Many of us look to buy affordable smartphones for a few reasons. It may be for someone else as a gift or as a backup phone for ourselves. One might assume that since there are hordes of phones in the price range of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 bracket, affordable phones priced at half that, might be just as plentiful. Oddly enough, that is not the case, and it is difficult to find a decent phone priced at about Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 7,000. Models from good brands are hard to come by to, so it is heartening to see that Realme launched their C20 smartphone at just Rs. 6,799*. If you thought phones at these prices were flimsy and basic, be prepared to be surprised.
The Realme C20 is what most people want in a basic phone, good battery life. It comes with a 5,000 mAh battery that helps the device go 43 days on standby mode. One might typically find a battery this size on a flagship smartphone. This kind of capacity should allow you to easily go through a day or more. More interesting is its reverse charging feature. With the right adapter, you can connect this phone to another phone and charge it. Realme claims its Super Power Saving Mode lets the phone go more than two days with just 5 per cent battery left or let you make calls for nearly two hours. These claims are based on internal testing by Realme, and real-world performance can differ.
Another aspect of smartphones that we assume that gets compromised as prices go down, are the screens. That is not the case with the C20. It runs a 6.5-inch screen, and it even inherits features from phones priced twice as much, such as slim bezels and a teardrop front-facing camera design. The screen size is ideal whether you are gaming, using everyday apps such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, or streaming movies and TV shows over the web. The screen resolution is a good 720 x 1600. It is a good pixel density and so, images look crisp, and the screen can render a lot of text at once.
Most of us would like to have fast processors on our new smartphone and the one on the C20 can handle most tasks easily. It runs a MediaTek Helio G35, an octa-core 64-bit processor that speeds right up to 2.3 GHz. It is based on a 12nm fabrication process so it is power-efficient, and it should explain the C20’s surprising battery life. The RAM onboard is 2GB, sufficient for most everyday tasks. There is 32GB of internal storage which is also enough to install your favourite apps. If you need more storage, there is a microSD card slot that lets you expand storage up to 256 GB. This is ideal if you store your movies and music on your phone. It is also great if you are the kind of person who receives a lot of messages and forwards.
The camera department is quite respectable as well. There is an 8MP camera at the rear and a 5MP front-facing selfie camera. The rear camera can also shoot full HD videos, so you do not have to compromise on quality. The 8MP sensor is good enough to click quality photos and its AI features also help bump up colour saturation and contrast for impressive results. Realme suggests its Chroma Boost feature can enhance photos as well along with HDR. The rear-facing camera supports 4x digital zoom, if you need it. The camera app is also capable of taking panoramic shots, time-lapse, night mode photos and more.
We assume that cheap phones look bad, but Realme knows a thing or two about designs and colours. The C20 comes in two interesting colours Cool Blue and Cool Grey. These while simple and traditional, render some interesting reflections thanks to the finishing on the back. The camera block on the top is not only functional, but it also adds a certain style to it. The phone weighs about 190 grams and measures about 8.9mm in thickness which is good for a phone priced this low.
All phones go through some abuse and the Realme C20 has been tested to take quite a bit of it. Realme claims that they tested the power button more than 200,000 times, while the charging and headphone jacks went through 100,000 repetitions while the volume buttons went through twice that.
Wi-Fi 802.11n is supported as is Bluetooth 5.0. These are modern wireless standards, and they should enable to let you stream content over the web or the network easily. The Bluetooth support ensures wireless stability when you connect wireless peripherals such as Bluetooth speakers or earphones to the device. You still get a 3.5mm headphone jack which is convenient since you can plug in any earphone or headphones without the need of external adapters.
The Realme C20 comes pre-installed with Android 10 and a layer of Real UI on top that makes it easy to use, even for first-time smartphone users. The Realme C20 is the ideal phone if you are looking for an affordable device that you want to gift someone or as your backup device. The Realme C20 is now available at Reliance Digital stores around the country, and you can also order it online at www.reliancedigital.in.
* Prices are subject to change. Please refer to the product page for the latest prices details and availability.
