Realme C1 Reviews Say It's The Best Entry-Level Smartphone You Can Find

Xiaomi has been the leader of the mid-range smartphone market for a while now with some good offerings to their customers. Meanwhile, other brands such as Honor and Realme are trying to obtain market share from Xiaomi. Late last year, Realme announced the C1 along with the Realme 2 Pro.

As we all can see on paper, the phone offers quite decent for its affordable price, but is it really that good when in use? Here, we have compiled several Realme C1 reviews from reliable tech sites such as Gadgets Now, Gadgets 360, BGR India, and 91mobiles to help you get an overview of how the phone turns out.

Design and display

Design

The device measures 156.2 x 75.6 x 8.2 mm in dimensions and weighs 168 grams. The phone’s body is made of plastic. On the front, the phone screen is 6.2 inches large, protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, featuring a notch design. On the back, there is a dual-camera setup which lies horizontally with the LED flash.

In general, the C1 got thumbs up for this aspect from all smartphone reviews. Gadgets Now complimented the device for a well-built body and a glossy back that make the phone stand out from its segment, “it felt solid and comfortable to hold”, said the publication. While Gadgets 360 and BGR India both agree with this, they also pointed out that the glossy finish attracts fingerprints.

Display

In terms of the display, BGR and Gadgets 360 noted that the Real me C1 is the first smartphone at this price to feature the notch design. Overall, all the reviews we looked into agreed that the notch on this phone is decent, relatively small compared with other notched smartphones (not as deep as the Google Pixel 3 XL and not as wide as the iPhone X).

Probably that’s why it doesn’t have the option to hide the notch. In addition, the screen is bright enough to see under sunlight, offering a decent experience to users while being outdoors.

In addition, although the Realme C1 doesn’t house a fingerprint sensor, it has the face unlock feature, which was claimed to operate well by all reviewers we took into account.

Other than that, the buttons and ports on this handset are placed like in many other phones with a 3.5mm headphone jack, speaker grille, and microUSB port at the bottom, the volume and power buttons on the opposite sides of the handset, the SIM tray and microSD card slot on the side, etc.

Specification, Software, and Performance

We all have to agree that there’s not too much to expect in an entry-level smartphone, but with that in mind, we can’t either deny that the C1 does its best job. This is what all reviewers must agree.

Specs

Gadget 360 and BGR India went into extreme details about Realme C1 reviews on specs and software. The device runs on ColorOS 5.1, based on Android 8.1 Oreo. The phone packs the Snapdragon 450 and comes with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage.

While it has support for up to 256GB of microSD card, there’s no option to merge the external and internal storage, which means users have to move files manually with some apps cannot be moved to the SD card.

In terms of the 16GB internal storage, according to BGR India, the systems already take up 7.3GB, which means users have only 8.6GB left. Then basic apps like Chrome, Google Search, Gmail, Maps, Google Play Store, etc., occupy another 3.5GB.

Now, with only 5GB left, there’re more media apps to install like Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, leaving users with about 2GB.  And when the cache files stack, users will have to remove some apps.

General performance

About the phone’s general performance, 91mobiles said there weren’t any lag issues or stutter in daily usage and navigation, the animations were smooth; however, “the app content can take a bit too much time to load up on certain occasions.” Sharing the same experience, Gadgets 360 said the phone lagged during multitasking, it even took a second or two to wake the phone up. But once users get inside the apps, things run smoothly.

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Gaming performance

Regarding gaming performance, Gadgets Now reviewed that the 14nm chip offered an average experience for users. Light games like Candy Crush worked well, but to run games like PUBG and Asphalt, users may have to tone down the graphics settings.

Nevertheless, the Realme C1 comes with the Game Space feature for optimizing games and boosting its performance a little. In the end, you cannot expect the premium gaming experience from an entry-level device.

Battery

And the battery is probably the biggest strength of the phone, and also a criterion that most phone users pay attention to, according to 91mobiles. The handset house a 4,230mAh battery.

Considering that it features an HD+ screen and a power-efficient chipset, the battery proved itself an impressive aspect. In 91mobiles’ HD video loop test, the phone survived for about 22 hours. Gadgets 360 tested the phone with a 720p video file on loop and the C1 lasted 20 hours and 23 minutes.

Camera

The handset sports a dual 13MP + 2MP camera setup on the back with f/2.2 aperture, featuring PDAF, HDR, and Bokeh mode. In addition, there is a 5MP AI selfie camera also with f/2.2 aperture.

This is where 91mobiles dig into with a bit more details and examples than the other sites we viewed. Accordingly, there are familiar options in the camera app such as Time-lapse and Panorama, but there’s no Manual or Pro mode, which means users cannot adjust ISO or white balance levels while taking pictures.

You may want to note this down, the details that Real me C1 captured in low-light conditions are underwhelming. On the other hand, the phone takes decent photos in the daytime and in outdoor conditions.

The phone offers an acceptable dynamic range but nothing special. When taking a picture without using the AI beautification feature, there’s still some smoothening going on due to the poor performance of the front sensor in capturing accurate details and skin tone.

The handset has no LED flash at the front, but by choosing the flash option, users will make the phone’s screen light up, helping take better selfies in low-light or dark conditions.

Capturing videos with the C1 results in really shaky clips. The phone is capable of shooting videos with a resolution of up to 1080p.

The Realme C1 price is Rs 6,999, making it a direct rival to the Xiaomi Redmi 6A in this price range. It offers a nice design, an impressive display, and a commendable battery. The phone has its strength, but the aforementioned issues related to the software and performance raise concerns for long-term usage. All things considered, the phones scored between 3.5 and 4 out of 5 across the sites.