realme c3 (Review) was launched earlier this year at a starting price of Rs 6,999, but now its price has gone up to Rs 8,999, which is Narzo 10A (Review), which was announced in May for Rs 8,499, but is now being sold for Rs 8,999 after a price hike, just Rs 1,000 more than the new Realme C11. Due to all this, customers can easily get confused and to help them out of this confusion, we have come up with a solution for you. Realme C11 Have brought a review. Here we have tested this phone in every way, so that it becomes easier for you to decide whether you should buy Realme C11 or not.
Realme C11 price in India, specifications
Realme C11 has been launched with only 2 GB RAM and 32 GB storage, priced at Rs 7,499. Realme has given the new MediaTek Helio G35 chipset in this phone, which is the budget processor of MediaTek’s gaming series. Apart from this, the new Realme C11 smartphone is quite similar to Realme C3 and Narzo 10A. You get a very similar 6.5-inch (720×1600 pixels) HD+ display and 5000 mAh battery.
The primary rear camera has a 13-megapixel sensor, while both the other phones have a 12-megapixel primary sensor. This seems to be a minor improvement, but the aperture drops from f/1.8 to f/2.2, which means the new phone can’t capture as much light in exposure as the Realme C3 and Narzo 10A. The front camera remains the same with 5 megapixels and F/2.4 aperture.
This is a dual-SIM device, in which VoLTE is supported. It only supports single-band Wi-Fi, but has Bluetooth version 5. You get all the usual sensors including a compass and gyroscope. The storage can be expanded up to 256 GB using a microSD card in the dedicated slot. One minus point is that like the Realme C3, there is no fingerprint reader.
realme c11 design
As far as budget phones go, we think the Realme C11 looks pretty good. It is similar to other budget Realme phones. There are thin bezels on the sides of the screen, but there is a very thick chin at the bottom. Waterdrop notch is available at the top.
In the phone, you get Rich Green and Rich Gray color options to choose from. The body is made of plastic. There is a texture at the back, which increases its grip and makes it easier to hold. The back has a square camera module, unlike the camera modules of other Realme phones, which have only two cameras set up. The volume buttons are set above the power button on the right side. The company has also used Micro-USB in this budget phone. We feel that now the company should move forward from this. 3.5 mm audio socket and single speaker is also available at the bottom.
Its weight is 196 grams and thickness is 9.1 mm. Realme C11 is relatively heavy. We found one-handed use a bit difficult, but the textured back panel doesn’t let the phone slip out of the palm. It doesn’t look like an expensive phone, but its build quality is solid. Although we would have liked to have a good glass protection on the front.
Realme C11 performance, battery life and software
Being an entry-level smartphone, the Realme C11 lets you run all Android apps smoothly, but the experience isn’t always great. Many times I found that the phone lags slightly even during simple tasks like waking the phone from standby and opening the app drawer or task switcher. A slight lag was also seen while launching the app, scrolling through photos in the gallery or while multitasking, but it did not attract our attention that much. It is disappointing that its usage experience was not smooth.
If you are fond of playing some powerful games coming these days, then you will have to increase your budget a little. PUBG Mobile runs at the game’s lowest graphics settings by default and despite this, the gameplay was riddled with glitches and lag. Although PUBG Mobile Lite runs well in it. Like PUBG Mobile, the smartphone also struggled to run Asphalt 9: Legends. Overall the gaming experience was not very good, but the good thing is that at least the phone did not get hot.
Considering the price of this phone the screen is quite good. Colors look good and viewing angles were also good. Videos look fine, but the speaker performance was not good. The music is harsh and we found that the dialogues were also not clear.
Battery life is excellent. With a low-end processor and a 5000mAh battery, the phone lasted 28 hours, 25 minutes in our HD video loop battery test. With everyday use, lots of audio and video streaming, some camera usage and a short gaming session, I easily got a day and a half on a single charge.
Realme’s software is generally problem-free. We weren’t bothered by ads or spammy notifications, except for a few “news” articles pushed by the Realme UI browser. Chrome is available on the homescreen of the phone, so there was no need for this browser at all, but the disappointing thing is that we could neither disable it nor uninstall it. The Realme UI looks and behaves like stock Android and comes with a few customizations, including themes.
Realme C11 cameras
The Realme C11 includes a few modes like panorama, time lapse, and slow-mo and Realme claims that the C11’s night mode is a first for this price segment. Like other apps, the phone is not able to load the camera app quickly.
The photo quality was somewhat disappointing, although we also have to take into account the price. Still, let us tell you that the camera was not able to reproduce the colors well and the lack of detail in the pictures was also clearly felt. Flowers and leaves didn’t look natural in every shot and we saw the C11 struggle with exposure as well.
Backgrounds look blurry in portrait shots, but exposure was poor. There’s no way to set the level of blur before or after taking the shot. The few close-ups we took came out surprisingly well. Overall, the photos look quite good on the phone screen and you can even enhance and crop it a bit.
When it comes to low light, the Realme C11 really struggles. Many of our shots were very poor, although some were passable. The phone struggled to lock focus and after minor movements we had to tap the screen to lock focus again.
Night mode made a big difference, but it didn’t make every shot better. The phone still had trouble focusing, and the results came out a bit cropped, so you’ll have to take a little care with frame composition. Night mode shots offer better contrast and bright areas in the frame come out sharp. On the other hand, lack of detail was clearly visible in low-light areas. Noise (grains) were also quite visible in the pictures.
Verdict
After a long period of discounts and price cuts by smartphone brands, we are now seeing costs rising in the market. The prices of many models have increased just weeks after their launch, which means customers have to do a lot of calculations and comparisons again before making a purchase decision. It is quite disappointing that the Realme C11 smartphone is more expensive and less powerful than the Realme C3 and Realme Narzo.
We certainly would have liked better performance and it’s also clear that 2GB of RAM is insufficient. The experience of using the C11 wasn’t smooth, but you’ll be able to run most of the apps you need. Camera performance is average.
It is still a decent phone compared to other phones in the entry-level segment. However, if you can spend a little more, you can go for the Realme Narzo 10A instead. Additionally, you can look forward to Xiaomi’s upcoming Redmi 9 series, or also look towards the recently launched budget models from Samsung, Infinix, and Honor.