Realme 5 review with Pros and Cons: Should you buy it?

It doesn’t even seem that long ago that I reviewed the Realme 3 (review). A few months later, the Realme 5-series has debuted in India and this time both the regular and Pro variants have landed together. Leap to quad cameras is the tagline for the new phones, which is more interesting in the case of Realme 5 due to its price. Even if we leave aside the marquee feature for a second, the phone in its shell and substance does give a better first impression than the predecessor. (Realme 5 Review हिंदी में पढ़िए)

But, when you’re spending your hard-earned money, first impressions aren’t enough. Gladly, Realme 5 was at our disposal for the past few days and we have tested the device inside out. So, without any fluff, here is our no B.S. review of the Realme 5.

Page Contents:

• Realme 5 Price and Specification
• Realme 5 unboxing: What is in the Box?
• Realme 5 Review: Design and Display
• Realme 5 Review: Camera
• Realme 5 Review: Performance And Battery
• Realme 5 Review: Verdict

Realme 5 Price and Specifications

But before we delve into the main course, let’s have the entrée. In fact, we will do you one better. Here’s the Realme 5 vs Realme 3 specs for a first-hand comparison.

Realme 5 unboxing: what’s in the box

• 5V2A Adapter
• Micro USB Cable
• Important Info Booklet with Warranty Card
• Quick Guide
• SIM Card Tool
• Screen Protect Film
• Protection Case

ALSO READ: Realme 3i Review

Realme 5 Review: Design and Display

If you’re familiar with the Realme design choices, you would feel at home with the diamond cut design back. This time, the polycarbonate back has a glossy gradient finish and subtler pattern. The device is hefty and has a large footprint even if we consider the big battery inside. We recommend using a protective case to protect the glass-finish back from scratches and dents.

The 3D curved design confluences to a 6.5-inch HD+ display with a “mini drop” notch that delivers a large screen estate. Realme claims the V-cutout is 30% smaller and maybe it is. However, the same can’t be said about the thick chin at the bottom.

You could unlock the phone using Face Unlock or using the capacitive rounded scanner at the back. The latter is well within reach and quick to unlock.

Diving into the display settings, you can adjust the color temperature. If you’re not a notch fan, you can opt for a full black status bar instead. Outdoors, the display is fairly legible and even indoors, the color reproduction is quite manageable. You also get Night Shield, to protect your eyes against the blue-light emission from the display, especially when using the phone in a dark environment.

Realme claims a 3-layer splash-resistant design which should ensure protection against accidental spillage. It’s not IP68 certified, though. So, for now, it’s neither here nor there. The 5 still has a micro-USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack. Ahh, the presence of an audio jack leaves a smile on our face. That said, the output from the speaker is underwhelming and gets easily blocked when held horizontally.

In a nutshell, the phone does look well built and pleasing to the eye, which in itself is a biggie for the budget.

Realme 5 Camera Review

Realme 5 is a significant upgrade when it comes to the camera specs. It sports a quad rear camera setup, wherein a 12MP main, an 8MP ultrawide, a 2MP portrait and a 2MP macro sensors make the cut. This opens up new avenues for mobile photography from this phone.

So, we did the same and snapped photos in different environments. Let’s peek into the camera samples now.

Daylight

1 of 4

The photos clicked from the Realme 5 are a testimonial of the camera prowess. It outs decent shots under luminous landscapes and indoor environments. They have satisfactory details and sharpness.

Indoor

1 of 5

The colors look natural with adequate contrast. Additionally, you can turn on the Chroma Boost to amp the saturation for punchy Insta-ready pics.

Nightscape

1 of 4

Nightscape does help to nudge the noise in night-time clicks. It does take a moment to process the photos whilst you’re asked to stay steady.

The newcomer, viz. Ultra Macro mode within the camera app is fun, to say the least. The lens has a fixed focal length of 4cm and that’s how close you need to position the sensor for the best results.

Then there is the 5x digital zoom option for quick zoom crop.

Realme 5 renders run-of-the-mill selfies without losing on edge detection. If you don’t like the plastic-y and airbrushed finish of the beauty mode, you could turn it off as we did for our selfies.

The phone can shoot up to 4K resolution videos. Realme has baked in Electronic Image Stabilization for front as well as back.

So, if you ask how’s the camera – We would say its good enough, but nothing to write home about.

Realme 5 Review: Performance and Battery

Realme 5 uses a relatively newer chipset, the Snapdragon 665 coupled with up to 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. It is powered by a sizeable 5000mAh battery that is accompanied by a 10W charger. Yes, although the battery endures long, filling it back is a drag.

Realme 5 banks on the aforementioned hardware to yield good performance more often than not. It manages to drive PUBG and the likes at Balanced settings with minor hiccups. We didn’t face any major heating trouble whilst gaming, which is a plus in our review.

Realme has offered various software-based optimizations to bolster your gaming as well as memory and battery management. Further, the Color OS interface is tweaked with rounded icons, a new Private Space for hiding your personal contents and an enhanced Hotspot management feature.

All that’s appreciated. Still, we don’t dig the heavy animations and proprietary software elements which mars the overall experience. Thus forth we yearn for the alleged Realme OS, which is rumored to be close to stock Android.

ALSO READ: Realme 5 Pro Review – A Good Choice for Gamers

For those of you looking for the benchmark scores, here’s how the Realme 5 fared –

Realme 5 review verdict: Should you buy it?

Realme has listened to the fans, as is apparent from several improvements we see on the 5. For what it’s worth, its a definite improvement on the precursor. We are still no fan of the software treatment. But, that might not resonate the same with you. If you find things like lack of HD+ display and fast charging as nitpicking (which we very well understand for the budget), this should be a clear winner.

Not every person is a phone reviewer or particular about his/her phone needs and for those, there is a lot to like here like – the long battery life, ample memory cum expandable storage, and a multipurpose camera.

So, that’s our take on the new Realme 5. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.