Realme is one of the top emerging brands in India that has launched the model Realme U1 to its recent series, challenging a market flooded with Honor and Xiaomi. Claimed to be a “Selfie Pro” smartphone, it’s the first smartphone to support MediaTek’s Helio P70 SoC, making it far more efficient and powerful than Helio P60, its predecessor. Starting at a price of INR 11,999, it will be competing with other sub 15,000 series like Redmi Y and Redmi Note 6 Pro by Xiaomi, Asus ZenFone etc. You can shop Realme U1 with Amazon Promo Code available to buy online.
Design –
It has 6.3 inch display, 1080×2340-pixel resolution, maximum brightness of 450nit, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on the front, round edges similar to Realme 2 Pro, rear matt and laminated finish to choose from, pre-applied screen guard and the display is slightly raised to distinguish it from the rest of the body. Thus, providing good grip and non-slippery rear, 8mm thick Realme U1 is comfortable and light, weighing 168g.
Sim tray is on the left side and it can hold two Nano Sims and one MicroSD card. With conveniently placed volume, power and button, it’s bottom has a Micro USB Port, 3.5mm headphone socket and a speaker grille, which will be blocked when the phone is placed horizontally for playing games and watching movies. The speaker grille’s placement and lack of USB Type-C is a disappointment.
Software –
Realme U1’s major highlight is MediaTek Helio P70 SoC and it provides up to 13% speedier performance. There are two variants available, one with 4GB RAM and storage of 64GB, and the other has 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage. Other features include a gyroscope, compass, Bluetooth 4.2, FM radio, USB-OTG, accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, GPS, GLONASS, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Dual 4G with dual VoLTE.
The phones use ColorOS 5.2, lacking some latest features, as Realme 2 Pro and has a recent security patch of October’18. Also, an update to Android Pie will be available in early 2019. The annoying two-step process needed for dismissing of notifications has been finally fixed and you can do that in this phone with just a right swipe.
The phone will come with pre-downloaded applications that can be un-installed it not required by the user. Gestures are provided for split screen mode, navigation and screenshots. Realme U1 will have Smart Scan, which will also support Hindi. This feature allows you to scan a text and that gets converted into editable text. You can scan and translate as well. The shoot and translate feature will allow you to take a picture of text and turn it into editable text.
Another interesting feature this phone provides is ORoaming, where a virtual sim card gets generated for using local data services of the countries you travel to without having to use international roaming or switch cards. The cost depends upon the countries and usually range from $11-$21 per week.
Camera –
Realme U1 has a front camera of 25-megapixel Sony IMX 576 sensor with an f/2 aperture. It is what we saw in Oppo F7. The AI beauty mode smoothens skin well. They provide a super vivid mode for people who like high saturated colored photographs. It will have a front camera bokeh feature. The depth feature makes the backgrounds blurred, giving you an 8-megapixel shot. The rear camera is a 13-megapixel sensor with f/2.2 aperture. You get HDR, Timelapse, Panorama, Portrait and Professional modes. Both the cameras capture great in daylight but the result isn’t very satisfying with dim lights.
The videos are 1080p with no electronic stabilization. The quality is decent and low light ones are less noisy. Another disappointment is that the camera can’t shoot 4k videos despite having a powerful SoC.
Battery –
Easily lasting a day with a full charge, Realme U1 comes with a 3500mAh battery. It comes with a 10W adapter but has no feature of fast charging.
Conclusion –
With a good battery and powerful internals, Realme U1’s 3 GB variant is a good choice amongst its competitors like Xiaomi Redmi Y2, for both of their front cameras struggle with low light. You can also order latest gadgets with Flipkart Coupon Code to shop online.
The 4GB variant is available for ₹14,999. Its first competitor is Realme 2 Pro, which has a 4k video recording feature and a better rear camera. So, for people preferring that should go for Realme 2 Pro. Other competitors are Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 and Redmi Note 6 Pro. Realme U1 lacks low light performance, video stabilization and its rear camera isn’t up to the mark. But with its good aesthetics, great daylight photography, strong battery, powerful processor, ORoaming and smart scan features, it is a good phone worth recommending.
