Realme 16 Pro Series Faces Overpricing Backlash After India Launch

Realme has just released the Realme 16 Pro series in India, but instead of being purely celebrated, the launch has already been a talking point online. The new smartphones have been criticised on social media and technology forums for being overpriced, especially as the devices are in the mid-range category. (The topic was further driven as the Realme 16 Pro series launched to become the first big smartphone launch of 2026, and it set a tone for what many expect across price brackets this year.)

Mr Kumar said the fallout was inevitable because dozens of brands were already being squeezed by higher costs, and the resulting anger would naturally land on Realme. Old-time users wondered if the new models really mark a significant improvement over the earlier Realme number-series phones and indeed whether the brand has gone from its roots of being all about value for money.

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Realme Responds to Pricing Criticism

Realme, in turn, moved fast as the criticism grew richer. Realme Head of Product Marketing Francis Wong responded to the backlash on X in a more direct manner and he agreed with consumer criticism but justified that it is in line with general evolution taking place in the pricing segment for smartphones.

The Realme 16 Pro lineup is just the first to be confronted with this “new reality” of escalated costs in 2026, according to Wong. He also advised users to "wait for the two mid-rangers that will be coming on the market from competing brands before you make up your minds" as specs such as these will soon launch at similar price points, or even higher.

Launch Prices and User Reactions

The Realme 16 Pro has arrived in India at Rs 31,999 whereas the Realme 16 Pro Plus was launched at Rs 39,999. These were prices which got everyone talking and several users drew comparisons with older Realme devices that had placed too much on the plate but cost less than expected. The new lineup, for some, appeared to represent a departure from the brand’s previous strategy of undercutting competitors.

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But Realme says the value is in the entire package. Wong called better camera, bigger battery and day-to-day usability reasons for the pricing to remain unchanged.

Why Smartphone Prices Are Rising

Realme isn’t the only one, according to industry insiders. The global shortage of AI-targeted chips and components is one of the big reasons why smartphone prices are going up. And costs do inevitably rise, as producers compete for limited supply; those increases get passed on to consumers.

How Realme’s pricing strategy bodes in the long run will of course be contingent upon how fiercely other brands price their mid-range phones in the months ahead. For the moment, the Realme 16 Pro series appears to be at the nexus of a large conversation about what mid-range smartphones are currently shaping up to look like in 2026.