All You Need To Know About Realme 1 The Competitive Mid-Range Smartphone

Established on May 4, 2018, as Oppo’s sub-brand, Realme released its first product very soon after. On May 25, 2018, the company launched the Realme 1 in India.

Realme 1 full specification

The Realme 1 measures 156.5 x 75.2 x 7.8 mm with a weight of 155 grams. While the front is protected with a glass panel, the body is covered with plastic. And the phone supports dual SIM.

The device features a 6.0-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with the screen-to-body ratio of 78.9%. The display has a resolution of 1080 x 2160 pixels, protected with Cornea Gorilla Glass 3.

Read more: All Things You Should Know About The Realme 1 Mobile Price

Powering the Oppo Realme 1 is the 12nm Helio P60 chipset from MediaTek. In addition, it runs on Android 8.1 Oreo, featuring an octa-core CPU. In terms of memory, the phone supports up to 256 GB of external storage with a microSD card slot and has three variants including realme 6GB RAM/128GB, 4GB RAM/64GB, and 3GB RAM/32GB.

For photography, Realme gave the phone two cameras including a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP selfie cam. The main camera is supported by a LED flash, with capabilities of HDR and panorama shots.

About sound capabilities, Oppo realme 1 sports a 3.5mm headphone jack, completed with active noise cancellation and a dedicated microphone. And in term of battery, Oppo Realme 1 mobile packs a Li-Ion 3410 mAh battery which is non-removable.

The real me one includes sensors namely accelerometer, proximity, gyroscope, and compass.

There are three color options for those who want to buy Oppo Real me1 mobile, namely Moonlight Silver, Solar Red, and Diamond Black.

Realme 1 price in india

Consumers can get this smartphone on Amazon or Flipkart with a starting price of Rs 8,990.

On Amazon, 3GB of RAM/32GB of storage, Diamond Black version costs Rs 8,990, the 4GB of  RAM/64GB of storage, Solar Red variant costs Rs 10,820, and the 6GB of RAM/128GB of storage, Black variant costs Rs 14,498.

Meanwhile, on Flipkart, the 4GB of RAM/64GB of storage, Diamond Red version is priced at Rs 10,430, the 3GB of RAM/32GB of storage, Moonlight Silver variant is priced at Rs 12,990, and the 6GB of RAM/128GB of storage, Diamond Black is priced at Rs 14,990.

Oppo realme 1 review

Design

This is one of the most touted aspects of the oppo real me 1, and it’s worth it. The phone maker has given this phone the trademark diamond cut design, which by that time, only appeared in Oppo’s flagship phones. Real me1 mobile sports the diamond cut back on an acrylic plastic body along with a high gloss finish.

At the center of the rear is the Realme branding and at the bottom is the Oppo branding. The main camera lies at the top right corner of the phone back next to the LED flash, which is the same as the Oppo F7. The dimension of oppo real me1 also exactly resembles that of the F7.

How the phone maker places the buttons is also similar to the F7 too, with the right side housing the power button, while the left side holds the volume rocker keys and the SIM slot, and the bottom sports the audio jack, microUSB port, and the speaker grille.

Screen

The 18:9 aspect ratio and 1080 x 2160 resolution means the Realme 1 doesn’t house a notch like in premium handsets but it’s finished with round corners. And just like many full-screen phones, it has on-screen navigation key which is hidden during full-screen operation and shows up once users tap on the screen.

The phone allows adjusting the color temperature as well as the font size on the display. In addition, the real mi 1 includes a setting for turning on Night shield which turns of the Blue light, helping users avoid eye strain.

In reality use, the screen’s brightness seems not enough to even at full levels and it also appeared to dimmer at certain angles. The experience in viewing videos is quite satisfying.

Performance

The chipset powering the Realme 1 mobile, with AI features, is the same one on the Oppo F7, which may be the best mid-range processor MediaTek has ever made.

The phone’s OS lets users set their photos as wallpapers as well as rearrange the navigation keys. Users of the Real me 1 can also switch on ‘Quiet Time’ mode if they want the device to go silent for a certain time.

In addition, with Android Oreo, people can take advantage of ‘Smart Convenience’ features including support for motions and gestures like 3-finger screenshot and an assistive ball that you can use for most basic commands (entering the notification center and accessing the lock screen mode). However, these features, while convenient, are not really necessary.

The Realmi 1 comes with another feature, Clone Apps, which let users copy an app on their device, the original app and its copy can run simultaneously with affecting each other. This feature, though, is already present on other competitors.

For better security on the phone, users can turn to the Phone Manager option, where they’ll find the virus scan engine and app clear reminder. Also for security, the handset offers a facial unlock feature but skips the fingerprint scanner. Although the facial unlocking features work pretty well, it’s not really convenient if users are in low-light or dark conditions.

In general, the phone performs quite well. It handles multitasking smoothly without any lags or frame freezing. It also does a good job regarding calls and audio quality. One problem is with the speaker as it’s placed at the bottom, blocking the sound in landscape mode.

Camera

While many phones get likes from consumers for dual rear camera setups, the Realme 1 skips it. But like other flagships from Oppo, this one comes with AI Beauty Technology 2.0 to beautify images.

Besides traditional modes like standard, Bokeh effect, and Super Vivid, the camera app offers an AR sticker mode, the face filters like in Snapchat and Instagram.

Users can also edit the photos within the app for beauty doodle, filters, contrast, as well as brightness adjustments. Overall, it can be said that the camera app is easy to use with many options offered.

About the quality of the photos, we don’t have much good news, the images are not too impressive. Indoor shots show unnatural colors and the Bokeh effect displays colors incorrectly.

Photos taken under sunlight are much better, but those taken in nigh light have too much noise. The selfie camera seems to only work well for well-lit conditions.

Battery

Realme 1’s battery comes with AI support, helping the phone learn owners’ usage patterns and take care of their needs based on that.

In the battery settings, users will find an option where they can disable the background usage, which helps to last more than a day’s workload for moderate users.

Compared with rivals

There are a few direct rivals to the Realme 1, such as the Redmi Note 5, and the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1.

On the paper, if you put the Realme 1 side by side with its rival Redmi Note 5, the most obvious difference to see is in pricing, the Realme is slightly more expensive than the Redmi.

Specs related to SIM, design, display, and connectivity are similar, except the Redmi is heavier than the other (181g as opposed to 155g). However, the Redmi Note 5 has a dual-camera setup, which the Realme 1 doesn’t have.

On the other hand, the Realme phone has a faster CPU. And while the Redmi has a bigger battery (4000 mAh > 3410 mAh), the Realme offers more storage. Another big difference is that the Redmi device features a fingerprint sensor while the Realme phone doesn’t.

When comparing the Realme 1 with the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1, on the paper, the Realme scores significantly higher than the Zenfone. The Realme phone has a faster CPU, more RAM, and more storage, and it is slimmer and lighter than its rival.

However, the Zenfone has dual rear cameras, front camera flash, bigger battery, and again, a fingerprint sensor that Realme 1 doesn’t have. The pair share a number of commons in terms of connectivity, screen, and SIM.

All in all, if you are thinking about getting a mid-range smartphone, the Realme 1 is really a strong candidate to put under consideration.