Many Questions For This Smartphone! Realme C51 REVIEW

Unfortunately, we haven’t been testing smartphones much lately on our channel Tech Brothers, but I know you like them as much as we do. Now we will try to make more articles about new smartphones.

I currently have a Realme C51. This is one of the latest budget smartphones from Realme. For the price of around $115, it has some very good features, such as 6.74” 90Hz display, 50MP camera and 33W fast charging support.

Like the latest Realme smartphones, the new Realme C51 has a mini capsule that resembles Dynamic Island on iPhones.

In this article, we will thoroughly test the smartphone including performance, camera, battery and more. But let’s start with unboxing.

Unboxing

On the box we can see the model of the smartphone C51. It also supports NFC.

You know, I bought the global version of the smartphone on AliExpress, but there are specifications in Russian on the back of the box. So, I have a Russian version of Realme C51. The seller should mention it on the product page. I do not recommend buying any products from this seller, because he is lying.

Inside the box is an envelope with a SIM needle, silicone protective case, and documentation.

Then we have the smartphone with a sticker again in Russian.

You know, I have very bad first impressions about this mobile device because I was sent the Russian version, but not the global one. But let’s continue the review.

There is also a power adapter and USB Type-C charging cable in the box.

Design

Realme C51 is a budget smartphone, but it has a very nice design. I have a mobile device in black color, but it is also available in mint green.

Although the body of the smartphone is made of plastic, the back panel is divided into two parts: glossy and matte. I like how it looks and feels in the hand. However, you will most likely be using a silicone protective case, so you won’t be paying attention to this.

As I already said, the smartphone comes with a protective case. It is a simple and cheap case, but it is good to have it included. By the way, it also covers the protruding cameras.

Realme C51 is a lightweight and thin smartphone. The body thickness is 7.99 mm, while the weight is 186 grams. If we talk about the size of the mobile device, it is 167.2 x 76.7 mm.

Overall, the smartphone is comfortable to hold in one hand. However, you cannot use it with one hand because the screen is quite large.

I was very surprised to see a 3.5mm audio jack. I haven’t seen it on smartphones in a long time, and I don’t think anyone needs it. Let me know in the comments below if you still use a 3.5mm audio jack.

There is also a USB Type-C port and speaker at the bottom.

We didn’t see the fingerprint reader on the back because it is built into the power button on the side. You know, the fingerprint scanner works fast enough.

The volume rocker is located next to the power button.

The SIM and memory card slot is on the other side of the smartphone. The slot actually holds two SIM cards and a microSD memory card at the same time. That’s very good.

I guess that’s all about the design. You know, Realme C51 is a budget smartphone, but it looks very nice. Do you agree?

Display

If we talk about the display, it has a diagonal of 6.74 inches. The screen refresh rate of 90Hz is also a good feature for a budget smartphone.

On the other hand, the display resolution is only HD+, 720 x 1600 pixels. I cannot say it is a big problem because I haven’t seen any pixelization while watching videos, playing games, or reading text. However, most of the Realme C51 competitors have Full HD displays.

Mini Capsule

By the way, at first glance, the Realme C51 has a waterdrop notch on the top of the screen.

However, it is actually the Mini Capsule. The notch gets bigger when the smartphone is charging so you can see the battery level.

Of course, we cannot compare it to Dynamic Island on iPhones because it has only one function, but it is still a cool feature.

Software

When it comes to software, the smartphone runs on Android 13 with Realme UI T Edition user interface.

The main problem with the software was the Russian apps because I have the Russian version of the smartphone. If you also have the Russian version, it is better to uninstall all applications as soon as possible, because they are terrible and not safe.

You should also delete App Market, because it is the Russian app too. It is better to use the Play Store from Google to download new apps.

Once you have uninstalled all Russian bloatware, the user interface looks nice.

By the way, there are no apps from Realme, expect Realme Community. It is almost stock Android.

You know, I don’t use an Android smartphone very often because my primary smartphone is an iPhone, but even the settings menu of the Realme C51 looks like stock Android.

