Realme 5i After 6 Months. Long Term Review

Realme 5i Quad Camera Setup AI

Realme is one of the fastest growing smartphone companies in the world. They have released countless phones over the years and the one we're talking about today is the Realme 5i, released in January 2020. I first bought this phone in September of 2020 and it has been my go-to smartphone for over 6 months as of writing this article.

Main Features

The Realme 5i offers a 6.5" display with very small bezels. This makes it look more premium and modern. Other specs include a AI Quad-Camera setup on the back which gives you a Zoom, 8MP Ultrawide, and a normal 12MP camera. It supports video recording of up to 4K at 30 FPS, while 1080p at up to 120FPS. The phone packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 AIE Octa-core CPU along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB ROM. To power it all, we get a 5000mAh battery that makes it last longer.

Pros and Cons

One of the biggest downsides of this phone is its lack of USB Type-C port. It uses traditional Micro USB port for charging and data transfer. It does the job just fine but having a Type-C port would have made it much better in terms of connectivity. Secondly, the phone often gets new software updates from Realme and that keeps the phone relevant and up to date. This is one of the biggest pros of this smartphone in my opinion. Currently my phone is running Android 10 with security patch updated on January 5, 2021. Another good thing about this phone is its dual sim support. This is very useful for people like me who need to use more than one sim card but don't want to carry or buy separate phones for each sim.

For long term review, I personally think this phone is still working great. The back of this phone is not glossy, but has a nice pattern finish in green color which protects it from fingerprints and scratches. Although I use it with a cover so it's not a big deal breaker for me. The camera quality of this phone isn't great, but comapared to other phones, even the top end ones, it does a pretty good job and produces usable images. Coming from a Samsung phone, the display quality of this phone was a big issue for me. Realme 5i doesn't have OLED/AMOLED display which means it has a lower contrast ratio overall. However, it does have a bigger screen and overtime, the quality seems alright for a phone in this price range.

Conclusion

After 6 Months of use, this phone still holds up and competes with other phones in its price range. I have no regrets buying it and see no big reason to upgrade unless I'm ready to spend 10 times as much. Which obviously is a hard choice to make considering the upgrades I'm getting compared to this Realme 5i. Are you looking to buy this phone or already own this phone? Let me know your thoughts on it in the comment section below!

by Talha Shaikhani