Realme C2 Review: Full Specification, Review & Price

                                                                       

Realme C2

Realme

     Realme has made a name for itself by selling powerful hardware smartphones at prices that are aggressive enough to rise up against Xiaomi. Recently, the company launched the Realme 3 Pro (Review) to compete with the Redmi Note 7 Pro (Review) and succeeded in shaking the industry. Now, by bringing the successor to the Realme C1 (Review), the company looks at the lower end of the market.

Realme C2 Design

                                   It's boring to look at most budget smartphones. Usually, manufacturers do not prioritize design in order to keep prices down and still offer good performance. The Realme C2 here appears to be an exception, as it's quite a looker. Like other budget segment smartphones, the Realme C2 is made of plastic, but the back panel finish is unique and will grab eyeballs.

Realme has chosen on the back a geometric diamond-cut pattern that popped up on our Diamond Blue review unit. When light hits the back of this phone, patterns appear, giving it a premium look. The device does not pick up fingerprints thanks to this finish.

There is a dual camera setup with a single-LED flash on the back. The Realme logo is aligned in landscape orientation close to the bottom of the rear.

The Realme C2 sports a big display for the selfie camera at the top with a waterdrop notch. Our review unit came with a screenprotector pre-applied. Thanks to its rounded frame, we found the Realme C2 to be comfortable to hold in the hand.

The power button on the right is well positioned and easily reachable. On the opposite side are the volume buttons, and all buttons offer good clicky feedback. The SIM tray is placed just above the buttons for the volume.

The Realme C2 is sporting at the bottom a Micro-USB port, loudspeaker, and primary microphone, while the top is blank. Just like the 7,450 Realme C1 this phone also misses a fingerprint scanner to keep down costs.

We found the Realme C2 build quality to be good, and during our time it did not pick up scratches with it.    

Realme C2 Software and Specifications         

             The Realme C2 is a budget offering and is quite modest in its specifications. It is powered by the MediaTek Helio P22 SoC, an octa-core processor with Cortex-A53 cores, and built using a fabrication process of 12 nm. The base variant also includes 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage.

There's also a 3 GB RAM option and a 32 GB storage option. Our review unit was the higher-priced variant that retails for Rs. 7,999 (up from the base variant's Rs 5,999 price).      

       

The Realme C2 sports a 6.1-inch HD+ display for protection (720x1560 pixels) with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It has good viewing angles, and when outdoors it becomes bright enough. There is also the option to change the display's color temperature to suit your needs.

Realme succeeded in packaging a 4000mAh battery inside the C2, and this phone ships in the box with a 10W charger. It is a dual-SIM device with two slots of Nano-SIM. Both SIMs are supported by 4 G as well as VoLTE.

Realme also offers a specific microSD card slot that allows you to expand your storage. Other Realme C2 connectivity options include FM Radio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, GLONASS and A-GPS.

The Realme C2 is running ColorOS 6 on top of Android 9 Pie, the latest Android release. The software is customized and a few features are added to the top. Our review unit has been running the security patch for March 2019.

Realme C2 Performance, cameras and battery life

                   

Thanks to the power of the MediaTek Helio P22 processor, the Realme C2 offers acceptable performance for its price. While we didn't notice any problems while launching apps and scrolling through the menu, when we pulled down the notification shade there was a hint of lag. Since we've done this very often, it's got a bit annoying. It should also be noted that this was on the Realme C2's higher-priced variant with more RAM.

On this phone we could multitask, but sometimes we had to wait for heavier apps to be loaded. Fingerprint scanner is not available but face recognition is available. Unlocking the smartphone is fast and a good alternative to punching all the time in the passcode.

Our benchmark tests gave us a clear understanding of how the Helio P22 performs in the Realme C2. The C2 has managed 77,595 points in AnTuTu. In Geekbench's single-core and multi-core tests it also scored 822 and 3,326 respectively. The Redmi 7 averaged 7,999, which cost as much as the Realme C2 higher variant, scored 103,574 in AnTuTu and 1,247 and 4,333 in Geekbench respectively. In GFXBench T-Rex and Manhattan 3.1 the Realme C2 also managed 25fps and 11fps respectively.

PUBG Mobile's graphics set to Smooth and frame rate set to Medium ran at low settings. Gameplay hasn't been smooth and we have been facing stutters. We changed the frame rate to low which made the gameplay a slight difference, but it did not run smoothly yet.

                                                                  

The Realme C2's 4000mAh battery provides a good battery life. The phone was able to clock 20 hours and 29 minutes in our HD video loop test, which is very good. With our use of WhatsApp, using the phone to navigate for two hours with Google Maps, and running a few benchmarks, the phone went on for about a day and a half. It takes more than 2 hours for the charger to top the battery.

Realme chose a dual camera setup on the Realme C2, consisting of a 13-megapixel primary sensor with a f/2.2 aperture and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. This phone has a 5-megapixel camera on the front.

The camera app resembles what we've seen before on Realme smartphones. HDR, Chroma Boost, Filters, and Flash have quick toggles. It also has modes such as Pano, Expert, Time-lapse and Slo-Mo. The app is available with a 2x digital zoom toggle. A Beautification toggle helps you determine how much beautification you need.

We liked the pictures we took with the Realme C2, in daylight, this phone managed to capture well-focused shots on nearby objects with good amounts of detail, but distant objects were not as good. We also found that the Realme C2 did not match the exposure properly.

                                                        

Realme c2 camera images

Conclusion

The Realme C2 offers powerful enough hardware and good battery life as well as state-of - the-art software at a starting price of Rs 5,999. Usually at this price point we see smartphones with weaker processors and outdated software, but with the C2 Realme has fixed that. The camera is one aspect of this phone that needs to be improved but at this price we can excuse its quality.

If you get your hands on the Realme C2 base variant, go for it as it offers good value. However, if you look at the Realme C2's higher variant and your budget stretches so far, you should consider the Redmi 7 (Review) or Nokia 5.1 Plus 8,787 (Review) instead. These smartphones are available for the same price, but in comparison they offer better hardware.