The C-series from realme have been known for its price-to-value ratio, making them a perfect fit for users transitioning from feature phones, first-time buyers, or for those who have a tight budget but needs a daily driver. This particular unit – the realme C25 with 4GB+128GB memory configuration in the Water Blue color variant, is a well-rounded phone built like a tank with an eye-catching price of P7,490.
Along with the new realme Buds Air 2 Series, this device will begin availability tomorrow, April 16, on Shopee’s Brand Day Sale. From April 16 to 18, realme fans will also get a P1,500 discount on the realme C25, and can score the device for only P5,990 with free shipping.
Diving into this new budget contender, it definitely offers some impressive features for an entry-level device. For a sub-P8,000 smartphone, users are already getting a large 128GB storage, a beefy 6000mAh battery with quick charge, a USB Type-C port, and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.
The device has a bulky design with a good grip in its back panel. Because of the texture, the realme C25 does not attract fingerprint smudges and looks pristine most of the time. The logo branding on the left lower side is subtle, the fingerprint sensor placement on the rear is at the right height when holding the device. But the rear camera tray is not one of the most appealing implementations we’ve seen.
On the right side are the tactile volume rockers which do not feel flimsy at all, and the same goes for the power button placed below it. The left side is not busy, only housing the dual sim tray with a dedicated microSDXC slot. At the bottom, users can spot a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Type-C port, and a speaker.
The 6.5” IPS LCD display has a 720×1600 resolution, and stretched out to this extent, it only produces around 270 of pixels-per-inch density. Although the viewing angles are good, and the color reproduction leaves nothing to write about, the display on the realme C25 is not the best panel for viewing content. This is especially true on the outdoors, where it struggles in its visibility.
Considering its price tag, the cameras on the smartphone are unsurprisingly unexceptional. It is underpowered in almost all areas in photography – from underexposed and overexposed photos, an ineffective phase detection auto focus, poor color reproduction, and a significant detail loss. Despite this, however, the stock camera app is well-optimized and has a snappy response all throughout.
Still, the body of the realme C25 is undeniably tough. It feels solid in the hand, and has quite a weight into it. When it comes to the battery life, the device can power through almost eight hours of continuous gameplay, and lasts for day with Web browsing and social media tasks. It charges from 0 to 100% in a little over an hour and a half.
The smartphone is equipped with a 12nm manufactured Mediatek Helio G70 paired with a Mali -G52 GPU. This octa-core processor uses a two Arm Cortex-A75 CPUs clocking at 2GHz and six Cortex-A55 CPUs clocking at 1.7GHz. The G52 GPU operates at up to 820MHz and supports 2520×1080 max resolution.
Based on the 3DMark Wild Life cross-platform benchmark that compares graphics performance through a one-minute test based on short bursts of intense activity with a 2560×1440 rendering resolution, the realme C25 is ranked at 376th. It follows the older realme 3 with a Helio P60 chip, the realme 3i, and the Oukitel C21. It performs better than the Nokia 8.1 equipped with a 10nm Snapdragon 710 processor. At a high rendering resolution, it can only put up an average frame rate of 3.60, with an overall score of 596, performing 81% below the average of all devices tested in Q1 2020.
The realme C25 also managed achieve a 374 single-core score and 1304 multi-core score on Geekbench. When it comes to single-core in comparison, the flagship Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has a score of 800 while the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 only scored 331. In multi-core scores, the same Samsung device scores 2687 while the Redmi Note 7 only manages a 1260 rating. The budget device also scored 1026 in OpenCL.
In real-world usage, it can run demanding mobile games like “Call of Duty: Mobile” and “Genshin Impact” on lowest settings. For popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) titles in the Philippines like “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” and “Marvel Super War”, the realme C25 is able to reach decent frame rates averaging at 28fps without significant heating. In the Work 2.0 performance test from PCMark, it scores a decent 8567 and performs best when it comes to photo editing tasks and Web browsing.
Conclusion
It’s easy to mistake the realme C25 as a midrange phone, if not for its price. Despite an underperforming camera and subpar display, the price-to-value ratio is almost unmatched at this point. For P7,490, it comes with a decent processor even for gaming, a large 6000mAh battery with quick charging through a USB Type-C port, a responsive fingerprint sensor, and 128GB of storage. Although photography is not its strongest suit, the realme C25 shines as an all-rounder phone for gaming and daily use.
Pros
- Long battery life
- Quick charging
- Decent gaming processor
- USB Type-C port
- Large storage
Cons
- Poor display
- Underperforming camera
