Realme C51 Review: Your typical budget phone!

Well, hello there! I am back again with a review of another budget smartphone — the Realme C51! I would like to once again remind you that I am not a fan of this segment. However, after reviewing the Honor X6a, I am much more open to budget phones like these. Additionally, Realme has been making waves with its recent midrange and premium-midrange offerings. So, I was quite curious to see how they do on the affordable end. Well, let's explore that in this review of the Realme C51! First, let's go on with the specs:

Realme C51 Specifications

• Design: Two-textured design with a flat all-plastic body
• Dimensions: 167.67 mm x 66.70 mm x 7.99 mm
• Weight: 186 grams
• Display: 6.74” IPS LCD Panel, 90Hz Refresh Rate, 180Hz Touch Sampling Rate, 560 nits peak brightness, 16.7M colour depth
• Resolution: HD+ (720 x 1600)
• Chipset: Octa-core Unisoc Tiger T612 (12nm)
• GPU: Mali-G57
• RAM: 4 GB + 4 GB extendable
• ROM: 64 GB or 128 GB + 2 TB expandable with MicroSD card
• OS & UI: Android 13 with Realme UI T Edition on top
• Rear Camera: Dual Camera (50 MP Primary + Unspecified Depth Sensor)
• Front Camera: 5 MP Camera (Centre-aligned waterdrop cutout)
• Security: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, Face Recognition
• Sensors: Magnetic Induction sensor, Light sensor, Proximity sensor, Gyrometer, Acceleration sensor
• Navigation: GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, Galileo
• Battery: 5,000 mAh cell with 33W SUPERVOOC charging
• Connectivity: Dual SIM, 4G LTE, Dual-band WiFi with WiFi Direct, Bluetooth v5.0, USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Colour Options: Mint Green, and Carbon Black
• Buy Realme C51 here

My unit is a Mint Green variant with a 4 GB + 64 GB configuration. This handset retails for NPR 15,999 and comes with a silicone case, charging cable, and a power brick included in the box.

Realme C51 Review

Design and Build

• Dimensions: 167.67 mm x 66.70 mm x 7.99 mm
• Weight: 186 grams
• Material: All plastic build

The Realme C51 comes in this weird two-textured design that is kind of hit or miss. I asked a few of my colleagues for their opinions on how they liked the design of this phone. Some of them liked it, and some of them did not. I don't particularly like it — fond of the glittery bottom, but the glossy portion — not so much. The phone is on the leaner end, so despite its flat design, it is quite comfortable to hold. The silicone case you get alongside the phone is also two-textured and grey in colour. I think this colour might help against the annoying tanning problem that plagues the clear cases. All in all, I think it's alright.

Display

• 6.74” IPS LCD Panel, HD+ (1600 x 720)
• 90Hz Refresh Rate, 180Hz Touch Sampling Rate, 560 nits peak brightness, 16.7M colour depth

Moving on to the screen, it is decent. Not as punchy and vibrant as I would like, but it's good enough that I can live with it. The bezels are present, but you get used to it with time. Thanks to the 90Hz refresh rate on this phone, scrolling around feels smooth and fluid. I did not feel any noticeable stutters, but, the image quality sure is grainy. The photos on social media look low in quality — even when they are not. The images look flushed out and lack details. What I found surprising was the haptic feedback on the phone, which is quite nice, in my opinion.

Performance

• CPU & GPU: Octa-core Unisoc Tiger T612 (12nm) + Mali-G57
• Memory and Storage: 4 GB + 64 GB + 4 GB extended RAM
• OS & UI: Android 13 with Realme UI T Edition on top

Now let's talk about the engine of the device. The phone comes with a chip that a lot of people have not even heard about. And Realme themselves are keeping it under wraps — by not mentioning what chipset they are running on in any of their promotional material. Despite all the secrets surrounding the processor, Realme C51's performance is actually pretty good. There aren't any issues during regular usage — the phone handles it quite well. So, to put the phone to the test, I turned back to the same three trusted games of mine — Candy Crush Saga, Dream League Soccer, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. I'll skim through the results with this one. There were no issues with Candy Crush. I could play Dream League Soccer on High graphics settings on 60 FPS. Meanwhile, for Mobile Legends I had to stick with the the lowest graphics. All in all, I could properly play all these games on this phone. It's a WIN for me! Don't forget to extend your RAM though! Because there is a considerable difference in the performance of your phone when you have your RAM boosted, compared to when you don't. I did find the Realme C51 struggling in one particular area but first, let's talk about the...

