Realme, the fastest growing mobile brand in the Philippines, is one of the top names now when it comes to Android devices, and has gained massive followers in just a short period. And, with the success that they currently enjoy, there is no doubt that they will strike while the iron is hot. That's why in just less than 3 months after the release of the C3, there is a new smartphone coming to town, the Realme 6i.
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| Realme 6i Review: Power Unleashed |
The Realme 6i comes into the market quite fast, considering that the Realme 5i arrived just last January or barely 4 months as of the time of posting. If we are not mistaken, it is also the first time that Realme releases the "i" version before the non-pro and pro variants. Yes, that's right, there is still no announcement about the release of the Realme 6 and Realme 6 Pro in the country.
With the Realme naming scheme, we can say that the Realme 6i is an upgrade of the 5i, and more powerful than the entry-level C3. And for this review, we will find out if that statement is true.
PHYSICAL:
The Realme 6i, Realme 5i, and Realme C3 have lots in common. In fact, there are too many things that are identical for all three devices. All phones have the same 6.5-inch Mini-Drop FullScreen display with HD+ resolution, which is 1600 x 720 pixels, made from IPS LCD panel with a small notch up top where the selfie camera resides. Not only that, but their actual physical measurements are also identical - 164.4mm x 75.4mm x 9mm. That said, if you place them side by side with the screen facing up, you won't recognize which is which.
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| 6.5-inch Mini-Drop FullScreen Display |
The only time you can quickly identify them is when the phones are flipped over. The 6i has a quad-camera set-up, while the C3 has only 3. But, how about comparing it to 5i, which also has 4 rear cameras? The identifier will be their designs, the 5i, as well as the C3, have Sun Rise Design while the 6i has the Classic Design by Naoto Fukasawa, a Japanese industrial designer. It is available in two color options, Green Tea, which is the one we have for review, and White Milk.
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| Green Tea Classic Design by Naoto Fukasawa |
Along with the back panel design, another differentiator between them is that the Realme 6i uses the new USB Type-C port, while the other two devices have the old MicroUSB port.
Aside from the two things mentioned above, the 3 phones really look the same, even the placement of the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, ports, and buttons are identical.
In terms of retail package inclusions, the Realme 6i comes with a free clear case, something that is not included in the C3 and 5i.
Realme 6i Unboxing and Hands-on
To learn more, you can watch the above unboxing video. You can also read our Realme 5i Review: The Budget Quad Camera and Battery Phone and Realme C3 Review; Affordable and Powerful Gaming Phone to know other similarities and differences of the 3 devices.
SOFTWARE:
The Realme 6i runs on Realme UI version 1.0 based on Android 10, which is also the same operating system that runs on Realme C3. It looks more refreshing and cleaner that the OPPO's ColorOS 6 that runs on the Realme 5i.
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| Software |
All the default icons, including folders, have rounded shapes that follow the 0.618 Golden Ratio design rule. But, if this is a bit boring for you, you can customize the icons the way you like it in the settings menu.
Of course, it is not just about aesthetics, it also comes with enhanced security features that help users avoid fraud, and ensure online transactions are secured. It even comes with a nifty trick that can mask your MAC address when connected to WiFi. Other useful features in the past, like Game Space and Game Assistant, are still present.
To know more about Realme UI, you can visit https://www.realme.com/in/realme-ui.
PERFORMANCE:
The Realme 6i is powered by MediaTek Helio G80 gaming chipset that has HyperEngine Game Technology. It is made from a 12nm semiconductor process and composed of octa-core CPU grouped into two clusters, 2 ARM Cortex-A75 clocked at 2GHz each + 6 ARM Cortex-A55 clocked at 1.8GHz each, paired with ARM Mali-G52 2EEMC2 GPU clocked at 950MHz. This chip is a mild upgrade over the G70 inside the Realme C3, which has the same CPU and GPU arrangements, albeit, lower 820MHz GPU frequency.
