Realme C3 Long-term Review: Best Budget Phone For Gaming

Like Xiaomi, Realme constantly launches new and improved smartphones which are bang for the buck. There were plenty of new phones in 2019 and they are continuing the trend in 2020. In Nepal, they started with Realme 5i, Realme X2, and recently they launched Realme 6 and Realme 6i as well.

While these were mid-range offerings, Realme has launched a new phone from their budget lineup, Realme C3. I’ve used this phone for more than a month now and there are things that I like and I do not like about it. So, let’s see how’s the Realme C3.

Realme C3 Specifications

Realme C3 Review

Performance

• Mediatek Helio G70 (12 nm) Chipset
• Octa-core (2×2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6×1.7 GHz Cortex-A55) Processor
• Mali-G52 2EEMC2 GPU
• 32GB ROM 3GB RAM, eMMC 5.1

I usually start the review with design/build quality but I’ve been very impressed with the Realme C3’s performance. Realme C2 has Mediatek Helio P22 SoC and its performance was acceptable but not impressive. However, Realme C3 uses a budget gaming chipset from Mediatek, the Mediatek Helio G70.

Thus, it’s gaming performance is superior among the budget phones and it even rivals some of the mid-range phones like Redmi Note 8 which uses Snapdragon 665.

Mediatek Helio G70 even pips the Snapdragon 665 in benchmark score, especially in GPU score. Let;’s take a look at benchmark scores first.

GeekBench

Starting off with GeekBench, a CPU benchmark. Helio G70 on the C3 does very well with a Single-Core score of 385 and a Multi-Core score of 1201. We compared it with Snapdragon 665 (Realme 5i) and Exynos 9611 (Samsung M21).

• Realme C3 pips both Realme 5i and Samsung M21 in terms of Single-Core CPU score.
• Realme 5i is ahead in terms of Multi-Core score with 1377 and Single-Core score of 312.

3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme

For this, we are comparing the score of C3 with Realme 5i and Samsung M21. Realme C3 scores 1179 (OpenGl Es 3.1) and 1158 (Vulkan).

• M21 tops with a score of 1589 (OpenGl Es 3.1) and 1548 (Vulkan).
• Realme 5i scores 1127 (OpenGl Es 3.1) and 1048 (Vulkan).

Well, these are benchmark test and doesn’t reflect actual real-life performance. So let’s see how it fares in real-life performance.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy M31 Review: The Go-to Mid-range Smartphone

Asphalt 9 runs without any lags or stutters, the gameplay is smooth. Similarly, PUBG also runs well without any hiccups. However, the game will feel choppy in HD settings if you are used to high-end phones.

But, it’s performance is hands down the best in the budget category. Since games run smoothly on the Realme C3, normal tasks like browsing, app switch, and others are fluid as well.

Battery

• Non-removable Li-Po 5000 mAh battery
• microUSB 2.0, USB On-The-Go

Moving on you can take full advantage of its performance with its huge 5000 mAh battery. The battery lasts up to 2 days during normal usage. And, it lasts more than a day even in heavy use cases.

However, the battery charging is not that impressive. It uses 10W charging and it will take 2 hours to charge from 0 to 100. Well, at least 15W of 18W fast charging would have made it more appealing.

Build & Design

• 164.4 x 75 x 9 mm
• 195 g
• Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

At first glance, Realme C3 doesn’t look like a budget phone. Like the Realme 5i, Realme C3 uses sunrise design and it looks good.

It’s a budget phone and it is made up of plastic but I really don’t mind. It looks good and feels durable as well. And, it doesn’t catch smudges like the plastic build of budget Samsung phones.

On the rear, Realme C3 has 3 camera sensors and it’s camera module resembles Realme’s other camera module. The fingerprint sensor is in the usual place and it works really fast with consistency.

On the front, we get notch design and camera on the notch. It supports face unlock and it’s quick. Then there’s an earpiece above the front camera. On the bottom, it has a headphone jack, mic, micro USB, and a speaker.

The side bezels are thin and look appealing but the chin is still large. Next, there is a power button on the right and on the left, we get volume buttons along with a slot for dual nano sim and micro sd card.

