We are done on Realme Philippines' latest in the C series and even that we are bit late, at least we got the official commercial unit of it and got it's first ever system update which fixed a thing and found something on the benchmark numbers. Here's our review of official commercial unit of Realme C3.
Extra: After we put in the system update (RMX2020_11_A_15), good thing that the "bug" that we mentioned earlier was already gone.
It was the first time for us to encounter Realme UI based on Android 10 which was introduced in India less than a month before we got this review unit. It was a very good yet a new experience that we got compared to Realme 5i which has Android 9. Transition from home to app drawer and back faster and now you can force more third-party apps to dark mode. You can also set the dark mode by time and day.
Connectivity was very good with the first time that we met Mediatek Helio G70 SoC on calls, texts, mobile data, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth. Back on the UI before the first ever system update, we noticed a bug which once you turn it off the device and turn it on once again, the phone will me prompting you to developer mode which will ask you for reset, turn off or upload the newest update. You have to do it twice so that you can properly put the device on. Details later after we put in the latest system update.
We took a different take in benchmarking as we used Antutu Go, the light version of Antutu app which we will gonna have the same numbers. We seen in some online posts that the C3 can do at 180000+ on the said benchmark. We got the highest number possible at 183,781 with the help of Meidatek Helio G70 SoC but in performance mode. We did the benchmark once again in normal mode and we got 161,990 which has a very slight difference (but almost the same in real life usage) compared to Snapdragon 665 SoC which we seen on Realme 5 and 5i. Definitely, a huge improvement over Realme C2.
On video battery rundown test, the phone survived with it's 5000 mAh battery on 34 hours 10 minutes which is around 2 hours shy on what we got on Realme 5 and Realme 5. The phone was an easy 2-day smartphone for us on heavy usage with around 12 hours of screen on time. Charging time took us usually at 2 1/2 hours. A note-worthy mention that it was the first time for the C series to have a 10 watt charger compared to Realme C2 with only 5 watts.
Same on the the recent C series, you will be missing Chroma Boost which is present on the brand's number series (Realme 3, Realme 5 and so on) but you will be getting pretty neat cam features for the budget with ultra macro and pro mode. It was a hit or miss for us on macro mode. We chose the HDR and auto modes which produces good color accuracy and image processing speed. Selfies are also very good in a snap.
Realme C3 rear camera samples
Realme C3 normal to HDR rear camera comparison (indoor, day)
Realme C3 normal to HDR camera comparison (night time)
Realme C3 selfie camera sample
Extra: After we put in the system update (RMX2020_11_A_15), good thing that the "bug" that we mentioned earlier was already gone.
With the price of Php 5,990, Realme C3 is definitely an upgrade even for a Realme C2 user with more than double in terms of performance, battery, charging time, screen and camera plus the first Realme device on Android 10 out of the box. At a thousand pesos difference, it puts a little pressure with it's other brother Realme 5i (but half the internal memory and no Chroma Boost but 5i is still at Android 9). Other brands at the same price point or one, two thousand pesos more were already on disadvantage with the processor that Realme C3 have. One of the best phones at the said price, I will gonna give 4.5 out of 5 for Realme C3
