Big batteries finally arrived – Realme still managed to fumble some basics
For years, Android users have been begging for one simple thing: stop chasing absurd charging speeds and just give us bigger batteries that don’t turn phones into bricks.
Silicon‑carbon (Si/C) cells finally made that realistic, and Realme is one of the first to really push it with the P4 Power’s 10,001mAh pack.
On paper, this should be the ultimate midrange battery phone – the device that ends power‑bank anxiety for good.
Instead, what we actually get is a fantastic battery experiment wrapped in a pretty average midranger, with a few too many cut corners for something that’s supposed to define a new category.
Specs and price: huge battery, very safe everywhere else
Realme P4 Power (India):
- Price: ₹25,999 (~$290)
- Battery: 10,001mAh Si/C cell, 80W wired, 55W PPS, 13.5W PD/QC, 27W reverse wired, bypass charging
- Display: 6.80-inch AMOLED, 144Hz, HDR10+, 1280×2800, 453ppi, 1B colors, 6500 nits peak
- Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Ultra (4×2.6GHz Cortex-A78 + 4×2.0GHz Cortex-A55, Mali-G615 MC2, 4nm)
- RAM/storage: 8/128GB, 8/256GB, 12/256GB (UFS 3.1)
- Rear cameras: 50MP Sony LYT-600 (1/1.95″, f/1.8, OIS) + 8MP ultrawide (1/4.0″, f/2.2)
- Front camera: 16MP, f/2.4
- Software: Realme UI 7.0 on Android 16; 3 OS updates, 4 years security
- Build: 162.3×76.2×9.1mm, 219g; Gorilla Glass 7i front; plastic back and frame; IP69 + MIL‑STD‑810H (with the usual non‑guarantee asterisk)
- Other: in‑display optical fingerprint reader, stereo speakers, IR blaster, Wi‑Fi 5, BT 5.4 with aptX HD and LHDC 5
The headline is obvious: a 10,001mAh battery at 9.1mm and 219g is wild.
Phones with 5,000–7,000mAh packs regularly land in the same weight range, so Realme has genuinely pulled off something impressive on the battery side.
But the rest of the spec sheet screams “safe midrange” – and sometimes “we shaved costs here because the battery was expensive.”
Battery: new endurance king with oddly conservative charging
The P4 Power doesn’t just win in synthetic tests; it demolishes them.
In one active‑use benchmark run, it hit 25:35 hours, topping the site’s battery chart and pulling ahead of big‑battery players like the OnePlus 15R (7,400mAh, 21:36) and multiple 7,000mAh+ phones.
In more anecdotal testing, reviewers were running it for four to six days on a charge with double‑digit screen‑on times.
The Si/C battery is rated to retain 80% capacity after 1,650 cycles, which Realme translates to around eight years of “normal” use.
That’s the first time a mainstream smartphone maker is basically telling you: this pack outlives our own software support policy.
You can even cap charging between 80–95% in 5% steps, but realistically, there’s little reason when 80% of 10,001mAh is still more than most flagships ship with.
Charging is where things get a bit more conservative.
- 80W SuperVOOC: 0–50% in 36 minutes
- 0–100%: around 79–88 minutes, depending on test and starting point
Context matters: 50% here is ~5,000mAh.
So in half an hour you basically refill a Galaxy S25 Ultra‑class battery while staying under an hour and a half for a full 10,001mAh charge.
That’s reasonable, but Realme has been the brand pushing 150–240W madness.
Here, the company openly admits they pulled back on charging speeds to keep the phone from turning into a brick.
Practical? Yes.
But it kills any bragging rights against their own older fast‑charge monsters.
Reverse wired charging at 27W is legitimately useful, though.
The P4 Power works as a real power bank for other phones, tablets, and accessories – and unlike an actual power bank, you still have a 144Hz AMOLED, 5G, and cameras attached.
Design and hardware: battery-first, premium-later
Realme leans on its usual flashy aesthetic: a “TransView”‑style back with a semi‑transparent area around the camera block, curved front glass, and three colors (Flash Orange, Power Silver, Blue).
In hand, the phone looks familiar if you’ve seen any recent Realme GT or P‑series device.