Display

• 6.5 inches IPS LCD
• 720x 1560 Resolution
• 20:9 Aspect Ratio
• 270 PPI
• Corning Gorilla Glass 3

Realme C3 has a 6.5 inches IPS LCD screen with 720p resolution and it has Gorilla Glass 3 protection as well. It’s an IPS panel so the display is fine but it’s not extraordinary.

Color reproduction is fine and vibrant. The brightness is adequate, I did not have any problem in outdoor with the Realme C3.

Well, a punch-hole display would have been more exciting as the notch is getting older but it’s not a problem. The display is good for content viewing and does a fine job give its a budget phone.

Camera

• Rear Camera: 12 MP, f/1.8, 28mm (wide), 1/2.8″, 1.25µm, PDAF
  • 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)
  • 2 MP, (macro)
  • Video: 1080p@30fps
• Front Camera: 5 MP, f/2.4, 27mm (wide), 1/5″, 1.12µm
  • Video: 1080p@30fps

Realme C3 has 3 cameras on the rear: 12MP main sensor, 2MP macro sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor.

The photos from the main sensor are just good most of the time. The details are just average and the sharpness is there as well but the photos are only satisfactory.

Most of the time the exposure is spot on, but sometimes the photos can get overexposed. Colors look slightly muted but you can turn on chroma boost to capture images with more boosted color. Well, I’m not a fan of it, I like the pictures in default settings.

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Realme C3 has a depth sensor and there’s portrait mode to take its advantage. Portrait photos are just decent, edge detection is not perfect and the background blur looks more like a blur effect. But it’s okay for a phone at this price range.

Moving on, we get a 2MP macro sensor that works well enough. The pictures do not have plenty of details as it only has a 2MP sensor but it’s good enough for social media.

Low light performance is not great, it is as you would expect from a normal budget phone. There’s a huge dip in detail and the photo is noisy. Inclusion of night mode could have made the night photos better, but we don’t get night mode on Realme C3.

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On the front, we get a 5MP camera. Selfies do not have good details and the exposure was not consistent. The photos could get underexposed or overexposed under the same conditions as we can see in the photos below.

And, the color reproduction is also not good. There’s an option for portrait selfies as well but the portrait effect is not satisfactory. It’s better to capture normal selfies instead of bokeh selfies.

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On to videos, Realme C3 can capture up to 1080p 30fps and the video quality is good. There’s no stabilization but the videos are good enough for social media usage.

Speaker

Realme C3 has a single speaker on the bottom and it sounds okay. The sound quality is nothing impressive, there’s slight distortion and the lows are also non-existent. I would have liked it better if it was louder.

Software

• Android 10, realme UI 1.0

Realme has improved a lot in the software department. It’s no longer running Color OS, the Realme C3 runs on Realme UI v1.1 based on Android 10. Well, it is still similar to Color OS 8 but there are some changes too.

The overall UI takes inspiration from stock android with round icons and native app drawer style. There are some preinstalled bloatwares like Lazada, trip.com, and others.

Furthermore, it does have game space like any other Realme phones and you can block phone calls/notification through the app. Also, you can set the power mode to “performance” through the game space.

If you are a fan of dark mode, you get that option on the Realme C3 as well. Dark mode will also force some of the apps such as Instagram to go into dark mode. Though its not an AMOLED display, you will enjoy the dark mode on the C3.

Realme UI feels smooth and fluid but it can still use some improvement in the settings page and it would be great if there were some customization features too.

Should You Buy Realme C3?

Realme C3 is a very good upgrade from the Realme C3. If we compared the C3 to any other phones in this segment then it is the most powerful phone in terms of performance.

Well, it might not have the best camera in this segment but it has a good battery, nice build, and the software is now better too.

For Rs. 16,990 Realme C3 is a top-notch performer. You can play heavy games with good graphics without major lags. Its battery is huge as well but the thing is it doesn’t support fast charging. I was not so impressed with the camera but it gets the job done for social media. So, it’s a must-buy if you want a gaming phone for Rs. 17k.

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