Design and display of Realme C1
The body of Realme C1 is made of plastic, due to which there is not much reason for this. To ensure a strong grip of the phone in the hand, the thickness of the four edges of the phone has been kept slightly higher. But despite this the phone does not look thick. The frame made of matte finish does not get fingerprints, but if you are not careful, like Realme 2 Pro, the back panel of Realme C1 also gets fingerprints easily. Corning Gorilla Glass has been used on the display for screen protection, you will also get a screen guard in the box. Realme C1 has a 6.2 inch HD + display. We did not face any problem in seeing the screen in sunlight as the display is quite bright. There are only select smartphones in this price segment that come with notch design and Realme C1 is one of them.
On the right side of the phone you will find the power button and on the left side you will find the button to increase and decrease the volume. If the phone is held correctly, the hand can easily reach the power and volume buttons. There is a SIM-tray on the side of the phone in which two nano-SIMs and a microSD card (up to 256 GB) can be installed. Micro-USB port, speaker and 3.5 mm headphone jack will be available at the bottom of the phone. There is an LED flash with two rear cameras on the back panel and the company’s Realme logo at the bottom.
For security, Realme C1 does not have a fingerprint sensor, but the company has provided face unlock support in it. If there is sufficient light then it works properly. Display light helps in scanning your face in low light. Of course it runs slowly in low light but it works. Apart from the device, in the retail box you will get a silicone cover, SIM eject tool, 5 watt adapter, screen protector and a micro-USB cable.
Specifications and software of Realme C1
For speed and multitasking, Adreno 509 GPU has been used in Realme C1 with 1.8 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor. Talking about benchmarks, the performance of Realme C1 was good compared to other handsets in this price range like Redmi 6A with Snapdragon 430 or MediaTek Helio A22. Realme C1 has 2 GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage. Only 8.67 GB will be available after pre-installed apps.
How to transfer photos, videos, audios, documents and APKs to microSD card is given in the sub-menu of Storage. After installing Facebook, Instagram and other games on the phone, we found that they could not be transferred to the card even if we wanted to.
Before taking photos or videos from the camera, go to the camera settings and change the path. If you download a game like PUBG on the phone, the phone’s storage will get exhausted quickly. Now let’s talk about connectivity. The phone includes Bluetooth version 4.2, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, dual 4G VoLTE, compass, proximity, ambient light, accelerometer, USB-OTG and FM radio support. This handset of Realme runs on ColorOS 5.1 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. The Realme C1 we have for review is running on the August 2018 security patch. The custom user interface has many gestures and shortcuts. However, there is no app or setting to change the theme of the phone.
Realme C1 performance, camera and battery life
A total of 2 GB RAM is provided in Realme C1, out of which 1 GB is system, after 500 MB for apps, you are left with only 500 MB of RAM for multitasking. We did not face any problem while using internet and multitasking on Google Chrome. The phone works properly but it gets a little hot during gaming. Even if you try to play PUBG on low graphics settings, the phone starts slowing down.
The audio and video players are capable of playing most of the popular formats. Due to it being a single speaker, the audio quality is not very good.
For photography, it will have two rear cameras, one sensor is of 13 megapixels and the other is a 2 megapixel depth sensor. The depth sensor comes in handy when shooting in portrait mode. Edge detection is fine, but the colors in the photo are not captured properly. The photos taken with the Realme C1 in daylight had everything in good measure. Auto-HDR is present in the phone but despite this the picture does not look good. In the camera app you will get panorama, sticker and time lapse mode.
The Realme C1 camera focuses slowly in low light. The 5-megapixel selfie camera takes good pictures when there is adequate amount of light, but the amount of chroma noise was high in the pictures taken at night. The phone is capable of recording video at 1080p but the video is not sharp, nor is there electronic stabilization in the phone. The battery life of Realme C1 is its strength. To bring life to the phone, there is a non-removable 4,230 mAh battery. In 720p video play test, the phone gives a backup of 20 hours and 23 minutes. The company has not provided fast charging support in the phone, but the 10 watt adapter fully charges the phone in 2.30 hours to 3 hours. But the 5 watt charger supplied with the phone charges the phone completely in about 4.30 hours.
our decision
Priced at Rs 6,999, the Realme C1 has many features. It is difficult to find such performance and features in other smartphones at this price. Be aware that this price is only till Diwali season. A price increase of Rs 1,000 or more is possible. The battery life of Realme C1, powerful chipset in the phone, large display and its design are also quite good. However, 2 GB RAM limits multitasking. Overall, at this price, Realme C1 will not disappoint you.