Realme Narzo 10 Review | Technological news

Realme launched the Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A smartphones to target young people, especially those who value play style and performance above all. The company wanted to create a new sub-brand to emphasize these features and create a distinct personality for what would otherwise be just low-cost phones. The Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A are priced to achieve specific goals and are located below Realme 6. Today we will be looking at the Narzo 10, which is the more expensive of the two.

There aren't a lot of surprises to discover about this phone: Realme announced the Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A smartphones before the national blockade went into effect, but couldn't launch them now only because of the rules applied by coronaviruses to apply social distancing. which prevented any demotion. In addition to this, the Narzo 10 is already sold as Realme 6i in a few other countries, with a few touches specific to India.

We are interested to see what Realme has emerged and whether it really is an inexpensive gaming power that can take the latest news from Xiaomi and others.

Realme Narzo 10 Design

Although it is an economical phone, Realme has created a premium-looking design for the back. Narzo 10 is available in That Green and That White (sold in other countries as green tea and white milk). Both options have a vertical striped pattern on the back which seems to move from side to side when you move this phone to light. It reminds us of the Realme X Master Edition onion and garlic finishes, and in fact, they were all created by the same Japanese designer, Naoto Fukasawa.

It's nothing flashy like some of the gradations and patterns we've seen before, and it still gets attention. Our That White unit looks pretty cool and sophisticated, and if you're not a fan of color or pattern, you can always wear a holster. However, we would have liked something different for the camera module: Realme has recycled the same vertical stripe in the upper left corner for several generations.

The front of this phone is completely flat, with a teardrop notch at the top of the screen and a slightly thick chin below. The white unit has a matt silver frame, while the green version will have a matching green frame. The general appearance is very elegant for an economical smartphone.

The stripes on the back seem to move from side to side in the light

Thanks to its 20: 9 display, the Realme Narzo 10 is relatively tall and narrow, but it is also 9 mm thick and relatively heavy at 199 g. It is relatively easy to use and live, and the advantage of this weight is a 5000 mAh battery, which we will see shortly. We had trouble reaching the top of the screen when using th is phone with one hand. Fortunately, the back is not slippery at all.

Realme used Gorilla Glass 3 for the screen and there is a pre-applied screen protector, but it does not reach the edges of the glass, leaving the corners vulnerable. However, you have a plastic box in the box.

The Narzo 10 has a fingerprint sensor on the back, which we found a bit out of range. The power and volume buttons are well positioned on the right and left respectively. The removable tray has two Nano-SIM slots, as well as a microSD card slot. We are happy to see a USB Type-C port at the bottom, as well as a 3.5mm audio jack and a single speaker.

The general polishing of Realme Narzo 10 is quite impressive, considering its price of only Rs. 11,999. It doesn't look like a budget phone, but again, the entire segment is very competitive.

The screen protector does not reach the front edges.

Realme Narzo 10 specifications and software

The main attraction of this phone is its SoC MediaTek Helio G80, which is aimed at gamers. The Helio G series chips have powerful graphics capabilities built in, and this will be our first experience with the G80, although others in the series have proven to be effective in the past. It has two 2 GHz ARM Cortex-A75 cores for power and six other Cortex A55 cores for efficiency. MediaTek claims that it can dynamically manage the CPU, GPU and memory based on heat, energy and the demands of different usage scenarios.

Another interesting part of Realme's Narzo strategy is to launch this phone in a unique configuration, without variants. You only get 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, both of which are relatively generous. We like this approach because it avoids additional complications in the already crowded range of the business – there are already many other options at close prices.

The 6.5 inch screen has a resolution of HD + 720 × 1600 pixels. Some buyers may prefer a Full HD panel, and you can find them on other phones at this price point. However, for games, a lower resolution means less stress on the GPU, which could therefore be an advantage.

The main reason for the weight of the Narzo 10 is its 5000 mAh battery, which should be a bonus for users who do not want to shorten their gaming sessions. 18 W fast charging is supported and you get an 18 W adapter in the box, which is nice to see.

The power button is on the right, while the volume buttons and the SIM tray are on the left.

You won't find many of the latest connectivity standards, but we do have all the basics covered by 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, and GPS. All the usual sensors are listed, including a gyroscope which will be useful for games.

Realme includes this phone with Android 10 and version 1.0 of its Realme user interface, which is similar to ColorOS from sister company Oppo. It looks pretty cool and includes important Android features like digital wellness, but it still has a lot of customizations that will be familiar to Oppo phone users. These include a Game Space tool which aims to increase performance, App Cloner to allow you to use multiple accounts and various gestures.

You can use the smart sidebar of any application to multitask or quickly launch actions. There are several gesture navigation options, but Android 10 or 9 models aren't one of them. The calculator application can be run in window on other applications. The most interesting key is that it can spoof your call history, messages, contacts and calendar, so that apps that try to read your personal information become useless.

On the downside, there is a lot of bloatware even after choosing not to install a bunch of sponsored apps during the initial setup process. Fortunately, third-party applications are removable. We've also seen a lot of spam with deceptive or sensational clickable bait from Realme UI's default browser, before we even open it once. The browser itself is full of ads and, unfortunately, it cannot be deleted or disabled.

The four rear cameras are housed in a vertical pillar projection.

