As I’m writing this, there are only 18 days left before that most wonderful time of the year!
So by now, you’ve probably made a list of all the people who’s been nice and maybe checked it twice.
The challenge now is getting them a gift they would truly appreciate.
Now if you have someone in mind (maybe even you!) who deserves to be surprised with a new smartphone you might want to check out the realme C33.
This latest budget phone from the Philippines no 1. smartphone brand boasts of a 50MP camera, a big display, Unisoc T612 Processor, and a 5000mAh Massive Battery.
But what’s it like to use the realme C33 and is it worth the Php 7,499 price tag, but wait, you can avail it starting tomorrow for only P5779!
I’ve been testing it out for more than a week and brought it with me to a recent Tagaytay trip with my grandkids, and here are my thoughts about the realme C33.
Let’s start with the specs:
Display: 6.5-inch HD+ Display, 1600×720
Processor: Unisoc T612, 12nm
RAM/Storage: 4GB+64GB
Rear Camera: 50MP Main + 0.3MP Depth
Front Camera: 5MP
Network: 4G, LTE
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, GPS
Others: Side Fingerprint Scanner, 3.5mm Headphone Jack, Micro USB,
Battery: 5000mAh, 10W Fast Charging
OS: realme UI S Edition, Android 12
What’s in the box?
The realme C33 comes in the signature yellow-colored box of the brand and included in the package is the phone unit, quick guides, sim ejector pin, charging cable, and the wall adaptor. It doesn’t come with a jelly case and there is also no screen protector. While the absence of a jelly case is expected, I do wish they included a screen protector.
Design and buildThe realme C33 measures 164.2mm x 75.7mm x 8.3mm and weighs 187g. It’s the average size of today’s smartphones, sliding easily into your jeans pocket, and it’s still light enough to be used comfortably for long periods of time.
For the buttons and ports, you have the volume rocker on the right and the power button/fingerprint sensor directly below it. The fingerprint sensor works well and is easily reachable so unlocking the phone feels quite fast.
The triple card sim tray is on the left and it can accommodate two nano sim cards and an external microSD card. The main microphone, 3.5mm audio port, loud speaker and a disappointing micro-USB charging port are all located at the bottom.
At the back are two huge circles that house the rear cameras and a flash and beneath it is the simple realme branding. If this dual camera design looks familiar, its because other brands have used the same camera setup.
For its price of P7,499, the realme C33 comes in a sleek and elegant design. We have the Aqua Blue colorway but it’s also available in Sandy Gold and Night Sea. I do like the color that we have although I that Sandy Gold also caught my eye as it looks unique.
This Boundless Sea Design according to realme makes the back of the phone look like a whole boundless sea, with dynamic beams of light resembling water flowing in the sun, giving it a cool holiday seaside vibe. It does give of a really pleasing aesthetic.
This finish is undoubtedly one of the smartphone’s top features and you could easily mistake the shiny finish for glass even though it’s made of plastic.
While the back panel makes it look premium, the front is where you’ll notice a couple of budget-phone characteristics such as the outdated waterdrop notch and sizeable bezels.
For the display, it has a 6.55-inch HD+ LCD display, 1600×720 resolution with a Screen-to-body Ratio: 88.7% Touch Sampling Rate: 120Hz and displays 16.7M colors. Those numbers translate to a good-looking screen with decent brightness levels of around 400 nits making it ideal for indoor use.
Unless you’d compare this side by side with an AMOLED display most users would find this screen vibrant enough for watching movies, browsing the web, social media, Youtube Tiktok etc. The mono speaker also works okay as well.
CAMERAS
The realme C33 is equipped with a 50MP primary camera with a 0.3MP depth sensor. For selfies, it has a 5MP shooter front camera.
As I mentioned earlier, I brought the realme C33 with me to our Tagaytay trip to test out the cameras, and considering it is just an entry-level phone, I was quite surprised at the results.
In daylight, images looked good and makes everything more lively because of the punchy colors. The details are good with decent sharpness. As you can see in the sample photos it works best when your subject is just at the right distance. In low light, quality does suffer with lesser details and softness so it’s a good idea to use night mode to make the photos brighter.
As for the selfies I took, its average at best and exactly what you’d expect from a phone is this price range. If you want to take the best selfies make sure you have good lighting as the flash doesn’t help much. There is considerable separation when using portrait mode but it can be a hit or miss depending on your background. There’s some fun filters to play with and there’s several beauty mode options to help you look your flawless best.
PERFORMANCE
Throughout our testing, I didn’t have any complaints about the realme C33 performance. Everything felt snappy and responsive and I didn’t notice the load times when opening or closing apps. This is the first phone I tried that used a Unisoc T612, a 12nm chip and according to the specs it has two fast ARM Cortex A75 cores with clock speeds of up to 1.8 GHz and six power-efficient ARM Cortex A55 cores.
The 4GB of RAM is good enough for day-to-day use, just make sure to close the apps you don’t use and clear your cache every now and then to avoid lag and the occasional stutter. It also has 64GB of storage which I think is good enough for the average user and you could always add a microSD if you are running out of storage.
I’m not much of a gamer but I did lend it to my grand kid who installed some casual games. She said it works just “fine” I don’t think its for heavy gamers though.
As for the battery life, the 5000mAh capacity lasted me the entire day of our trip. It mostly involved taking photos, watching Youtube on our way to Tagaytay and checking out my facebook and insta. When I did need to charge it the included 10W charger took around 3 hours to reach 100 percent.
Conclusion:
IF you are looking for a phone that would impress without the pricey tag, the realme C33 is something you should consider. The three color options all look good, the display is clear and vibrant, the cameras can take nice photos, performance is snappy and the battery can easily last a day before you need to charge up.
To know more about realme’s latest updates, follow the realme PH Facebook page at http://facebook.com/realmePhilippines or visit the official realme website at https://www.realme.com/ph/.
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