Home » Get Ahead » First look: Why the Realme 5 series seems exciting!
Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com looks at the latest phone in the market.
Chinese phone manufacturers are capturing the mobile market by offering premium feature phones at budget prices.
Realme, an Oppo sub-brand, is one of them.
It just launched the Realme 5 Pro and Realme 5, which makes it 13 phones from the brand in a span of 15 months.
The Realme 5 series are packed with top notch features; the aim, clearly, is to disrupt the hold manufacturers like Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo and others have over the budget phone market.
So, what do the latest phones from Realme have to offer?
Realme 5 Pro
Camera
The most enticing feature is the rear quad camera setup, the first in the Rs 13,999 price range.
The first is the 8 MP, an f/2.2 aperture camera with 119 degree ultra wide lens.
The second is the primary 48 MP, an f/1.8 aperture camera with a wide lens, supported by Phase Detection Auto Focus. It is powered by the popular Sony IMX 586 sensor, which is also used by the flagship OnePlus 7 series phones.
The third is the 2 MP, an f/2.4 aperture, depth sensing camera for portraits.
The fourth is the dedicated macro lens 2 MP, an aperture f/2.4 camera which allows you to take macro shots from as close as 4 cm.
The interesting part is that the camera can also shoot slow motion videos with a 720p@960fps resolution. Videos are supported by gyro + Electronic Image Stabilizer.
The front camera is a 16MP camera with a Sony IMX 471 Sensor.
Hardware
The phone runs on the latest Qualcomm's Snapdragon 712 SoC with Artificial Intelligence Engine.
The Realme 5 Pro will be available in three RAM+ROM variants -- 4GB+64GB, 6GB+64GB and 8GB+128GB.
Its storage includes a dedicated micro SD card slot, which allows you to expand the memory up to 256GB.
Battery
The Realme 5 Pro has a 4035 mAh, non-removable Li-Po battery, supported by fast charging VOOC 3.0 technology.
A bundled 20W charger can charge the phone to 50 per cent in approximately 30 minutes.
Realme 5
The Realme 5 is the lite version of Pro, with respect to price and features.
It has the quad camera setup in the rear but you get a 12 MP camera instead of 48 MP one.
Realme 5 is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 665 SoC with Artificial Intelligence Engine.
The USP of Realme 5 is the 5000 mAh battery and it comes bundled with 10W charger.
Comparing the two
Specification | Realme 5 Pro | Realme 5 |
---|---|---|
Body | Plastic | Plastic |
Resolution | FHD+ (2340 x 1080) | HD (1600 x 720) |
Weight | 184 g | 198 g |
Display Size | 6.3" | 6.5" |
Chipset (SOC) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 AIE | Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 AIE |
RAM/ROM/Expandable | 4GB/64GB/up to 256GB dedicated 6GB/64GB/up to 256GB dedicated 8GB/128GB/up to 256GB dedicated |
3GB/32GB/up to 256GB dedicated 4GB/64GB/up to 256GB dedicated 4GB/128GB/up to 256GB dedicated |
Selfie Camera | 16 MP, f/2.0 | 13 MP, f/2.0 |
Rear Camera | 8MP ultra wide camera f/2.25 + 48MP wide-angle PDAF f/1.79 + 2MP portrait camera f/2.4 + 2MP macro camera f/2.4 | 8MP ultra wide camera f/2.25 + 12MP wide-angle PDAF f/1.8 + 2MP portrait camera f/2.4 + 2MP macro camera f/2.4 |
Battery | 4035 mAh | 5000 mAh |
USB | Type-C | Micro-USB |
Operating System | Android Pie 9 overlaid with ColorOS 6 | Android Pie 9 overlaid with ColorOS 6 |
Price | 4GB+64GB, Rs 13,999 6GB+64GB, Rs 14,999 8GB+128GB, Rs 16,999 |
3GB+32GB, Rs 9,999 4GB+64GB, Rs 10,999 4GB+128GB, Rs 11,999 |
Colours | Sparkling blue and Crystal green | Crystal blue and Crystal purple |
Verdict
With excellent features and starting prices of Rs 13,999 for the Realme 5 Pro and Rs 9,999 for Realme 5, the Realme 5 series seems -- on paper -- a real market disrupter.
Will you buy Redmi's gold smartphone for Rs 4.8 lakh?
The best smartphones under Rs 10,000
Why the Vivo Z1 Pro is good value for money!
At Rs 14k, Samsung Galaxy M30 is a good budget phone