Launching the P Series, realme introduced their new mid-range smartphone lineup with 5G support. Since last year there have been rumors about the launch of a fresh mid-range line-up. Finally, the P1 and P1 Pro had their global release on 15th April 2024 in India. The P1 brings the familiar realme DNA with some impressive choices. Let's take a detailed look at the features, pros, cons, and price of the realme P1 5G.
Key Specs of the realme P1 5G
Design and Build Quality: A Smartphone with the Looks
At first glance, the P1 seems different from the common materialistic design of most realme smartphones. The phone is made from plastic with a circular camera housing on the back. The back itself has an abstract feather texture giving it a distinct and premium look. The two color options are called Peacock Green and Phoenix Red.
Dimension-wise, the P1 comes in at 162.95 mm by 75.45 mm by 7.97 mm with 188 g physical weight. Surprisingly, the P1 kept the headphone jack which isn’t all that available in mid-range smartphones anymore. Although the top position might not appeal to everyone.
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realme skipped on the micro SDXC with the P1 as users will have options of either 128 GB or 256 GB of internal storage. Ports and buttons are all in their usual space including the dual nano-sim port.
The P1 is also IP54 dust and splash-resistant which is a pleasant addition at this price point. Overall, the build quality of the P1 is spectacular.
The Display: 120 Hz AMOLED Panel
The P1 5G features a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate, 600 nits of HBM, and 1200 nits of peak brightness. The resolution comes in at 1080 by 2400 pixels with 395 ppi density. There’s a slight chin at the bottom of the panel despite which the P1 boasts a 92.65% screen-to-body ratio. In terms of protection, there’s a secondary 0.68 mm unrated tempered glass protecting the front panel on the P1.
The user experience on the panel is pretty good. There's Widevine L1 support for HDR content. The contrast ratio comes in at 5,000,000：1 with 16.7 M colors and 100% P3 color gamut support.
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The only caveat is that the display stutters with prolonged 4K content streaming. 4K 60 fps content on YouTube started to drop frames here and there after 5 or so minutes of streaming. It could be a processor issue that would require optimization fixes.
The Camera: 50 MP main and 2 MP Depth Sensor
If there were two words to summarize the camera performance of the P1, it would be warm tones and soft images. The main camera on the device is a 50 MP f/1.8 5P lens with 77 degrees FOV and 27 mm focal length. The secondary 2 MP camera has an f/2.4 aperture, 88.8 degrees FOV, and a 22 mm focal length.
The front camera is a 16 MP shooter with f/2.45 aperture, 82.6 degrees field of view, and 1/3 sensor size.
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Pictures taken in daylight had a distinctly warm tone to them. It aided in color burst but at times it looked artificial rather than natural. The dynamic range isn’t also that great with clear room for improvements.
The situation isn’t all that great in low light as well. Images taken in artificial light or low light showed consistent softness giving it an oil paint-like processing. The night mode is the only saving grace but that too couldn’t keep off the grains from the images. The story is also the same with the front camera with overall soft images in every lighting condition.
The videography on the P1 is rated at a maximum of 4K at 30 fps without EIS stabilization. Footage at 1080P at 30 fps produces usable output as the EIS becomes available at this resolution.
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