Hardware

OK, let’s move on to the hardware.

If we go to the About phone menu, we can see that the processor is Octa Core. It doesn’t have a name.

The official website also doesn’t say the model of the processor. We can only see Powerful Octa-core Chipset with 12nm process technology.

However, we have a very useful app called AIDA64. Here we can see that Realme C51 smartphone is equipped with Unisoc Tiger T612 processor.

My smartphone also has 4GB of RAM and 128GB of built-in storage. As I said before, you can use a dedicated slot for microSD memory card.

Realme C51 also supports dynamic RAM. You can go to the Settings, About Phone and tap on RAM. There is RAM Expansion available. When enough storage space is available, you can use part of it to expand your RAM.

I want to check if it really increases the performance of the smartphone.

Benchmarks

First, I will run the AnTuTu benchmark without RAM expansion.

The AnTuTu score is 244 864 points.

Now, I will enable RAM expansion to a maximum of 4GB. In theory, the smartphone now has 8GB of RAM.

We run the AnTuTu benchmark again and see 252 876 points.

I will run the following benchmarks with RAM expansion.

Realme C51 has 422 points in a single core test, and 1443 points in a multi core test of GeekBench 6.

3D Mark benchmark recommends running the Wild Life test on the Realme C51 smartphone. The overall score is 424.

You know, benchmark results of the Realme smartphone are not very high, but do not forget that this is a budget mobile device for about $100.

Games

Now let’s play some games. I have already installed PUBG Mobile, Asphalt 9, Call of Duty Mobile and Genshin Impact on the new Realme smartphone.

The graphics in the PUBG Mobile is Balanced, and FPS is High.

Although the graphics are not the best, it is quite comfortable to play PUBG Mobile on the Realme C51.

There are also no problems with Asphalt 9 and Call of Duty.

As for the Genshin Impact, the graphics are also low because you can even see pixels, but I didn’t notice any brakes or lags. The game runs smoothly.

Camera

Now, let’s get to the camera test of Realme C51.

At first glance, it may seem that the smartphone has three sensors on the rear panel. However, if you look carefully, you will see that one of them is the flashlight.

The second sensor is almost useless because it is a 0.08MP black and white camera.

The main sensor has a 50MP resolution.

It is a pity that the smartphone doesn’t have a wide-angle sensor, but the 50MP main sensor promises good pictures. Later, we will check it out.

The front camera has a 5MP sensor.

Camera App

The camera app has night mode, video mode, photo, portrait and more, such as time-lapse, pro, panorama, slow-motion, QR Code and 50MP.

In Photo Mode, we can turn on the flashlight, HDR mode, Beauty, use different filters and go to Camera settings.

The camera settings have storage location, volume button action, shutter sound, and save location information. You can also change the photo aspect ratio, image quality, automatically add logo watermarks, and many other options.

In video mode, the general settings are the same, but you can change the video resolution. As you can see, Realme C51 records video in 1080P 30 fps maximum resolution.

By the way, I didn’t find image stabilization in the settings, so I am interested to see how the smartphone records video, but let’s start with photos.

Photos and Videos

By default, the Realme C51 takes photos with a resolution of 12.5 megapixels, 4080 x 3072 pixels. If you want to take pictures with 50MP resolution, you need to go to More and select 50MP.

The photos during the day in sunny weather look very good.

By the way, the portrait pictures are also pretty good.

You can even take some good selfies on the Realme C51. Portrait mode is also available for the front camera.

As for the night photos, to be honest I don’t see much difference between normal photo mode and night mode. However, the pictures are really good in 50MP mode.

As I said before, the Realme C51 has no image stabilization, so video footage is shaky when walking. However, if you stop, and only move the camera, the video is smooth.

Overall, the Realme C51 takes good photos and videos for a $100 smartphone.

Battery

Now let’s talk about the next feature of the Realme C51 smartphone – the battery.

In fact, the main feature here is 33W fast charging support.

Charging Test

The smartphone comes with a 33W SUPERVOOC Charge. The official website claims it takes only 28 minutes to charge from 0 to 50%. Let’s check it out.

