Realme 6i review: an inexpensive smartphone with a large battery and NFC

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We recently started getting acquainted with the new realme smartphones, which just recently went on sale. We have

the most advanced of them has already visited“sixth” line of realme 6 Pro, which turned out to be very interesting in terms of price and capabilities. And today we’ll look at what the younger Realme 6i is capable of. There are significantly more differences than one would expect within one line, and the hero of today’s smartphone is much closer in characteristics to budget models, but he has a couple of rather significant trump cards up his sleeve.

What is it?
What is included?
What does realme 6i look like?
How good is the screen?
What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?
What about the interface?
How good are the cameras?
In the dry residue

What is it?

realme 6i is an inexpensive Android smartphone with 6.5-inch HD+ IPS display, eight-core MediaTek processor, 3/4 GB of RAM, 48 MP main quad camera, NFC module for contactless payment, large battery and fast charging. The smartphone uses a large screen with HD+ resolution, which is modest by today’s standards, which directly hints at belonging to the budget segment. On the other hand, such a resolution, together with a large 5000 mAh battery, should have a positive impact on the autonomy of the smartphone. 18 W fast charging is supported, Type-C is used for connection. The MediaTek Helio G80 processor is installed inside, which is positioned as a gaming solution for low-cost smartphones. This is the first smartphone on this platform. RAM can be 3 or 4 GB, built-in memory can be 64 or 128 GB, there is space for MicroSD in the tray. Formally, the main camera consists of four modules. The main one is 48 megapixels with f/1.8 aperture and phase detection autofocus, ultra-wide-angle is 8 MP, f/2.3. Two more 2 MP modules are a macro camera and a depth sensor, which, as practice has shown, are not very useful given their characteristics. The smartphone runs on the latest Android 10 with the proprietary Realme UI shell.

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What is included?

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Like its big brother, the realme 6i is packaged in a colorfulan orange box with the model name and basic technical information, without unnecessary printing. Inside there is a smartphone, an 18 W power supply, a Type-C cable, a clip for the tray, documentation and a silicone protective bumper.

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What does realme 6i look like?

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Realme 6i front panel covered with Gorilla glass3 generations, the rest of the body is plastic. In front, the smartphone looks exactly the same as a huge number of modern smartphones in the budget and mid-range: a large elongated screen, a drop-shaped cutout for the front-facing camera and a speaker slot above the screen. The frames are pretty thin on three sides. The chin is a little wider. The corners of the screen are rounded.

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The frame is painted in silver and on the firstthe look may seem to be metallic, although this is not so. The layout of all functional elements in the housing is almost typical for realme smartphones. Below is an audio jack, a USB Type-C connector, an external speaker and a microphone (or two microphones, two holes, at least). At the top end is empty and there is no usual additional microphone.

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The power button is located on the right. Unlike older models of the line, in realme 6i it is not combined with a fingerprint scanner.

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On the opposite side is the tray and separate volume buttons, like all realme smartphones.

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Future owners will not have to choose between two SIM cards, or install MicroSD instead of one of them. Everything will fit.

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The entire back panel is made of matte practicalplastic. It feels very good in the hand and significantly increases the grip of the smartphone. It will be much more difficult to accidentally drop it than glass models. realme 6i is available in green and pearlescent white. There are not too noticeable decorative stripes along the body. Traces of use are practically invisible on the smartphone: no fingerprints or stains remain. At least with standard everyday use. In the middle is a traditional capacitive fingerprint scanner, in the lower left corner is the realme logo, and on top is the vertical main camera unit. It protrudes above the body, but this is compensated for by the included bumper.

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How good is the screen?

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The smartphone has an IPS display with a diagonal of 6.5 inches and an aspect ratio of 20:9. The resolution is quite modest, HD+ 1600×720. Pixel density is about 270 ppi. Despite this, the picture is quite decent and does not look grainy. With the brightness margin, visually everything is also in perfect order: in the sun the picture remains clearly visible. There is not much in terms of settings, but the most necessary things are there: color temperature adjustment, dark mode, eye protection and adjustment of scale, fonts and interface elements.

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Measurements showed that the screen is very goodquality. The maximum brightness was 424.227 cd/m², the black field brightness was 0.39 cd/m², and the static contrast was 1088:1. The color gamut is almost the same as sRGB, there is a slight excess of blue, as a result of which the screen goes a little into cool shades, the average color error ΔE is 4.5:

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Comparison with other models:

Device name
White field brightness,
cd / m2
The brightness of the black field,
cd / m2
Contrast

realme 6i
424.227
0.39
1088:1

realme 6 pro
395.528
0.423
935:1

Huawei P40 Lite
302.547
0.326
928:1

Nokia 4.2
333.087
0.283
1177:1

ASUS ZenFone 6
444.896
0.446
998:1

Huawei P30 Lite
336.681
0.493
683:1

Sony Xperia 10 Plus
509.3
0.513
993:1

What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?

