The new lineup for the Realme number series is here, the Realme 6i is the successor of the famous budget king – Realme 5i. If we look at the specs sheets there’s not much of a difference from its predecessor, it still has the same display, battery capacity, and overall hardware placements. But the two needed hardware that were improved is visibly present, the main camera and performance. The question is, however, if the changes and improvements worth it?
Also Read: Why You Should (and Shouldn’t) Buy the Realme 6i
Table of Contents
Pros
- Large Battery Capacity
- Capable Camera Setup
- Performance Boost
- Budget Midrange
Cons
- 720P Screen Resolution
- Plastic Back
- Mixed night shooting results
Realme 6i Specification
- Design
-
-
- Glass Front
- Plastic Back
- Splash resistant
- 199g
-
-
- Display
-
-
- 6.5″ IPS LCD
- 720 x 1600 (270ppi)
- Gorilla Glass 3
- 16M Color, 82.3% STB ratio
-
-
- Performance
-
-
- Mediatek Helio G80
- Octa-core
- Mali-G52 MC2
- 3GB-4GB LPDDR4x RAM
- 64GB-128GB eMMC 5.1 Storage (expandable via MicroSD)
- Android 10.0; Realme UI
-
-
- Camera
-
-
- 48MP f/1.8 (main lens); PDAF
- 8MP f/2.3, 13mm (ultrawide)
- 2MP f/2.4, (macro)
- 2MP f/2.4, (depth)
- 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS
-
-
- Selfie Camera
-
-
- 16MP, f/2.0 (wide)
- 1080@30fps
-
-
- Battery
-
-
- 5000mAh
- 18W Fast Charging
-
-
- Connectivity
-
-
- LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 5.0
-
-
- Features
-
-
- Gyroscope, Fingerprint (rear-mounted), Face Unlock
-
-
- Colors
-
-
- White Milk, Green Tea
-
-
- Price
-
-
- P7,990 (3gb/64gb)
- P9,990 (4gb/128gb)
-
-
Why Design Matters?
The back of the Realme 6i was design by Naoto Fukasawa, the famous designer behind the Realme X Master Edition. He is known for his designs that are inspired by nature and technology and a harmonious relationship between the user and the device. The back of the Realme 6i has a silky matte texture and it has a holographic line that feels like it has a depth which is very unique and surprising. It also has a fingerprint scanner on the back, quad-camera module, volume keys on the left, and power key on the right, down below is the typical set-up with a USB Type-C port plus with the headphone jack.
Check out: Realme 6 and Realme 6 Pro – Everything You Need to Know
There is something unique in the design of the Realme 6i. There are only 2 color variants, the White Milk and Green Tea. At first glance, the green looks like a suitcase while the White Milk looks like a Tide detergent bar. But if we look closely, the back of the green version looks like banana leaves, though the white milk doesn’t have a matching object rather than a laundry soap bar, they are both representing purity and healthy skin.
Why 720p?
The display is a 6.5-inch 720P IPS LCD, It has good contrast and vibrant colors, although it is only in 720p which is not ideal for the 2020 smartphone screen. But if we analyze what’s wrong and what’s not, games that are running at FHD+ or 1080p resolution needs a better process to run in high/max settings. So basically, it’s a sacrifice to run games in max settings in this budget sub-10k smartphone. You will also notice that it has larger bezels, especially at the bottom part. But the build is great it is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and also splash resistant. In summary, the outstanding features in the display are the large 6.5″ Dewdrop screen.
Have a look: Xiaomi Redmi Note 9: Specs, Features, Price, and Release Date
Camera
Realme 6i has a quad-camera set-up, it still consists of the 5i camera combo, but with a larger megapixel on the main lens.
The main lens is sharp and crisp thanks to its 48MP lens, colors are accurate and true to life. The normal shot is binned down at 12mp but we can enable the 48mp mode in the camera app if you want to take photos at full maximum resolution. You can also shoot at decent 2x zoom, and with an acceptable 5x digital zoom. If you will notice the scenes in every photo, every time either, sunrise, sunset, or direct sunlight, the AI is great to detect the auto scene placement which is good for accurately capturing the white balance. This will aid the user to capture more color-accurate photos.
