Smartphone Realme 3i - advantages and disadvantages

Realme continues to delight its consumers with bright smartphones at an affordable price: on July 15, Realme X, a mid-range segment with premium features, and a budget Realme 3i, which is a simplified version of the previously released Realme 3.

In the review, we will take a closer look at the budget Realme 3i model. You will learn about performance, autonomy, ergonomics, functionality, capabilities of the device, as well as its pros and cons. The review will help you determine if the new product fits your selection criteria.

Some information about Realme

The history of the brand began in 2010, when a subsidiary of BBK Electronics Corporation, OPPO, created a sub-brand "OPPO Realme" to expand the sales market. On July 30, former OPPO Vice President Sky Lee leaves the company, and already on May 4, OPPO Realme becomes an independent Realme brand, led by Sky Lee.

The main goal of the brand is to create productive, stylish, inexpensive smartphones, the cost of which varies between $100 and $300. In addition, the company intends to make accessories and release a smartphone with 5G support.

Realme 3i review

Table with parameters and technical characteristics

Equipment

Realme 3i comes in a small gray box containing:

• smartphone;
• transparent silicone case;
• operating instructions;
• warranty card;
• charging block;
• charging cable (medium cord length);
• metal key.

Appearance

The front panel looks very unremarkable - in the middle of the top of the screen there is a front camera in a drop-shaped, water-repellent cutout, light and proximity sensors, as well as a speaker. The screen is “clouded” with rather wide frames with a large “chin”. But the absence of a notch visually increases the usable screen area, which is only 81.3%.

The side faces of the device are made in the color of the case. The right side has a built-in power and unlock button, but the placement of the volume key is very unusual, the manufacturers placed it on the left side. There is also a slot for SIM cards and memory cards. The top edge is empty, and on the bottom there is a headphone jack, a standard size of 3.5 mm, a speaker grille, a microphone, and a standard micro USB port.

But the rear side goes beyond the standard and is admired. The matte back panel features a textured diamond-cut finish that reflects beautifully in the sun thanks to a special pearlescent finish. Finished with laser engraving. The phone will be available for purchase in three colors - black, blue and gradient red and blue. The rear panel houses a rear camera with a dual module and LED flash, a fingerprint sensor and a company logo.

For the manufacture of the case, high-quality, reliable plastic is used, which fits perfectly without forming a gap. The lid doesn't flex or stick together.The only negative is that the finish makes the phone slip in the hand, but the problem is easily solved with the help of a case, which is necessary in any case to protect the case from scratches.

Unlock

You can unlock your phone in 3 ways:

1. Using a fingerprint sensor that quickly recognizes the user and unlocks the device with lightning speed.
2. The power button located on the right side.
3. With the face unlock feature. In good light, the function works the first time, in less than a second. In the dark, errors may occur, and a second attempt will be needed.

Display

The Realme 3i has a 6.2-inch IPS LCD display with a 19:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 720 x 1520 pixels, which is 95.9 cm2. The display has an average performance: the density of pixels per inch is 271, the brightness is 450 cd / m2, the contrast ratio is 1500:1. The screen is made of 2.5D curved glass and is protected from scratches and chips in the form of Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

The ARM Mali-G72 MP3 provides a high level of dimming, good color balance, and saves battery life. Large viewing angles create a clear image even at an angle of 180 degrees. Standard features will be enough to enjoy watching videos, movies or playing games. Also, the brightness of the screen is enough to use a smartphone in sunny weather.

Camera features

Main camera

The rear camera consists of a double module:

1. The first module is represented by an extension of 13 megapixels, a sensor size of ½ and a pixel size of 1.12 micrometers. The aperture of the optics is f/1.8.
2. The second module has a resolution of 2 megapixels and acts as a depth sensor.

Camera Features:

• touch focus and autofocus;
• white balance adjustment and continuous shooting mode;
• autostart and digital zoom capability;
• exposure compensation and scene mode;
• face recognition function and panorama;
• support for Google Lens, Chroma Boost and Night Scape Mode;
• setting the sensitivity to light, support for HDR (with a frame rate of 960 fps) and the use of geotagging.

In good lighting, the camera shows a fairly good quality. There are issues with lack of sharpness and exposure levels, but the dynamic range is perfect.

The smartphone supports the Chroma Boost mode, which should improve the dynamic range, increase the level of exposure balance and detail. Unfortunately, this function rarely shows good results. You can mostly see over-sharpening, issues with exposure levels and dynamic range. Perhaps this problem will be solved in new device updates.

As for how the smartphone takes photos at night, Night Scape Mode comes to the rescue, which increases the amount of light in the photos, creating improved visibility. The image quality is average, there are problems in detailing.

Front-camera

The camera is represented by a 13 megapixel extension, with an f / 2.0 optics aperture, a pixel with a size of 1.12 micrometers and a sensor with a size of ½.

With good lighting, you get great pictures, with sufficient sharpness, a good balance of brightness and contrast. Additionally, you can use the face beauty mode or portrait mode. As for poor lighting, detail is noticeably worse here, photo quality is significantly deteriorating.

Example of photos taken with a smartphone

CPU

The smartphone runs on a Mediatek MT6771 Helio P60 single-chip system. The processor with 12nm process technology consists of 4 high-performance Cortex-A73 cores at 2GHz and 4 energy-efficient Cortex-A53 cores, which also operate at 2GHz. The processor has a built-in Mediatek NeuroPilot Al neuroblock, which provides the development of artificial intelligence. The Mediatek CorePilot 4.0 system monitors the power consumption and the need to increase the power of the smartphone. Mali-G72 is responsible for AI calculations and graphics. The graphics chipset has 3 cores, with a maximum frequency of 800 MHz.

The average processor power is enough for a satisfactory performance of everyday tasks. But for games with high power requirements, it is not enough, it is necessary to set medium or minimum settings.

Interface

Realme 3i comes with Android 9.0 pie, with the proprietary ColorOS 6 shell, which has an excellent appearance and many convenient and necessary functions, among which are:

• the presence of an intelligent assistant and the freezing of applications that are in the background;
• improve performance with the Hyper Boost application;
• personalization of the gameplay using the Game Space application;
• improved gesture control;
• turning off blue light and the Quiet Time function, which allows you to allow or block the receipt of messages and calls from certain subscribers.

autonomy

The smartphone has a high level of autonomy, which is responsible for the installed lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 4230 mAh. The device supports the fast charging function.

The operating time of the phone without a charge is (in hours):

• in standby mode - 35;
• when viewing images - 22;
• when playing a video - 14.

Memory and cost Realme 3i

From July 23, Realme 3i is available for purchase in two variants:

1. With 3 GB RAM and 32 GB built-in cost about $120.
2. With 4 GB RAM and 64 ROM, it costs about $145.

If the memory is not enough, you can always use a microSD card, which can expand the memory up to 256 GB.

Advantages and disadvantages of Realme 3i

Having studied the parameters, specifications and features of the smartphone, you can highlight the pros and cons of the smartphone.

• great design;
• ease of use;
• the presence of a face recognition function and a fingerprint scanner;
• Fairly good display quality
• high quality pictures taken on the front camera;
• fast enough processor for everyday tasks;
• proprietary shell with many useful features;
• high levels of autonomy.

• no USB Type-C port.

Conclusion

Realme 3i is an ideal budget device that combines beautiful design, high levels of build quality and battery life, as well as average performance and photo capabilities.