realme Note 50 Review - Entry-level king of early 2024?
After using the realme NOTE 50 for three weeks, we share our thoughts and experiences with the new entry-level phone with realme UI T Edition.
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| realme Note 50's rear design |
To recap, the realme NOTE 50 carries an HD+ 90Hz LCD screen, a UNISOC SoC, 4GB RAM, 64GB of internal storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 10W charging.
At the back of the phone are the 13MP main camera, a monochrome camera, and a 5MP selfie camera.
It is running on the lighter realme UI T edition based on Android 13.
In the Philippines, it is priced at PHP 3,599.
Let's dive into the review!
For our review part 1: realme NOTE 50 Unboxing and First Impressions
Multimedia Experience
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| realme Note 50's front screen |
In front are those above 6.74-inch IPS LCD screen with an HD+ 1,600 x 720 resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate, and a 180Hz touch sampling rate.
VERY GOOD display for under PHP 3.6K!
The panel is decently bright for its price category. It's not the brightest but the screen is nearly readable under direct sunlight. Images on the screen are vibrant and contrasty while the text and details are readable.
The panel supports 10 points of multitouch simultaneously which makes it perfect for complicated taps and gestures simultaneously like in mobile games. This is great as some recently released affordable mid-range only have 5 points of multi-touch.
On the upper part of the panel is the noth that houses the front-facing camera. Above it and hidden within the top bezel is the slim earpiece. The chin bezel is thicker than the rest of the bezel though.
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| realme Note 50's top and bottom sides |
For audio, the phone is equipped with a 3.5mm audio jack, a single bottom-firing speaker, and a microphone.
At maximum volume, the phone's single speaker is just enough to fill a small room. However, it may struggle in open and noisy environments. To get the best audio quality, we recommend lowering the volume to 80 percent as the sound becomes distorted at max volume. The sound stage is small and clarity is decent but could be better.
The microphones do a decent job of picking up sounds from a meter away while the noise-cancellation for calls is decent too.
Cameras
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| realme Note 50's rear cameras |
As mentioned earlier, the phone is equipped with a 13MP f/2.2 main camera and a black and white camera with an LED flash.
Respectable cameras for a budget phone...
The stock camera app's modes include Photo, Video, Portrait, Night, Pro, Time-lapse, Pano, and QR code.
The Pro mode allows for controls of ISO (100-1600), Shutter Speed (1/60-1/1000 sec), EV (+-3), Focus, and White Balance.
Rear Camera Samples
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| Rear camera daylight |
The 13MP primary camera produces some of the best daylight images we've seen and it can rival higher-priced smartphones. The contrast is strong. The colors are vibrant and the sharpness and detail are high up.
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| Rear camera indoors |
The same can be said for indoor shots. However, we noticed that the highlights (or brightest areas) tend to be overexposed.
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| Rear camera low light |
For low light, the amount of noise is significantly more apparent and the image isn't as sharp as we would like. But what impressed us is the cameras retained some color accuracy despite the noise or grain.
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| Rear camera night mode |
The Night mode significantly improves the sharpness, detail, and contrast while reducing some noise and grain, especially in the shadow area. It retains good color accuracy like in daylight too.
Overall, the rear camera produced good images across most situations but will struggle with noise in low light. We recommend using the night mode in low light whenever possible or when the subject is still.
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| realme Note 50's selfie camera |
In front is the 5MP f/2.2 selfie camera.
Camera modes include Photo, Video, and Portrait. There is no selfie night mode.
Selfie Camera Samples
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| Selfie camera with face smoothening in daylight |
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| Selfie portrait mode |
Daylight selfies from the realme NOTE 50 are just okay. The sharpness and detail are there but the colors are not accurate and there is some greenish discoloration in some shadow areas.
The portrait mode's edge detection struggles with hair fibres.
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| Selfie indoors |
Indoors, the image is similar to daylight but like the rear cameras, the light sources or highlight areas tend to be overexposed.
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| Selfie low light |
In low light, the selfie camera's images have some lost sharpness, detail, and color accuracy because of the amount of grain. Like indoor images, the light sources overexposed quickly and became very distracting.
Overall, the front cameras produce images with good sharpness and detail but struggle with color accuracy in daylight. And in low light, the grain and noise have reduced the
The rear and front-facing cameras can record up to 1080p at 30fps. The footage has acceptable sharpness but is grainy and shaky.
Performance
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| realme Note 50's AnTuTu and Geekbench scores |
To recap, the realme Note 50 features a 12nm 1.82GHz UNISOC T612 octa-core processor, Mali-G57 GPU, 4GB RAM, and 64GB of internal storage with microSD card expansion.
