Realme CEO compliments Nokia 8.1 on Realme X India announcement

Nokia 8.1 (X7)

Something unusual happened at the recent launch event of Realme X in India. If you’re less familiar with Realme, it’s another brand of the BBK Electronics group that includes Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus. Realme is a more budget oriented brand that one could compare to Huawei’s Honor.

Usually at launch events, vendors compare their new device to some competitors on the market and brag how their device is better than others. Huawei does that maybe the most and to me, this MWC2019, was fascinating how they managed to prepare the Mate X vs Galaxy Fold slides for MWC19 (more slides here) even though both devices were announced in the same week.

In case of Realme X announcement, Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth had something positive to “say” about the Nokia 8.1. He technically never mentioned the Nokia 8.1, but a statement about performance from Nokia 8.1 review was shown on the slides (47:32).

YouTube

The background of this story that Realme decided to use the Snapdragon 710 and not the 730 as some users expected, so Realme India’s CEO went through great lengths justifying this decision. The price of the Realme X is INR16,999 (€220, $247), still less than the mentioned Nokia 8.1 on the press event.

It’s interesting to see another vendor using a competitor device to show something positive about the competitor (and their own phone). It’s the first time I see something like this. I personally prefer vendors focusing on their devices instead of doing all the comparisons (we have social media and blogosphere for that) and hyperboles.

What do you think about this rarity on launch events? Tell us in the comments down below. 🙂