realme C33 Review; A Sight To Behold
INTRODUCTION:
A well-performing, elegant-looking, budget-friendly smartphone is almost too good to be true until the competition in the smartphone department becomes even stiffer. With this, smartphone brands like realme were challenged to meet the demand of the market – bang-for-the-buck devices. And responding to the demand is what realme has been doing, eventually paving its way as one of the top smartphone names in the local market.
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| realme C33 Review; A Sight To Behold |
Let's take a closer look at one of its offerings under its best-selling C series for the budget-conscious Filipino consumer - the realme C33. Should this be your next good buy? Read on and find out.
DESIGN and BUILD:
realme is raising the look of its C series smartphones up a notch, which is evident in how the realme C33 showcases itself. We especially liked its Night Sea color, which is the one that we have for this review. Not a lot of Android smartphones have this shade yet, so it's refreshing to the eyes. Another color options are the Sandy Golde, and for those who like their stuff subtle and minimalist - Aqua Blue.
Just like the "Glowing" descriptor in the names of the realme C35, the realme C33 also has a "dynamic glowing design," which realme said is made possible with a right-angle bezel made of 2D material. When hit with the light on this angle, the smartphone's back panel shows a ray design detail.
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| Night Sea Design |
As expected from a budget device, the realme C33 has a polycarbonate back panel, but it has a glass-like finish which somehow adds a premium touch to it. A downside of this, however, is that it's a magnet to smudges and fingerprints, so you better get yourself a good case.
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| Protruding Camera, Volume Keys, Power/Fingerprint Button |
Take note as well that this smartphone has its camera module protruded, so it's important that your realme C33 case covers this as well to avoid scratches. Sadly, there is no case of any kind in the retail package.
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| Ports |
For ports and buttons, the realme C33 offers the usual – a tray with slots for two nano-sized SIM cards plus a dedicated MicroSD slot on the left, the volume rockers plus the lock/power button, which doubles as a fingerprint scanner on the right, and a speaker grille, MicroUSB port, microphone, and 3.5mm jack at the bottom.
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| Retail Package |
The realme C33 is large and tall, mainly because of the large bezels, so it might take a bit of getting used to before one can be comfortable in one-hand use with this smartphone. According to realme, this device is 8.3mm thick and weighs 187 grams.
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DISPLAY:
The realme C33 could pass off as a mid-range device because of its beautiful design when laid flat on a surface with its rear part up. However, when flipped on its other side, one can easily tell that it's a budget phone. What gives it away? An outdated waterdrop notch and prominent bezels.
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| 6.5-inch HD Display |
Nonetheless, the display of the realme C33 does what it's meant to do. This smartphone flaunts a 6.5-inch HD+ fullscreen in 1600 x 720 resolution with a peak brightness of 400 nits and a screen-to-body ratio of 88.7 percent. Not bad for a sub-P8K mobile device.
You can enjoy nice colors and details through the screen of the realme C33. We also appreciate that it has good viewing angles that some smartphones with the same price tag lack.
Sadly, the down-firing speakers of the realme C33 does not bring quality audio, but this can easily be fixed by plugging in a good pair of wired earphones or connecting trusty wireless earbuds.
PERFORMANCE:
Beneath its physique, the realme C33 carries a Unisoc Tiger T612 chipset with a 1.8GHz octa-core processor and a Mali-G57 GPU, combined with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. In addition, this smartphone runs on a realme UI S Edition on top of Android 12. The UI S Edition is realme's go-to user interface for budget devices, which in common terms is Android Go-Edtion.
With all these put together, you can count on the realme C33 to perform basic tasks smoothly, like scrolling through social media apps and content streaming. Be wary of having too many background apps opened, though, as this device tends to lag when in heavy multitasking.
Gaming-wise, the realme C33 can also handle all the familiar mobile phone games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Call of Duty Mobile, and PUBG smoothly but with the graphics set at the basic.
