Folks in search of a brand new price range smartphone have many choices to select from at present. The sub-Rs. 20,000 and sub-Rs. 15,000 smartphone segments have been seeing unbelievable developments these days, with firms launching extra units with 5G functionality, larger batteries, AMOLED shows, and extra. Nevertheless, the sub-Rs. 10,000 worth phase shouldn’t be missed because it has gotten some respectable additions in latest months.
One of many latest launches is from Realme’s C collection, referred to as the Realme C31. It options a lovely and slim design, a 5,000mAh battery, and a triple-camera setup on the rear. The Realme C31 is a part of the identical collection because the Realme C35 (Review), however is priced decrease as a way to enchantment to patrons with a price range of below Rs. 10,000. Is the Realme C31 well worth the asking worth, and is there extra to this smartphone than simply the seems to be? Discover out on this assessment.
Realme C31 worth in India and variants
The Realme C31 is obtainable in India in two variants. The bottom variant launched at Rs. 8,999 in March 2022 however as of this assessment, its worth has elevated barely to Rs. 9,299. This variant comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, whereas the upper variant comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and is priced at Rs. 9,999. The cellphone is obtainable in Mild Silver and Darkish Inexperienced colors. I obtained the mannequin with 4GB of RAM for this assessment.
Realme C31 design
The Realme C31 seems to be and feels good within the hand for a tool that’s priced at below Rs.10,000. The Mild Silver color provides the cellphone a really refined look. Proper off the bat, I seen that the cellphone is kind of tall once I first held it. The again panel of the C31 sports activities a triple-camera setup which protrudes a bit of, making the cellphone wobble when positioned on a desk. The polycarbonate again seems to be fairly minimalistic, with an attention-grabbing texture for all the panel, aside from the digicam module. The textured again doesn’t simply entice fingerprints, and doesn’t choose up scratches very simply both.
The Realme C31 seems to be fairly fashionable for a price range smartphone
The facility button on the Realme C31 is on the precise facet, and it additionally has a fingerprint sensor embedded in it. I didn’t have any points comfortably reaching the fingerprint sensor because the energy button is positioned nicely and sits in a bit of groove. The left facet of the cellphone has the SIM card slot and quantity buttons. The again panel homes the speaker grille. Personally, I’m not an enormous fan of this speaker placement because it hinders the sound output every time the machine is positioned on a flat floor.
The underside portion of the Realme C31 homes a 3.5mm headphone jack, main microphone, and a micro-USB port. Realme ought to have offered a USB-Kind C port as a substitute, contemplating that older telephones such because the Micromax In 2B (Review) supplied it in the identical worth vary. You get a 10W charger within the field, however no protecting case.
The Realme C31 has a 6.5-inch HD+ LCD show with a waterdrop-style notch on the highest that homes the entrance digicam. The show has comparatively skinny bezels, however the backside chin is a bit chunky. The show has a typical 60Hz refresh charge. The C31 weighs 197g which is a bit on the heavier facet, though I didn’t really feel any discomfort whereas utilizing it with one hand as the load appears to be distributed nicely.
Realme C31 specs and software program
The Realme C31 is powered by a Unisoc T612 SoC, which is predicated on the 12nm fabrication course of. It’s an octa-core processor with a clock pace of as much as 1.82GHz. The in-built storage is of the UFS 2.2 normal, which we do not see too typically on this worth phase and it is good that Realme went with this. The C31 can assist two nano-SIM playing cards and a microSD card for further storage, concurrently. The storage is expandable by as much as 1TB.
As for connectivity, the Realme C31 helps 4G/LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, and solely 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. I confronted some points with Wi-Fi on my unit, because the C31 saved disconnecting from my router a number of occasions even once I was in the identical room.
The Realme C31 runs on Realme UI R version, which is a extra fundamental model of the common Realme UI. This light-weight model is geared to optimise efficiency on lower-end units. Sarcastically, Realme nonetheless ships the machine with a number of bloatware apps resembling Fb, Josh, Paytm, Sharechat, and others, though you possibly can uninstall these apps if wanted.
