Realme C25Y review: yet another new entrant in the budget space

Realme’s barrage of smartphone launches is not going to end anytime soon, with the brand launching yet another device in the budget segment. The phone is called the Realme C25Y and is quite similar to the Realme C25 (review) and Narzo 30a (review) released earlier in the year. It is also priced at Rs 11,999 like the recently-announced Narzo 50a, which could lead to some confusion on how the brand intends to market it. The 50MP primary camera that has become prominent on several budget smartphones has made its way onto the Realme C25Y, and that’s a reasonable talking point in its favour. As far as chipset is concerned, Realme has gone with a Unisoc chipset instead of its usual MediaTek-branded silicone. Let’s find out in this review how good the device actually is.

Table of Contents

The lowdown

• The design of the C25Y is very reminiscent of the previous C series devices, all of which have a square camera housing besides which sits the fingerprint sensor. The textured finish keeps fingerprints at bay but doesn’t give a very good in-hand feel. The weight distribution on the device feels balanced, and the chassis is slightly thick, helping accommodate the 5,000mAh battery. On the bottom is a micro-USB port, which is a bummer considering that most smartphones have moved on to USB C. The front has an IPS LCD panel with HD+ resolution and a waterdrop notch at the top. The refresh rate is a standard 60Hz, and the panel has average brightness levels. There does appear to be a bluish tint on the screen by default although it can be changed through the display settings. Ther’s no WideVine L1 certification, which means no HD content on OTT platforms.

• Optics seem to be the main highlight of the C25Y or at least the primary 50MP shooter does. The 2MP macro and B&W sensors might not find usage in day-to-day scenarios. On the front, the phone packs in an 8MP selfie shooter. In general, the C25Y is a decent image capturing device when the conditions are bright and sunny. Details are sharp, the colours look natural, the dynamic range is acceptable and overall, its capabilities are identical to the Narzo 50a. Low-light shots make the sensor struggle a bit and focus speeds are quite slow. There is noise visible in the shadows and the dedicated Night mode does not make a very good effort to clean it up. Macro photos are quite oversharpened and work poorly if the lighting is not ample. The selfie shooter takes acceptable shots with surprisingly accurate skin tones.

• Unisoc’s T610 SoC is the brains behind Realme C25Y’s processing power. It is a 12nm chipset with two Cortex A75 cores and six Cortex A55 efficiency scores. The device scores are a bit low in benchmark tests as compared to the MediaTek Helio G85 that power the Narzo 50a. However, in terms of operability, both devices demonstrate reasonably good performance capabilities for their price. You cannot, of course, play any GPU-intensive games on the C25Y as the chipset is not built for intensive gaming.

• The fingerprint sensor works well and the speakers could have been better. The earpiece, microphone, and 4G functionality on the device are all up to the expected standards. In terms of software, Realme UI comes loaded on the device, and takes a few cues from Google’s stock Android… although there is still a bloatware problem. The 5,000mAh cell on the device has an 18W charging solution that uses the device’s micro-USB port. In my usage, I was able to get more than a day of work from the device while the battery can be fully charged in about 2 hours.

Final verdict

The Realme C25Y seems to be a slightly downgraded version of the Narzo 50a and is actually priced at Rs 500 more. It does seem odd, given that the former is clearly short on a few key specs such as battery, a USB C port, and a better processor. The C25Y has the same primary camera and the same macro and depth sensors as the Narzo 50a. The only difference is that for the Rs 11,999 starting price, you are getting 128GB of storage as compared to 64GB on the Narzo 50a, but both phones do have support for a microSD card. If the internal storage is important and you don’t mind the switch back to micro-USB, the Realme C25Y could be worth a look.

Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5

Pros:

• Capable primary camera
• Satisfactory performance
• Reasonable battery life

Cons:

• Confusing price
• Uses micro-USB port
• Display could be better