To recap our thoughts about the performance of the realme C33, with this smartphone, you'll get what you paid for.
CAMERAS:
Budget smartphones with a triple camera setup are common nowadays, but the dual set has become the new norm again with the likes of OPPO A17 and vivo Y16. The realme C33 joins this bandwagon with a 50-megapixel primary camera with artificial intelligence and a 0.3-megapixel f/2.8 depth sensor.
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| 13MP Dual-Rear Camera |
For a budget smartphone with a 50MP camera, the realme C33 is not that bad at all. Shots taken under well-lit environments – whether outdoors or indoors, as long as there's enough light – appear good enough to be posted on social media without touch-ups. Colors saturation and detail clarity are decent, especially with AI scene recognition and auto HDR.
Low-light shots taken with the realme C33 are also better than other smartphones under the same price category. While some photos have occasional noise, the details are still distinguishable, especially when Night Mode is used.
Shooting modes for the main cameras of the realme C33 include 50MP Mode, Timelapse, Pro, Panorama, Portrait, and Night. For video recording, the smartphone can record videos of up to 1080p at 30fps.
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| 5MP Front Camera |
Concealed in the waterdrop display notch of the realme C33 is a 5-megapixel selfie camera with AI and f/2.2 aperture. As long as there are good lighting conditions, self-portraits using the realme C33 look good as they capture natural-looking skin tones.
See our camera samples below:
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| Pool |
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| Pool, Night |
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| Pool, Night Mode |
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| Buildings |
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| Buildings, Night |
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| Buildings, Night Mode |
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| Selfie, Indoor |
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| Selfie, Night |
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BATTERY:
With a 5,000mAh battery, you can last a whole busy day on the realme C33. It took us a day and a half with moderate usage before the smartphone required recharging, which took about two hours to reach 100 percent; that is because the realme C33 only has 10W fast charging support.
Refueling the device is done via its free MicroUSB cable, which could be the reason behind the 10W charging capability. There's no wireless charging and SuperVOOC support, but that's not a surprise since this is a below-P8k smartphone we're talking about. We just hope it uses a USB-C port, like its C35 sibling, that supports 18W fast charging.
CONCLUSION:
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| realme C33 |
The realme C33 shines with its fair share of charms and caveats. This device is more than enough as a daily driver for light smartphone users who mainly use their smartphone to upload photos, scroll through social media, or watch videos.
How much is the realme C33 price in the Philippines?
- The realme C33 price in the Philippines is Php7,499.
- Get yours now via Shopee at https://bit.ly/realmephofficialstore or Lazada at https://bit.ly/realmeofficialstoreph.
When will be the realme C33 available in the Philippines?
- The realme C33 is now available in the Philippines since October 14, 2022.
realme C33 Specs Philippines:
- Dual SIM, dual standby, supports 4G/LTE connectivity
- 6.5-inch HD+ (1600 x 720 pixels) IPS LCD
- Dimensions: 164.2mm x 75.7mm x 8.3mm
- Weight: 187 grams
- realme UI S Android 12
- Octa-core (2x1.8GHz Cortex-A75 + 6x1.8GHz Cortex-A55) CPU, ARM Mali-G57 MP1 GPU, Unisoc Tiger T612 12nm chipset
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB UFS 2.2 storage, expandable up to 512GB via MicroSD, uses a dedicated slot
- 50MP f/2.0 main + 0.3MP depth dual rears camera, 1080p video recording at 30fps
- 5MP f/2.2 front camera, 720p video recording at 30fps
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/
- Bluetooth v5.0
- MicroUSB 2.0 with OTG function
- GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo
- Multimedia Player
- 3.5mm audio jack
- Sensors: fingerprint (side-mounted), light, proximity, accelerometer
- Battery: 5,000mAh non-removable lithium-ion polymer
- Colors: Sandy Gold, Aqua Blue, Night Sea
- Price: Php7,499