My unit was working Android 11 with a safety patch from March 2022 once I first started utilizing it a month in the past. Nevertheless, I did obtain an OTA replace with the April safety patch lately. The UI seems to be and feels so much just like the vanilla model of Realme UI, however with minor changes right here and there and never a whole lot of room for customisations. For example, Realme UI R version didn’t permit me to customize icons, transitions and even layouts for the apps on the house display screen.
The Realme C31 sports activities a 6.5-inch HD+ LCD show
I discovered the UI simple and simple to make use of. All the required settings and fast actions have been simple to succeed in. The C31 additionally comes with ‘Good Controls’ which contains some nifty options resembling Good wake, Good movement, Pocket mode, and extra. The machine doesn’t include a devoted gallery app, so you will should both use the preinstalled Google Photographs app or obtain a third-party one.
Realme C31 efficiency and battery life
The Realme C31 didn’t give me any hassle in my day-to-day utilization. Nevertheless, I seen some minor stutter within the animations whereas opening the notification bar when apps resembling WhatsApp and Instagram have been pushing out a number of alerts. Scrolling by the UI and switching between apps was not a difficulty for the machine. The Realme C31 provides two biometric authentication choices, fingerprint unlock and face recognition. The previous was decently fast, whereas the latter was a tad slower than anticipated.
As for efficiency, the Realme C31 managed to attain 197,830 in AnTuTu and produced a rating of 339 and 1279 in Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core exams, respectively. It additionally scored 7,348 within the PCMark Work 3.0 take a look at. These numbers weren’t significantly nice and a few of them have been a bit decrease than Realme’s personal C25 (Review) which launched a 12 months in the past with the MediaTek Helio G70 SoC.
Except for the weak benchmark scores, video games ran fantastic on the Realme C31 for probably the most half. I performed a bunch of titles starting from BGMI, Call of Duty: Mobile, to PES 2021, Asphalt 9 Legends, and extra.
In my expertise, Name of Responsibility: Cellular ran decently nicely with low graphics settings and low body charges. Bumping up the graphics to medium and excessive body charges pushed the machine to a degree the place gameplay was uneven throughout shootouts, rendering the sport considerably unplayable. This additionally resulted in sure parts of the again panel getting fairly heat after taking part in constantly for quarter-hour. Asphalt 9: Legends ran nicely on the high-quality settings with minor stutters when utilizing shockwave boosts, but it surely was nothing that will hinder the gaming expertise.
Steady gaming on the Realme C31 triggered it to get barely heat
The Realme C31 allowed me to play BGMI on ‘Clean’ graphics and ‘Excessive’ body charge settings with none lag or stutter. Switching issues as much as ‘HD’ graphics triggered a few hiccups throughout squad fights and whereas roaming round in autos since elements of the map took a bit too lengthy to load. The gyroscope additionally labored fantastic and I used to be capable of management my recoil throughout gunfights.
Temple Run and Subway Surfers ran nicely with none issues. The cellphone enables you to allow ‘Auto Decision’ within the Settings app which lowers the display screen decision in video games to preserve battery and scale back heating. Nevertheless, I didn’t discover any distinction in efficiency or usability after enabling it.
The show of the Realme C31 has respectable viewing angles and it enables you to select between Normal, Heat and Cool color tone presets, relying in your desire. I most popular maintaining the preset on the ‘Normal’ mode because it had probably the most balanced look. The HD+ decision isn’t the sharpest for such a big display screen dimension, however viewing content material on it’s an honest expertise. The display screen has a brightness of 400 nits and I had no points studying content material outside, even below direct daylight.
Colors on the Realme C31’s show appeared good for probably the most half. Whites popped nicely and the movies considered on this display screen had good distinction. Sadly, the C31 doesn’t assist the Widevine L1 normal, so you will should make do with normal definition high quality playback from OTT apps resembling Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The speaker high quality is respectable and it will get loud sufficient in case you are holding the machine in your hand. As for the earpiece, it labored fantastic and I used to be capable of hear voices correctly on cellphone calls.
The Realme C31 lets you allow video show enhancement, which is a characteristic that’s speculated to make colors brighter and extra vivid when watching movies. Nevertheless, I most popular leaving it disabled since this made movies look a bit too synthetic.