The smartphone has a MediaTek Helio processorG80, which was introduced in February of this year. Apparently, realme 6i is the first smartphone with this processor to go on sale. The processor is positioned as a gaming solution for low-cost smartphones. It is produced using a 12nm process technology and includes two Cortex-A75 cores at 2 GHz, six Cortex-A55 at 1.8 GHz and a dual-core Mali-G52 MC2 graphics accelerator with a frequency of up to 1000 MHz. RAM – 4 GB LPDDR4x, built-in – 128 GB UFS 2.1. In performance tests, Realme 6i demonstrates quite expected, relatively low results, which corresponds to the class of the smartphone. For a rough idea, in AnTuTu it is located between the Samsung Galaxy A70 and Honor 9, and in GeekBench - next to the Samsung Galaxy S8. The power of the smartphone is quite sufficient for comfortable operation of the interface and applications: it cannot be said that it works at lightning speed, but there are no noticeable slowdowns either.

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Due to the low resolution of the realme display6i, the smartphone does really well with games. PUBG Mobile automatically set high graphics settings and play quite comfortably. Not 60 fps, but (according to personal feelings) less than 30 does not fall. Call of Duty Mobile automatically set low graphics settings and there is no way to manually raise it. But fps is significantly higher than in PUBG, it is more pleasant to play.

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realme gaming utility with smartphone optimizationfor games is also present. There are different performance modes and the ability to turn off notifications. Although “by eye” I was not able to notice any critical difference in games under different performance modes.

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The stress test CPU Throttling Test showed that with prolonged peak loads there is minimal overheating and performance drops to 89%, which is quite reasonable.

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Wireless interfaces include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (single-band), Bluetooth 5.0 LE, FM, supports global positioning systems GPS, GLONASS, Beidou. Apparently, the smartphone comes in different configurations for different markets: ours has an NFC module for contactless payment, which is definitely nice. In terms of audio capabilities, the smartphone has no revelations: there is only one speaker, but it sounds quite good. There is a headphone jack, but the quality is typical smartphone quality, which will be enough for a not-so-sophisticated listener. To unlock the device, there is a standard fingerprint sensor on the rear panel (works great) and facial recognition. There is a function to automatically increase the brightness of the display for better illumination of the face in low light conditions. It works quite well in a dark room.

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One of the strengths of a smartphone is itsbattery with a capacity of 5000 mAh, which is very good given the modest screen resolution and not the most productive hardware. Unfortunately, PC Mark gives an error in the battery test, but it is worth noting that in real use the smartphone turned out to be very durable. With an impressive load in the first days of use (and this also included benchmarks, games and a camera), the smartphone was taken off the charger at 8 am and lasted until lunch the next day. So two days is not a problem at all. And in extreme cases, there are various energy saving options.

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Includes 18 watt power supply. By today's standards, not so much, especially with such a battery capacity, but realme 6i is not a flagship either. In the first hour, a little more than half the charge is charged. The battery will fully fill in about 2 hours.

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What about the interface?

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realme 6i runs on Android 10 OS with shellrealme UI 1.0. We already talked about it in the review of Realme 6 Pro, so there is no point in dwelling on it in detail. Let's limit ourselves to general impressions; a bunch of screenshots are attached. The main differences between realme UI 1.0 and stock Android 10 are the external design and some additional features. The interface has been noticeably redrawn and looks decent, calm and minimalistic. Options are available for organizing your workspace with a separate application menu (“drawer mode”), only with desktops, and “simplified” with large icons. You can choose between different navigation options: 3 buttons, a two-button option and full gesture control in two options (from the side edges or only from the bottom). There are also additional gestures for quickly launching various applications, taking screenshots and switching to dual-window mode. Additional features include a sidebar with quick access to the necessary functions. And, of course, our own versions of standard applications, including a file manager, voice recorder, and more. The shell is pleasant, convenient, works quickly and is not overloaded with unnecessary bells and whistles.

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How good are the cameras?

