Realme 6 Review: With some new exciting features and more is this the true value champion under Rs.15000?

Realme 6 defines itself as a premium mid-ranger

Realme launched numerous smartphones last year in the mid-range and budget segments. The Realme 5 series that included the Realme 5, 5s, 5i, and the Realme 5 Pro provided good specifications at a lesser price tag.

Later the company launched its flagship smartphone the Realme X2 Pro which bought the Snapdragon 855+ chipset, 50W SuperVOOC charging, etc. and this year Realme became the first smartphone manufacturer to get a 5G enabled smartphone called the Realme X50 Pro which comes with 90Hz display, Snapdragon 865 chipset, etc.

Now also recently they have come up with the 6 series which includes the Realme 6 and the 6 Pro. This seems to be the big upgrades over the 5 series as both the models now have the 90Hz refresh rate on their displays and here we will look at the Realme 6 which is a big upgrade over the Realme 5 with the 90Hz display, a Full HD+ screen, and faster charging.

Let's head to the complete review and see whether it is an ideal one to buy under Rs.15000?

Realme 6 Design:

In terms of design, Realme provides the same build and design like its previous model Realme 5 with a glass design on the front as it is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and has a plastic polycarbonate back at the rear. This time Realme has gone for a Comet design at the back.

There are four cameras to the back with the same camera design found on other Realme smartphones and the camera rim has been protected with a metal rim from getting scratches. It does protrude at the back but with the case applied the back is protected.

On the front, you get a punch-hole display instead of the tear-drop notch like on most other smartphones and the speaker grill lies on the top. It misses out on LED notification light which isn't a big deal.

On the top you get a secondary noise-canceling microphone and coming to bottom like all Realme smartphones there is a presence of a 3.5mm headphone jack with USB Type-C port and a speaker grill.

The sides have the power button which doubles up as the fingerprint scanner and there are the usual volume controls.

The fingerprint scanner is fast and accurate and works well all times just like the one found on the POCO X2. The back of the Realme 6 is reflective with that Comet design and looks premium. The screen is curved around the edges and is easy to hold in the hand.

Realme has provided P2i coating which means it is splash resistant and can handle accidental spills. Here we get two colors Comet Blue and Comet White. However, the smartphone looks premium but does lack a glass back compared to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro and the newly launched Redmi Note 9 Pro.

Check here: Realme X50 Pro 5G Review: Is this 5G smartphone the true flagship and worth buying?

Realme 6 Display:

On the front, the Realme 6 gets a 6.5 inches full HD+ IPS LCD display (1080 x 2400 pixels) with a screen to body ratio of 19.5:9. It seems to be a good upgrade from the 720p panel on its predecessor, the Realme 5. It is a punch-hole display as in 2020 these displays will be the norm.

The color reproduction of the screen is good and has a brighter panel even compared to the Realme 5 Pro.

The biggest talking point about this display is the 90Hz refresh rate. It is the cheapest smartphone till now to have a 90Hz display. All applications whether opening or closing, playing games feel smoother and faster due to the 90Hz display.

However you do have support for Widevine L1 but somehow third party applications like Netflix, Hotstar are still restricted to run 720p videos. Maybe Realme will fix this issue in a future software update.

Overall with the 90Hz refresh rate and a good display, viewing videos and playing games is a nice to experience on the Realme 6. With the full HD+ resolution and 90Hz refresh rate, the Realme 6 makes a striking deal in this price segment.

Realme 6 Performance:

This time Realme has gone for a Mediatek chipset instead of the Snapdragon that was present on its predecessor. Realme 6 is powered by the Mediatek Helio G90T chipset which does duty on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro. It has 2x2.05 GHz ARM Cortex A76 cores for higher performance and 6x2.0 GHz ARM Cortex A55 cores for power efficiency built on a 12nm process. It is coupled with a Mali-G76 MC4 GPU which is very much powerful and shines when it comes to gaming.

The so-called Hyper Engine technology aids in smooth gaming and balances the network connectivity by combining WiFi and LTE together for faster connection.

