline channels?
Yes, it will be. We will go on with the deepening of the distribution network. Because touch is extremely important for the European market. I want consumers to experience the quality of our products.
Real shop
At the same time, we have our other ecosystem products: audio, wearables, laptops and TVs. We have already launched some in Europe and others will arrive in the near future. So we want to make sure people can try these products.
Will they be couriers, retail partners, or perhaps proprietary stores?
We are already working with carriers and want to extend these partnerships. We also have large partner and local stores. So I think their stores are the next step, while also extending the partnerships we currently have.
You mentioned that new IoT products are coming to Europe – any details you will focus on?
We want to deepen and expand the audio and wearable segments. Because I feel we have great opportunities to grow there as we have more touch points and cross-sell options. At the same time, consumers can get a more complete experience from us.
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