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The rear camera in the smartphone includes four modules:the main one is 48 megapixels with an aperture of f/1.8, 1/2.25″, 0.8µm and phase detection autofocus. Ultra-wide 8 MP, f/2.3 and two “auxiliary” module. Macro 2 MP, f/2.4, of course, without autofocus, a distance to the object of 4 cm is recommended. And a depth sensor for blurring the background, also 2 megapixels. The smartphone can shoot video with FullHD 30fps resolution. Front camera - 16 MP f/2.2. We already saw the camera app in the realme 6 Pro review. The scrolling list of main modes includes photo, video, night mode, portrait and 48MP. Manual mode, macro, accelerated, slow motion and panorama - in the drop-down menu “more”. All basic settings, including flash and HDR, are displayed on the main screen.

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The overall level of cameras in smartphones is growing, thisThis also applies to budget models. And in good lighting, you can get good pictures with an inexpensive smartphone. This also applies to Realme 6i. There are no special complaints about daytime photos: decent detail, in most cases adequate white balance, HDR. The main difficulties begin in poor lighting. And in this case it is already clearly visible that this is an inexpensive model: the matrix begins to make noise and detail suffers. Night mode is somewhat “pull” dark areas, but no increase in detail is observed. Although, considering the price segment, everything is very good. The originals can be viewed here.

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Wide-angle shots:

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Blurring the background works very well:

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A macro camera needs good lighting for acceptable results.

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Maximum video resolution - FullHD, noadditional chips, as well as stabilization is not provided. So, for some highly artistic videos, a stabilizer or tripod will come in handy:

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In the dry residue

If we consider realme 6i without reference tocompetitors, then everything looks quite optimistic. The result is an inexpensive and practical smartphone with a screen of good brightness and color reproduction (albeit with a modest resolution), a large battery with fast charging, an NFC module, separate slots for 2x SIM and MicroSD, and a pretty decent camera, considering the category. This is all packaged in a visually modern and practical case, albeit without the “premium” glass and metal. But the difficulty is that this price segment is crowded and the smartphone has a decent number of competitors, including among the same realme. The smartphone costs5000 UAHfor the 3/64 GB version, 4/128 GB will cost 500 UAH. And only 200 UAH more expensive there is already a realme 6 with a smaller battery, but a FullHD + 90 Hz screen, a more efficient processor and an interesting camera.

5 reasons to buy realme 6i:

practical and non-marking body materials;
a good margin of brightness and a nice color rendition of the display;
good camera (taking into account the price category);
separate slots for 2xSIM and MicroSD;
Long battery life and fast charge.

2 reasons not to buy realme 6i:

modest display resolution;
in this price category there are more interesting competitors (including realme).

realme 6i

5000 UAH smartphone with a quad camera

Inexpensive Android smartphone with 6.5-inch HD + IPS display, eight-core MediaTek processor, 3/4 GB of RAM, 48 MP main quad camera, NFC module for contactless payment, large battery and fast charging.

State employee with NFC

Technical specifications realme 6i

Display
IPS, 6.5 inches, 1600×720, 270 ppi

Housing
dimensions: 163.8×75.8×8.9 mm, weight: 199 g

CPU
64-bit octa-core MediaTek Helio G80 (12 nm): 2×2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 + 6×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55, GPU Mali-G52 MC2

RAM
3/4 GB

Flash memory
64/128 GB UFS 2.1 + MicroSD

Camera
Main: 48 MP, f/1.8, 1/2.25″, 0.8µm, PDAF + ultra-wide-angle 8 MP, f/2.3 + macro 2 MP, f/2.4 + depth sensor 2 MP, f/2.4, video 1080p@ 30fps; front camera: 16 MP f/2.0

Wireless technology
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (single-band 2.4 GHz), Bluetooth 5.0 LE, FM, NFC

GPS
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO

Battery
5000 mAh, non-removable, 18 W fast charging

operating system
Android 10 + realme UI 1.0

Sim card
2xNanoSIM

For those that want to know more:

Realme 6 Pro review: six cameras for 9000 hryvnias
Realme 5 Pro review: an inexpensive smartphone with a quad camera and a daring design
Realme X2 Pro review: 90 Hz screen, Snapdragon 855+ and lightning fast charging
Huawei P40 Lite review: the first Huawei AG-smartphone in Ukraine
Vivo V17 review: competitors, get moving!

Thank you

The editors would like to thank the Citrus online store for kindly providing the smartphone for review.

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Realme 6i review: an inexpensive smartphone with a large battery and NFC

What is it?

What is included?

What does realme 6i look like?

How good is the screen?

What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?

What about the interface?

How good are the cameras?

In the dry residue

realme 6i

For those that want to know more: