I ask you a question: in a cheap smartphone, in a budget phone, what is the most important feature for you? The design and the materials? The camera? The performance? Because when you find yourself buying a product that costs less than 200 euros, it is clear that you will have to accept various compromises, and it is precisely these compromises that in a certain sense help to differentiate the different offers currently on the market, making them suitable for different types of users with different needs.
And if there is a brand that has worked really well in this market segment, growing exponentially in recent years, it is really that, with its C series, has always churned out products with limited performance, but with excellent design and good value for money.
However, things don't always go as they should. After an almost surprise announcement in Indonesia, realme C55 officially arrives in Italy too but, I'm sorry to say: we have a problem. Because it is true that reading the technical data sheet of the smartphone it might seem that there are all the credentials to justify what Francis Wong, the CEO of the European branch of realme, said, but using it then you return with your feet on the ground, and things change a lot.
Fortunately, however, there are not only negative notes: the new realme C55 represents one of the most important updates of the price range to which it belongs, and is the first of the C series to introduce a 64 megapixel camera, fast charging at 33w and an internal space that can go up to 256 GB.
realme c55 review: lots of new features, but watch out for performance
Design and materials
If there's a hallmark that realme people are never wrong about in their budget smartphones, it's the design: realme C55 it is yet another confirmation that you can make beautiful and pleasant devices to hold without forcing users to spend exorbitant amounts. And even if, given the price, we are obviously talking about a back cover made of plastic, the Sunshower design that characterizes the newcomer from realme is very accurate and pleasing to the eye.
It comes in two colors, Sunshower and Rainy Night, but unfortunately we received the black one on trial, which loses all the "visual magic" that would be found in the other color. Because if to make the Sunshower the brand used a 13-layer process structure with various printing processes for a total thickness of only 0,6 mm, effectively producing the first smartphone in this price range with a cover made with double coating, the black color is much more anonymous albeit well made with a texture that seems almost sandblasted.
However, as I told you, the design is accurate because the squared form factor takes up the shapes of devices that are placed in a higher range of the market: the dimensions are equal to 165.65 x 75.98 x 7.89 mm and the weight is equal to 189.5 grams, contained values that make it practical for everyday use. The back cover, then, manages dust and fingerprints very well and is not slippery at all.
Then there are two isolated cameras, very large and rather protruding, which have been positioned in a frame made of glossy plastic which is quite beautiful to look at, but which given the processing of the materials tends to suffer from fingerprints. There is a USB-C port, which is positioned between the only available speaker and the input for the 3.5mm headphone jack.
The cart DualSim and MicroSD has been positioned on the left, while the volume rocker and the power button have been positioned on the right, which integrates a fingerprint sensor which, although it is quite reactive, could be a little uncomfortable: the flush button is almost recessed it will mislead you during use, so you may miss a few touches.
Display
The display is another step forward for the brand's economic series. realme C55 it is the first exponent of the C family to integrate a panel with a 90 Hz refresh rate with a diagonal of 6.72 "and a screen-to-body ratio of 91.4%. The resolution is FullHD+ and the peak brightness is 680 nits. In short, also considering the 180 Hz touch sampling, technically speaking the panel used in the realme C55 it's quite important when compared to the price range, but being a traditional IPS LCD it suffers a little from the too limited viewing angles. However, the management of the frames is good which, unlike the C33, is contained and "almost" symmetrical.
It is a well-calibrated panel, with good saturation and a good contrast ratio, in which the brand has inserted the camera in a central punch hole, which has been enriched by a function called "Mini Capsule" which is very reminiscent of the Dynamic Island of Apple, but which to date is rather limited.
In essence, with the Mini Capsule of realme C55 you can't do anything at all, except see the device's charge status: there are no elements with which you can interact, it is not integrated with any application. In short, the brand has promised that it will integrate other features, but for now it is a rather useless feature. However, it must be said that the few times you see it in action, you will surely appreciate the graphic animation that accompanies it, which is pleasant and very fluid.
Hardware and performance
But, you see, while the Mini Capsule's animation is always smooth, everything else on the device isn't. It will be because the sample we received for testing does not yet have a definitive firmware, it will be because the MediaTek Helio G88 that animates the smartphone is certainly not among the best choices in this segment, but one thing is certain: realme C55 it is not among the fastest and smoothest smartphones on the market.
If you follow my reviews, you will know that I don't have a particular sympathy for Mediatek's SoCs and it is true that in this price range it is difficult to expect more, also because realme C55 however, it integrates 8 GB of 4X LPDDR RAM and 256 GB of UFS 3.1 internal memory, but it is precisely in the hardware / software integration that something must have gone wrong.
