realme C11 is the brand’s newest budget offering. This time it’s a return to the affordable segment with a phone that sports a new design, and on paper, seems to be more than a properly-specced contender.
Check out Emman’s short unboxing and first impressions of the device here.
Design
The brand has been continuously experimenting with the design of its phones, and the new look on the C11 is a breath of fresh air. The back panel reminds me of the 5i with its small grooves and rough finish.
The 6.5-inch screen has a resolution of HD+, which is kind of expected at this price point. You get a triple-slot tray, a headphone jack, and a microUSB port.
Performance
realme C11 is one of the first smartphones to run on the new Helio G35 SoC, so we’re quite excited to know how it’ll fare. It has 2GB of RAM, which is fair enough since you’re just not expected to do heavy multitasking with a phone at this price segment.
We tried playing Mobile Legends, and it can handle the game very well even when HFR is enabled at High setting. CoDM on the other hand only runs on Low Graphics + High FPS, which may just be a case of the game not being optimized for the new SoC.
You also get 32GB of storage, which should be just enough for the typical usage scenarios, unless you have a ton of apps to install or a huge media library. In any case, you still get the option of adding more storage with a microSD card.
Camera
As for its cameras, realme has opted for a new square camera module, which is a welcome deviation from their previous designs. It has a 13MP main shooter and a 2MP portrait lens. Upfront is a 5MP snapper. We’ll save the samples for the full review, which will be up soon.
Software
realme C11 runs on realme UI on top of Android 10 and still retains most of our well-loved features such as Dark Mode, Split Screen, Game Space, and the ability to enable the app drawer.
Battery
Lastly, realme C11 houses a high-capacity 5,000mAh battery, which is pretty good for its price. There’s no fancy fast-charging here, so don’t expect a short wait beside the outlet.
Initial Thoughts
realme C11 is shaping up to be a decent smartphone for its price. The performance so far has been great at least in typical day-to-day use with no major hiccups. It can game, it’s got a well-optimized software, and a high-capacity battery that should last at least a day depending on your usage scenario.
Best of all, they’ve set a very competitive PhP4,990 price tag. This could just be one of the best in its price range, but we’ll have to see.
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.