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| realme Note 50's 3DMark and CPDT results |
realme Note 50 benchmarks:
- AnTuTu - 246,329
- Geekbench 6 - 423 (single-core), 1,507 (multi-core)
- 3D Mark WildLife - 425 at 2.55 average fps
- CPDT - 198.15 MB/s sequential read speeds and 148.08 MB/s sequential write speeds
The realme Note 50 scores in AnTuTu, Geekbench, and 3DMark are somewhat competitive given the super affordable price of this phone.
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When playing Genshin Impact, it is set on the lowest graphics settings as the default. And even then it is struggling even when the player character is just casually running through the environment. This phone is not built for Genshin Impact. It may be able to play lighter games.
Basic tasks? No problem!
In our experience, the phone can handle basic tasks like navigating through the OS, opening apps, web surfing, and social media, but will struggle with more intensive games.
For security, the phone has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and face unlock. The Initial setup and subsequent uses are quick and it detects our biometrics instantaneously.
The face unlocks only struggles when the camera is dirty or when we are wearing a mask and sunglasses. The screen brightens up when used in the dark.
Regarding connectivity, we have the following: WiFi, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, OTG, GPS, and dual nano SIM.
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| realme Note 50's PCMark Battery benchmark results |
Inside the phone is a large 5,000mAh battery. With our usual PCMark battery benchmark, the phone lasted for an impressive 15 hours!
STRONG BATTERY performance regardless of price!
This is consistent with our real-world use where we were using the phone intensively while being connected to 4G, LTE, and WiFi all through the day and it would still have 40 percent after the work day ended.
The battery charges via USB-C with the 10W wall charger which charges the phone to 100 percent in under 120 minutes.
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| realme UI T edition |
It is running on realme UI T Edition based on Android 13. It is a lighter version of the usual realme UI while including key Android 13 features. Given that we weren't having a tough time with the phone, the lighter weight does make a difference.
Again for the price, this is not bad.
If you didn't like the older realme UI before, odds are you still won't like this one. But if you're a fan of it, you will more likely enjoy the experience.
There are a large number of pre-installed apps and services that can be uninstalled. It adds to the initial setup. Some of these apps have annoying push notifications. We recommend disabling or uninstalling these.
Pros - Affordable price, Eye-catching design, lightweight and solid build materials, long-lasting battery, good performing cameras for price, 90Hz HD+ screen
Cons - 2-hour charging time, not for intense games
realme Note 50 Specs
Display: 6.74-inch LCD (IPS) w/ 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling rate, HD+ 1600 x 720 resolution at 260 ppi
CPU: 1.82GHz 12nm UNISOC T612 octa-core processor
GPU: Mali-G57
RAM: 4GB
ROM: 64GB expandable via microSD card slot up to 2TB (dedicated)
Back Camera: 13MP w/ AF + B&W + LED flash
Selfie Camera: 5MP
Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 10W charging
OS: Android 13 w/ realme UI T Edition
Connectivity: WiFi (2.4GHz/5GHz), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, OTG, GPS, dual SIM (nano)
Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic
Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, IP54 water and dust resistance, USB-C, Colors: Midnight Black, Sky Blue
Dimensions: 167.7 x 76.67 x 7.99 mm
Weight: 186 g
Price: PHP 3,599
Verdict
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| realme UI |
realme has produced one of the best entry-level phones with key features like a 90Hz screen, a long-lasting 5,000mAh battery, and a good-performing main rear camera.
What surprised us was how bright the screen is and its ability to be near-readable under direct sunlight. The colors pop and the text is crisp too. We applaud realme for picking these features over FHD+ which could have affected the colors and brightness to get it to this price point.
We also liked the choice to pair the realme UI T edition with the 12nm UNISOC T612 octa-core processor, Mali-G57 GPU, 4GB RAM, and 64GB which makes the experience way better than it would with the regular realme UI if they had used the same specs.
The 5,000mAh battery paired with the above specs yielded 15 hours in our battery benchmark and its battery basically lasts for two days on average with our daily use.
Its main rear camera produces surprisingly good images in most situations even in low light while the selfie camera can perform well in well-lit situations.
Our only concern is the nearly 2-hour battery charging time and the poor performance running Genshin Impact.
But, at PHP 3,599, there are almost no other phones better for early 2024. Those who got it for the PHP 2,499 sale are even luckier.
What do you think guys?
Build/Design - 4.0
Multimedia Experience - 4.0
Cameras - 4.0
Performance - 4.0
Average - 4/5
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