During the launch of the Realme 15 Game of Thrones Limited Edition in Northern Ireland this week, I had the opportunity to interview Realme Vice President Chase Xu. In a session that was also attended by Southeast Asian media, several questions were raised before he answered them.
Question – Why is this limited edition series using a mid-range device instead of a flagship device? Why is the number series used instead of a GT? Usually, limited editions are for premium products.
Answer – Everyone knows that we did a collaboration with Austin Martin at one point. It was a very luxurious and premium collaboration. In fact, we have a collaboration with them for the next three years, so. We want an F1 team. The Aston Martin F1 team can combine their passion for speed and power with the Realme GT series.
I think it’s a good choice for us and for Realme for the number series. In fact, we have a lot of users around the world in the mid-range to high-end price segment. For the number series, we find that in this price segment our users are young people.
They enjoy their lives. They love to watch TV shows and they really love life to have fun. One of the interesting things, so we decided to do collaborations with IPs like, TV shows, video games and movies for the number series. This makes the brand more interesting, so that is a different strategy for us (compared to the GT series).
So in the future, every year we can have IP collaborations with number series to make the series more interesting and more fun.
Question – We have seen limited edition devices of Game of Thrones, Coca Cola, Naruto and Dragon Ball Z. All these brands or products can be said to be old. GoT for example ended 6 years ago. So how does Realme choose what IP to offer next in the form of limited edition devices?
Answer – We choose the IPs not because they are trending but because they are what the users want. All the IPs mentioned above may be old but they still have a lot of fans to this day. First of all it needs to be globally known and popular among young people because Realme is a device manufacturer that targets this group. We have actually already chosen what the next limited edition device will be with the final design already set.
Question – Is the next Pokemon?
Answer – We can’t share with you about the next device at this time. But I’m definitely a Pokemon fan and would like to make a limited edition device, but Nintendo is known for being picky about who they collaborate with.
Question – This year Realme showed off a prototype of a 15,000 mAh battery and air conditioning-like cooling. When will consumers be able to buy a device with this large capacity battery?
Answer – Yes, all the prototype devices with 10,000 mAh and 15,000 mAh are just concepts to show that it can be produced. But we don’t want this large battery to be the only attractive feature on the device. We will make sure it offers more than that so that the large battery can be used to its fullest. As for when? It will definitely launch in 2026 but we can’t reveal which series of devices will receive it. Please wait for the launch.
Question – At the Snapdragon Summit, I saw a lot of AI demos running directly on the device (on device). Is Realme interested in offering AI features directly on the device, which is faster and doesn’t require an internet connection like the systems used now?
Answer – Implementing AI directly from the device is indeed in the pipeline. But we realize that there are limitations or constraints on the NPU built into the chip. For example, on serial number devices, AI will continue to be run using the cloud system due to this issue. On flagship devices like the upcoming GT 8 Pro equipped with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, we plan to bring features such as producing higher frame rates in the foreground and increasing graphics resolution using AI because the NPU used is quite powerful.
Question – Finally, I would like to ask you what makes a Realme device a Realme device. For example, Apple devices now use Liquid Glass. Xiaomi devices are those that support the entire ecosystem of smart devices, EVs and their connected devices.
Answer – If we look at the initial mission of the establishment of Realme, it was to offer a good choice of affordable devices for young people but still great. Realme is now 7 years old and the mission has not changed, it's just that the user has changed a little. Offering devices at affordable prices is no longer enough. Therefore, first of all, we always listen to opinions from users. Second is the focus on camera capabilities and third is definitely still on price. These three things will be the main features of a Realme device.
