realme C55 review - More than just the Dynamic Island!
realme C55 just arrived in the Philippines, and now we're here to provide you a full review of the phone.
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| The realme C55 |
To recap, realme brought the Dynamic Island feature that can be seen on the iPhone 14 series to a budget Android device which they call the "Mini Capsule". But the question is, is it more than just that?
For our review part 1: realme C55 Unboxing, First Impressions, Camera Samples
Multimedia Experience
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| The phone's huge display! |
The realme C55 is equipped with a big 6.72-inch LCD (IPS) screen with Full HD+ resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, and 680 nits of max brightness.
We were able to experience the display, balanced colors, well-detailed image quality, and great viewing angles on its wide screen.
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| The realme C55 6.72-inch screen |
If you notice it now has a 90Hz refresh rate which is a step up from the previous C35 limited to 60Hz. Now scrolling through social media or web browsing feels more pleasant to our eyes with a buttery smooth experience.
realme even retained the 180Hz touch sampling rate for that responsive touch especially when playing games.
You will also notice that the phone now uses a dot-display notch versus the water drop notch that you see around under PHP 10K.
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| The Mini Capsule at the top! |
What's nice about it is that realme came up with a "Mini Capsule" feature or the Dynamic Island copycat to cover up the notch's weaknesses. Again it provides information such as when charging your device, reaching battery low or when full, or upon reaching the 90 percent set data limit.
You may access this on the realme Lab section on the settings as it is just in its experimental stage.
In the audio department, the device uses a single firing speaker at the bottom which produces decent and clear audio. The sound signature leans on the brighter side but we noticed it has slight piercing when on the max volume. Speaking of the volume, it is loud and is enough to fill the room even when set at 75 percent.
We are also pleased that realme still manages to include a 3.5mm audio slot, unlike their higher mid-range devices that don't have it. This is also a plus for us music lovers so we can enjoy our in-ear monitors for a better-sounding experience.
On the other hand, its microphones can pick up voices easily and can be heard on the other end. However, we also noticed that they can get background noises as well. What we mean by this is that it can pick up the sound of typing keyboard or the music from other phones in the room for example.
Cameras
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| The dual cameras of realme C55 |
For cameras, realme C55 is equipped with 64MP as the primary shooter and is paired with 8MP to aid in-depth shooting. While it uses 8MP sensor for selfies.
Rear camera samples
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| Daylight shot outdoor |
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| Daylight shot 2 |
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| Using the 2x zoom |
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| There's a 5x zoom too! |
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| Indoor rear shot |
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| A shot inside the hotel |
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| More food shot sample |
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| A normal mode in low light scene |
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| When using the night mode |
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| Normal mode second shot |
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| Turning on the night mode |
Based on the shots produced. It can do pretty well under bright scenarios. We have seen good color accuracy, detailed images, and acceptable dynamic range.
In terms of low light, the images we got on normal shot suffers greatly with a lot of noise, lesser details, and dynamic range.
On the other hand, using Night Mode will brighten up the photos and give slightly livelier colors and details but noises are still present in most cases.
Selfie camera samples
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| Selfie on daylight |
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| Using the portrait mode |
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| A selfie at low light scene |
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| Low light selfie with background blur |
In the selfie department, both outdoor and indoor looked great as long as there is proper lighting. In our low-light selfie test, we got clearer finer details on the subject which is nice. But that's not the case for the background and surrounding area. Anyways that's alright if you don't mind it. After all, the selfie is all about your face.
Performance
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| The benchmarks of realme C55 |
The realme C55 is equipped with a 12nm 2.0GHz MTK Helio G88 octa-core processor with Mali-G52 MC2 GPU. It is paired with options of 6GB or 8GB RAM and 128GB or 256GB storage.