The realme C series is known for its great value for money but, as of today, the performance of the realme C55 they are the feature that has left us most perplexed: the smartphone tends to lag a lot, especially when starting it up or when you go to manage multitasking, and it has such evident slowdowns that even navigating the settings menu is starting to become quite frustrating.
Ok, it's a cheap smartphone and you certainly don't buy it to play Call of Duty, but that doesn't mean that in order to spend poco the user must accept these very annoying slowdowns: we contacted the brand, which underlined the arrival of a rich software update that will solve the problem but, for now, in terms of performance, the realme C55 it didn't really convince me.
The audio in the capsule is good as is the quality of the UltraBoom Speaker, the only mono speaker integrated in the device, finger up for the ability to also connect to 5 Ghz WiFi networks and for the presence of 360-degree NFC: in this way, you can pay contactless regardless of the position of the smartphone.
Camera
If performance is certainly not one of the strengths of the realme C55, when it comes to the camera, things change a lot: the brand's new smartphone is the first to introduce a 64-megapixel main camera with a 1/2” large sensor and an f/1.79 aperture. Not bad features, for a product that costs around 200 euros, right? It's a pity, however, that the second camera makes the magic fade a bit, because it's a 2 megapixel B&W f/2.4 which, in my opinion, could not even be integrated at all.
I have to be honest: for years now I have stopped trusting the large sensors in cheap smartphones which, often, are just smoke and mirrors for users but I admit I was wrong when I was convinced that I was obtaining clearly inferior photographic results than those I obtained in my test with the realme C55. Sure, it's still a budget smartphone that won't produce results comparable to a top-of-the-range smartphone, but for its price point, the results are more than satisfactory.
With good light the shots have a good level of detail and the colors are beautiful saturated, probably thanks to the HDR which comes into play automatically in practically all scenarios; the portrait mode is sufficient, which tends to be a little too aggressive in the edges. The focus speed is good, even if the brand still has work to do regarding the management of the dynamic range: a lot is enough poco to totally burn an area of the photo with consequent poor result.
It is also possible to shoot with a 64 megapixel mode which guarantees slightly higher sharpness but which, in my opinion, continues to be more of a marketing gimmick than anything else, while with low light the shots are more than enjoyable for a device that costs this much poco: Sure, in totally dark environments realme C55 it is in clear difficulty, as it should be in its price range, but as soon as there is a small light source it gives good quality shots, in which, however, you have to be very careful with focusing, which will always be rather slow.
With the night mode the details decrease, we see that the software tends to smooth the limits of the hardware it manages, but the results obtained with the realme C55 they are among the best in its price range. There is poco to do. And it is also the same with the 8 megapixel front camera, with which it is possible to take good quality selfies.
The videos can be recorded in FullHD at 60 fps, a good frame rate that makes everything more fluid, but which is contrasted by the absence of optical stabilization and by an incisiveness that is perhaps too forced of the electronic one which could make the horizontal pans a bit ' jerky.
Software
Realme C55 is the first of the series to arrive out-of-the-box with Android 13 customized by realme UI 4.0 which, yes, on the new smartphone is not among the most fluid graphical interfaces around, but over time it is becoming more and more optimized and full of useful features and poco invasives such as the "Auto Pixelate" function which, with a touch, will automatically recognize and censor profile photos and names in screenshots.
In addition, fortunately, the company on this software has stopped integrating the dozens of pre-installed applications that we usually see with higher-end smartphones, avoiding the hassle of having to remove them at the end of the first smartphone configuration.
Battery and recharge
Despite being a smartphone with a rather low weight, in terms of battery the realme C55 owns a huge unit from 5000 mAh with which it is possible to abundantly exceed the day of use with even rather intensive use. Going to stress the smartphone I managed to get to about 6 hours of display on, which is not bad especially considering the hardware of the product.
Furthermore, the new born in the realme house is the first in this price range to integrate fast charging at 33w which, although it is not a record, still allows you to recharge it by 50% in 29 minutes and 100% in 63 minutes. Obviously though, given the price range realme C55 it does not integrate any wireless charging technology.
Price and considerations
The official selling price of the realme C55 it is 249 euros for the 8/256 version and 219 euros for the 6/128 version. At launch, however, both models will be sold with a discount of around 20 euros. It's priced online, which positions this one rather well realme C55, as long as you embrace the idea of having to deal with some pretty serious lag until an update arrives that (hopefully) should fix it.
And it is precisely the presence of these slowdowns that is the real Achilles' heel of this realme C55 because, if the brand had better optimized the general performance of the device, together with the excellent camera, fast charging, 90 Hz and the general design of the product, the realme C55 it really could have been the turning point of the budget-phone world. Unfortunately, however, this is not the case, and now the ball passes to realme: will they be able to release an update capable of really optimizing the performance of the smartphone?
NB If you do not see the box with code or the link to the purchase, we advise you to disable the AdBlock.
