Design and Display of Realme C1
The body of Realme C1 is made of plastic, due to which its weight is not much. The thickness of all four sides of the phone has been kept a little more so that the phone has a strong grip in the hand. But despite this, the phone does not look thick. Fingerprints do not appear on the frame made of matte finish, but if you are not careful, then like Realme 2 Pro, marks are easily left on the back panel of Realme C1. 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 have any problem viewing the screen in sunlight as the display is quite bright. There are only a few 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 volume up and down button. If the phone is held correctly, the power and volume buttons can be easily reached by hand. There is a SIM tray on the side of the phone in which two nano-SIMs and one microSD card (up to 256 GB) can be inserted. On the bottom of the phone, you will find a micro-USB port, speaker and 3.5 mm headphone jack. On the back panel, there is an LED flash with two rear cameras 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. It works well if there is sufficient light. In low light, the display light helps to scan your face. Of course it works 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.
Realme C1 Specifications and Software
For speed and multitasking, Realme C1 uses a 1.8 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 octa-core processor with Adreno 509 GPU. Talking about benchmarks, the performance of Realme C1 was good compared to other handsets like Redmi 6A with Snapdragon 430 or MediaTek Helio A22 that come in this price range. Realme C1 has 2 GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage. After pre-installed apps, only 8.67 GB will be available.
The method to transfer photos, videos, audio, documents and APKs to the microSD card is given in the sub-menu of Storage. After installing Facebook, Instagram and other games on the phone, we found that despite trying, these could not be transferred to the card.
Before taking photos or videos from the camera, go to the camera settings and change the path. If you download games like PUBG on the phone, the phone’s storage will end quickly. Now let’s talk about connectivity. The phone includes Bluetooth version 4.2, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, dual 4G volt, compass, proximity, ambient light, accelerometer, USB-OTG and FM radio support. This Realme handset runs on ColorOS 5.1 skin based on Android 8.1 Oreo. The Realme C1 we have for review is running on August 2018 security patch. There are many gestures and shortcuts in the custom user interface. However, there is no app or setting to change the theme of the phone.
Realme C1 performance, camera and battery life
Realme C1 has a total of 2 GB RAM, out of which 1 GB is for system, 500 MB for apps and you are left with only 500 MB RAM for multitasking. We did not face any problem while surfing the internet and multitasking on Google Chrome. The phone works fine but it gets a little hot while 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 the 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 is useful when shooting in portrait mode. Edge detection is correct, but the colors are not captured properly in the picture. Everything was in sufficient quantity in the picture taken with Realme C1 in daylight. 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.
In low light, the Realme C1’s camera focuses slowly. The 5-megapixel selfie camera takes good pictures when there is sufficient light, but the amount of Chroma Noise was high in the pictures taken at night. The phone is capable of recording videos at 1080p but the videos are not sharp, nor is there electronic stabilization in the phone. The battery life of the Realme C1 is its strength. To bring life to the phone, there is a 4,230mAh non-removable battery. In the 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 that comes with the phone fully charges the phone in about 4.30 hours.
Our verdict
At a price of Rs 6,999, Realme C1 has many features. It is difficult to find such performance and features in other smartphones at this price. Please note that this price is only till the Diwali season. A price hike of Rs 1,000 or more is possible. The battery life of Realme C1, the powerful chipset in the phone, the large display and its design are also quite good. However, 2 GB RAM limits multitasking. Overall, Realme C1 will not disappoint you at this price.