realme C55 Review: A Promising Budget-friendly Phone

April 13, 2023, 11:01 AM
by Md. Mehedi Hasan

UNB News
Publish- April 13, 2023, 11:01 AM
Md. Mehedi Hasan
Update- April 13, 2023, 11:19 AM

realme C55

The realme C55 is a budget-friendly smartphone offering satisfactory camera performance, a unique design, and decent overall functionality. The phone was officially launched in Bangladesh on April 2, 2023. Let's take a look at key specifications, pros, cons, and prices of relame C55 in Bangladesh.

Key Features of realme C55

Design

The realme C55 is a smartphone that boasts a 6.7-inch display with a screen protector applied during manufacturing, which is a nice added feature considering its affordable price range. It measures 165.6 x 75.9 x 7.89 mm or 6.51 x 2.98 x 0.31 inches and weighs 189.5 grams or 0.41 pounds, making it less ideal for individuals with small hands.

The ‘Rainy Night’ or black version has an elegant appearance, especially with the design of the camera system. The back of the phone is made of plastic, which tends to accumulate dust quickly and feels slippery. The phone's left side has only the SIM tray and the punching hole, while the right side has the Power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner and the Volume rocker.

On the bottom edge holds a USB-Type C port for charging, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a speaker, and a microphone. Although it lacks Gorilla Glass for display protection and dust or water resistance, the realme C55's design gives an impression of a more expensive smartphone.

Display

The display of the realme smartphone is an economy model and uses a conventional IPS LCD. However, the 6.72-inch display is average, and the colors are easy on the eye. The IPS screen is even better than some newer models in 2023, except for the white color slightly darkening when tilted.

The screen's peak brightness is 680 nits, which is enough to use the phone outdoors on a sunny day. Interestingly, the minimum brightness is only 2 nits, making it perfect for nighttime use without disturbing others. The screen offers several color display modes, including Vivid, Natural mode, and Pro, with two more modes available in the latter for finer color reproduction.

The screen refresh rate is 90Hz, with three operating modes to choose from: standard 60Hz, 90Hz, and auto mode. However, the auto mode tends to use 60Hz more often, conserving battery life. The screen options include light/dark themes, screen color mode selection, vision protection, auto-rotate, auto-off, refresh rate selection, display/hide front camera cutout, and full-screen mode for non-optimized apps.

Camera

The realme C55 smartphone, despite being a budget device, manages to exceed expectations with its camera setup. It features a 64-megapixel primary rear camera and a 2-megapixel sensor. It also offers an 8MP selfie camera. Both the primary rear sensor and the front sensor perform well under broad daylight.

Switching to the 64 MP mode, there is a slight improvement in capturing details, which may not be noticeable at first glance but is apparent upon closer inspection. The Bokeh Flare Portrait mode and AI Color Portrait mode, however, tend to mess up the edges of the focused objects.

realme C55

The camera also comes with other modes such as Time-Lapse, Panorama, Slo-Mo, and Pro Mode, which enables manual adjustments of the ISO and autofocus. The 8-megapixel selfie camera also does a satisfactory job, with an option to adjust skin's smoothness and eye size.

Indoor photography is of high quality and low-light photography is decent, although, in completely dark surroundings, the image quality takes a hit. Despite this, the camera quality is impressive for its price segment.

Performance and Software

The realme C55 is powered by a relatively basic Mediatek Helio G88 processor, released in 2021 and uses an outdated 12 nm manufacturing process. While it can support screens up to 90Hz and cameras up to 64 megapixels, it may struggle with more demanding tasks such as intensive gaming. However, for everyday tasks such as internet browsing and social media, the processor should be sufficient.

The phone is available in two versions, 6/128GB or 8/256 GB. While 8GB RAM and 256GB storage should be enough for most users, the eMMC 5.1 memory type used may not be the fastest. The phone supports memory card expansion of up to 2TB, which is a standout feature for a budget phone.

realme boasts C55 as a "memory champion" due to its support for memory card expansion and 16GB of dynamic RAM, which is only available in the 8/256GB model.

However, the RAM in the 6/128GB version can only be expanded by 6GB. While the 8/256GB version may be slightly faster than the test version, the processor's capabilities may limit its performance. There is hope for software updates to better optimize the system.

Battery and Charging

The phone's battery is one of its notable features. It is equipped with a 5000mAh battery that can last for more than 24 hours with average usage. The user reported using the phone to stream videos, play a few mobile games, browse social media, and answer calls and texts. However, when the user played Subway Surfer for half an hour, the battery level dropped from 97% to 89%. Despite this, the battery performance remains impressive overall.

Price of realme C55 in Bangladesh

There are three variants available of C55. The 8/256GB storage variant costs 22,999 BDT while the 6/165GB variant costs 18,999 BDT.

Conclusion

The realme C55 is designed for budget-conscious consumers and meets their fundamental requirements effectively. It provides satisfactory signal reception and audio quality during phone calls, acceptable connectivity options, and good hardware performance for regular activities such as browsing social media, web surfing, productivity tasks, listening to music, etc. The battery performance is standard, and fast charging capability is a bonus.

Overall, the realme C55 provides good value for money. However, individuals seeking an Android smartphone specifically for gaming purposes can look for other options.