Realme has arrived in Spain with the desire to destroy everything. He already showed us with his phone X2 Pro and now it does the same again with a very simple but quite wealthy terminal: the Realm 5. Do you want to know what you are going to find in exchange for a price that does not exceed 170 euros? Well, you are in the right place.
Realme 5, video opinion
Realme 5: low price for sacrificing certain things
There is no doubt that Realme has a very clear mission in the Spanish market: to gain a foothold and become a benchmark for the medium and entry-level ranges of telephony. The brand landed in our market less than two months ago and since then it has placed 5 phones in the shop windows (no more and no less). The last one is this Realme 5, the most basic of the family, which seeks to convince those who are on the hunt for a smartphone that performs well but without being too demanding.
And it is that the Realme 5 is a basic terminal in design and I would almost say that in execution. As for the first, we have a phone with simple lines, somewhat heavy and thick, which even feels discreet in the hand. Its casing does try to be something differentiating (and it is appreciated) with a finish, so diamond cut they call it, quite showy and resultón -although it is a terrible magnet for fingerprints, I warn you.
On said back is its four-camera rear system -yes, even the entry ranges already have a quartet of sensors- and a fingerprint reader that works incredibly well and fast. You will only have to get used to its position (a matter of use) to hit it first, since it is true that its surface helps little to differentiate it many times by groping.
On the front we find a quite generous LCD screen, 6,5 inches, with a somewhat short resolution (1.600 x 720 pixels). The brightness is rather fair (also used to phones with increasingly powerful brightness, its 480 cd/m2 tastes very little to me) although it has better viewing angles than expected.
In any case, the memory that I will always take with me from your screen is the horrible built-in screen saver. It turns out that the Realme 5 comes with a protector already attached to the screen, but this is thicker than desirable and for example it is annoying to the passage of the finger on the sides when using the Android gesture controls -as I have configured the equipment. Realme has confirmed to me that this protector can be removed, but the truth is that I have not even been able to do it because of how attached it is. I think that the protector could be included in the box and that it was the user who, optionally, decided or not to place it.
Regarding its performance, there is a processor Snapdragon 665 with 4 GB of RAM running inside. You can't expect to do wonders with it, but for day-to-day use and if tasks that are too demanding are not continuously executed, the phone will respond smoothly to everything.
It also relies on coloros (customization layer on Android 9, similar to that of OPPO phones, which works well and is attractive to look at) and a huge battery: 5.000 mAh capacity, which in a phone with these characteristics can even give you for three days without problems. Oh really, The autonomy of this phone is undoubtedly one of the great surprises of the Realme 5.
In the event that you use it more intensely, you can have it guaranteed for two days, although the ideal is that it lasts the longer the better because, as I explain in the video, its charge on the other hand is a negative point: it turns out slow (a 10W charger comes in the box), reaching almost three hours to reach 100%.
By the way, you will connect the plug through a microUSB port. For some reason that I don't understand, Realme has preferred to use a microUSB connector instead of a USB-C, present even in very basic and low-cost phones. In addition to being slower and more cumbersome, I think it even gives the phone a bad "image" as a whole, making it seem more basic: who wouldn't think it's a 2017 phone for example with such a connector?
At least the kit comes with a 3,5mm headphone port (and FM radio), though lacks NFC module, so you will not be able to use it to make mobile payments.
As for their photographic capabilities, we have a quartet of sensors that again are going to give us expected results for the price range in which we move. We have a 12 MP main sensor with an f/1.8 aperture that performs well in favorable light situations (although sometimes the processing is aggressive and others in dynamic range it is not up to par) and that falters at night, although its mode night sometimes saves situations better than expected.
The second in the set is a sensor wide angle of 8 MP, in which we can use by the way (as with the main sensor) the so-called Dazzling Color, which is a color boost that, depending on the scene to be photographed, will help or saturate too much.
Sensor depth, of 2 MP, helps in taking portraits. These are correct without more, but I would not say that they disappoint either. What you will not have at hand is the possibility of modifying the degree of depth as it is possible to do in many other terminals.
Finally we have in the group a macro sensor, also 2 MP. Possibly this is the one I liked the least, both for performance and especially for execution during the capture, without clear indications about the distance to take from the object - which always helps to better position yourself and better capture the detail that we want.
On the front you will find a 13 megapixel camera with which you can make selfies that will not leave you dissatisfied (be careful with the beauty effect that is active by default) and as for another point to highlight (within an input range) is the fact that it is capable of recording video in 4K .
Is it worth buying the Realme 5?
Yes, as long as you know what you're giving up for paying so little. You will not have NFC, a USB-C port or fast charging. Its camera is very correct (without more) and the discreet screen.
In exchange, you do get a phone, which costs 169 ridiculous euros, with a wide panel to view multimedia content, good general performance, a design that has an original touch and cameras that, even though they are simple, are versatile due to the different sensors they have. And above all, with a incredible autonomy.
It's up to you to assess what you give more importance to.
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