realme narzo 50i Review - Basics and Big Battery

Over two weeks after its arrival in the Philippines, we are now ready to share with you our full experience with the realme narzo 50i. 

realme narzo 50i

To recap, this handset highlights a 6.5-inch display with an 88.7 screen-to-body ratio. It also has a waterdrop notch housing the 5MP selfie camera. 

In terms of battery, the 5,000mAh battery of the narzo 50i is advertised to deliver 43 days of standby time or 23 hours of continuous video streaming. It also has a reverse charge feature and Ultra Saving Mode which, according to realme, can enable the handset to be on standby for two days even at only 5 percent battery.

We'll learn more about its features later on in this review. But if you haven't read about the first half of the review, you may do so at this link.

As an entry-level smartphone, how well does it cover the basics? Let's also see how its battery fared in real-life usage!

Multimedia Experience

6.5-inch display

In front is the 6.5-inch IPS LCD screen with 1600 x 720 resolution. There was no mention of any protection aside from its free screen protector. 

It is surrounded by the thin top and side bezels while the chin bezel is somewhat large compared to the rest of the bezels. It also has a waterdrop notch housing the 5MP selfie camera. 

Average display quality

In terms of the display quality, realme narzo 50i is producing satisfactory vibrant colors and decently sharp images. The display could have been better if it has a 1080p panel. 

In case you're wondering, the display is a 10-point touch screen and it is accurate and responsive. Overall, we are satisfied with the display quality.

realme narzo 50i in Mint Green

As mentioned, the notch is housing the front-facing selfie camera. The earpiece is placed on top of it while the bottom-firing speakers are placed at the bottom back of the handset. 

The speaker produces a surprisingly nice, high maximum volume. At first, we really thought it wouldn't be loud enough to fill a small to relatively medium-sized room, but it did. There are noticeable distortions, yes, but the clarity and separation are good enough.

Speakers are one of the phone's highlights 

The microphone recording with this phone is also OK. Our callers had little to no complaints about voice quality.

Cameras

8MP rear camera

At the back of the realme narzo 50i is the vertical, rectangular camera module made of a single 8MP camera, LED flash, and AI branding. 

The camera modes include video, capture (photo), portrait, burst, interval, time-lapse, pro, and panorama. The HDR and beautification features are also present.

The pro mode allows control for ISO (100-1600), Shutter Speed (1/1000-1/5 secs), White Balance, exposure compensation (+-3 stops), and focus. 

The 4x zoom is accessible by pinching the screen. 

Rear Camera Samples

Gloomy daylight

Lighted parking area

Indoor

Indoor 2

Indoor 3

Indoor 4

Indoor portrait

Indoor portrait 2

Closeup

Almost lowlight

Lowlight

Lowlight 2

In daylight, the main camera produces good images that are sharp with nice contrast. Surprisingly, the budget handset captures the almost close to real-life colors of the images. Great job on this part, realme! 

Good images from an 8MP rear camera!

The indoor images, on the other hand, remain vibrant and sharp. Some grain and noise are a little noticeable but are not an issue at all, for us. The color accuracy is also satisfactory as seen in the images.

In the low light, the images are inconsistent. One sample presented noise and grain while the other one has a strong color contrast. 

realme narzo 50i does not have a night mode.

5MP selfie camera

As mentioned earlier, the 5MP selfie camera is placed on the notch of the handset. It has similar camera modes with the rear. It also has a screen flash feature.

Selfie Camera Samples

Daylight selfie

Daylight selfie 2

Daylight portrait selfie

Indoor selfie

Indoor selfie 2

Indoor portrait selfie

Lowlight selfie

The front-facing camera produced satisfactory selfies with ample colors and good contrast. However, it lacks sharpness. The same goes with indoor selfies. 

realme narzo 50i does not have a selfie night mode. But, the screen flash helps in improving a lowlight selfie as seen in our image sample. But this time, more grain is noticeable.

Overall, the front and rear camera can take decent daylight and indoor images but struggle in low light.

Performance

realme narzo 50i benchmarks

The UNISOC SC9863A octa-core processor inside the realme narzo 50i was able to score the following in respective benchmark platforms: 

AnTuTu - 84,917

Geekbench - 124 (single-core), 475 (multi-core)

3D Mark Wild Life - 434 

For an entry-level smartphone, it's natural that we manage our expectations. We were going to download the Genshin Impact on Google Play but we weren't able to find it. We're not sure if it's because it is not compatible with realme narzo 50i.

Meanwhile, the usual games that we test on review phones like the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, we were able to push the graphic quality to high. 

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang settings on realme narzo 50i

Powering the realme narzo 50i is a 5000mAh battery with 10W charging and reverse charging support. It does not have wireless charging support.

Huge battery!

We ran the PCMark battery test thrice but for some reason, we don't know, the result won't flash on the screen. But in our estimate, realme narzo 50i was able to sustain a total average time of 20 hours battery test. 

In real life usage, realme narzo 50i can last up to a full day with our WiFi on, texting, calling, web surfing, music & video streaming, casual gaming, and Waze navigation. 

Charging time takes over two hours from flat to full using the 10W charger.

realme narzo 50i runs on the realme UI Go Edition based on Android 11. It features circular icons with a clean app drawer, notification panel, and settings app. We noticed occasional hiccups but we were able to have a decently fast experience opening and closing the apps. 

realme UI Go Edition

In terms of security, the face unlock is fast. There is no fingerprint scanner available which is more convenient to use in this era of face masks.

WiFi, Bluetooth, and LTE connections are stable. We have not experienced disconnections during the duration of our usage. Its GPS acquires our locations immediately and accurately.

Pros - Lightweight body, decent display quality, loudspeakers, satisfactory cameras, 5,000mAh battery 

Cons - slow charging, delicate body construction, no fingerprint scanner, camera struggle in lowlight settings

realme narzo 50i Specs

Display: 6.5-inch LCD (IPS) screen w/ 1600 x 720 resolution at 270 ppi

CPU: 1.6GHz 28nm HPC+ UNISOC SC9863A octa-core processor

GPU: PowerVR GE8322

RAM: 4GB LPDDR4X

ROM: 64GB expandable via microSD card slot up to 256GB (dedicated)

Back Camera: 8MP f/2.0 w/ AF + LED flash

Selfie Camera: 5MP f/2.2

Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 10W charging + reverse charging

OS: Android 11 w/ realme UI Go Edition

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.2, OTG, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, BDS, dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic

Others: Face unlock, splash resistance, micro USB, Colors: Mint Green, Black

Dimensions: 165.2 x 76.4 x 8.9 mm

Weight: 195 g

Price: PHP 6,290

Verdict

Basics and Big Battery

The realme narzo 50i is an entry-level smartphone that can do the basics and with a packed big battery. It can manage to last up to a day giving us the liberty to do our necessary tasks without worrying about charging. 

Our concern is that it does not come with a case in the box. As someone who pretty much relies on cases for the protection of smartphones from scratches and accidental falls, this is significant for me. 

The realme narzo 50i accidentally slipped out of my hands while we were shooting some clips for the TikTok video and the handset sustained two noticeable scratches on the upper right and bottom left revealing a black color underneath the Mint Green finish. It also had a lot of little scratches noticeable under the light.

Another thing is that the camera and performance could be improved most especially at this price point.

But, what surprised us the most is how nice and powerful its speakers are. The sound quality is decent but at maximum volume, it can easily overpower other devices in its class.

What do you think guys?

Build/Design - 3.75

Multimedia Experience - 4

Cameras - 3.5

Performance - 3.75

Average - 3.75/5