realme C15 Hands-on Review

realme officially launched its latest member of the C-series family in the Philippines, the realme C15, an entry-level smartphone that packs a massive 6,000 mAh battery and other competitive features.

realme Philippines held the longest launch for a smartphone product with a live broadcast of the realme C15 battery capability via Facebook. It ran for 24 hours, with some contests and prizes. We took this smartphone for a test, and here’s our review.

realme C15 Design and Built
Although the realme C15 is an entry-level smartphone, it doesn’t look cheap. The build is solid and feels sturdy, and it feels nice to hold and easy to use with one hand.

At the back, there is a pattern design inspired by a seagull, it also has a matte surface, which is great because it's not a smudge magnet. It comes in two colors, Marine Blue and Seagull Silver, the latter is our review unit. The color looks refreshing, and the pattern looks simple and elegant.

There’s a quad-camera setup at the back with a 13-megapixel main sensor, an 8-megapixel ultrawide sensor, a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and 2-megapixel black and white rear cameras. It also comes with a fingerprint scanner and the realme branding.

Upfront is a nice 6.5-inch HD+ mini-drop display with a minimal bezel on the sides, but it’s noticeable below on the chin, where the selfie camera is located.

On the left side is the SIM tray, which supports dual-SIM and a dedicated microSD card for added storage. The 3.5mm audio jack, microphone, loudspeaker, and micro-USB port are at the bottom. We did ask the company about the use of a micro-USB port on this device, and realme opted to use this older charging/data port so that they could keep the price at an affordable level. Besides, micro-USB is still a reliable way to power up any device.

realme C15 Display and Multimedia
The phone features a nice 6.5-inch LCD HD+ mini-drop display with 1600 x 720-pixel resolution, on top is Corning Gorilla Glass for protection, and it also has a screen protector installed for added protection against scratches.

The screen is not high-resolution, but it’s good enough for watching videos and playing games. The colors are nice and vibrant, the blacks are deep, which is great when watching videos, the brightness is good at 420 nits, it’s still usable even under direct sunlight, and the viewing angle is decent.

The loudspeaker at the bottom has good quality, and it's not tin can audio, the volume can get loud, and hands-free calls are clear, but of course, nothing beats wired earphones to get the best sound quality for listening to music.

realme C15 Performance
On the hardware side, this phone is equipped with a MediaTek Helio G35 mobile SoC with a PowerVR GE8320 GPU for graphics, it also comes with 3GB/4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, it also packs a massive 6,000mAh battery. Now, those are very competitive specs for an entry-level smartphone.

On AnTuTu, realme C15 scores 111,136, which is not bad. This phone can perform well on any given day with tasks like the usual browsing on social media, and watching YouTube, and it's also a great device to use for online schooling. It can also handle multitasking just fine with the help of the realme UI optimization.

In terms of gaming performance, it can run heavy graphics games such as Asphalt 9, Call of Duty Mobile, and War Robots. This game runs fine and is playable, but it sometimes shutters during action moments. This can be resolved by adjusting the graphics quality to medium for smoother gameplay. Thanks to Game Space and Game Assist, it helps make gameplay an immersive experience.

In terms of wireless connectivity, the realme C15 has the usual features such as WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE on both nano-SIMs and GPS for navigation systems.

realme IU
Out of the box, it runs on Android 10 with the company’s realme IU on top, which is one of the nicest-looking custom IUs for Android with a simple app icon, and it’s easy to use.

 

Some of the cool features are system-wide dark mode, customized icons, dual-mode music sharing, three-finger screenshots, realme sharing, and focus mode. There are more features that realme IU has to offer, just explore and find them.

It has its own app store and comes with pre-installed apps such as Agoda, Lazada, Facebook, and more. Not to worry since these apps are easy to remove if you don’t want them.

realme C15 cameras
This phone sports a total of 5 cameras, with a quad-camera at the back and a single lens at the front for taking selfies. The quad cameras consist of a 13-megapixel main sensor, an 8-megapixel ultrawide sensor, a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and two 2-megapixel black and white cameras. On the front of the mini-drop notch is the 8-megapixel, f/2.0 selfie camera.

The main camera is capable of 4x zoom and can record 1080p at 30fps videos, but it does not come with stabilization, so it’s better to use a tripod or just make sure you have steady hands when recording videos. It also features a nightscape mode for low-light shots, other camera modes are Time-lapse, Slow-mo, Expert, and Panorama.

Shots in daylight using the rear camera look great with a lot of details and solid colors, and they get better when HDR settings are enabled. The depth sensor works just fine but could be better if there’s a post-processing option to adjust and put the final touch on the pictures. The nights are okay; there is nothing special about them, and the shots are still good enough for sharing online.

Sample shots using realme C15

Using the front camera to take selfies is nice, and the portrait selfie has a nice blur background but still could use post-processing for enhancement. Also, using the AI Beauty mode is great to get closer to natural skin tones.

realme C15 Battery Life
This phone is the first in the world to have a massive 6,000mAh battery with an 18-watt quick-charge feature within its price point, it also supports reverse charging so that you can charge other devices.

During the launch of the realme C15 in the Philippines, the company showcased its battery capability by streaming a 24-hour endurance battery test.

You can watch it here: https://www.facebook.com/286608955477734/videos/323909378803517/

Battery performance is impressive, and the 18W fast charging support makes it easy to fill-up the battery. Based on our usage, we’re able to get at least two days’ battery life on this phone, with the usual use of social media, web browsing, watching videos, playing online games, using the cameras, some idle time, and watching more cat videos on YouTube. Charging the battery takes about 2 hours or so using the provided charger, and that’s also impressive considering it’s still using an older micro-USB technology.

"The realme C15 is a feature-packed smartphone, it has a nice display with a good selfie camera, a gaming processor that can run popular games smoothly and can handle everyday tasks, a quad-camera with which you can capture great memories, and a massive battery that can last for a day or two. Not only that, it also comes with an affordable price."

realme C15 Specs

Android 10, Realme UI
6.5-inch LCD display, 1600 x 720 pixel resolution
2.3GHz MediaTek Helio G35 octa-core processor
IMG PowerVR GE8320 GPU
3GB/4GB RAM
64GB internal storage
Expandable via microSD
13MP, f/2.2 main + 8MP ultrawide, 2MP depth sensor, 2MP black and white rear cameras, LED flash
8MP, f/2.0 front camera
Rear Fingerprint scanner
Dual SIM, Dual Standby
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 5.0
GPS, GLONASS, BDS
micro-USB
6,000mAh battery, 18W fast charger
Colors: Marine Blue, Seagull Silver
209g

PROS
Solid built
Good large display
Capable cameras
Massive battery capacity
Fast Charging

CONS
Micro USB port
Plastic body

Conclusion
At just ₱ 6,490, the realme C15 boasts an array of features. Such as a nice display coupled with a good selfie camera, along with a rear camera equipped with night mode. The device showcases an attractive design and a robust build. With its proficient performance, it can easily manage everyday tasks and offer seamless online gaming. This smartphone is the ideal option for people looking for unwavering dependability without the need for frequent recharging thanks to the large 6,000mAh battery and 18W fast charging. Additionally, it serves as a great online learning device for students without the high price tag.

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