Realme 1 Review: Pretty Good Phone With An Affordable Price

When Oppo released its Realme subbrand, the company announced that it has been conceived based on Indian youth. The smartphones in this lineup will only be sold online via Amazon India with a price from Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 20,000. With the Realme 1 Oppo aims to challenge Xiaomi on the market for budget smartphones.  It this phone going to stand out from its competitors? This article is going to be an in-depth Realme 1 review.

Realme 1 design

Realme 1 back cover is made of fiberglass with a shiny diamond-cut effect. In order for the phone to “look like a diamond,” 15 tangent planes were carved on its back panel so that it could reflect light in a way that a diamond would. Though the design is undoubtedly unique and stylish, it might come off as gaudy and flashy to some people.

The downside of the fiberglass material is how it can easily be smudged with fingerprints. Realme 1 features an impressive screen-to-body ratio of 84.75%, which makes the phone super compact. Although the screen isn’t completely borderless, the phone does exude modernity and sleekness. The build quality is still top-notch despite its plastic frame.

The phone’s rear camera almost does not protrude from the back cover’s chassis. On the left of the screen is the volume rocker that is smartly placed for easy use. On the right are the SIM tray and the power button. While some of the smartphone models with the same price range as the Realme 1 have a hybrid dual-SIM tray, the Oppo smartphone actually has slots for a microSD card and two Nano-SIMs.

The phone isn’t equipped with a fingerprint sensor. Instead, it comes with facial recognition technology and the usual passcode options. For the most part, the phone’s face recognition works pretty well but not so much in direct sunlight or when the lighting is not good. Moreover, the process to setup face recognition takes quite some time.

Realme 1 specifications

For its price, Oppo Realme 1 specifications are extremely impressive. The phone’s MediaTek Helio P60 processor at 2.0GHz makes it a potential rival of Redmi 5, and even Redmi Note 5 Pro, a much more expensive choice. The flagship processor of MediaTek is created with a 12nm process and equipped with NeuroPilot AI tech capable of handling facial recognition deep learning as well as video and photo enhancement.

All Things You Should Know About The Realme 1 Mobile Price

The smartphone comes with three variants – Realme 1 3GB RAM, Realme 1 4GB RAM and Realme 1 6GB RAM. The Oppo Realme 1 3GB RAM (aka Realme 1 32GB) has a storage of 32GB. Rs. 8,990 is the price for the Realme 1 3GB RAM ver. The 4GB RAM ver (aka Realme 1 64GB) has a storage of 64GB and a price of Rs. 10,990. Last but not least is the 6GB RAM ver (aka Realme 1 128GB) which has a storage of 128GB and a price of Rs. 13,990. The storage can easily be expanded to 256GB with a microSD card. Regarding its pricing, the Realme 1 has a truly great price range, especially for a smartphone in the entry level.

Another Realme 1 specification is its 6-inch full-HD+ display which has an 18:9 aspect ratio. The display is too reflective and its viewing angles are a little bit disappointing. But in return, the screen’s vibrant colors and brightness is enough to use outdoors. The phone has no notch, which has recently become a trend for smartphone manufacturers.

Another Oppo Realme 1 specification is its non-removable 3410mAh battery. It runs on Android 8.1 Oreo-based ColorOS 5.0. It offers Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and dual 4G VoLTE. The phone still keeps a 3.5mm headphone jack. There are GPS/A-GPS and FM radio as well. The smartphone is equipped with the old school Micro-USB port instead of the new USB Type-C for charging and data transfers.

Realme 1 performance and battery life

The Realme 1 can handle almost every task, from simple ones like taking pictures, surfing Web, using applications for social media, and watching video clips to intensive ones like full-HD videos recording. It can run casual games such as Subway Surfers as well as heavy ones like Asphalt 8 with no stutters or dropped frames. When pushed, it didn’t get too hot.

Realme 1 has quite impressive battery life. In NDTV's Oppo Realme 1 Review, the site said that for its battery test on HD video loop, the smartphone could last for 11hrs and 30mins. Even after a full day of using the phone, users still don’t have to charge it before midnight. However, the phone doesn’t offer quick charging. A full charge of the Realme 1 takes from 2.5 to 3 hours max.

Realme 1 cameras

The Realme 1 camera on the back is a 13-megapixel one with a single-LED flash while on the front is an 8-megapixel one. According to the company’s claims, the front camera is equipped with artificial intelligence features and can recognize up to 296 facial points.

The phone’s camera app is similar to that of Apple, which proves to be easy to use. Realme 1 offers different shooting modes like Time-lapse, AR sticker, and Panorama. There is also a Pro mode which includes features like white balance, aperture, exposure, ISO, and shutter speed.

Its AI-based selfie camera can detect users’ age, gender, skin type, and skin tone automatically and then adjusts the image setting accordingly. Oppo claims that in its database, there are as much as 8mil beauty reference points. In well-lit scenarios, the front camera can take decent photos whereas, in low-light settings, it struggled. Facial features are really softened by the AI beautification to the point that there seems to be an unpleasant watercolor-like effect on top.

Both the camera, the front, and the rear ones, can take bokeh shots with its software algorithms. However, the results are not great with poor edge details and detection.

The 13-megapixel camera on the back has AI-powered scene recognition with which it can change the settings according to the objects and scenes in real-time.

The images still look a little bit dull even though it takes in a reasonable amount of details. The sensor’s poor dynamic range leads to its struggles with auto-focus and detail in low light. Both cameras can record videos with a resolution of 1080p. The videos are enough if you just want to post them on social media but they are not stabilized and detail-lacking.

A plus point for Realme 1 cameras is the phone’s AR stickers which are well implemented. The stickers are a quirky and fun way to impress your friends. The feature is available for both cameras.

The Realme 1 Review above includes everything about the phone, from its price range, specifications, performance and battery life to cameras.

If you want to check out more information on this phone, you can type "Realme 1 full specification", "Oppo Realme 1 specification," or "Realme 1 specs" on the Google search bar. You can also visit the company's official website to check out if there is any Realme 1 update.  There are also many Realme 1 reviews from users that you can also take a look online for more references.

Unlike its successors including the Realme 2, Realme 3, and Realme 4, the company didn't release the Realme 1 Pro. The Realme 1 review is a fruitful one as the phone proves to be a pretty good phone with a reasonable price.