We run it through our favorite benchmarking tools, and the results are as follows.
| Benchmark | Realme 6i | Realme C3 | OPPO Reno3 |
| Antutu | 205,996 | 179,857 | 217,741 |
| Geekbench 5 (Single-Core) | 360 | 365 | 409 |
| Geekbench 5 (Multi-Core) | 1,293 | 1,271 | 1,501 |
| Geekbench 5 (RenderScript) | 1,118 | 958 | - |
| PC Mark | 9,008 | 8,649 | 9,105 |
| 3D Mark Sling Shot | 1,769 | 1,619 | 2,361 |
| 3D Mark Sling Shot (Vulcan) | 1,342 | 1,180 | 1,549 |
| 3D Mark Sling Shot (OpenGL) | 1,349 | 1,190 | 1,259 |
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| Benchmark Scores |
The benchmarks scores are higher than the C3, with Antutu reaching above the 200K mark. And, if you read our Realme C3 review, the G70 chipset edge out Qualcomm Snapdragon 665-powered devices like OPPO A9 2020 and Realme 5. Moreover, the results are almost at par with the Helio P90 chipset found inside the OPPO Reno3.
That said, we can expect it to perform better in real-life than the C3 given its boosted GPU and raw performance test results. Lo and behold, it actually did! At least that is what we experience with our review unit that has 4GB of RAM. We cannot vouch with the 3GB + 64GB variant. This because we did encounter some slowdown when there are plenty of apps running in the background with the C3, which also has 3GB of RAM.
As for the 4GB + 128GB model that we have, everything runs smoothly, even if we pushed it with 10 apps running simultaneously. Popular game titles, such as PUBG Mobile, Asphalt 9, Call of Duty Mobile, Mobile Legends, and NBA 2K20, work like a charm, no hang-ups, or slow down encountered when we played them for 30 minutes or so. And, if it can play highly demanding games, other tasks are easily handled.
CAMERA:
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| 48MP Quad AI Cameras |
As mentioned earlier, the Realme 6i is equipped with 4 rear cameras, which makes its photography department a huge winner over the 3 cameras of the C3. As for the 5i, both devices have quad-shooters, but the 6i has 4x higher resolution for its primary camera - 48MP versus 12MP. The other 3 cameras remained the same - 8MP ultrawide lens, 2MP for dedicated macro shots, and 2MP for depth sensing.
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| 16MP Selfie Snapper |
Going to the front, the 16MP f/2.0 selfie snapper is far better than the 5MP f/2.4 module mounted in the C3, and has twice as many pixels as the 8MP f/2.0 of the 5i.
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| Camera Interface |
Camera Samples:
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| Ultrawide |
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| Normal (1x) |
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| 2x Zoom |
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| 5x Zoom |
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| Main, 12MP (Default) |
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| Main, 48MP |
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| Main, 12MP Zoomed In |
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| Main, 48MP Zoomed In |
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| Main, Chroma Boost Off |
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| Main, Chroma Boost On |
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| Flower, Close-up, Main Lens |
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| Flower, Close-up, Macro Lens |
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| Ped Zing, Night, Main, Chroma Boost Off |
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| Ped Zing, Night, Main, Chroma Boost On |
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| Ped Zing, Night, Main, Night Mode |
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| Ped Zing, Night, Ultrawide, Chroma Boost Off |
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| Ped Zing, Night, Ultrawide, Chroma Boost On |
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| Ped Zing, Night, Ultrawide, Night Mode |
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| Selfie with Mask |
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| Selfie |
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| Portrait Selfie |
When there is ample lighting, the 48 main module gives bright images, sound color reproduction, and has nice dynamic range, whether you are shooting in the default 12MP (4000 x 3000 pixels) resolution or the full 48MP (8000 x 6000 pixels). The images produced are great, and if you want slightly saturated colors, just turn on the Chroma Boost feature. The outputs using the 2x zoom and 5x zoom are also very much usable.
The same is true with the 8MP ultrawide module, although the outputs general ambiance is slightly darker than the primary sensor. Probably because the aperture opening is tighter at f/2.3 versus the bigger f/1.8 of the 48MP module.
As for the dedicated 2MP macro lens, it can deliver the job that is tasked to it very well. It can focus well on very close-up shots and give images that are still clear and within focus. If you see the above photos, using the main module to take a close-up shot is not as good as with the dedicated one.
