realme 5 Review: A Very Capable Quad Camera, 4 Real!

realme 5 spearheads the trend of affordable quad rear camera phones with bigger batteries in the country. From the looks of it, the realme 5 is set to grab more users in the Philippine smartphone market. If you're toying with the idea of upgrading to this phone, we probably have many information to share about the popular handset in this review. Read on.

realme 5 Review

Design

The realme 5 backing is something to look at. From a distance, it looks like a diamond panel which reflects an ample amount of light making it dazzle on your hands. realme calls this Crystal Purple, at least by our Review unit's color standards.

The smartphone back panel is made of plastic, thus it is prone to fingerprints and smudges - it would help if you'll immediately put that clear case that comes out of the box. But still, it's one of the most visually pleasing phones from the company. The realme 5 is quite on the heavy side- this makes sense since it crams a whopping 5,000 mAh of battery inside.

Related: realme 5 Unboxing, First Impressions

The backing is also a home to the fingerprint sensor and the four cameras. The right side comes with the power button while the left side has the volume rocker and the SIM tray.

Display

It touts a ginormous 6.5-inch screen with a shabby HD+ display. The display is definitely its Achilles heel. This combination of larger display and low resolution makes it easier for users to spot pixels. The panel is color accurate, though. And the fact that the handset is priced in as low as PHP 6,990, I could not complain more. The screen also comes with a pre-installed plastic screen protector.

I used the realme 5 for streaming videos with high brightness; it turns out that it could still be a great phone if you're into Netflix or similar apps. The larger 6.5-inch display also makes the waterdrop notch negligible. I have no complaints using the smartphone outdoors, even under direct sunlight.

Performance: Gaming, Antutu Benchmark

Using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chipset with up to 4GB RAM, it's fair to say that the realme 5 is a reliable device when it comes to computing needs. The Snapdragon 665 is Qualcomm's 3rd generation AI chipset fabricated in 11-nm process. It's definitely an upgrade to the Snapdragon 660 which powers most of the best-selling mid-range handsets today.

The realme 5 is a solid phone for common daily activities - emails, social media browsing, video playback, calling, and messaging. It's also a great phone for popular gaming titles like Mobile Legends and PUBG Mobile. You'd expect that overall performance is quite fluid expect for some graphic-hungry games.


In our Antutu Benchmark test, the realme 5 scored 138,763 which is a great score for smartphones under Php 10K. I did not have an issue taking calls with realme 5 even when using the phone in closed spaces. The loudspeaker could also suffice for video streaming and playback.

Software

The realme 5 boots with Android 9.0 Pie with Color OS 6.0.1 on top, which the handset shares with OPPO smartphones. This brings a whole lot of customization to Android. I always love Color OS' functional Notification shade. Icons are more rounded and simple. There's also a Smart Assistant feature which I rarely use.

The software offers fairly useful features like Private Space, Digital Wellbeing and Parent Controls, and Game Space. The three-finger screenshot gesture is definitely very convenient and I use it a lot.

Cameras

There's no denying the fact that the realme 5's marquee feature is its camera. In fact, it's the first smartphone under Php 10K to pack a rear quad-camera module. On paper, this module is made up of 12MP main camera, 8MP ultra-wide lens, 2MP macro sensor, and 2MP portrait camera. Let's talk about these sensors one by one.

The main 12MP camera has an aperture of f/1.8. We are quite happy with most of the shots taken using this camera. It has a great dynamic range; color saturation are also great. I am also impressed by how fast it captures images upon my actual tap on the shutter button. Using Chroma Boost improves photos by a mile.

On the other hand, the wide-angle camera is an 8MP sensor with f/2.25 aperture and 119-degree field of view. It's great in capturing wide shots, but it produces lower quality photo than the one taken with the primary camera. Check out sample photos using the main camera and then followed by the Ultrawide camera below.

realme 5 Main Camera

realme 5 Ultrawide Camera

realme 5 Main Camera

realme 5 Ultrawide Camera

The macro camera can be accessed in "Ultra Macro" mode. When triggered, it'll give you a disclaimer that the best quality will be in 4-cm distance. This means that the macro lens have a fixed focus at 4cm. With great lighting, you can get great outputs using this fun feature.

realme 5 Macro Camera Sample

Lastly, the 2MP portrait sensor is just a rebranded depth sensing camera. This kicks in when you're in portrait mode. Compared to realme 3, the realme 5 improves a lot in this feature. Background separation is quite clean.

realme 5 Portrait Camera Sample

The Nightscape mode is still the most popular feature. realme 5's implementation of long exposure shots gave us vibrant images with good clarity in low-light.

realme 5 Nightscape

realme 5 Nightscape

Lastly, the selfie camera is also a great tool for social media selfie. It also comes with a portrait feature which could still do great background separation, even in low-light.

Selfies and Selfies in Portrait Mode
You can check out more sample photos in their original quality here.

Battery

There's a 5000 mAh battery which makes the handset a tad thicker than its predecessor. Once you get used to its heft, it will be magic. The realme 5 could definitely last more than a day. For our light to moderate use, the handset could last up to two days.

The Wrap

The realme 5 is definitely worth-considering if you're in the market for a phone that can deliver performance and camera versatility, in fact it checks most of the boxes a budget phone could have. For it's PHP 6,990 starting price, the handset is definitely easy to recommend. It even transcends to the mid-range category when it comes to specific specs like the quad-camera and humongous 5,000 mAh battery.

Highlights

1. Versatile Quad Rear Camera
2. Insanely long-lasting battery life
3. Good looking smartphone
4. Affordable Price

Lowlights

1. Somewhat thick and heavy phone
2. The HD+ display left us wanting for more

realme 5 Specs

Display: 6.5-inch, 19:9 Aspect ratio, IPS LCD screen
Screen Resolution: 720 x 1520 px (HD+)
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 665
RAM: Up to 4GB
Storage: Up to 128GB
MicroSD support: Yes, up to 256GB (dedicated)
Rear Quad Camera: 12MP wide+8MPultra wide+2MP macro+2MP portrait, PDAF
Features: Nightscape, Hybrid HDR, Chroma Boost, Portrait Mode
Front Camera: 13MP with AI Beautification, AI Facial Unlock
Connectivity:
   4G LTE
   Triple Slots / dual nano-SIM
   Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n, 2.4GHz
   Bluetooth 4.2
   GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS
   Micro-USB, OTG
   3.5mm Audio Jack
Sensors: E-Compass, Light, Proximity, Gravity, Accelerometer, Fingerprint
OS: Android 9 Pie with ColorOS 6.0
Battery: 5000mAh Li-Po, non-removable (5V 2A)
Colors: Crystal Blue, Crystal Purple
Price:
Php 6,990 (3GB RAM + 32GB ROM)
Php 7,990 (3GB RAM + 64GB ROM)
Php 9,990 (4GB RAM + 128GB ROM)
Previous Post Next Post