Blending academic creativity with industry expertise, realme and Pearl Academy co-create a smartphone designed by youth, for youth

NEW DELHI: realme, the most popular smartphone brand among Indian youth, has announced a collaboration with Pearl Academy to co-create the design of its upcoming realme P4 Power smartphone. The initiative marks a step in realme’s journey to build products by the youth, for the youth,

Through this collaboration, students from Pearl Academy worked directly with realme’s design and product teams to contribute to the look and feel of the realme P4 Power. The students were involved from early ideas and sketches to refined design concepts, giving them a front-row view into how a mass-market smartphone comes together.

The initiative was rooted in realme’s long-standing belief in creating products that genuinely reflect youth culture and creativity. With the realme P Series being built specifically for India, the brand set out to understand Indian youth more deeply by engaging directly with those who live that reality every day. This led to a collaboration with Pearl Academy, one of India’s leading design institutions, where students were invited to co-create the design of the upcoming realme P4 Power.

Through immersive workshops and hands-on design sessions, students brought their perspectives on identity, usage, and aesthetics into the process, gaining insight into how real product decisions are shaped for scale..For the first time in realme’s journey, student vision directly influenced the design language of a mass-market smartphone. Among the participating cohort, a design concept by Sankalp Panchal, a student at Pearl Academy, was shortlisted and taken forward for integration into the realme P4 Power.

This selection reflects realme’s commitment to giving young creators a meaningful role in product development—where student ideas are not just showcased, but evaluated, refined, and translated into real-world outcomes, resulting in a smartphone that embodies the Gen Z spirit: bold, balanced, and boundless.

“As a brand that started its journey from India to the globe, we see India as a design powerhouse, not just a market. We believe the hyper-local beauty born here, has the potential to become a globally beloved trend,” said Francis Wong, Chief Marketing Officer, realme India. “Our collaboration with Pearl Academy allowed us to work directly with young designers and understand how today’s generation views design, functionality, and self-expression. Those perspectives have directly influenced the realme P4 Power, reaffirming our commitment to growing the most popular smartphone brand among the youth.”

For the students, the experience went far beyond a conventional academic exercise. Engaging closely with realme’s teams allowed them to understand practical realities such as timelines, scale, feasibility, and evolving user expectations. Continuous interactions and direct feedback on their ideas helped them see how concepts are challenged, adapted, and strengthened before becoming a finished product offering a clear view of the journey from creative thinking to real-world application.

The design of realme P4 Power reflects a clear shift toward youth-led thinking, where smartphones are not viewed merely as functional tools, but as extensions of personal identity. Rooted in the belief that Gen Z thrives in contrast, the design embraces opposing traits, confidence and introspection, playfulness and purpose, boldness and thoughtfulness and turns them into a defining strength. Rather than choosing between extremes, the approach brings them together, allowing performance to meet personality and technology to become a form of expression. This philosophy comes to life through the TransView Design, where transparency and technology intersect, celebrating clarity and transformation by making technology visible rather than concealed. Together, these elements represent a design language shaped by Gen Z creators themselves, comfortable with contradictions, expressive in outlook, and confident in blending extremes

"This collaboration offered our students rare, hands-on exposure to how a mainstream consumer product is conceived, shaped, and brought to life,” said Aditi Srivastava, President, Pearl Academy. “At Pearl Academy, we believe education is most impactful when learning extends beyond the classroom and into real-world practice. Strategic industry partnerships like this play a critical role in strengthening our student experience by embedding real business contexts, live briefs, and professional rigour into the learning process.

By working closely with realme’s design and product teams as active contributors rather than passive observers, students experienced the full journey from early ideation and sketching to refined, market-ready concepts. The process strengthened their confidence in decision-making, sharpened their understanding of consumer-first design, and gave them a realistic view of the constraints, trade-offs, and discipline involved in building products at scale. Partnerships like these bridge the gap between education and industry, ensuring our students graduate not just with creative ideas, but with the ability to apply them meaningfully in real-world, high-impact environments."

With the upcoming realme P4 Power smartphone, realme continues to strengthen its position as a youth-focused brand that listens and adapts. By bringing together Pearl Academy students and realme’s product & design teams, the collaboration shows how brands and educational institutions can work together to give young voices a real seat at the table. As the co-created design moves closer to launch, the initiative stands as proof that student ideas can play a real role in shaping consumer technology.