Realme Narzo 10 battery performance and autonomy

We found the Narzo 10 to be quite pleasant on a daily basis, but we were faced with very occasional tactile feedback issues, which gave the impression that the device did not want to do what we asked it to. . We also notice a little slowness when loading or closing heavy apps. However, 4 GB of RAM should be more than enough for most people's needs, and we had no problems with multitasking between daily applications.

Regarding the new MediaTek Helio G80, we found better benchmark performance than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 used in Realme 5 (test), but no match was found for the Snapdragon 720G on some phones. slightly more expensive. Surprisingly, the Helio G80 scored slightly better than the Helio G70 used in the Realme C3 (Review) and the Narzo 10A. AnTuTu gave us 202,637 points, and Geekbench's single-core and multi-core tests showed scores of 386 and 1,342 respectively. Graphics performance is supposed to be the strength of this SoC, and it scored 1,796 points in 3DMark Sling Shot Unlimited, as well as 31fps and 17fps respectively in the Manhattan 3.1 and Car Chase scenes of GFXBench.

We found the screen to be bright and sharp enough for gaming and video streaming. The colors aren't the most vibrant, but again, we have to remember the low price of the Realme Narzo 10. The single speaker is also suitable for games and casual video viewing, but you don't want it 39; use for music.

PUBG Mobile performed relatively well on the Alta setting, and we found the game to be fluid. We note that the upper back and top of the frame are quite grilled after less than five minutes, but one case should help people cope with this. Asphalt 9: Legends was also nice and we had no problems with stuttering or lag.

One of the best things about Realme Narzo 10 is its 5000mAh battery. In our experience, the phone lasted a full day of use, which included about an hour of games, the broadcast of a long-running movie, and very informal internet usage. . We ended up with more than 30 percent on the battery meter at the end of a full day. Our HD video loopback test lasted 25 hours and 31 minutes. For many buyers, this will more than offset the weight of the phone.

The Narzo 10 has a matte metal frame and feels well constructed

Realme Narzo 10 cameras

We have a quadruple rear camera configuration on this phone, showing how easily an economical phone can be designed to be top of the line. 2-megapixel 2-megapixel and macro depth sensors are now fairly common on all low-cost phones, so you won't feel like you're missing anything. However, they are of limited use, as we have seen on several occasions. Macros are smudged and rough, with a resolution limited to just 1600 × 1200 pixels, so this camera should be used more for fun than anything else.

Realme Narzo 10 macro photography sample (press to view full size)

However, the main 48-megapixel camera should not be so easily ruled out. The shots we took in the bright sunlight had many details and the exhibits were well balanced. However, we did notice a blurred and unstable concentration in several of our test samples. Of course, close-ups were better defined than landscapes. It may not be the type of camera you want to rely on to capture all your important moments, but it is good for such an inexpensive phone and will do the trick. for most occasional use.

Realme Narzo 10 standard day sample samples (top) and wide angle (bottom) (press to view in full size)

Even the 8 megapixel wide angle camera offers pretty decent shots as long as there is good lighting, but sometimes there was some distortion even around the middle of the frame. We have noticed duller colors and a more yellow tone in general, although some compromises are to be expected.

Realme Narzo 10 day photo samples (press to view full size)

Portrait mode seemed like our subject was missing completely when the effect was processed for the phone viewfinder, but the recorded images seemed more natural. Selfies were beatified by default and we did not like the aggressiveness of the softening effect of the skin. Narzo 10 will also try to make your face thinner and your eyes larger, and it takes a few presses to turn it all off. The selfies were good, but we weren't too impressed.

Night mode works with main and wide angle cameras, and it makes a little difference if you manage to stay still for five seconds each time you take a photo. There weren't many details and quite a bit of noise in most of our test photos. The wide angle camera should not be used at night as it simply cannot capture enough light to be useful. Overall, the low-light performance of the Narzo 10 didn't disappoint too much given its price.

Realme Narzo 10 photo samples in low light (above) and in night mode (below) (press to view in full size)

The video was not stabilized, and the quality was rough when we were walking during filming, but quite decent when we were stationary. The colors and movement are not so good, but the Narzo 10 works well enough for casual use. You can't change cameras while shooting video, but the quality of the wide angle camera is not excellent and we wouldn't want to use it much anyway. The video shot at night contained very few details.

The camera app is not one of our favorites – it takes at least three taps to access macro mode, and the wide angle camera is activated using a set of Zoom buttons ranging from Wide to 5X, although everything closer than 1X is done digitally via the main camera. There is scene recognition that recognizes cats and dogs, but it is unclear what effect this has on the settings of the camera. In macro mode, we were told to stay 4 cm from our subject to get the best focus, but there were no directions to zoom in or out, so we didn't know when our positioning was optimal . Other modes include 48MP Full resolution, Expert, Slow motion video, Panorama and Time lapse.

Verdict

Realme has injected fresh energy into the low-budget smartphone market. The Narzo 10 is not versatile, but it will meet the requirements of many people, especially the demographic target of young players on tight budgets. We think a little more focus on the quality of the camera would make people even happier, but Realme offers phones a little higher in the price range for those in need. Performance improves significantly compared to the previous generation of phones at this price point, and games are the natural application of a more powerful processor.

The battery life is clearly the greatest strength of the Realme Narzo 10. It is also quite attractive and well built. On the downside, the cameras aren't great, and we really don't like the hoarding of software and spam that we have had to deal with.

The Narzo 10 is a very strong competitor if your budget is limited to Rs. 12,000. If you can spend a little more, you could consider the Realme 6 (Review) and the Redmi Note 9 Pro (Review).