Realme C15 Review

Realme C15 Review: Realme C15 is already selling in the Kenyan market. The device was launched four weeks ago at Ksh.17,000.

This is a budget phone that realme is really trying to focus on since the brand officially launched in Kenya in August of this year. The company, one of the fastest-growing smartphone brands in the world makes value for money devices. At least that’s what we have seen with some of its phones that are already selling in the country like the realme 6 (review). Others include the realme C3, C11 and the realme C15 which is our central focus in this article.

“We are committed to enabling young people experience great products at suitable competitive prices and also enjoy a happy life provided by advanced technology and unique modern design,” Josef Wang, General Manager of realme Middle East and Africa Operations said when the brand came to Kenya. 

This is what the company is exactly doing with the realme C15. It’s a good device and comes with impressive design and features. 

We already did an unboxing video for you. In case you missed it, you can check it below. 

The device’s absorption in the country has also gained momentum according to a press release shared recently by the company. 

Design and Display

Realme tried to get everything right with the design of this phone. Similar to what we saw on the realme C11. It comes in marine blue and seagull silver colour options with a geometric gradient design giving it a premium look. 

The real has a unique texture that is meant to prevent the phone from scratches and fingerprints. The phone is also quite heavy and of course, this is due to the huge 600mAh battery. 

The display is a 6.52-inch HD+ mini-drop display with 720×1600 pixel resolution and is scratch resistant with a coating of Corning Gorilla Glass 3+ on top. This size is big but good for people who love large displays especially for playing games. The colour reproduction is sharp and viewing angles are also great, nothing really to complain about here.  The bezels are pretty thin on all sides.

Important to note is that the realme C15 display also comes with an Eye Comfort mode which reduces the blue light from the screen and prevents your eyes from straining.

The power button and volume rockers are placed on the right side while the SIM card tray is on the left. At the bottom, you have a mono speaker, 3.5mm audio jack and micro USB charging port. The textured rear panel we mentioned earlier comprises a quad-camera setup, a fingerprint scanner and some realme branding on the bottom right. 

How does the realme C15 score when it comes to performance and battery life?

The realme C15 is powered by a MediaTek Helio G35 processor which is a gaming-centric SoC introduced this year. The device comes in two variants, a 3GB/32GB variant then there’s a 4GB/64GB variant. Our realme C15 review unit that was sent to us was the 4GB/64GB variant. 

The performance is smooth – no lags and apps launch really fast. 

For the software, the realme C15 runs Android 10 based on realme’s own realme UI. There’s a bit of bloatware and some realme pre-installed apps some of which you can always get rid off. All in all, you get all the elements of Android 10 OS including the Dark Mode and focus mode.

For the battery, the realme C15  is backed by a 6000mAh battery with support for 18W fast charge. This is actually the key highlight of this device. It is one of the few budget phones to feature such a massive battery unit. 

With this huge battery size, the phone is able to last you a full day or even more with a single charge. The fast charger is able to charge the phone from 0% to 100% in just two hours. We really didn’t have any issues with the battery performance on the realme C15. 

Cameras

For your imaging purposes, the realme C15 comes with a quad-camera setup consisting of a 13MP primary sensor with an f/2.2 aperture, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle sensor and a pair of 2MP sensors with an f/2.4 aperture. This setup is also capable of capturing 4x zoom and recording 1080p@30fps videos. There’s also a dedicated nightscape mode for low-light shots

The selfie camera, on the other hand, is an 8MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture.

The quality of the images produced is just fine. The large aperture on the main camera allows more light into the camera enabling you to capture great photos in daylight. The ultra-wide-angle lens also produces some great shots although they lack some details compared to the main camera. 

This is a budget phone but we still get night mode support which also captures some good images. Check sample shots below. 

The selfie camera has a number of features including AI beautification, HDR, Portrait, Panoselfie for taking those wide selfies among others. Overall, the camera manages to deliver some decent performance for a phone at that price. You can check more photos taken by the phone on our official TechTrendsKE Instagram page. 

Conclusion – Should you buy the realme C15?

The realme C15 is a well-packaged phone, an entry-level device with good internals including HD+ display, octa-core processor and quad-rear camera. The huge battery size is a hit, the best for any budget phone. 

It’s a phone that we will really recommend to anyone who wants to upgrade from let’s say a feature phone to a smartphone. With this device, realme is giving the budget smartphone segment in Kenya some serious competition and we are really looking forward to seeing what other budget devices in this series they will be bringing in the local market.

Below is a summary of the realme C15 specs. 

Have anything to add to our realme C15 review? Follow us on Telegram, Twitter, Facebook or subscribe to our weekly newsletter to ensure you don’t miss out on any future updates.