The new Realme special edition phone comes in a chest-shaped box that resembles Harry’s Hogwarts trunk. Unfortunately, casting the Alohomora spell doesn’t unlock it; you’ll need to use your thumbs, like any other Muggle. Once unlocked, the neat presentation screams of “You’re a wizard, Harry!” and pulls you into the world of Harry Potter.

On the left side, you’ll find a brown box carrying the phone case and a SIM-ejector tool, both of which carry the Harry Potter branding with the Hogwarts crest. Put your wand on the box (you don’t get one with the phone), incant “Accio,” and… yeah, it does nothing.

You need to pull out the case, which is in a matching brown color. And that’s when you start getting to a number of other fun goodies thrown in for Harry Potter fans.

The letter carries a wax-like stamp on the back, while the bookmarks come with a holder, where you can place your favorite house’s emblem. I added the Hufflepuff badge to it, and it’s now my favorite bookmark.

Move the rectangular holder out of the way and you’re greeted with the phone itself. But before reaching the device, I must tell you, Realme has also color-coded the charger and wire to match the theme. This is worth a mention because several phone collaborations limit the theme to the device and collectibles, leaving the phone accessories plain white. But that’s not the case here and I appreciate it.

A customized Harry Potter-styled phone

Prakhar Khanna/CNET

With a simple swish and flick, wizards and witches can use the Wingardium Leviosa spell and the phone levitates out of the box. However, Muggles will need to pick it up like any other device. The phone itself continues the theme with gold accents on the dark brown design. There are plenty of hidden Harry Potter references that are delightful to uncover.

Starting with the camera module, it has two prominent camera rings with a little golden diamond between them. Look closely, and you’ll find they resemble Hedwig’s eyes and nose. The camera module’s gold-colored deco looks great against the brown rear panel, which has a leather-like texture. It feels nice in the hand.

The rear panel also has a diamond pattern, which, according to Realme, is inspired by wizard’s chess from the books and movies. It imprints the four-house crest along with the “Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus” motto and the Harry Potter and Realme logos, which are inscribed underneath.

Put it under the sun and you’ll see the crest light up in the house-specific colors. Realme calls it the Quadra Light-Sensing Color-changing Tech, which lights up specific areas when you shine a UV light over it. Also (I almost missed this), the right side of the phone has “Welcome to Hogwarts” engraved into it.

The references don’t end here. Realme’s Harry Potter-fication runs deeper. When you power on the phone, there’s a Harry Potter boot animation and a custom letter wax fingerprint animation.

Then you’re greeted with a Hogwarts-specific UI, with the castle on the wallpaper and more than 30 custom icons. For example, the Phone app is a red telephone booth, whereas the Notes app is a quill. Even the Google apps’ icons are customized to match the theme.

What about the specifications?

I haven’t used the Realme 16 Pro 5G Harry Potter Edition as my full-time phone yet, but it packs impressive specifications. You get a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with a 1.5K resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. It boasts up to 6,000 nits in peak brightness. While I haven’t tested it, the screen was easily legible under direct sunlight.

This special-edition Realme phone is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Max chip, paired with 12GB of  RAM and 256GB of onboard storage.

You get a 200-megapixel primary camera, accompanied by an 8-megapixel ultrawide-angle sensor with a 112-degree field of view. On the front is a 50-megapixel selfie shooter. To top it off, the phone packs a 7,000-mAh battery with support for 80-watt fast charging. It runs a customized version of Realme UI 7.0 based on Android 16. It is limited to 5,000 units and is priced at INR 62,999 (~$655) in India. Harry Potter fans in the US won’t be able to buy this one, but Google’s Pixel phones recently received Harry Potter theme packs that add their own magical customizations.

It is 2026. It’s only fair for Hogwarts to finally adopt smartphones in addition to using Floo Powder to communicate. The Realme 16 Pro 5G Harry Potter Edition feels quite special as a fan of the books and movies. It is evident that the two companies have put a lot of thought into this collaboration.

Realme effortlessly put me back into the realm of the Wizarding World. From the trunk case and its unboxing experience, down to the customized software, I loved every bit of it. Then came the hidden references and collectible items. I have a strong Harry Potter bias, but this is my favorite limited edition phone of all time. It is Riddikulus-ly cool.

Prakhar Khanna is a Writer at CNET with bylines in ZDNET, Forbes, and other major outlets. A digital nomad at heart, he thrives in chaos–mixing deadlines with travel, often writing stories on planes, trains, and cafe tables while hunting down the best pizza spots wherever he lands. His backpack usually carries one phone too many, and his playlists are stacked with 2000s Bollywood. Find him across social media @ParkyPrakhar.
Contact: parkydoesstuff(at)gmail(dot)com

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