The realme 5 series really received a lot of love from consumers, and even from us tech bloggers, thanks to the company’s very effective formula of creating devices that are competitive in both specs and price.
What’s in the Box
Following its success, the brand isn’t stopping the song just yet, and has now released a new addition to its portfolio – a device that they claim will once again disrupt the market in terms of price to performance ratio in the entry-level segment.
The first thing that you’ll notice about this phone, is that it doesn’t use the usual glossy finish, but rather a metallic matte finish that delivers better grip for one-handed use. You’ll find the power button on the right, and the volume rocker, plus the triple slot tray on the left. It uses a Standard MicroUSB port at the bottom, along with a speaker grille, microphone, and headphone jack.
Realme 5i sports a massive 6.5-inch display with a resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels or HD+. Despite having less pixels on a larger screen, this display still looks pretty decent at a normal viewing distance. It’s only when you look closely that you’ll notice that colors appear a bit washed out and sharpness isn’t at par with other screens with more pixels.
Under the hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 octa-core processor. As such, General performance was smooth and fluid when navigating home screens and menus, and apps open as fast as you’d expect. While 3GB of RAM may not sound enticing to heavy multitasker, those who aren’t will most likely find it adequate for day to day use.
You also get 64GB of storage, which, in my case, is enough for apps, videos, music and photos. Those who have tons more content, may opt for another device.
Realme also says that this phone is the first in its price segment that can play high quality mobile games. We’ll save the details for our full review, but to give you an idea, we were able to play COD Mobile at High + Max Framerate settings without any major hiccups.
Realme 5i is also the first device to sport a quad-camera system for its price point. You get a 12MP main, 8MP wide-angle, 2MP portrait, and a 2MP macro shooter.
Camera features include Super Nightscape, Chroma Boost, 4K/30fps video recording, 120fps slow motion video, AI Beauty, AI HDR, 10x Digital Zoom, and EIS.
Sample shots show plenty of detail and good sharpness. Depth of field effect also looks well-implemented and refined.
Selfies taken by the 8MP front snapper looks well-detailed, though there seems to be some over sharpening in some sections.
The device runs on ColorOS 6 on top of Android 9 Pie, which covers most of the well-loved features from previous releases such as Game Space and Smart Sidebar, which allows you to take screenshots, record what’s happening on the screen, and more.
Lastly, realme 5i packs a potent 5,000mAh battery, and can be used as a powerbank to charge other devices.
To sum it up, here are the full specs of the realme 5i, set to launch in the Philippines on January 29, 2020.
Specifications
- 6.5-inch HD+ Display, 269 ppi
- Snapdragon 665 AIE (Octa-Core)
- 3GB of RAM
- 64GB of Storage
- 12MP Main Camera + 8MP Wide-Angle + 2MP Macro + 2MP Depth
- 8MP Front Camera
- ColorOS 6 on top of Android 9 Pie
- 5,000mAh battery, reverse charging
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
