Realme recently added a new family member to its growing Realme 5 series – the Realme 5i. To kick off the new decade, the young mobile brand recently brought the device to the Philippines, allowing local fans to score an impressive smartphone that won't break the bank.
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| Realme 5i Review: The Budget Quad Camera and Battery Phone |
As a toned-down variant of the Realme 5, it’s safe to assume that it is also bound to impress us. But can it really deliver? Let’s see!
PHYSICAL:
Realme 5i Hands-on and Initial Impressions
As expected, Realme has come up with a tricky design to have a premium-looking smartphone, though it still has a polycarbonate body just like the Realme 5. However, it now flaunts a Van Sunlight 3D textured finish, which features a sunrays-like design that changes when light strikes.
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| Display |
The Realme 5i flashes an immersive 6.5-inch 2.5D screen with a tiny notch, resulting in an HD+ 1600 x 720 resolution and 89% screen-to-body ratio. The phone has slightly thick bezels and bottom, too, which is still acceptable as it can elevate your viewing experience even now.
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| Bottom |
Its right side houses its power/lock button, while its left cheek accommodates its volume keys and SIM card tray. Its top portion is unoccupied, while its 3.5mm audio jack, speaker grill, and MicroUSB 2.0 port are placed on the bottom part of the device.
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| Back |
Flip the device on its back to reveal its protruding quad-rear camera, flash, fingerprint scanner, and its branding. Weighing 198 grams, it is impressive that one-hand usage is possible – thanks to its panel that is not slippery. It doesn’t attract fingerprints and smudges, too.
DISPLAY:
The Realme 5i flaunts a 6.52-inch screen with an HD+ 720p resolution. Mounted with a mini-drop notch, the device allows users to enjoy watching videos and playing games through its immersive display – though we can say that we’ve seen better. Realme also equipped it with a Corning Gorilla Glass protection, but during the span of our test, we’re disappointed that it can easily get scratches.
Using it under direct sunlight was never an issue, plus its brightness works fine in both indoor and outdoor settings.
SOFTWARE:
The Realme 5i is loaded with Android 9 Pie OS with ColorOS 6 skin on top. Similar to other ColorOS devices, it also comes with youthful and playful icons. To Dark mode lovers out there, good news for you, as it comes with a Dark Mode option that works system-wide. Meaning, when you enable this, even third-party apps will be on Dark Mode.
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| Software |
The phone sports pre-installed apps, too, including Google native apps, Lazada, Facebook, ORoaming, and more.
For security options, Realme geared it with a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner and face unlock. Both worked well during our test, but the latter was noticeably slower than the former. It’s still manageable, though.
PERFORMANCE:
The Realme 5i shares the same offerings as the Realme 5. Comes equipped with a Snapdragon 665 processor, Adreno 610 graphics, 3GB RAM, and 64GB storage, we assumed that it will also deliver an impressive performance just like its brother. We still ran it on our preferred benchmark apps to give us a preview.
Here are the results:
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| Benchmark Scores |
- AnTuTu – 172,706
- PCMark – 7,747 (Work 2.0)
- Geekbench 5 – 313 (single core)
- Geekbench 5 – 1,366 (multi core)
- 3DMark – 1,781 (Sling Shot)
- 3DMark – 1,070 (Sling Shot Extreme – OpenGL ES 3.1)
- 3DMark – 1,049 (Sling Shot Extreme – Vulkan)
As expected, the Realme 5i offers smooth performance that you won’t usually see at its price point. It can handle heavy mobile activities such as gaming and multitasking, but of course, it has minimal lags. Switching from one app to another was smooth, and it’s impressive that it didn’t freeze when multiple apps were running on the background at the same time.
CAMERA:
On paper, many would notice that it almost shares the same specs as the Realme 5. However, its selfie snapper has been lowered to an 8-megapixel sensor from a 13-megapixel camera. Good thing, it is packed with a better video stabilization than its brother.
The Realme 5i sports a 12-megapixel f/1.8 main shooter, 8-megapixel f/2.25 199-degree ultra-wide-angle, 2-megapixel f/2.4 4cm macro lens, and 2-megapixel f/2.4 depth sensor. For selfies, as mentioned before, the brand mounted it with an 8-megapixel f/2.0 front camera.
Here are some of our sample photos:
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| Indoor |
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| Macro |
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| Night |
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| Night |
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| Night |
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| Selfie |
The Realme 5i can deliver good photos. Images are vibrant and have accurate colors, too. However, we noticed that it had a hard time focusing on the subject when we’re doing a macro shot. For selfies, it can offer natural-looking images, while enhancing your photos.
See Also: Realme X50 Pro 5G to Launch on February 24
CONNECTIVITY:
The Realme 5i boasts basic connectivity features, including 4G, LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. All functioned well during our test, and we also never experienced poor signal reception. Receiving and making calls were normal, too.
Other connectivity features include its MicroUSB port and 3.5mm audio port.
BATTERY:
The Realme 5i is juiced with a whopping 5,000mAh battery that can last for almost two days. Tapped as our main driver, the device ran for 18 hours, noting that our mobile activities include heavy social media usage, watching videos, and casual gaming.
Although its battery department appeared to be one of its key selling points, we’re disappointed that it didn’t sport a fast charging solution. As a result, it took us more than two hours to charge it from 20% to full.
VERDICT:
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| Realme 5i |
Realme made sure that the Realme 5i could impress consumers with its new design, good display, long battery life, and impressive camera performance. The device is really worth considering most especially if you're on a budget.
However, having some downgrades from the Realme 5, you can just add Php1,000 to afford its brother with the same 3GB/64GB configuration. But don't get us wrong though, as the Realme 5i can really satisfy your mobile needs. You can get it for only Php6,990.
What do you think? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below!
Realme 5i Specs (Philippines):
- Dual SIM, dual standby, supports LTE connectivity
- 6.5-inch IPS HD+ (1600 x 720) capacitive touchscreen
- Dimensions: 164.4mm x 75.6mm x 9.3mm
- Weight: 198 grams
- 2.0GHz 64-bit octa-core CPU, Adreno 610 GPU, Snapdragon 665 chipset
- 3GB of RAM
- 64GB internal storage, expandable up to 256GB via MicroSD card slot
- 12MP f/1.8 + 8MP f/2.25 199-degree ultra-wide + 2MP f/2.4 macro + 2MP f/2.4 depth quad rear cameras
- 8MP f/2.0 front camera
- Multimedia Player
- 3.5mm audio jack
- FM Radio
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- Bluetooth 5.0
- GPS, A-GPS
- OTG
- Sensors: accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
- Others: Fingerprint sensor, Face Unlock
- Battery: 5,000mAh non-removable, 10W fast charging
- Colors: Blue, Green
- Price: Php6,990