The Realme C31 has a 5,000mAh battery which lasted for 13 hours and 53 minutes in our HD video loop take a look at, which was a bit decrease than anticipated. On common, the cellphone was capable of final for a complete day’s value of utilization, which included a bit of little bit of gaming and media consumption along with common utilization, on a single cost. With lighter use, I used to be ready to make use of it for a bit of a couple of full day. The equipped 10W charger was capable of cost the Realme C31 to 23 % in half-hour, and took 2 hours, half-hour to cost the battery fully.
The Realme C31 sports activities a triple-camera system on the again
Realme C31 cameras
The Realme C31 sports activities a triple-camera setup on the rear, consisting of a 13-megapixel main digicam with an f/2.2 aperture, a 2-megapixel macro digicam with an f/2.4 aperture, and a black-and-white digicam with an f/2.8 aperture. On the entrance, there’s a single 5-megapixel digicam with an f/2.2 aperture. The digicam interface can be a simplified model of the common Realme digicam app, and I seen some body drops within the viewfinder whereas making an attempt to seize some pictures.
The digicam app is straightforward to make use of and navigate between the given choices. Nevertheless, precise digicam efficiency of the Realme C31 was common at greatest. Photographs taken in daylight have been respectable, however lacked good particulars which have been fairly evident upon zooming in. The 13-megapixel main digicam managed to maintain the colors pretty reasonable however the dynamic vary was everywhere. Switching to ‘Auto HDR’ mode oversharpened the picture and likewise oversaturated among the colors. The C31 has digital zoom as much as 4X, and as you may need already guessed, photographs captured with the utmost magnification had a whole lot of grain and weren’t superb.
Realme C31 daylight digicam samples (faucet to see full dimension)
Macro photographs have been beneath common, with photos having a pink tint to them. Capturing a profitable macro photograph wanted a few makes an attempt because it wasn’t simple to get the precise focus. The pictures additionally lacked good element. Portrait mode solely works with the rear digicam and for some cause, solely labored on folks and never on objects. Edge detection was respectable and considerably constant, though at occasions it did blur some elements of the topic which it did not should. The digicam UI lets you set the blur stage earlier than clicking every shot.
Realme C31 macro (high) and close-up (backside) digicam samples (faucet to see full dimension)
Photos taken with the entrance digicam towards the sunshine on the Realme C31 appeared overexposed and appeared very strange. The 5-megapixel sensor struggled to seize good particulars on the face and within the environment. Photographs additionally appeared to have noise in them, which wasn’t perfect.
Realme C31 daylight selfie digicam pattern (faucet to see full dimension)
Low-light photographs weren’t good as photographs had a good bit of noise even in well-lit environments. Photographs appeared gentle and lacked good particulars. The digicam additionally struggled to lock focus in dimly-lit circumstances. Vivid gentle sources have been typically blown out in low gentle pictures. After switching to Evening Professional mode, low-light photographs appeared a bit brighter. It additionally managed to steadiness the overblown lights from the sunshine supply however tended to saturate the pictures, as you possibly can see within the samples.
Realme C31 essential digicam pattern in Picture (high) and Evening Professional (backside) mode (faucet to see full dimension)
The Realme C31 can document movies at as much as 1080p decision at 30fps. Movies shot in daylight have been strange with common particulars, and photographs appeared shaky as a result of lack of any stabilisation. Footage shot in low gentle had loads of seen noise. That stated, a bonus of not having digital stabilisation meant there wasn’t any shimmer impact even whereas strolling throughout recording, which was good.
Verdict
The Realme C31 carried out nicely as my day by day driver. Switching between apps and multitasking on the Realme UI R version was an honest expertise, though I would not recommend taking part in graphics-heavy video games on such a cellphone as it is not designed to deal with such exercise. The cellphone seems to be trendy and trendy and at first look, it is robust to inform that it is really a price range machine. The 5,000mAh battery was additionally enough to ship good battery life.
The cameras on the C31 might’ve been higher and ideally, Portrait mode shouldn’t have been restricted to simply human topics. Should you plan on getting the Realme C31, I might recommend shopping for the upper RAM and storage variant since that worth distinction isn’t a lot and it ought to provide higher efficiency in the long term. If you’re in search of options in the identical worth bracket, the lately launched Moto E32s (First look) may be an attractive choice to think about.