At night, both the 48MP and 13MP sensors can produce good images when shooting in standard mode and with Chroma Boost turned on. And, as expected, the latter still gives a darker ambiance than the former. What we did not expect is that the outputs are a lot noisier and grainier when shooting in Night Mode. Hopefully, this is just a software issue and will be resolved on future updates.
Going at the front, taking selfies while wearing a face mask, render darker outputs. We have the same experience with the OPPO Reno3 and OPPO Reno3 Pro, but compare to them, the Realme 6i outputs are slightly brighter. Without a mask, outputs are great, especially when Portrait Mode is used. Moreover, we did not encounter the slight delay between the phone's shooting and saving it, something that bothers us a bit with the Realme C3.
As for the video capability, rear shooters can record videos up to 1080p at 60fps. Meanwhile, the front snapper is also up to 1080p, but only at 30fps. In addition, the camera settings do not show any kind of stabilization.
CONNECTIVITY:
Most, if not all, recent smartphone releases of Realme have a triple-slot card tray, and the 6i is no exemption. It supports 2 Nano SIM cards and 1 MicroSD card. It simply means that users do not need to choose between having dual-SIM capability or expanding storage because both things can be done. The mobile data connection is quite good, and it also has more FDD-LTE bands than the Realme C3, including band 28 or the 700MHz frequency.
As for the WiFi connectivity, it only supports a single band, which is 2.4GHz. Other wireless connections are Bluetooth version 5.0 and FM Radio. For location or navigation, it has GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, and BDS. For wired connections, it still has 3.5mm audio jack, and the USB port is now Type-C, unlike the 5i and C3 that have the old MicroUSB port.
BATTERY:
One of the main highlights of Realme devices is the massive battery. In fact, if our memory serves us right, they have not released any phone with battery capacity lower than 4,000mAh. That virtue remains true with the Realme 6i, it has a 5,000mAh power source just like the 5i and C3. However, it offers one advantage, and that is a higher charging capability, which is 18W. Based on our test, it can recharge the phone from 0 to 100% in a little over 2 hours. As for comparison, the C3 needs 2 hours and 40 minutes to achieve that.
We tried to run the PC Mark Battery Test several times, however, we always encounter an error. We will try again next time, and we will update this post once we are successful. As for reference, the C3 scored 17 hours and 50 minutes, and we believed that the 6i score will be more or less like it.
FINAL WORDS:
Within several days that we are using the Realme 6i, we can say that it has an outstanding overall performance. The camera outputs are nice, playing games are great, and it has excellent battery life. And with its starting asking price of just Php7,990, we can say as early as now that Realme has another big winner on its arsenal.
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| Realme 6i |
If you are looking for a new phone that is under Php10K that gives a lot of punch, then the Realme 6i is something that we want you to highly consider. However, if you are coming from Realme 5i and Realme C3, we are not really recommending you to upgrade at all, not unless you have plenty of spare money to spend. Because these phones have lots in common and your 5i or C3 is still quite new, probably 4-month old or less.
Realme 6i Specs Philippines:
- Dual SIM, dual standby, supports 4G VoLTE connectivity
- 6.52-inch HD+ (1560 x 720) display, 20:9 aspect ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
- Dimensions: 164.4mm x 75mm x 8.95mm
- Weight: 199 grams
- Realme UI 1.0 based on Android 10
- 2GHz octa-core CPU, 950MHz ARM Mali-G52 GPU, MediaTek Helio G80 12nm chipset
- 3GB/4GB RAM
- 64GB/128GB storage, expandable up to 256GB via MicroSD, uses dedicated slot
- 48MP f/1.8 PDAF + 8MP f/2.3 Ultra-Wide + 2MP f/2.4 depth + 2MP f/2.4 macro quad rear cameras, 1080p video recording at 30fps
- 16MP f/2.0 front camera
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, 2.4GHz
- Bluetooth v5.0
- USB Type-C with OTG function
- GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo
- Multimedia Player
- FM Radio
- 3.5mm audio jack
- Sensors: fingerprint (rear-mounted), light, proximity, accelerometer,
- Battery: 5,000mAh Li-Po non-removable; supports 18W fast charging, supports reverse charging
- Colors: Cream white, Green Tea
- Price: Php7,990 (3GB+64GB); Php9,990 (4GB+128GB)