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narzo 50i Prime Review: Large Battery with Affordable Price

narzo 50i Prime

The narzo 50i Prime is the brand's most affordable smartphone to date. It features a large display, and a 5000mAh massive battery with reverse charging support. It's ideal for students and employees looking for a budget-friendly, dependable device.

narzo 50i Prime

narzo is now an independent brand from realme. Adding the new narzo 50i Prime into its lineup of budget-friendly smartphones. This entry-level smartphone is now priced at only ₱3,799. Here is our hands-on review to help you decide whether it's worth buying.

narzo 50i Prime Specs

Android 11, realme UI R Edition
6.5-inch HD+ 60Hz display, 1600x 720 pixel resolution
1.82GHz Unisoc Tiger T612 processor
Mali-G57 GPU
3GB RAM
32GB UFS 2.2 storage, expandable via microSD
8MP AI main camera
5MP front camera
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot
Bluetooth 5.0
3.5mm headset jack
Dual SIM, Dual Standby
3G, 4G LTE
GPS, A-GPS
Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Acceleration Sensor
5,000mAh battery, reverse charging
Colors: Mint Green, Dark Blue
182g

narzo 50i Prime

Design and Built
The realme narzo 50i has a polycarbonate body with a stylish diagonal stripe textured pattern design at the back. It doesn't pick up smudges or dirt easily, but it's best to protect it by getting a protective case.

narzo 50i Prime

The package includes the narzo 50i Prime, a micro USB cable, a Quick Guide, a SIM Card Tool, and an Important Information Leaflet (including the Warranty Card). It is rather disappointing that a charger adapter and wired earphones are not included.

narzo 50i Prime

The narzo 50A Prime is one of the slimmest of the narzo series at only 8.5mm, which makes it very comfortable to hold, and it only weighs 182g making it light and easy to slip into pockets or bags. We have a narzo 50i Prime in Carbon Black, but it also comes in a mint green color.

narzo 50i Prime

It has a single rear camera, LED flash, and the realme narzo branding on the back, however, it lacks a fingerprint reader, which is somewhat acceptable considering its price. But it does support the standard Password, PIN, and Face-recognition for quick unlocking,

narzo 50i Prime

The power button and volume control are located on the right. While the left is the triple card slot for two nano-SIM cards and a microSD card that supports up to 1TB of storage, which is one of the most key aspects of this device considering its limited internal storage space.

narzo 50i Prime

The main loudspeaker is placed at the bottom, along with the headphone port, two microphones, and an old Micro-USB connector; the brand could at least utilize a type-C port, as it is already a standard even for entry-level smartphones.

Display and Multimedia
The narzo 50i features a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display with 1600 x 720 resolution and a pixel density of 270ppi. The display is quite large for a budget-friendly smartphone, which is a plus point.

narzo 50i Prime

 Its 400nits of brightness aren't excellent for use outdoors, but it's acceptable for use indoors, where it still manages to render accurate colors and decent details and sharpness. The display offers a system-wide dark mode and has contrast and color adjustment options.

Do not expect Dolby stereo speaker audio quality, however, the speaker is loud and offers acceptable audio quality for notifications. It is recommended to use wired or wireless earbuds for improved audio quality and a better listening experience.

Camera
A single camera has become unusual even for entry-level phones, but the narzo 50i sports an 8-megapixel single-lens camera on the back and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera in the display's notch for taking selfies.

narzo 50i Prime

 The camera's low light sensitivity can be attributed to the SmartSens SmartPixel SC800CS image sensor and its f/2.0 aperture. The camera's performance in low light is satisfactory; despite some pixel flaws and a lack of detail, the brightness in low-light settings is acceptable.

narzo 50i prime-sample1

narzo 50i prime-sample2

When used outdoors, the lack of sharpness and apparent graininess are visible. The quality of the photos is decent enough for social media, but don't expect much more. When used in well-lit environments, the selfie camera produces good quality images.

narzo 50i prime-sample8

More sample photos at our Facebook page

It can record full HD video up to 30 frames per second, and the videos are good enough when shot in bright environments. However, it lacks stabilization, so just make sure you have steady hands when recording. Also, focusing can be a little slow to react, but the brightness controls are responsive.

Hardware Performance
The narzo 50i is powered with a Unisoc SC9830A chipset, paired with IMG 8322 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and only 32GB of internal storage.

narzo 50i Prime

The Spreadtrum SC9830A is an entry-level ARM-SoC (System on a Chip) designed for Android smartphones with LTE support. It incorporates a 1.7 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU. The processing power is more than sufficient for common tasks like apps and web browsing, on par with other low-end SoCs like the MediaTek MT8389.

narzo 50i Prime

 Out of the box it runs on Android 11 with realme UI Go Edition which has a Stock Android interface, making it easier for users to navigate and adapt to a simpler user interface.

narzo 50i Prime

It comes pre-installed with Google apps, Facebook, Messenger, and Agoda. It supports both standard screen buttons and gestures for navigation, it features an app drawer, and app icons are simple and clean.

Due to the limited RAM and storage capacity, multitasking and graphically intensive games are not encouraged. Expect minor latency when switching between apps or occasionally when reading through social media; to optimize the device, close unused apps. However, online video streaming remains a pleasurable experience.

The narzo 50i Prime benchmark scores:

AnTuTu v9.2.1 – 86,478
Geekbench 5 – 122 (Single-Core), 433 (Multi-Core)
PCMark – 4,674 (Work 3.0)
3D Mark – 423 (SSE OpenGL 3.1)

For gaming, it can run popular games such as Call of Duty mobile on the lowest settings available, but since it requires a large amount of storage space, it's best to stick to simpler games such as Word puzzle games and similar titles.

In terms of wireless connectivity, its dual nano-SIM supports 4G LTE for mobile data connections, it also has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 5.0, and supports screencast.

Battery
The narzo 50i Prime's 5,000mAh battery with reverse charging capability is one of its standout features. Reverse charging requires a cable with micro-USB ports on both ends, so it's not a really useful feature, but it's there just in case.

narzo 50i Prime

As for battery life, it lasted 7 hours and minutes on PCMark's Work 3.0 test. When subjected to the Standard Video Loop Test, however, it finished in 8 hours and 57 minutes, which was far lower than we had anticipated.

In terms of real-world use, this smartphone has a battery life of up to two days with regular, casual use. Additionally, It also supports ultra-saving mode in the settings which extends the battery life longer.

It takes around 3 hours to fully charge the battery from 0% using a third-party 10W charger, which is a significant drawback as it neither comes with a charger adapter nor supports fast charging.

Pros
Affordable pricing
Simple Design
Large display
realme UI R Edition
Good performance
Large battery
Good single-lens camera

Cons
Uses an old micro-USB port
The screen only supports 60Hz refresh rate
Limited storage capacity
No fast charge support
Charger not included
No fingerprint reader

Conclusion
The narzo 50i Prime is without a doubt one of the most reasonably priced smartphones now available on the market priced at only ₱3,799. It has a large widescreen display, decent performance in its category, and an impressive single-lens camera. The battery that can last for two days is one of its strongest points. Unfortunately, it does not include a charger or a fingerprint reader, and it has only 32GB of storage space (although microSD cards can be used to expand the capacity).

The narzo 50i Prime is a good option if you are shopping for a budget smartphone that you can give to your young children or if you are switching from a feature phone and want to experience the capabilities of an Android smartphone.

The narzo 50i Prime is now available on Shopee, TikTok Shop, and all 27 narzo stores and kiosks nationwide.

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