UI

This is clearly where Realme has cut corners to keep the price of the C51 down. Because — MY LORD — is this phone LOADED with ads and bloatware! Starting with the homepage there's a handful of bloatware. Open up your app drawer, and more bloatware. It's so rampant that you'll get an ad after you install an app from the Play Store! WILD! But, it's not something unheard of. You kind of expect this behaviour from budget phones in general. And you learn to live with it over time anyway, so there's that. Now that's out of the way — the UI in itself — it's pretty nice. You get this “Mini Capsule” feature with the Realme C51, which is a knock-off of Apple's Dynamic Island. As of now it only displays three things: charging status, data usage, and daily steps. It isn't much but it looks kind of cool, not gonna lie. But at the end of the day, it's just a gimmick and isn't a valuable addition to the phone in any way.

Camera

• Rear Camera: 50 MP Primary + Unspecified Depth Sensor
• Front Camera: 5 MP Camera

In terms of camera, the Realme C51 does a decent job. The camera app is minimal and quite nice. But one feature, in particular, caught my attention — the aperture slider, which really comes in handy when taking portrait shots.

Daytime

The daytime images are pretty decent with sufficient details and a warmer tone. The phone has to work hard in HDR conditions, and even then it might not produce satisfactory results. Additionally, the images can be a little overprocessed at times. But that isn't always the case — more often than not, it does a decent job.

Portrait

Remember me telling you that I found this phone struggling a little earlier? Yes, this is where the phone struggles. It takes its sweet time to process portrait shots. Moreover, the edge detection in this phone is pretty poor.

Night shots

The night shots lack the details and look a bit grainy. Expecting a good night shot from a budget phone is unfair anyway, so I'll let it pass. The Realme C51 offers a “Night Mode” which takes a little longer than usual to capture a photo and produces a more vibrant result compared to a regular shot.

Selfies

The selfies look nice on the get-go, but you'll notice the lack of details once you zoom in. The details deplete even more with portrait shots. Realme C51's edge detection remains as bad as it was on the rear camera. Lastly, on the video side of things, the back camera captures videos at 1080p@30fps. Meanwhile, the front camera caps out at 720p@30fps. The video quality is pretty standard, nothing unexpected going on here.

Battery

• Battery: 5,000 mAh cell
• Charging: 33W SUPERVOOC charging

Talking of the powerhouse of the Realme C51 — it's a 5,000 mAh cell — pretty standard these days. Furthermore, it is coupled with a chipset that prioritises battery life. As a result, a full day of usage should be no problem for this phone. And talking of the charging, the Realme C51 can juice up pretty fast with the 33W charger it ships with it. During my test, the phone charged from 3% to 100% in about 1 hour and 12 minutes. And say, if your battery is low and you need to head out shortly, a 15-minute charge should provide enough power to prevent the Realme C51 from dying on you.

Realme C51 Review: Conclusion

To conclude this review of Realme C51, I must say it is an average phone that doesn't do anything exceptionally well to stand out from the crowd. On the flip side,  it doesn't do anything so poor that I would ask you to steer clear from it either. So, as a device for general usage and casual gaming, the Realme C51 can be the right pick for the right kind of buyer. However, I don't think this phone is the bang-for-buck deal you would be looking for. Something like the Redmi 12 is still a better offering at a similar price bracket. But the difference isn't a lot, so you won't miss out on much with this phone either. Nonetheless, do check out our list of best smartphones under NPR 20,000 to see if any other devices in a similar price range will suit your taste better.

Realme C51: Pros and Cons

Pros

• Good Performance
• Good Battery
• Fast Charging

Cons

• Rampant ads and bloatware
• Poor edge detection on photos
• Subpar screen quality