By the way, we got the 8GB/256GB variant. We tested it using the usual benchmark apps such as AnTuTu, Geekbench 6, 3D Mark, and CPDT.
realme C55 benchmarks:
AnTuTu - 241,327
Geekbench 6 - 425 (single-core), 1355 (multi-core)
3D Mark Wild Life - 748 at 4.50 average fps
CPDT - 146.4 MB/s sequential write speeds, 194 sequential read speeds
In real-life usage, the performance is decent particularly when scrolling through social media, web browsing, and streaming. There are occasional slowdowns/lags only when you switch between apps and big games.
The 8GB RAM is enough for today's standards and can handle many apps thrown at it. If it's not enough you may extend it up to 4GB virtually.
Another highlight is the 256GB storage. That's plenty of space for a budget phone where you can store your files, apps, games, and more without worrying it will run out anytime soon.
In terms of gaming, the phone can handle mainstream titles on the Play Store such as Mobile Legends and COD.
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| Settings for MLBB and COD: Mobile |
In MLBB we were able to set it on high graphics and 60 fps but the outline is turned off and it turned out with a stable frame rate even on tight clashes. The 180Hz touch sampling rate from the screen also helped with responsive and timely reactions to our enemies. However, turning on the outline will provide fps drops which may affect our gameplay.
In Call of Duty Mobile, the phone is limited to medium graphics and a high frame rate. Which provided smooth gameplay all throughout.
We would also like to point out that even when the phone gets warm a little bit. We still did not get slow down during our skirmishes.
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| realme C55 battery life |
Moving to its battery, the phone has a 5,000mAh with 33W fast charging. While using the device, it definitely has almost a day of use.
If you take a look at the history we got 20 hours and 41 minutes with 19 percent of juice remaining and that's done when playing video games, camera shooting, and occasional YouTube and Facebook surfing.
Charging the device is quite fast with the 33W SuperVOOC. You get around 50 percent in just half an hour and around 1 hour and 15 minutes to full.
Moving forward, the realme C55 also has a side-fingerprint sensor which is pretty responsive when we use it.
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| A look at the realme UI 4.0 of the C55 smartphone |
For OS, the handset runs Android 13 with realme UI 4.0 skin overlay. It has an innovative UI with useful notifications and widgets. There's a smart sidebar that lets you open apps and multitask.
While there's also a gaming mode so users can get relevant information on the game such as fps, screenshots, voice changer, and more.
We also noticed that there is bloatware here upon opening the phone but you can simply uninstall them when you need it.
Pros - Huge display, Decent performance, big RAM and storage, and battery life
Cons - Microphones struggle with background noise, and cameras don't do well in low light
realme C55 Specs
Display: 6.72-inch LTPS LCD (IPS) w/ 90Hz refresh rate, FHD+ 2388 x 1080 resolution at 392 ppiCPU: 2.0GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio G88 octa-core processor
GPU: Mali-G52 MC2
RAM: 6GB/8GB
ROM: 128GB/256GB
Back Camera: 64MP w/ PDAF + 2MP depth + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 8MP
Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 33W SuperVOOC
OS: Android 13 w/ realme UI 4.0
Connectivity: WiFi (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2, OTG, GPS, NFC, dual SIM (nano)
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, USB-C, Colors: Sun Shower, Rainy Night, Rainforest
Dimensions: 165.6 x 75.9 x 7.9 mm
Weight: 189.5 g
Price: PHP 8,999 (6GB/128GB), PHP 10,999 (8GB/256GB)
Verdict
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| The realme C55 rear cover |
It's evident the device offers a lot of features such as a big display, RAM and storage, and still capable processor.
The cameras are decent only when in bright environments while the battery life is outstanding.
As for the Mini capsule feature. It is still in its infancy, there are useful notifications though but that's just it. realme can still improve it over the update and who knows? They may bring more useful functions as the brand develops it.
What do you guys think?
Build/Design - 4.2
Multimedia Experience - 4.2
Cameras - 3.75
Performance - 4
Average - 4.03/5
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