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Realme C2 Review – The Best Gaming and Camera Phone for P5k price?

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Last year, Realme C1 was the best budget phone that you could get under P6k. This year, the company is following it up with the Realme C2. Marketed as the #RealEntryLevelKing, will Realme C2 be able to provide a better bargain than its predecessor? Let’s find out.

READ: Realme X gets Garlic and Onion Edition for P14k official price

Realme C2 Full Specs, Philippine pricing, and release date

  • Display: 6.1-inch IPS LCD, 720 x 1520, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
  • Dimensions: 154.3 x 73.7 x 8.5 mm, 166g
  • OS: Android 9.0 (Pie) with ColorOS OS 6
  • Chipset: MediaTek Helio P22
  • GPU: PowerVR GE8320
  • Memory: 2GB/3GB, 16GB/32GB + dedicated microSD
  • Rear Camera: 13 MP f2.2 + 2 MP 2.4 – 1080p video
  • Front Camera: 5MP f2.0
  • Battery: Non-removable Li-Ion 4000mAh battery
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 /b/g/n/, WiFi Direct, hotspot, BT 4.2, A2DP, LE, microUSB 2.0, headphone jack
  • Price: P5,490 to P6,490 depending on the RAM and storage

Design

In the world of glass-clad phones, Realme C2 is a refreshing sight with its all-polycarbonate build. Sure, it may not be as premium as other phones, but we do appreciate the grippy texture it sports rather than a glossy-plastic finish. In an abstract diamond design, the back is grippy when held — removing any worries of dropping this phone. But even though you drop this thing, it’s not like it’s going to easily shatter like most phones of today.

Just like last year, there’s no fingerprint scanner here. You will have to rely on the face unlock (more on that later).

Display

At 6.1″, the Realme C2 is a comfortable phone to use even with one hand. There’s Gorilla Glass 3 protection against scratches, so that’s a good thing. Given its a budget phone, it’s worth noting that the bezels are not larger than most expensive phones. Sure, it comes with a teardrop notch, but that lets you interact more with the screen. What bothers us, rather, is the 720P resolution on the screen. Maybe next year — Realme wouldn’t mind making 1080p as the standard for budget phones.

720p IPS LCD panel

Camera

Onto the camera, Realme C2 comes with a 13MP f2.2 sensor with a 2MP f2.4 depth sensor.

13MP + 2MP dual-main camera

Overall quality seems to be decent. Sharpness is lacking even with decent lighting. While colors remain to be on the natural side. One of the camera’s weakness is the dynamic range as it often crushes shadows. Even with the addition of a depth sensor, portrait shows aren’t impressive with inaccurate cutouts and soft quality. We also encountered autofocus problems.

Unfortunately, it’s the same story with selfies when using its 5MP f2.0 sensor (only worse).

READ: Why Samsung, Google, and Apple are not using large MP cameras

Performance

With Helio P22 powering Realme C2, you’ll be baffled to know that it’s better than last year’s Snapdragon 450. Based on the 12nm node, it’s a slightly efficient chipset that has its eight CPUs clocked up to 2.0Ghz. In day-to-day tasks, that translates to smooth experience. As far as social media experience goes, it’s good enough.

Where the experience starts to fall apart is when gaming. While it can play games like PUBG on the lowest settings, you will definitely experience frame drops. For a budget phone like the Realme C2, you really shouldn’t be looking this as a budget gaming phone. It’s made for getting the most tasks done.

When it comes to biometrics, Realme is bragging its AI Facial Unlock — shooting 128 identification points to your face that allows for up to .3 seconds unlocking. In practice, well, it’s fast. But once you do this in a dark environment, it’s faster to draw a pattern or type a pin code to unlock the phone.

READ: Realme 3 Pro Review: Best Gaming Budget Phone in 2019?

Audio

Using the single down-firing speaker, it gets loud enough to bother other people, but the quality is on the tinny side. Good thing there’s a headphone jack as an alternative.

Battery

With a 720p display and low-power chipset, you’re going to have a hard time killing the phone’s 4000mAH battery. During light use, you can easily reach a full day and a half. While heavy use will leave you around 15-20 percent in the tank, by the end of the day. Too bad, there’s no fast charging here. Expect a 2-hr charge with this one.

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Verdict

The Realme C2 is unbeatable in terms of value for money as it offers all the specs for a budget phone in 2019. It starts at P5,490 price (2GB/16GB) and caps off at P6,490 (3GB/32GB) which are very attractive positioning. Overall, it performs reliably for a budget phone with a few hiccups in areas like heavy gaming titles and low light photography.

The Helio P35 chipset could over a slight bump in clock speeds but the P22 is already a contender in this range. The camera performance takes great photos for portrait or selfies and outdoor with enough lighting but struggles a little in indoor and low light. And even with 128 points of face security, we don’t see the reason why the company can’t provide a faster and more reliable fingerprint scanner.

READ: OPPO F11 Review: Better Buy Than The Pro?

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