Turning on both HDR and Chroma Boost will give you the best result. It has a balanced exposure, more color saturation, and even depth and texture details.
Shooting in the night time especially in low light is not the best option in the Realme 6i but with decent lighting, it is still acceptable. It also has a night mode to enable brighter images and if you’re not satisfied with the results you can try to shoot long exposure shots in the expert mode, it captures 16-second shutter speed and up to 1600 ISO.
Moving on to the 8MP Ultrawide sensor, it captures a 119-degree viewing angle with not as sharp as the 48MP lens but with natural colors and brighter exposure.
Turning on HDR mode and Chroma Boost in ultrawide will give you more balance exposure, depth, and boosted colors.
Next, we have the 2MP Macro lens that captures tiny details. Although it is not so useful in daily needs if you are a mobile photographer having the macro lens is somehow gives flexibility in terms of mobile photography.
The last lens will be the 2MP B/W Portrait lens, which blurs the background with accurately sharp edges. The portrait lens really gives depth and good at separating the background from the subject.
Switching to the front camera, it has a 16MP F/2.0 selfie shooter, the colors of the skin tone is decent it has a bokeh slider to adjust the amount of blurriness in the background and the AI separation in the edges is pretty accurate as well. Beauty mode was applied and even it smoothens my skin the AI applied Sharpening to make it look more natural.
Video Recording
Realme 6i only records 1080p 60fps footage, this is a little downside for mobile filmmakers since the 5i can shoot up to 4K@30 frames although it’s acceptable in some users since we are still in the 1080p era.
Also Read: Realme 5i – Enough for Gaming?
Performance
Under the hood is a Mediatek Helio G80 Octa-core processor with 4GB of ram and 128GB internal storage that expands via microSD card. The new G-Series line up of Mediatek somehow delivers better heat anticipation. We already tested their 2 new processors which are the G70 and G80 and we noticed some improvement in managing the heat problems. What the downside is the performance versus battery life ratio since using the full potential of the chipset will easily drain the battery. But the good thing is that Realme 6i has an 18W quick charge thus nearly compensating between the power and battery life to give more satisfaction and comfortability. If you want to watch our in-depth gaming review of Realme 6i click here.
Next, we have the latest OS inside the chipset, Android 10.0 with Realme UI on top. Realme’s latest OS has a dark mode feature, smart sidebar, raise to wake function, double-tap to sleep function, 3 fingers screenshot, split-screen, and many more. Everything works smoothly and even though it is not the most powerful device out there we can say it can provide you great user experience.
Battery
As mentioned in the performance section, Realme 6i has an 18W quick charge powering the 5000mAh battery. The battery can last for a day or so with the typical daily usage, and 4-6hrs with the boosted performance plus playing graphic-intensive games. The 18W power brick can juice-up the battery within 50 minutes at 50% capacity.
Audio
As for the audio, it has a down-firing speaker underneath, and it is not as loud as other smartphones but it gives crisp, decent, and a little bassy sound.
Overall
The Realme 6i’s price to performance ratio is pretty impressive. It is the first sub Php10,000 smartphone to hit 200k points in the Antutu benchmark. And although there are some inconsistencies in the software like the optimization in some games, it still gives an immersive experience. Realme 6i price starts at P7,990 for 3gb/64gb and P9,990 for 4gb/128gb. Compared to the budget king (Realme 5i), adding a thousand pesos will give you essential upgrades like a better camera, better performance, and better charging.
If you’re looking for the best budget mid-range phone to buy, then the Realme 6i is the no. 1 option especially the P7,990 model as it offers the best value for your money.
Next Article: Oppo Reno 3 Full Review – Downgrade or Upgrade?
i just bought this, the night mode is just plain horrible, i have realme 3 and it has a better night mode, realme 3 was relased last march 2019, a new phone like realme 6i should have better night shooting right?