The reality check comes the second you look past the paint:
- Front: Gorilla Glass 7i
- Back and frame: plastic, with a silky matte finish
- Ingress protection: IP69, plus a MIL‑STD‑810H badge
The IP69 and military‑spec talk sounds great, but Realme still hides behind the usual disclaimer that it doesn’t guarantee rugged survivability.
So it’s more “marketing‑grade tough” than “you can actually abuse this like a rugged phone.”
Weight and thickness are where the engineering shines.
At 219g and 9.1mm, this is genuinely in normal‑phone territory for a 6.8‑inch device.
It’s not dainty, but it’s also not Tank‑phone territory.
Realme chose plastic to get there, and you feel it – other phones at or below this price point offer more premium glass/metal builds.
The in‑display fingerprint reader is fast and reliable but annoyingly low on the front, making thumb reach awkward.
There’s an IR blaster (nice), dual‑SIM tray (no eSIM), and stereo speakers.
Audio, however, is underwhelming – reviewers call out weaker, less impressive speakers than key rivals.
This is the pattern across the hardware: all the engineering flex went into the battery; everything else was tuned to “good enough for the price.”
Performance and software: solid, but Realme undercuts its own 8-year battery claim
The Dimensity 7400 Ultra is basically a marginal bump over the 7300 Ultra.
You get four Cortex‑A78 at 2.6GHz, four A55 at 2.0GHz, and a Mali‑G615 MC2 GPU on a 4nm process.
In benchmarks, the P4 Power sits neck‑and‑neck with the Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G and lags phones using Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 or 7 Gen 4.
In other words: performance is fine for a ₹25–26K midranger.
CPU and GPU stress tests show excellent sustained performance with low external temperatures – the big battery and plastic shell help keep thermals in check.
You can game for ages without obvious throttling.
But if you care about raw performance per rupee, Motorola’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 phones and some Nothing devices do better.
Software is where Realme makes a baffling call.
- OS: Android 16
- Skin: Realme UI 7.0
- Support: 3 major OS upgrades, 4 years of security patches
With a battery Realme itself claims will last eight years, a 3/4 year support window feels lazy.
You’re being sold a “long‑life battery phone” that, on paper, becomes software‑stale halfway through that lifespan.
Realme UI 7.0 is basically ColorOS/OxygenOS with a new badge.
You get the new Flux Engine (animation and scheduling tweaks) that supposedly makes things feel smoother, plus quality‑of‑life bits like app drawer category grouping and app renaming.
But Realme also quietly strips out features that exist on its higher‑tier phones:
- No AI Notify Brief, no AI Search from the Next AI suite
- No Mind Space, which OnePlus and some Oppo/Realme flagships get
- No AI Studio app for generative images and animations
You still get Gemini Live, Circle to Search, and some AI editing tools in the gallery (AI Eraser, AI Unblur, etc.), but the P4 Power is clearly treated as a second‑class citizen in Realme’s own lineup.
If this is supposed to be your ultra‑long‑term device, that’s not a great message.
On top of that, there’s a heavy preload situation – around 60 apps on some review units – even if most are uninstallable.
Battery innovation is forward‑looking; the software and update policy feel stuck in 2022.
Cameras: “Power” in the name, not “Pro”
Realme is very honest here: it’s called P4 Power, not P4 Camera.
And the camera system matches that branding.
Hardware
- Main: 50MP Sony LYT‑600 (1/1.95″, f/1.8, OIS, PDAF)
- Ultrawide: 8MP, f/2.2, 112°, fixed focus
- Front: 16MP, f/2.4, fixed focus
- Video: Main up to 4K30; 1080p up to 240fps; ultrawide and selfie at 1080p30; EIS available
No telephoto, no macro, no fancy extra sensors.
A lot of competitors around ₹25–30K now offer at least a basic 2x or 3x zoom camera.
Daylight
The main camera is actually better than the specs suggest.
Daylight shots are detailed, with reasonable sharpening, wide dynamic range, and well‑judged saturation.
Human subjects look natural, and even without Portrait mode, subject separation is decent.
