Realme has launched its latest smartphone in the C-series, the Realme C51, in India. The smartphone is priced at Rs 8,999 and offers some impressive features for its segment, such as a 50MP rear camera, a 90Hz display, a 5000mAh battery and a Unisoc processor. But how does it perform in real life? Is it worth buying? Let’s find out in this review.
Design and Display
The Realme C51 has a plastic body with a glossy finish that attracts fingerprints and smudges easily. The back panel has a geometric pattern that reflects light in different angles. The smartphone is available in two color options: Blue and Black.
The smartphone has a rectangular camera module on the top left corner of the back, which houses a dual camera setup and an LED flash. There is also a fingerprint scanner on the back, which is fast and accurate. The Realme branding is placed on the bottom left corner of the back.
The smartphone has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a micro-USB port and a speaker grille on the bottom edge. The power button is on the right edge, while the volume buttons and the SIM tray are on the left edge. The SIM tray has two nano-SIM slots and a dedicated microSD card slot.
The smartphone has a 6.71-inch IPS LCD display that has an HD+ resolution of 720×1600 pixels and a 90Hz refresh rate. The display has a waterdrop notch on the top that houses the selfie camera. The display has thin bezels on the sides, but a thick chin at the bottom.
The display quality is decent for the price, but not very impressive. The colors are vibrant, but the brightness is low and the contrast is poor. The viewing angles are also not very good. The display supports adaptive brightness, night mode and eye comfort mode.
The 90Hz refresh rate makes the UI smooth and responsive, but it also consumes more battery. The display also supports touch sampling rate of up to 180Hz, which improves the gaming experience.
Performance and Software
The Realme C51 is powered by an octa-core Unisoc T612 processor, which is based on a 12nm process and has four Cortex-A75 cores clocked at 1.8GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.6GHz. The processor is paired with Mali-G57 GPU, 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The smartphone also supports virtual RAM of up to 4GB and storage expansion of up to 2TB via microSD card.
The performance of the Realme C51 is average for its segment. The smartphone can handle basic tasks like browsing, social media, messaging and video streaming without any lag or stutter. However, it struggles with heavy multitasking and gaming. The smartphone heats up quickly when playing games like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile and Asphalt 9. The graphics quality is also low and the frame rate drops frequently.
The smartphone runs on Android 13 out of the box with Realme UI 3.0 on top. The software is clean and user-friendly, but it also comes with some bloatware and ads that can be annoying. The software offers some useful features like dark mode, game space, smart sidebar, digital wellbeing, app cloner, split screen and gesture navigation.
The smartphone also supports face unlock, which is fast and convenient, but not very secure. The fingerprint scanner is more reliable and secure for unlocking the device.
Camera and Battery
The Realme C51 has a dual rear camera setup that consists of a 50MP primary sensor with an f/1.8 aperture and an unspecified secondary sensor for depth sensing. The rear camera can record videos up to 1080p at 30fps.
The rear camera performance is good for the price, but not exceptional. The camera captures decent photos in daylight with good details, colors and dynamic range. However, the photos lack sharpness and clarity when zoomed in. The camera also struggles in low-light conditions, producing noisy and grainy photos with poor exposure and color accuracy.
The portrait mode works well, creating a natural bokeh effect with good edge detection. However, the edge detection fails sometimes when there are complex backgrounds or multiple subjects.
The smartphone has an 8MP selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture on the front. The selfie camera can also record videos up to 1080p at 30fps.
The selfie camera performance is average for its segment. The camera captures decent selfies in daylight with good skin tones and details. However, the selfies look soft and artificial when using beauty mode or AI enhancement features. The selfies also suffer from low-light conditions, producing noisy and blurry photos with poor exposure and color accuracy.
The smartphone has a 5000mAh battery that supports 33W SuperVOOC fast charging. The battery life is excellent for its segment, lasting for more than a day with moderate usage. The fast charging is also impressive, charging the battery from 0 to 100% in about an hour.
Verdict
The Realme C51 is a budget smartphone that offers some attractive features for its segment, such as a 50MP rear camera, a 90Hz display, a 5000mAh battery and a Unisoc processor. However, it also has some drawbacks, such as a low-resolution display, a mediocre performance, a micro-USB port and a plastic body.
The smartphone is suitable for those who are looking for a basic smartphone with a good camera and battery life. However, it is not recommended for those who are looking for a smooth and powerful performance, a high-resolution display and a premium design.