realme has yet again solidified its position as one of the brands that bring tough-to–beat budget smartphones in the form of the realme narzo 50A. For a sub-P8k device, this smartphone has a lot to offer. Let’s talk about them in this review.
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| realme narzo 50A Review; Top-Notch Entry-Level Device |
DESIGN and DISPLAY:
The realme narzo 50A joins the line of smartphones under P10,000 but with a triple rear camera setup. Its camera module on the back is rectangular, carrying the three cameras, an LED flash, a narzo branding, and, oddly, the fingerprint scanner. The realme narzo 50A is the first device in a while where we’ve seen the fingerprint scanner not placed on the right side of the smartphone.
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| Retail Package |
The back panel of the device has a textured detail for the most part, while the remaining area has a smooth, matte slate. realme might’ve chosen this design for better grip, and from our experience, it served its purpose well. The realme narzo 50A feels good in the hands, although the smartphone still has a cheap aura. Note that this device can be relatively heavy because of its hefty battery, but with this comes an awe-inspiring battery life which we think is a good compromise.
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| Display |
For ports and buttons, the realme narzo 50A has the standard dual SIM card tray with a dedicated microSD slot, volume rocker, power button, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port, microphone, and a speaker grille.
If you’re looking for a budget phone with a big display, then the realme narzo 50A is a good choice. Although, on paper, its specs may be too basic – 6.5-inch LCD in HD+ resolution – in real-life usage, the screen of the realme narzo 50A is good enough for daily use.
Other things on its display that indicate that the realme narzo 50A is a budget offering are its outdated waterdrop notch that seals its front-facing camera and thick chin.
Get more for less with the realme narzo 50A; Yours for Php7,990
PERFORMANCE:
The realme narzo 50A is positioned as an affordable gaming-centric device with its MediaTek Helio G85 processor, combined with a Mali G52 MC2 GPU, 4GB RAM, and 64GB expandable storage. The operative words here are affordable mobile gaming, so it’s expected for the narzo 50A to handle moderately demanding games, with the graphics level set either to the lowest or mid-levels. Unfortunately, using it for long hours also makes the device heat up.
The realme narzo 50A also brings a so-so performance in terms of multitasking. We could switch between different apps alright, but we noticed a slow down in loading, so we had to terminate background apps to keep the smartphone from lagging. If you’re a power user, meaning you have a lot of apps running simultaneously, then the realme narzo 50A might not be able to keep up at some point. This is the ideal smartphone for parents who mostly use texting apps, social media, light gaming, and multimedia usage.
In terms of the user interface, the realme narzo 50A comes with an easy-to-use realme UI 2.0 on top of Android 11. Bloatware is present, but you can always uninstall unwanted apps easily. In addition, customization features are available, including tweaking the icons, font styles, text sizes, and home screen transitions.
The realme narzo 50A comes with facial recognition and fingerprint scanning for secure device access, which allow unlocking instantly. This smartphone has dual-SIM support, WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and 4G LTE for connectivity.
Below are the results from popular benchmarking apps:
- Antutu - 214,913
- Geekbench Single-Core - 386
- Geekbench Multi-Core - 1,325
- Geekbench Compute - 421
- PC Mark Work Performance 3.0 - 8,802
- PC Mark Work Storage 2.0 - 12,753
- 3D Mark Wild Life - 709
- 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme - 182
- 3D Mark Sling Shot - 1,861
- 3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme - 1,428
The Fab Tab: Meet the realme Pad
CAMERA:
As mentioned earlier, the realme narzo 50A carries three rear cameras – a 50-megapixel F1.8 primary shooter, 2-megapixel F2.4 macro lens, and another 2-megapixel F2.4 sensor. Now, this is where the realme narzo 50A shines. For a budget smartphone, this smartphone takes impressive photos. The colors pop enough, and HDR is evident. Sharpness and clarity are also good, indicating that the realme narzo 50A can maximize its 50MP mode. However, if you view the images taken using the smartphone on a larger screen, that’s when you’ll see some lapses. Nevertheless, this device is a good companion for casual mobile photography, and what’s important is that the photos are Instagram-ready with a few tweaks here and there on a photo editing app.
Macro photography is fantastic on the realme narzo 50A, too – again, considering its price point. Compared to other smartphones under the same segment, the realme narzo 50A is on a different level regarding macro details with just the proper color saturation.
Night shooting, on the other hand, for the lack of a better term, is just useless on the realme narzo 50A. The photos we took appeared blurry and muddy, and the colors looked dull.
For selfies, the realme narzo 50A gave us self-portraits with natural colors and skin tones, and the background blur on our sample photos looked alright. Like its rear camera, the 8-megapixel front shooter also comes with HDR, which is apparent in our selfies' shadows and highlight details.
Videography on the realme narzo 50A, just like night photography, isn’t its strongest suit. There’s no built-in stabilization function so expect shaky videos. This smartphone can record 1080p at 30fps, and video quality is what you can expect from a budget device.
Camera Samples:
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| Playground, 1x Zoom |
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| Playground, 2x Zoom |
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| Night, Playground, 1x Zoom, Normal |
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| Night, Playground, 1x Zoom, Night Mode |
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| Night, Playground, 2x Zoom, Normal |
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| Night, Playground, 2x Zoom, Night Mode |
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| Snowman, Normal |
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| Night, Snowman, Normal |
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| Night, Snowman, Night Mode |
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| Flower, Normal |
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| Flower, Macro |
BATTERY LIFE:
It’s common for smartphones like the realme narzo 50A to make up for their low areas through a generous battery. This device comes powered by a 6,000mAh juice which is enough to last a whole day of heavy usage, with a little more battery to spare for the next day. On our standard video loop test with 50% brightness and 50% volume as parameters, the realme narzo 50A lasted 30 hours and 12 minutes.
Charging the devices takes quite some time since it only comes with 18W fast-charging support. It went from 0% to 15% within 23 minutes, 30% after another 44 minutes, 50% in 63 minutes, and then a total of two hours to reach 100%.
CONCLUSION:
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| realme narzo 50A |
How much is the realme Narzo 50A price in the Philippines?
- The realme Narzo 50A price in the Philippines is Php7,990.
- Get yours now via Shopee at https://bit.ly/realmephofficialstore or Lazada at https://bit.ly/realmeofficialstoreph.
When will be the realme Narzo 50A available in the Philippines?
- The realme Narzo 50A is now available in the Philippines.
realme Narzo 50A Specs Philippines:
- Dual SIM, dual standby, supports 4G/LTE connectivity
- 6.5-inch HD+ (1600x720 pixels) IPS Display
- Dimensions: 164.5mm x 75.9mm x 9.6mm
- Weight: 207 grams
- realme UI 2.0 based Android 11
- Octa-core (2x2.0GHz Cortex-A75 + 6x1.8GHz Cortex-A55) CPU, ARM Mali-G52MC2 GPU, MediaTek Helio G85 12nm chipset
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB/128GB storage, expandable up to 512GB via MicroSD, uses a dedicated slot
- 50MP f/1.8 PDAF main + 2MP depth + 2MP macro triple rear cameras, 1080p video recording at 60fps
- 8MP f/2.0 front camera, 1080p video recording at 30fps
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band
- Bluetooth v5.0
- USB Type-C 2.0 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: 6,000mAh non-removable lithium-ion polymer; supports 18W fast charging
- Colors: Oxygen Blue, Oxygen Green
- Price: Php7,990