Xiaomi has been dominating the entry level smart phone market. Brands like Realme and Honor are on a mission to disrupt the Xiaomi’s dominance in budget segment. The recently launched Realme 2 Pro smart phone offered impressive all-round performance and good value of money.
With the launch of Realme C1, the company hopes to raise the bar high in the entry-level segment too.
Design
Talking about the design of Realme C1, the device sports plastic body which makes it lighter and easier to carry. Sides are thick and give you the desired grip without compromising on outlook. The back panel of Realme C1 is glossy black polycarbonate surface, which looks amazing. Having plastic body still couldn’t steal the premium look of the device. It doesn’t look cheap or fragile at all. There is no finger print sensor at all in Realme C1.
On the right side, there is a power/lock button, while the volume keys and the triple card slot can be found on the left. Below there is a 3.5mm jack, microphone, and the micro-USB port. There is a 13MP + 2MP rear cameras and the Realme Logo at the bottom.
Display
The display of Realme C1 uses Corning Gorilla Glass technology, provide protection to the display, and an adhesive screen guard is included in the box. The Realme C1 sports a gigantic 6.2-inches screen, 19:9 HD+ display with a notch that holds the 5MP front camera which produces pleasing, saturated colors and amazing photos. The display of Realme C1 also gets quite bright, which makes it readable under sunlight.
Realme C1 is one of the few devices in its price range to have a notch. You can adjust the screen temperature using the option in the setting area. In order to avoid eye strain there is a Night Shield which can reduce blue light from the screen. As for notch, there is Notch Area Display Control in the display settings that allow you to toggle the notch for specific apps.
Audio quality is average and will be enough for casual listening. The speaker can get pretty loud, but like most smartphones, bass is lacking.
Camera
Realme C1 sports a 13MP + 2MP dual rear cameras, and a 5MP AI front camera. The Realme C1 is also carrying the same camera features like the depth effect, stickers, panorama, etc. The front camera is used for gauging depth when shooting in portrait mode. Edge detection is decent; however, the final image lacks good color quality. Details are captured in regular daylight shots, and some chromatic deviation.
Auto HDR is present but the output isn't always good. Panorama, time-lapse shooting modes and stickers’ mode is fun to play with. Noise is handled well in low light situations but details and focusing speeds take a hit. Under sufficient artificial lighting, landscapes in general look soft.
When lighting is good, the front 5-megapixel sensor captures vibrant colors in selfies. However, during night time, a lot of noise in our images is encountered. Video recording is perfect at 1080p resolution but the output isn't very sharp, and there's no electronic stabilization.
OS, UI, and Apps
Realme C1 phone is running on ColorOS 5.1 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. If there’s any difference with the UI, it would be the style of the icons. Floating windows feature will be there which enables you to access screen recording, screenshot, and open apps like Message when in full-view mode. Pre-installed Google apps are present, as well as few third party Vietnamese apps including Zalo, Bao Moi, and what not. However, you can uninstall them in case you think it is eating your space.
Performance and Benchmarks
This phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chipset, 2GB RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. Due to its insufficient RAM, some lags are encountered while running multiple apps at a time. But for basic productivity tasks like browsing the internet, and only navigating, then it’s no problem. Face Unlock feature is used for security in the absence of fingerprint scanner. In short, Realme C1 is pretty fast and responsive even dim conditions and is way faster than the Samsung A7 (2018)’s face unlock.
Heavy games like PUBG Mobile and Tekken Mobile are playable in low-medium settings. However, games don’t run as smoothly as you expected. It also comes with Realme Game Space, which basically helps optimize games and blocks out notifications while you’re playing.
Battery Life
One of the most standout features of this device is the huge battery capacity. With massive 4,230 mAh battery life, you can easily do all activities like web streaming, clicking photos, gaming, downloading new apps etc.
