Realme Philippines is ready to release their first smartphone offering in the Philippines this year and we got a chance to drop our verdict on the newest member of Realme 5 series - Realme 5i
Connectivity was very good on Realme 5i on calls, texts, mobile data, WiFi, Bluetooth and OTG. We had a lil tweak on the GPS function but after that, it was pretty a-ok for us for navigation.
Just like in Realme 5, not that much changes or a familiar territory that we seen on Realme 5is Color OS environment from having option to go with our without app drawer, dark mode down to the iconography. No hiccups in normal multi tasking that we did in more than a week that we played this device thanks to the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 processor that they placed inside.
Connectivity was very good on Realme 5i on calls, texts, mobile data, WiFi, Bluetooth and OTG. We had a lil tweak on the GPS function but after that, it was pretty a-ok for us for navigation.
On benchmarks, we did a lil change as we tried the recently released Antutu Go (the lighter version of Antutu benchmark) and it got that familiar numbers at almost 168,000. Realme 5i has seven out of nine working sensors.
On battery, Realme 5i is setting it's standards for our 2020 video battery rundown test as it lasted for 36 hours and 50 minutes thanks to it's HD+ display and 5,000 mAh battery. The box has 5V 2A charger which can fully charge this device for a bit over 2.5 hours. Used it as a main driver, we got to use it in heavy usage safely for 2 days.
If there is one reason that Realme 5i still managed to price it as same as to 3/32 version of Realme 5 with double the storage, they chose to trim down a lil bit on the wide angle camera (Realme 5 at 8 MP f/2.2 versus on 5i on 8 MP f/2.3) and the selfie cam (Realme 5 - 12 MP, Realme 5i - 8 MP). OOn normal to low lighting, the primary cam can do good shots with right color accuracy. Nightscape shots can do either on primary or wide angle cameras but it performed better on the first camera that we mentioned. You can still have the the same camera options that you can see on the standard Realme 5. Almost no difference in the details (except if you will gonna zoom it) in selfies on the 8 MP selfie cam. Just like in Realme 5, the beauty mode was just too strong that we applied it at a bare minimum
Realme 5i camera UI
Realme 5i normal to wide angle rear camera comparison
Realme 5i normal to nightscape rear camera comparison
Realme 5i rear camera samples
Realme 5i selfie camera sample (in beauty mode - smoothen set to 3)
On extras, we noticed that Realme 5i has more details in Bluetooth audio compared to Realme 5 which is our current main driver
A different back deisgn which also acts as a non-slip solution, very good Bluetooth audio, a-ok cameras, processsor, UI and battery life are the main strengths of Realme 5i. We cannot complain that much that we cannot get it a USB Type C and at least 15 watt charging speed on Realme 5i for the asking price. Looks like a good start for Realme Philippines this year as we give 4.25 out of 5 for Realme 5i
