Expanding its market in the mid-range segment, Realme officially launched its Realme 5i under the Realme 5 series of phones in Nepal in January 2020. The phone shares some similarities to the Realme 5, 5 Pro and the Realme 5s and boasts a quad-camera setup.
Realme launched the Realme 5i with 4GB/64GB internals at Rs. 20,990. Later, Realme increased the price to Rs. 21,790. At this pricing, is this a competition to the Xiaomi Redmi Note series? Let’s see what this device offers.
Realme 5 Overview
Realme 5i comes with a slightly cheaper alternative to the Realme 5. The main highlight is its Quad Camera, powerful chipset selection, and 5000mAh battery.
Design and Display
Realme 5i has a plastic body with a plastic frame like the Realme 5, but Realme has opted for a new Dawn of Style – Sunrise Design in the back. Realme 5i adopts a Splash-resistant design that protects all interior and exterior components from water-splash. The device comes in two color variations – Aqua Blue and Forest Green.
In the back, the phone boasts a quad-camera setup with LED flash, the fingerprint scanner, and the Realme branding designed similar to the Realme 5.
On the front, Realme 5i features a 6.52-inch HD+ IPS LCD screen with a mini waterdrop notch housing a selfie camera. The reduction of the mini-drop area helps to achieve a screen-to-body ratio of 89%. The Realme 5i panel sports 720 x 1600 pixels resolution, a 20:9 aspect ratio, and has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.
Performance
Like the Realme 5, Realme 5i is powered by the 11nm Qualcomm SDM665 Snapdragon 665 AIE processor. It is an Octa-core processor (4×2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver), which can clock speeds up to 2.0GHz. The performance is backed with 4GB LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB ROM. Also, thanks to its 3-card slot (Dual SIM + MicroSD), the 5i can expand storage up to 256GB.
Realme 5i runs on ColorOS 6.1 on top of Android 9.
Camera
Coming to its main highlight, the Realme 5i offers the same AI Quad-camera setup as we get in the Realme 5. The phone offers a 12MP primary sensor with an aperture of f/1.8, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens with a huge 119-degree field-of-view, a 2MP depth sensor for portraits, and another 2MP super macro lens with a 4cm focus length for closeup shots.
For the selfie shooter, the phone offers an 8MP f/2.0 aperture size front camera that sits inside the mini notch. Besides, the phone supports Video Recording up to 4K@30fps from the rear camera and 1080p@30fps from both rear and front.
Battery
Realme 5i comes with a massive 5000mAh battery capacity, a PowerHero as termed by the company. And it does offer an excellent battery life, but it takes over 2 hours to fully charge the battery with the supplied 10W charger. It does not support fast charging but provides reverse charging.
Realme 5i Specifications
| Dimensions and
Weight |
164.4x75x9.3mm (6.47 x 2.95 x 0.37in)
195 g (6.88 oz) |
| Body | Glass front (Gorilla Glass 3), plastic back, plastic frame Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) |
| Display | 6.52-inch, 102.6 cm2 HD+ IPS LCD 720 x 1600 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio (~269 ppi density) Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Performance (CPU & GPU) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 (11nm) Octa-core (4 x 2.0 GHz Kyro 260 Gold & 4 x 1.8 GHz Kyro 260 Silver) Adreno 610 GPU |
| Software | ColorOS 6.1, Android 9 (Pie) |
| Memory | 3 GB and 4 GB RAM 32 GB and 64 GB internal storage microSDXC (dedicated slot) |
| Rear Camera | Quad Camera; 12 MP, f/1.8 aperture, 1.25µm, PDAF 8 MP, f/2.3, 13mm (ultrawide) 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro) 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth) LED flash, HDR, panorama 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps Video Recordings |
| Front Camera | Single Selfie Camera; 8 MP, f/2.0 1080p@30fps Video Recordings |
| Battery | Li-Po 5000 mAh, non-removable Charging 10W, Reverse charging |
| Sensors | Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
| Colors | Aqua Blue, Forest Green |
Realme 5i Price in Nepal and Availability
Realme 5i was launched at Rs. 20,990 for 4/64GB memory configuration. The new price is set at Rs. 23,990. It was available in all official Realme stores.
| Realme Variant | Price in Nepal New) |
| Realme 5i (4+64GB) | Rs. 21,790 |
Now, if you look at its competition – Redmi Note 8 specification, features, and pricing, I would lean towards the Note 8. So, how will Realme farce against its competition with Xiaomi in Nepal?
