WHETHER you are still in ECQ, GCQ, or MECQ, three things are certain: 1) you’ve probably read the word “amid” or “despite” in almost every single news or blog entry; 2) next to the refrigerator, your smartphone is your most abused device the past couple of months; and 3) I just turned a year older.
So, before we go into our realme 6i review, allow me to thank some people who’s made this journey a lot more fun for the past 44 years; my family, my editor Gerard Ramos, who trusted me with this space; the late Tonypet Rosales, who was the first to believe in my writing; my former editors Bing Jaleco, Chit Licauco, Inday Espina-Varona, Tessa Arriola, Isah Red and Nelson Ramirez, and Louise Waterson of Reader’s Digest. Friends from the media and PR industry: Edd Fuentes, Tatum Cruz, Jingjing Romero, Raquel Hizon, Angie Limbaco, Mark Parlade, Ana Manansala, Alan German, Lydia Vivero, Ferds Bondoy, Johnny Litton and Marites Allen. Corinne Bacani, Anda Lee, Carlo Ople, Maxine Loyola, Kaye Losorata, Ava Castillo & Mark Li, Eason de Guzman and Austine Huang. Jeman Villanueva and my friends from the blogging community. And to my partner and No. 1 supporter Lou, thank you for staying by my side.
Now let’s get to our review.
REALME 6I HIGH PERFORMANCE, BUDGET-FRIENDLY
THIS week, the fastest-growing smartphone brand launched the realme 6i, priced at P7,990 for the 3GB/64 GB version, and P9,990 for the 4GB/128 option. The realme 6i is the successor of the successful realme 5, providing 35-percent jump in performance, a 48MP Quad-Camera setup, better body, a 5000mAh battery with 18W Quick Charge, and a price tag that’s still well within reach. But, hello, is it the “realme” you are looking for?
DEVOUR
Great for gaming
Capable processor
Nice eye-catching design
Build quality is solid, splash-resistant
Cameras are great in good lighting
Realme UI is way better than color OS
Has USB Type C, fast charge
DISLIKE
Display struggles under bright sunlight
Single, bottom firing speaker is unexceptional
Camera suffers in low light
The realme 6i comes in the trademark bright yellow box and the standard package which includes a SIM tray ejector pin, soft gel protector case, 18W Quick Charger, USB Type-C cable, a pre-installed screen protector, and quick start/warranty guide.
Up front is a 6.52-inch HD+ 720 x 1600 pixels IPS display with a dew-drop notch. The realme 6i is equipped with an 89.8-percent screen-to-body ratio with thin bezels on the sides. The small notch on top houses a 16MP f/2.0 front-facing camera for selfies and recording vlogs in full HD. It’s a big jump from the realme 5i’s 8MP front shooter.
On the right side you’ll see the power button while on the left are the volume rocker and SIM card tray.
The top part of the phone is clean and free of ports or a mic, while on the bottom you have the loudspeaker, mic, the beloved 3.5 mm audio jack for your wired headphones/earphones, and, finally, a USB Type-C port which is what a lot of fans have long been waiting for.
Last, and certainly the most eye-catching feature of the realme 6i, is the back panel which houses the quad-camera setup consisting of a 48MP primary, 8MP ultra-wide, 2MP macro, and 2MP depth sensor. Next to the camera module is the LED flash, and in the upper center of the back is a snappy and accurate fingerprint scanner.
DESIGN AND DISPLAY: The realme 6i flaunts a shining “striped” design depending on the angle of light. When I first saw it in photos, I actually thought the streak pattern was embossed. To achieve this matte visual and delicate finish, the back of the realme 6i was polished hundreds of times and underwent a unique spray coating process.
The realme 6i comes in two colorways—White Milk and Green Tea. The Green Tea version is a brave choice since it isn’t your usual smartphone color. It does remind me of a leaf and our military frontliners. On the other hand, there’s no denying that the White Milk looks a lot like a “Rimowa” luggage and there’s no unseeing that.
With a concept of nature, the realme 6i was designed by master Naoto Fukasawa, the same genius behind the realme X series Master Edition. If the name sounds familiar, its because Fukasawa is also in charge of product development and design at Japanese retail company Muji which is famous for relatively simple yet striking designs.