But 2x digital zoom can’t compete with a real telephoto.
It’s acceptable for social media, yet phones like the Nothing 3a or some Motorola and Xiaomi rivals simply give you more flexibility.
The ultrawide is… fine.
Color and dynamic range are decent; sharpness is just meh.
This is par for the segment, but again, some rivals are now slipping in better 8MP AF ultrawides.
Selfies and low light
Selfies are one of the weak spots.
Backlit scenes trip the camera up, and anything less than ideal lighting turns soft and noisy.
Get good light and you can pull a nice shot, but this is not a selfie phone.
Low‑light is more nuanced.
The main camera actually does very well at night for this class.
Images keep solid detail (with some grit), strong dynamic range, and good exposures, occasionally slipping into greenish white balance.
2x low‑light zoom is predictably crunchy.
The ultrawide in low light is basically there to remind you it exists: soft, noisy, harsh highlights.
Video tells a similar story: 4K30 main camera footage looks good, but the 2x zoom and ultrawide clips drop off a cliff.
Stabilization is decent when standing still; walking introduces focus hunting and doesn’t hugely improve with Ultra Steady enabled.
Nothing here is disastrous, but at ₹25,999 you can absolutely buy better camera kits.
Realme clearly decided every rupee needed to justify the battery story, and the camera team seems to have lost that internal budget fight.
Competition: Realme wins on endurance, loses on well-rounded value
Realme positions the P4 Power at ₹25,999 in India, and claims it has no direct rival.
That’s half‑true: in battery capacity, yes, nothing else on shelves is close.
As a phone, though, it lives in a very crowded midrange.
Key alternatives mentioned in testing:
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G
- Better display tuning, louder and better speakers, nicer build, higher IP rating
- Double the base storage
Slightly more expensive by ₹4,000, but far more balanced overall
Motorola Edge 70- More premium build, better camera hardware, faster Snapdragon 7 Gen 4
- Wireless charging and faster wired charging
Smaller, thinner, and just generally more “flagship‑adjacent”
Nothing Phone (3a)- Faster chipset, more versatile camera setup with dedicated zoom
- Considerably faster charging
- Distinctive design if you’re bored of Realme’s aesthetics
All of them lose badly on endurance; none can touch 10,001mAh plus Si/C longevity claims.
But they also don’t ask you to live with weaker speakers, average cameras, plastic frames, and short-ish software support in exchange for that.
Realme itself arguably undercuts the P4 Power with the P4 Pro in markets where both sell at similar prices.
The Pro offers a 7,000mAh battery, same 80W charging, and generally more balanced specs – and it hits 100% charge just 27 minutes faster in testing.
That’s the kind of internal overlap that makes the Power look more like a tech demo than a must‑buy.
Verdict: an amazing battery long-haul phone that Realme didn’t fully commit to
The Realme P4 Power proves something important: 10,000mAh‑class smartphones don’t have to be ridiculous tanks anymore.
Si/C batteries are real, they work, and they can absolutely obliterate endurance charts while keeping weight and thickness in line with normal big phones.
On that front, this thing is a genuine success.
But as an actual product you’re supposed to buy and live with, it’s less impressive than it should be.
You get:
- The best battery life reviewers have seen on a mainstream smartphone
- A strong 6.8-inch 144Hz HDR10+ AMOLED
- Stable midrange performance and cool thermals
- IP69 marketing with basic real‑world durability
You also put up with:
- Plastic build and weaker speakers than many rivals
- A camera setup that’s fine but clearly behind competitors on zoom, ultrawide, and selfies
- Realme UI 7.0 that’s missing AI features found on pricier Realme phones
- Just 3 OS updates and 4 years of security on a phone whose battery is advertised to last 8 years
If you’re a very specific kind of user – always on the move, constantly tethering, gaming for hours, or needing a smart power bank that can also be a primary phone – the P4 Power finally gives you what you’ve been asking for.
It’s the first mainstream “battery anxiety killer” that doesn’t require carrying around a 300g brick.
For everyone else, it’s a niche device that showcases where battery tech is going while reminding us Realme is still happy to treat long‑term software support and camera quality as optional extras in this price bracket.
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