By the way, I also have a USB power meter. This is the first time I will be using it.

We can see a maximum of 26W on the power meter. This is not 33W, but still very good.

So, it took 30 minutes to charge Realme C51 from 0% to 52%.

Then we see that the charging speed has decreased to 21W.

The last 10% of the battery was charged at about 10W.

So, a full battery charge from 0 to 100% took 1 hour and 9 minutes. I think it is very fast for a budget smartphone.

By the way, the USB power meter shows that the smartphone has received 2545 mAh. However, the manufacturer claims that the battery capacity of Realme C51 is 5000mAh. Who should we believe?

Let’s check out the battery life.

Battery Life

I will start playing videos on YouTube. We will track how much the battery level drops every hour.

You know, I’m surprised by the result of 12 hours and 30 minutes. Realme C51 has very good battery life and I think it is because of the HD display.

Speakers

By the way, I forgot to tell you about the speaker, but if I completely forgot about it, you wouldn’t have lost anything, because it is the most basic.

There is only one speaker at the bottom.

However, the sound is very loud. You can even turn the volume up to 150%, but the sound quality gets worse.

Connectivity

Talking about connectivity, Realme C51 supports global network bands. However, you should still confirm the network frequency with your local operator.

The smartphone has dual SIM cards slot, and both support 4G networks, but not 5G.

There is Bluetooth 5.0, dual-band Wi-Fi, GPS and even NFC support.

I believe that NFC should be in every modern smartphone, just like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, because it is a very useful feature. I always use my smartphone for contactless payment. If a smartphone doesn’t have NFC, I cannot use it.

Conclusion

So, it’s time to summarize.

Cons

Russian Version

Let me start with what I don’t like about Realme C51. The biggest annoyance for me was the Russian version of the smartphone. There are many pre-installed Russian apps, and I believe they are unsafe. The good news is that they can be deleted.

HD Screen

It also confuses me that the Realme C51 smartphone only has an HD screen. I cannot say it is a big problem, because the screen is good, but most competitors have Full HD displays.

Chipset and Low Benchmark Performance

As I said before, you will not find the processor model on the official website or anywhere on the box. It looks like the manufacturer is trying to hide it.

However, we know that Realme C51 is powered by Unisoc Tiger T612. It is an entry-level chipset, so the smartphone has quite low benchmark results.

Single Camera

The last complaint about Realme C51 from me is a single camera. I think the second camera on the rear panel is useless. I wish there was a wide-angle camera on this smartphone.

Pros

If we talk about the pros of the Realme C51 smartphone, there are many more than the cons.

Design

First, I like the design. The rear panel is made of glossy and matte plastic. In my opinion, it looks very nice.

The new Realme smartphone also has a 3.5mm audio jack and fingerprint reader on the side face.

Mini Capsule

The highlight of the latest Realme smartphones is Mini Capsule. Of course, it is not the same as Dynamic Island on iPhone, but it is still a nice feature.

90Hz Screen

Although the Realme C51 features an HD resolution display, it has a 90Hz refresh rate. You can really feel it when you are scrolling menus or surfing social media.

Almost Stock Android

By the way, the smartphone runs on the latest Android 13 operating system with Realme UI T Edition user interface. When you remove all the Russian apps, the interface is very clean and nice. It is close to the stock Android.

Gaming Performance

I mentioned that the smartphone has low benchmark scores, but it doesn’t have any problems with gaming. You can play any games on the Realme C51, such as PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty, Genshin Impact, and others.

Good Photos and Videos

The 50MP camera takes good photos and videos both day and night. I think they’re great for a $100 smartphone.

Long Battery Life and Fast Charging

The battery is another big advantage of the Realme C51. I was surprised by both the battery life and charging speed.

Triple Slot and NFC

I was also glad to see a triple slot for dual SIM and microSD memory cards here. NFC support is not only useful but a must-have feature for me.

Price

The last big advantage of the Realme C51 smartphone is the price. I bought it for only $103, but now it is a bit more expensive – about $118. I think the smartphone is very decent for its price.