The matte finish means you don’t have to keep on wiping it to get rid of fingerprints and smudge marks, but unlike those “glasstic” finishes, there’s no hiding that this phone is made out of plastic. Still, it does look quite premium, and build quality is solid and isn’t as slippery to hold, plus its also splash resistant.
For its price, the realme 6i has a pretty large display at 6.5-inches; the resolution however is only HD+. The colors were okay, and watching videos and playing games are still satisfactory, just as long as you’re not doing it under bright sunlight. The display suffers a lot when it’s really bright out and you can barely see anything even with brightness set to max.
GAMING PROCESSOR: The realme 6i features the world’s first MediaTek Helio G80 SoC with a high performance processor that was built for gaming. It’s octa-core CPU has a main frequency of up to 2.0GHz, offering 35 percent better single-core performance and 17 percent better multi-core performance than its predecessor. The Mali G52 1000MHz GPU also delivers 25 percent better performance resulting in greater image quality and a more stable frame rate that makes the realme 6i stand out while gaming. Realme is a partner of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, so if that’s the game you’re playing the most, expect near flawless performance from the realme 6i. Be sure turn on the Game Space feature to further optimize your phone and make your gaming experience as smooth as possible.
Overall, the MediaTek Helio G80 proves to be a quite snappy performer and there’s hardly any slowdown when opening multiple apps.
CAMERA: Realme phones have been remarkable when it comes to its cameras, and the 6i doesn’t disappoint. It boasts of the latest flagship, ultra-clear quad camera setup, comprised of a 48MP main camera, an 8MP 119° ultra wide-angle, a macro lens and a B&W portrait lens. The 48MP main sensor has an f/1.8 large aperture and deploys Quad Bayer’s 4-in-1 intelligent pixel binning mechanism that combines four adjacent pixels into a large pixel, enhancing the resolution and quality of images taken even in low-light settings. The 119° 8MP ultra wide-angle lens, on the other hand, has an f/2.25 aperture, so you don’t have to move back to capture the entire scene, whether it’s a large group photo, gorgeous landscape or impressive architecture. For those who love taking close-ups of small things, there’s the 4cm Macro while the B&W lens enables the portrait lens to detect a wider array of light, assisting the main lens to capture light better, enhance image contrast, create retro-style images, and add texture to portraits.
As for the selfie camera it has a 16MP Super Clear Selfie AI Beauty mode and can now capture full HD videos. Like I said, the main cameras don’t disappoint—as long as you have adequate lighting. Under bright, well-lit scenes, photos and videos are quite good, but with less-than-ideal conditions indoors and low light, quality suffers a lot. You can use night mode but it’s still not worth raving about, and passable at best. Hopefully, they can fix this with some software updates.
Video quality is about the same as you’d expect from photos, with regards to dynamic range and details. You can only shoot up to 1080p at 30FPS with fairly good stabilization.
BATTERY LIFE: One of the most welcome changes to the realme 6i is its migration to USB Type-C, which means faster charging and file transfer. The 18W Quick Charge and a 9V/2A charging kit further raise the charging speed and reduce the charging time. Complementing the quick charge feature is its massive 5000mAh battery. Featuring triple safety protection, this massive battery eases concerns for smartphone battery life.
FINAL WORD: The realme 6i is supposed to be an easy recommendation for those looking for an affordable gaming phone for their kids or as a secondary phone. You get a lot of value for its price, and won’t be disappointed with its performance. Just don’t forget that it is still a budget phone and has its limitations such as a lower resolution screen and a camera system that’s dependent on ideal lighting.
But the biggest problem of the realme 6i isn’t the phone itself, but because its currently stuck in a waiting game. Since I first posted about the 6i, I have been getting a lot of messages asking about the phone and even the pro. If you watched the Facebook live stream of the launch the other day, you might have even caught a glimpse of the realme 6 Pro on display behind realme Philippines Vice President for Marketing Austine Huang, so it looks like its definitely going to be launched real soon—and unless you really need a phone now, its better to wait a bit more for the prices of those two phones, just to have a comparison.
If you do plan on getting a realme 6i, be sure to set a reminder on May 20 as Lazada will be holding a flash sale and you can get P500 off the retail price.
1 comment