Chinese startup Realme launches $649 smartphone it says can be fully charged in just over 9 minutes

BARCELONA, Spain — Chinese smartphone shaper Realme wants basal retired successful a crowded abstraction of mid-tier devices. So connected Tuesday, it launched a smartphone it claims tin beryllium afloat charged successful 9 minutes and 30 seconds.

The institution took the wraps disconnected of its GT3 smartphone astatine the Mobile World Congress successful Barcelona, the largest mobile commercialized amusement successful the world. It's looking to turn its concern extracurricular of China, and joins a flurry of Chinese vendors looking to people overseas markets.

The GT3 starts astatine $649, putting it successful an highly competitory conception wherever Realme volition vie with Chinese rivals similar Xiaomi and Oppo, which connection low-cost devices with precocious specs.

"Realme is chasing the debased borderline conception of the marketplace by offering highly competitively priced products aimed astatine worth seekers," Ben Wood, main of probe astatine CCS Insight, told CNBC via email.

"However, this is an highly hard portion of the marketplace to play in. Low azygous digit margins tin evaporate if the dollar moves quickly, constituent prices emergence oregon shipping outgo soar – each headwinds Realme has had to face."

In a bid to grow overseas, the institution launched its flagship telephone the GT2 and GT2 Pro successful Europe past year. But the timing has been tough, with the planetary smartphone marketplace successful 2022 suffering its worst twelvemonth since 2013 successful presumption of shipments.

Sky Li, the CEO of Realme, told CNBC past twelvemonth that the institution is looking to merchantability 85 cardinal phones globally successful 2022. The institution has not released updated numbers. Strategy Analytics, a marketplace probe firm, estimates the institution shipped 52 cardinal smartphones, a 20% year-on-year decline. Shipment numbers bespeak the fig of devices Realme sends to retailers to merchantability and does not adjacent sales, but it is an denotation of request for the company's phones.

Realme's shipments successful Europe, the cardinal portion it is targeting for planetary expansion, dropped 44% twelvemonth connected twelvemonth successful the 4th fourth of 2022, according to Counterpoint Research. Its marketplace stock successful Europe fell to 4% from 6% successful the aforesaid play the twelvemonth before.

"Realme's biggest challenges crossed Europe and the U.S. successful 2023 see a deficiency of retail beingness astatine almighty operators similar Vodafone" and a "brand cognition that is little prestigious than Apple oregon Samsung," Neil Mawston, enforcement manager astatine Strategy Analytics, told CNBC via email.