Realme 5i Review

Introduction

Realme may not has as many product launches as other brands, but when they do, you’re sure to get something that offers great value for your hard-earned money.

The Realme 5i is the newest addition to the brand’s growing portfolio of smartphones that redefine whatever segment they are in.

Unboxing and First Impressions

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Its new design is a breath of fresh air, and so long as the hardware inside is concerned and the tons of features it offers, this one’s shaping up to be a stunner, especially considering its PhP6,990 price tag.

Specifications

Design

In a way, the realme 5i does resemble the realme 5, (Of course, they belong to the same family) with the exception of its back panel, which is now made of a slightly less smooth and less glossy, but still metallic finish.

Does it make handling the device with one hand better? it’s less slippery, yes, but I’d still go for a case.

Power button is located on the right, while the volume rocker and triple slot SIM tray is at the left.

Down bottom, you still get a trusty headphone jack, along with a standard MicroUSB port, microphone and speaker.

While some brands have already shifted to in-display solutions, realme sticks with a more reliable physical rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.

Realme 5i uses a 6.5-inch IPS display. As such, colors are rightly saturated, brightness is ample, and text remains sharp enough. It’s only when you look closely that you’ll notice that not everything is as detailed, such as icons, thanks to HD+ resolution.

On the bright side, that means the processing package has less pixels to push, which in turn could give you a bit more uptime and improvement in performance.

Performance

Like the realme 5, realme 5i also runs on a Snapdragon 665. The only difference is that it has 1GB less RAM (at least for the variant that’s sold here in PH).

Will you be able to tell the difference? on a day-to-day usage scenario, probably not. Apps open quickly, UI runs smooth and snappy, and even running a few apps at the same time won’t cause any problems.

Its AnTuTu score places it in a decent spot, above the realme 5, and just slightly below the Redmi Note 8.

You still get 128GB of storage, which should be enough, unless you really have a ton of files (say, a large music or video collection).

Gaming-wise, we used GameBench to measure FPS and battery usage. For this test, we’ll try CoD Mobile and Mobile Legends.

CoD Mobile (Average FPS: 47.52, Stability: 78%)

FPS Chart

At Medium + Max FPS setting, the experience was more than enjoyable. While the graph shows a lot of variation in terms of FPS, there were no noticeable stutters or slowdowns.

Mobile Legends (Average FPS: 59.64, Stability: 100%)

FPS Chart

With everything cranked up to Max, and with HD Mode and HFR Mode both enabled, the phone ran the game well, at almost 60 fps on average. The chart shows a few dips, but those were not noticeable in-game.

Camera

Realme 5i also uses the same rear camera setup as the realme 5 – 12MP Main + 8MP Ultra Wide + 2MP Depth + 2MP Macro.

Quality-wise, you get a good amount of detail, the right sharpness, and a refined depth of field effect with decent edge-detection.

I do have a couple of qualms about its cameras – its control on exposure, which tends to be a hit and miss, and poor dynamic range in certain scenarios.

Night shots also take a while to shoot, but you do get rewarding results. Of course, it’s not on par with say a flagship counterpart, as it tends to overexpose light sources, but this can hold its own agains some of the more expensive mid-rangers.

The front shooter has been downgraded to 8MP from 13MP on the realme 5, but you still get pretty good-looking selfies with lots of detail, plus good exposure and texture. I’d say this is actually one of the best in its price range.

Software

The device runs on ColorOS 6.0.1 on top of Android 9, and offers most of the features I’ve come to love from realme’s other devices.

There’s Game Space, which allows you to adjust performance profiles, lock the brightness, block notifications, and more.

Smart Sidebar is another very useful feature, and can be launched in-app or even from the home screen. It lets you take screenshots and even record what’s happening on screen.

Last but not the least is Digital Wellbeing, which literally tracks your app usage, and also lets you set a limit on how long you can use each app for a day.

Performance-wise, the interface runs fluid and smooth. Apps open as quick as they should, and switching between running apps did not pose any issues.

Battery

Perhaps one of the most impressive things about this phone, is how potent its 5,000mAh battery is.

Using PCMark’s Work 2.0 test, which simulates basic video editing and data manipulation, realme 5i managed to score an astonishing 17 hours and 11 minutes. Your mileage may vary, depending on the apps you use.

Emman Tortoza

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Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.