Oppo Realme 1 Review: We’ve been using it for a while, let’s see highs & lows

Oppo Realme 1 Review: Oppo has been doing some great things for a while now for the Indian market. From launching some great selfie focussed phones to increasing its offline presence, it has had a lot going for it. The latest addition to oppo’s stable is the Realme 1. With this device, Oppo has tried to challenge the big bad in the segment, the RN5 pro, but does it succeed? We have been using the realme 1 since its launch 1 month ago. Let see what inside.

Realme 1 Design

Smartphones in the segment have been just a rectangular slab of metal or glass or polycarbonate at best, the realme is no different, though it has a shiny, reflective Diamond Cut back to it which looks really different and pretty good.

The rest of the smartphone is almost plastic though and feels pretty good in the hand. The phone is pretty well built and has a good heft to it which feels reassuring. The phone doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor though, which is a bummer but there’s Face Unlock which is fast and will appeal to some.

The design though has grown on me since the last 1 month and I quite like how this looks. The phone has also suffered some falls during my time using it and this thing can take a beating.

Realme 1 Display

The realme 1 features a 6-inch FHD+ display with an aspect ratio of 18:9 which means fewer bezels and more screen. The display on the device looks good, has plenty of brightness indoors and is fine outside, Although the saturation level is a bit low to my liking. The near bezeless display and curved corners look good while consuming content such as video or playing games.

Realme 1 Performance

The realme 1 has great specifications matching the price of the device, the Helio P60 is available with 3, 4 or 6GB of RAM. The phone we had has 6GB ram and it didn’t disappoint in performance.

The phone flies during the day to day usage and the gaming on this thing isn’t half bad. However, the RAM management on the phone can be improved a lot as the software hogs over 4GB of RAM out of 6. That’s a lot.

The software experience on this thing isn’t remarkable either. The phone runs on colorOS running atop of Android 8.1 Oreo. The UI on this is iOS-like and not suited to my liking. You will take time to adjust to this of course, and after that everything should be just fine.

I wish Oppo chose stock android though, it’s a shame because the performance would have been a lot better. Although I could use the phone a lot better than when I started. There has been a software update on my device since the last four weeks which has made things a little better but Oppo is a bit sketchy in terms of updates so I have to warn you about that.

Realme 1 Camera

The realme 1 has a 13MP rear camera with the 8MP front camera. Oppo has opted for a single camera at the back as opposed to the trend of dual cameras.

But there is depth effect or “portrait” mode in both the cameras. The daylight shots on the phone are nothing to write home about, as they are decent in good lighting conditions and suffers in low light, having a lot of noise.

The images lack contrast and the dynamic range is also not all that good. Oh, and there’s no 4k recording too. The portrait shots are like everything available in the budget segment. The phone manages to blur out the background using just a single lens, which is impressive, but not Pixel 2 impressive.

The realme 1 camera did leave me slightly underwhelmed. The camera can be made better by updates though, which haven’t been received in abundance, just the one I mentioned earlier and it has made the camera a little better.

Realme 1 Battery

The battery on the realme 1 is 3410 mAh, which is significantly less than the ZMpro and the RN5 pro and it performs accordingly. The phone lasts a full day of medium to slightly heavy use. But the charging in this thing is quite slow, as it takes around 2.5 hours to fully charge. Well you win some you lose some I guess. The key point of focus is AI, the phone learns your usage habits and adjusts the battery and performance accordingly. The Battery on this device has performed a lot better than when I started using it and that is a good thing.

Verdict- Oppo Realme 1 Review

The realme 1 was an interesting device to use, During the past month I used it I have a lot of opinions about the phone, The day to day performance is excellent, the software has grown on me, although I still prefer stock android. The Fingerprint sensor was missed for a few days but the fast face unlock makes up for that. The battery is good but the cameras are sub par. The realme 1 served me well, but I think competitions give far more value for money and would serve you equally well, if not better.