Realme Narzo 30 5G Review: Is it a worthy buy for 16,000 bucks?

Realme Narzo 30 5G review summary:

Expert rating: 3.5/5

Realme is one of the few brands that has been playing the 5G game ahead of its time. It aims to be the first to democratize 5G with phones like the Realme Narzo 30 5G that follows close on the heels of the Realme 8 5G (review). It is worth pointing out that the Realme Narzo 30 5G and Realme 8 5G have very similar specs with not too many differences to point out. 

The Realme Narzo 30 5G base variant is priced at Rs 15,999, which makes it one of the most affordable 5G phones in the country. Just like the Realme 8 5G, its two marquee highlights are its 90Hz screen and MediaTek Dimensity 700 5G chipset. Is the Realme Narzo 30 5G smartphone a worthy buy under Rs 16,000? Let’s address that and more in our Realme Narzo 30 5G review:

Realme has always been open to adopting big and bold design changes. While most times these design decisions have been well-received by their consumers, sometimes the brand also had to take flak from them. Nonetheless, the company continues with its experimental approach, which in our books is certainly a welcome thing.

In terms of the Narzo 30 5G’s aesthetics, Realme has once again tried something different. We have the Racing Silver variant which has an unusual silver colour with a gradient finish. It has a polycarbonate back featuring a rectangular quad-camera module with a slight hump at the top left. There’s a textured strip that starts from the frame above the camera module and goes all the way to the bottom edge.

The rest of the design elements are similar to Realme 8 5G. There’s a side-mounted fingerprint sensor sitting along the right edge, while the volume rocker finds real estate on the left edge. Realme has retained a dedicated card slot, audio jack, and stereo speakers. Overall, we are not averse to Realme’s design choices. And we didn’t find any issues with build quality either.

Just as with the Realme 8 5G, the company has once again opted for an IPS screen. The 6.5-inches panel has a 90Hz refresh rate and 20:9 aspect ratio. The panel delivered a smooth experience during our usage. It is sharp and vivid with decent contrast ratios and brightness levels. We found the panel to be a tad reflective, though. 

There is no HDR or wide colour gamut support, but that’s the case with almost all phones in this price range. Thankfully, the Realme Narzo 30 5G software supports both Vivid (DCI-P3) and Gentle (sRGB) colour mode. The phone has Widevine L1 support for HD streaming on popular apps like Netflix and Prime Videos which is worth appreciating.

The Narzo 30 5G comes running on the Realme UI 2.0 based on Android 11. It is one of the better custom android versions but there are also several preinstalled apps which push spam notifications and bog down user experience. Realme allows you to uninstall third-party bloatware apps but the likes of HeyFun app and the native Browser app can not be uninstalled. Both of these apps regularly push promotional notifications. Thankfully users are allowed to silence them in the notification settings but that won’t stop them from eating into system resources. 

Realme is using the same chipset that the company used earlier in the Realme 8 5G. It is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 700 SoC which is coupled with 8GB LPDDR4x RAM with 128GB UFS 2.1 storage. This means the Realme Narzo 30 5G performs similar to Realme 8 5G. It manages to open apps fast enough. We faced no hiccups while switching between apps. Thanks to sufficient memory, it was able to keep 5-6 apps running in the background.

To test out its true capabilities, we ran several benchmarks and played games like Pubg Mobile (PUBG), Asphalt 9 Legends, and Call of duty: Mobile (COD). Both popular first-person shooter games ran smoothly with medium graphics and medium frame rates. However, the popular racing game Asphalt 9 was better performed better with higher settings.

It was able to beat Redmi Note 10 and Redmi Note 10s in almost every benchmark we tested. Here’s are the findings:

• Geekbench 5.1 single core – 563
• Geekbench 5.1 multi-core – 1711
• PC Mark Work 2.0 – 10734
• PC Mark Work 2.0 writing – 11117
• 3DMark wild life – 1096
• Androbench Random Read – 165.11 MB/s
• Androbench Random write – 156.81 MB/s

The Realme Narzo 30 5G rear camera setup is identical to its elder sibling Realme Narzo 30. It packs a triple camera setup at the back with a 48-megapixel f/1.8 primary camera coupled with a 2-megapixel monochrome camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. For selfies, Realme has deputed a 16-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture lens on the front.

There’s no change in the camera app’s interface and all the important controls are within comfortable reach. As far as image quality is concerned, the Narzo 30 5G primary camera manages to capture clean photos with a tad oversaturated colours. We liked the dynamic versatility displayed by the camera as it managed to capture decent details in shadows. 

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Although the phone lacks a telephoto lens to offer optical zoom, there is 2x and 5x digital zoom on offer. Results are on expected lines. Details and dynamic range take a hit. The 2MP macro camera manages to capture decent images with enough details but the colours are noticeably inaccurate.

In low-light scenarios, the camera performance dips drastically. While it manages to expose the scenes well, textures take a hit. Due to excessive noise images are almost unusable. The Night mode is effective as it manages to capture more light resulting in better details in low light.  

The Selfie camera of the Narzo 30 5G manages to take sharp and well-exposed Portrait photos but edge detection is not perfect. Comparatively, the rear camera takes better portrait photos with more detail and vivid colours.

Realme Narzo 30 5G review: Battery life

The Realme Narzo 30 5G offers impressive battery life while maintaining a slim body profile. During our testing, it comfortably managed to last for a day and a half with average usage which involves a bit of streaming, social media engagement, clicking a handful of pictures, and half an hour of gaming. 

Charging wise, the Narzo 30 5G comes with an 18-watt charger which takes a little less than half an hour to reach 30 percent and an hour to hit the 55 percent mark.  It took us a little over 2 hours to fully refill the Narzo 30 5g from a dead state.

Review verdict: Should you buy Narzo 30 5G?

The Realme Narzo 30 5G offers a few things which tilt the balance in its favour against other competing phones priced in its vicinity. The mid-tier phone offers a combination of 5G, excellent battery and a 90Hz screen. If these features are important to you then you can consider buying it as an option. However, if features like gaming performance and quick charging matter more, there are other options to pick from including Realme’s own Narzo 30 Pro 5G that costs only a thousand bucks more and is blessed with a 120Hz screen, faster charging, and better cameras. 

Pros:

• Appealing design
• Good display
• Excellent battery life

Cons:

• Charges slowly
• No ultra-wide camera
• Bloatware