Realme officially cuts the ribbon and finally lands in the Philippines. The first handset that the brand released in the PH market is their entry-level smartphone which is the Realme C1. OPPO’s sub-brand promises stylish designs with a powerful performance at very affordable price tags – which definitely suit the taste of the millennials. Priced at PHP 5,990, is this entry-level smartphone worth it? Let’s find out here!
- Realme C1 Unboxing and First Impressions
- Realme U1 SelfiePro smartphone announced with MediaTek Helio P70
| SPECS | Realme C1 |
| Display | 6.2-inch IPS LCD, 720 x 1520, 271ppi, 19:9 ratio, Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Chipset | Qualcomm SDM450 Snapdragon 450 |
| GPU | Adreno 506 |
| Memory | 16 GB, 2 GB RAM + dedicated microSD, up to 256 GB |
| Rear Camera | 13 MP, f/2.2, AF + 2 MP, f/2.4, depth sensor |
| Front Camera | 5 MP, f/2.2 |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 /b/g/n/, WiFi Direct, hotspot, BT 4.2, A2DP, LE, microUSB 2.0, headphone jack |
| Battery | Non-removable Li-Ion 4230 mAh battery |
| OS | Android 8.1 (Oreo) with ColorOS OS 5.2 |
| Price | PHP 5,990 with online sale at P5,490 |
Table of Contents
Design
The Realme C1’s body is made out of Polycarbonate and comes in a very plain and ordinary design. We got a black variant of the Realme C1 and as you can see, there’s nothing flashy on its design. No gradient or vibrant hues on its rear – it may be one of the ways to keep this handset at a lower cost.
Going to its dimensions, the Realme C1 measures 156.2 x 75.6 x 8.2 mm, and weighs only 168g. Despite its large display, the C1 is lightweight and offers great ergonomics.
On the rear part of the handset, you’ll find the dual rear cameras and the branding at the bottom. Unfortunately, there’s no fingerprint scanner mounted on its rear. Moving on to the bottom bunk of the handset -there’s the speaker grille, the microUSB port, a microphone, and the headphone jack. The power/wakeup button is located at the right side of the C1 while the volume rockers are at the left.
Display
The Realme C1 sports a 6.2-inch notched display, with a screen resolution of 720 x 1520, 271ppi density, and a19:9 aspect ratio. Protecting the screen is a Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
Its screen doesn’t offer the brightest display in the market but managed to produce a good color representation when we tried watching some movie trailers. The color also doesn’t change when viewed from different angles. However, it’s a little hard taking pictures in extreme broad daylight due to its decent screen brightness.
Camera
Going to its optics, the Realme C1 features a dual 13 MP, f/2.2, AF + 2 MP, f/2.4, rear cameras with a depth sensor. For taking selfies, there’s a 5 MP, f/2.2 selfie camera.
The Realme C1 captures good daylit shots with accurate colors. Details are also sharp and crisp.
This entry-level smartphone has a secondary rear sensor and it is for capturing photos with bokeh effect. The C1 produces great bokeh effect with sharp edges, the depth effect didn’t look artificial as well.
The night shots with the Realme C1 didn’t go well. The overall frame is grainy and details aren’t sharp so it might be a good idea to stick mostly to well-lit scenes. But its price, it is considerably satisfying as a cameraphone on hand.
For an entry-level handset, we can say that the Realme C1 captures decent selfies for its price. It also has a portrait mode selfie and the bokeh did not look artificial as well.
User Experience
Under the hood, the C1 is powered by Qualcomm SDM450 Snapdragon 450 with an Adreno 506 GPU. For its storage, it has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, which is also expandable up to 256GB via dedicated microSD. This handset runs on Android 8.1 (Oreo) with ColorOS OS 5.2.
Even if this is an entry-level smartphone we still tried playing graphically heavy games such as Asphalt 9 and PUBG and we encountered lags a bit if we maxed out the graphics settings. Well, this is expected on an entry-level handset like this one, you won’t get smooth frame rates while playing heavy games. This is good enough if you’re just gonna use moderate graphics settings for games but more than sufficient for web browsing and media playbacks. The handset did not heat up even when watching videos too long. Watching movies on this device is also great, colors are vibrant and accurate plus the details look crisp and sharp as well.
However, there were times that we got frustrated while navigating on this device, it took us 3-4 taps for the screen to respond. Well since it’s an entry-level handset, we really can’t complain much.
As mentioned, this Realme handset doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner, but it has a face unlock. Its face recognition does not technically works fast and encounters hiccups from time to time.
Of course, we also tested this handset using the following benchmarking tools and here are the results:
| Benchmarks | Realme C1 |
| Antutu | 74278 |
| Geekbench (single-core) | 758 |
| Geekbench (multi-core) | 3179 |
| PCMark Work 2.0 | 4985 |
Battery
The Realme C1 packs a huge 4230 mAh battery beating most of the competition. Its longevity can definitely last a day of heavy web browsing and media playback. Going to its charging time, it took approximately an hour and 50 minutes for the Realme C1 to reach 100% from 10% battery.
Audio
The Realme C1 although it produces loud audio despite it having a mono speaker, the audio quality is convincingly OK for its price. The audio may be a bit scratchy when you set to maximum audio level but overall the bass and treble are well balanced at the moderate volume level.
Price and Availability
The Realme C1 is priced at PHP 5,990 and can be purchased at Lazada. If you’re looking for an entry-level smartphone with dual cameras, big battery pack, and a huge and trendy display, you should check out the newest brand in town. We just hoped that Realme priced this smartphone competitively (maybe around PHP 4,000 – PHP 4,499 will do) since there are tons of handsets in the Philippine market that also offers trendy designs but offers the same experience. On the other hand, the Realme C1 is one of the best bangs for your bucks smartphones on its category.
