Realme 6i is the new Realme phone launched in the budget friendly segment and will be on sale from 31st July via Flipkart.Well Realme are on a phone launching spree it seems at this moment.It is almost as if a new week (day sometimes) a new phone.
The good thing is that they have not forgotten their roots and most of the launches are in the budget segment.Though sometimes it may be confusing for the customers.For example let’s take this new Realme 6i whose base price is Rs.12999 lies between Realme Narzo 10 and Realme 6 and all under Rs.15000.
To be honest Realme 6i is a rebranded Realme 6 with differences in battery and primary camera.The logic behind this move is obviously to keep all budget sections open.Realme 6 was a good phone and the 6i is following in the same footsteps.
Here’s a look at what this phone has to offer and also what is missing.
DESIGN AND BODY
Perhaps the most minimalist design on a Realme phone till date.The Realme 6i comes in two color variants,the Eclipse Black and the Lunar White.The black looks plain, though glossy with premium feeling, unless you tilt the phone to a certain angle and see a ray of light reflected on the back.The company claims it to be the new Optical Plating.
The front is Corning Gorilla Glass protected and the back is plastic.The phone is splash resistant. The dimensions are 162mm×74.8mm×8.9mm.The phone weighs 193g.
There is a quad camera module on the back and the front features a punch hole cutout.There is 3.5mm jack,mono speaker grill and the fingerprint sensor is side mounted over the power button.On the left edge is the sim tray with 3 slots for two sims and a micro SD card.
DISPLAY
Realme 6i sports a 6.5″ IPS LCD display with FHD+(1080×2400) resolution.The advertised screen to body ratio is 90.5% and the aspect ratio is 20:9.The highlighting feature though is the 90Hz refresh rate similar to that of the Realme 6.At the base price there are very few phones which offer you such smooth touch experience.
Also such refresh rate is ideal for games like PUB G or Call of Duty.A new feature called HyperBoost is present which boosts frame rates and touch response, specially for gaming.In other words no problem related to display if you are a gamer.
OS, PROCESSOR AND STORAGE/PRICE
Android 10 is the operating system with Realme UI slapped on top.Realme UI as you already know is a rebranded version of Oppo’s Color OS.But the noticeable thing in this phone is the absence of banned apps like Helo,CleanMaster etc.Well the ban is completely a Government decision but what is good for you will be no unwanted notifications from those pre installed apps, such a relief.Yes there are some pre-installed bloatwares which you can uninstall.
Undder the hood is the Mediatek Helio G90T chipset, a nice SoC for this price but not the best one obviously.It has an octa core processor (2×2.05GHz,6×2.0GHz) and the GPU is Mali G76 This is a capable chipset for gaming too but has an issue of overheating after long sessions approximately 45mins to 1hour.
Realme 6i comes in two variants- 4GB RAM+64GB internal storage and 6GB RAM+64GB internal storage.RAM is LPDDR4X and ROM is UFS2.1.There is also a dedicated slot for micro SD card and you can expand storage upto 256GB.
The price of the 4/64GB variant is Rs.12999 and that of the 6/64GB is Rs.14999.
CAMERA
REAR CAMERA
The first difference with the Realme 6 is in the form of the primary camera.The 6 had a 64MP main sensor while Realme 6i has a 48MP f/1.8 primary sensor.Rest cameras are identical which are a 8MP f/2.3 ultra wide sensor with 119° field of view,a 2MP f/2.4 macro sensor and a B/W depth sensor.Features like SuperNight Scape for low light photography is present along with HDR.
You don’t expect too much from a camera at this price range but overall outcome is pretty decent.4K videos at 30fps and 1080p videos at 30/60/120fps can be captured.UltraWide videos can also be shot thanks to the ultra wide sensor.
FRONT CAMERA
A 16MP f/2.0 punch hole front camera is housed which supports HDR.Beaty mode,Bokeh effects and Pano Selfie can be shot.Videos of 1080p at 30fps can be captured and slo-mo at 120fps too.
OTHER FEATURES
The fingerprint sensor is side mounted over the power button and is quite snappy.It is advertised to take 0.29s to work.Face unlock is also available.Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and USB Type C cable is supported.In addition there are features like HyperBoost which I have already mentioned before.
BATTERY
A big 4300mAH battery powers the Realme 6i and herein lies the second difference with Realme 6.It is advertised to support 30W fast charging which can charge from 0 to 100% in 55mins.But the glitch is you get only a 20W charger in the box.
CONCLUSION
Realme has targeted this budget segment with lots of phones and really you have a phone for every price point you can think of.Well speaking about the Realme 6i it has a beautiful display, decent cameras and a capable chipset in Helio G90T.
For me the best part is the battery but 90Hz can drain a lot of charge.For daily use I don’t think you need such high refresh rate and you can seize the option of switching to 60Hz.If and when you go for the high optimised games then you can make proper use of the high refresh rate.As for gaming I already mentioned that the Helio G90T is quite capable to handle any game obviously not in their highest resolution but the only issue is overheating after a certain time.
Rest you have to decide whether you want to buy this phone or not.Please let me know your thoughts on this phone in comments.