Realme has dropped another budget-friendly phone in its C-series. The new C31 launched in Indonesia first and then in India on 31st March 2022. It is priced at approximately 23,999, which is quite reasonable but let’s see if the specs justify the price or not.
Design and Display
C31 has a glossy finish on the back with a camera module on the top left corner, and Realme branding on the bottom left. As given on the front, a water-drop notch comes in every budget phone. Although it is a budget-friendly phone, it has a premium and attractive design and feel.
This has become an essential feature in budget phones because competitors are constantly bringing in new and updated technologies; hence, keeping up with the market is good.
The front panel comprises a 6.5’’ IPS LCD with a 720p resolution. Corning Gorilla Glass protects the screen. Multitouch, 16M colours and ~270 PPI are extra features that makes the screen smooth and sharp. IPS LCD is a typical and expected display at this price range.
Camera
The camera module on the back holds the triple camera setup. A 13-megapixel primary lens, a 2-megapixel macro sensor, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor is integrated on the back. The camera result is below average, which captures smooth and unsaturated pictures. The colours are not sharp, and sometimes, the camera completely changes the colours in low light.
The front camera is a 5-megapixel sensor which is, again, not up to the standard. The primary camera can shoot a 1080p video at 30FPS. Although HDR is given, but the picture quality tells otherwise. The front camera can shoot a 720p video at 30FPS.
Interior
The phone comes in two variants; 3GB of RAM with 32GB of internal storage and 4GB of RAM with 64GB of internal memory. A microSD card is also given to expanding the internal storage. The chipset used is a Unisoc Tiger T612 and Mali-G52 MP2 GPU, which is unexpected at this price range.
Regarding the software side, it has Android 11 OS out of the box, and the UI is Realme UI 2.0. Realme should consider releasing a phone with Android 12 pre-installed.
Battery
This will be an excellent phone for heavy users as it has a 5000mAh battery, but no fast-charging option is available. It comes with a 10W charger. The battery will last more than a day even after heavy usage, which is a plus point.
Pros & Cons
The unique feature is the GPU which is not seen in this price range. Mali-G52 MP2 is an excellent entry-level GPU that can help users play games and multi-tasking. The drawback is the camera which is 13MP but feels like 5-8MP as the quality is not up to standard. However, because it is an entry-level phone, a few drawbacks can be ignored as the new features introduced in this model can compensate.