The budget smartphone category has undergone a long and fast transformation over the past year so much so that nobody frowns when an under-10K phone is advertised to have sporting swashbuckling faculties, such as a 6.5 inch display or 24MP AI dual camera with portrait lens or full HD video-recording.

In fact, such matters are a given now. This makes the battle for the budget even more exciting and promising, especially given that players such as Xiaomi and Realme (OPPO’s sub-brand) are introducing super budget phones with cutting-edge features.

The new Realme C3, priced ₹6,999 for the 3GB+32GB version and ₹7,999 for the 4GB+64GB version, at the very outset, is a value-for-money phone. Coming in two variants, Frozen Blue and Blazing Red, and sporting Realme’s in-house Sunrise design, the phone measures 164.4mm in length, 75mm in width and 8.95mm in depth. It weighs just about 200 grams. We received the Blazing Red for review and the looks can warm the cockles of your heart. It looks premium and feels light in your hand; the texture is soothing, and overall, can score decently on the form factor front.

Colourful all the way

The Realme C3 has a 6.5 inch display with a mini-drop fullscreen. The LCD multi-touch display offers nearly 90 per cent screen-to-body ratio, which means the screen real estate is not wasted significantly. The display offers a 1,600X720-pixel resolution. The front panel is powered by a Corning Gorilla Glass, but we gather this is not the latest version of the glass and looks a tad fragile. But that’s not a big worry these days where almost all phones wear protective gear right from day one. Realme supplies the phone with a screen protector film. The phone’s display is crisp, and even though adaptive lighting struggles under bright sunlight, the viewing angles are impressively vivid. Images and videos are displayed in their natural tones and are not doctored to make them seem over-real. The display is not very loud and hence negotiates your eyes softly and smoothly. In fact, Realme C3 has a more soothing display than many of its peers in the price range.

The phone has a 12MP AI Dual Camera with Portrait Lens, a plus considering the price. The 12MP main shooter claims an aperture value of f/1.8 and if you know how to play with it, you can put this to good use and click vivid and detailed images. Realme claims it has updated the portrait lens algorithm to offer beautiful bokeh portraits. The AI HDR mode can give you qualitatively saturated images, but the regular AI mode is just as the one found in cameras of this price range. The chroma boost faculty is another plus. It enhances images nicely and produces crisp, super colourful images, especially when ambient light is tricky. The 5MP selfie camera with AI support is a can’t-complain affair. The AI effects are not so satisfactory, but the camera does its job without blemishes or fancy inflations. The front camera has f/2.4 aperture.

Power-packed

The Realme C3 can shoot videos in 1080p HD (30fps) resolutions and supports 120fps (frames per second) slow motion. That’s impressive, especially for those who want to shoot those pet videos. The phone doesn’t heat up or slow down during long-duration video shoots, all thanks to the processor — Helio G70 — which has an octa-core CPU with 12nm process technology and can clock speeds of up to 2.0GHz. That said, the phone’s audio needs improvement.

Loud audio comes out compromised when on speaker mode, but everything looks just fine while using a headset.

The Realme C3 has two RAM/storage variants: 3GB/4GB RAM and 32GB/64GB ROM. You can expand the external memory up to 256GB. The phone wears a massive 5000mAh battery which can easily last for two days if you are not a heavy user.

Even if you are, it will last more than a day — this can make it a pet for long-surfers and gamers.

The phone supports reverse-charging as well. All the sensors (light, proximity, magnetic induction, acceleration, etc) work smoothly. The phone supports two nano-SIM cards and a TF card.

In sum, the Realme C3 is a testimony of the popularity and success the OPPO brand enjoyed in 2019, and if the specs are any indication, the Chinese gadget maker is upping its games several notches high in the budget market.

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