Mid-range storage duel: Poco X8 Pro clearly beats Realme smartphone

The Realme 16 Pro+ (around US$ 600 at amazon.com) advertises with fast UFS 3.1 memory chips, but the laboratory results show a differentiated picture.

While the sequential read values appear solid, the write speeds drop significantly in direct comparison to top competitors. This discrepancy has a noticeable impact on everyday usability for large file transfers.

Memory performance in detail

The synthetic benchmarks reveal an interesting range in the device's speed values: The smartphone achieves a value of 1,997 MB/s when reading 256 KB blocks sequentially. This value is only just below the average of the tested class and is comparable with other models in this price range.

However, the picture is different when it comes to writing. The sequential write speed of 1,729 MB/s is sufficient for everyday use, but falls short of expectations when you consider the technical possibilities of modern UFS storage. Compared to the Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro, which is almost twice as fast at 3,565 MB/s when writing, the Realme 16 Pro+ is clearly slowed down here.

Testing suitability for everyday use

For the normal user, who mainly uses social media and takes photos, these differences are often barely noticeable. A typical scenario would be opening apps or scrolling through long image galleries. In these cases, the random read value of 299 MB/s ensures a smooth experience, as it is close to the class average.

However, as soon as the user starts transferring large video files to the internal memory or installing complex games, the weakness in writing becomes apparent. A photographer who uploads hundreds of RAW images from a camera to the phone every day will find that this process takes longer than on more powerful rival devices. The loading times for large updates can also be noticeably longer.

Recognizing technical limits

The analysis of random accesses (Random Read/Write 4KB) provides information about the efficiency of the storage system with many small files. With 299 MB/s for reading and 402 MB/s for writing, the device is in the upper midfield, but lags behind top performers such as the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro, which is significantly faster at 547 MB/s for writing.

This difference is particularly relevant for multitasking scenarios in which many background processes access the memory at the same time. A user who uses several apps in parallel and frequently switches between them could theoretically notice a slightly higher response time when providing data. The technical measurements confirm that the memory is solid, but not exceptional.

Conclusion on performance

In summary, it can be said that the Realme 16 Pro+ delivers a solid but not outstanding result in terms of memory performance.

The read speeds are good, but the write speed drops significantly in direct comparison to strong competitors such as the Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro.

For users who do not place extreme demands on file transfer speeds, the device is still a reasonable choice. However, anyone who works a lot with large amounts of data should keep the technical limitations in mind.

You can find out more about the stylish Realme 16 Pro+ in our detailed test report.