All heavy games like PUBG mobile, Asphalt 9 ran fine at the highest graphics settings. PUBG Mobile by default runs on HDR-Ultra. The gaming performance is almost similar to the Snapdragon 730G chipset found on the Realme X2, POCO X2.

Coming to benchmarks, on Antutu the device scored 298610 which is very good, and compared to 260987 on Snapdragon 730G it is slightly better. With extended gaming, the back of the smartphone doesn't feel warm.

The Realme 6 is paired with 4GB/6GB/8GB RAM with 64GB/128GB UFS 2.1 storage.

Overall with a 90Hz panel and a gaming-centric chipset, the Realme 6 proves itself the undisputed king when it comes to gaming and performance in its price segment.

Realme 6 Software:

The Realme 6 runs on the RealmeUI based on Android 10. The software is well optimized and brings many new features such as the app drawer gets newly looking icons, notification toggles get a Dark Mode and the Game Space app looks finer and is easier to use. It is the same skin that is found on the ColorOS 7 and some of the UI elements have been inspired by Stock Android also.

RealmeUI has one great feature called Dual Music Mode by which you can use a wireless headset as well as a wired headset together at the same time. RealmeUI is also bringing DocVault which is a very good feature in the future.

Realme 6 Cameras:

On the back, Realme 6 gets four cameras to the back of which the primary being the 64MP Samsung ISOCELL GW1 sensor which is seen on many smartphones in this range. It has 64MP f/1.8 main camera + 8MP f/2.3 ultrawide camera + 2MP f/2.4 macro camera and a 2MP depth camera for portraits. Realme offers modes like HDR, Time-lapse, Portrait, Slo-mo, Expert, etc. It also has support for RAW image format and G-CAM.

The photos were taken from the main camera come out to be good with good color saturation in the background. However, there seems to be a little bit of oversharpening but the noise isn't noticed in the photos.

Coming at night, the photos come out really good when it comes to focusing on objects in dark and with the Night Mode turned on, the Realme 6 shines as the level of details in the shadows come out great. The main 64MP does a good job while taking photos as these images result in 16MP ones having good details.

The 8MP ultrawide camera does also a fair job in clicking photos as they have good details but there is some softness and the contrast levels aren't so good. But the dynamic range works really well.

Coming to the night, the photos come out sharper but there is some loss in detail. Switching the Night Mode, the photos result better with finer details and saturation works well.

Coming to a 2MP macro camera, the focus worked well most of the times but in some cases, the photos resulted in a loss in detail. The edge detection worked really well but needs a lot of improvement when it comes to the macro camera.

The 2MP depth camera takes some very good portraits bringing out good background blur and you have the intensity to adjust the background blur. The photos have good details with proper edge detection but tend to crop some of the subjects in the surroundings.

On the front, you get a 16MP f/2.0 camera which takes very good selfies and the beauty mode is by default on so you can turn it off. The photos have good details and the saturation works well thus resulting in very good photos.

The portraits also come out really good with proper background blur and edge detection. There is proper separation from the surrounding resulting in some really good portraits.

The Realme 6 can shoot up to 4k@30fps from the rear camera. The videos come out good but result in loss of detail at this highest resolution. However, it also lacks stabilization which needs improvement.

Switching to 1080p@60fps, the videos come out really good as EIS kicks in thus bringing better stability to the videos. You get the 960fps Slow-Mo support which aids in taking good slow-motion videos. The RAW image format is a good addition also.

The front camera can also shoot 1080p videos and you get the Portrait video mode as you can adjust the background blur also.

With the G-CAM installed, the photos come out good in details.

Overall the cameras seem to do a good job of taking photos and videos considering its price.

Realme 6 Battery Life:

Realme 6 has a bigger 4300mAh battery which is slightly larger than the 4035mAh battery of the Realme 5 Pro. So you get a healthy battery life and a standard screen on time of 4-5 hours with the normal 60Hz refresh rate.

However, with the 90Hz refresh rate, you may expect slightly less battery life. However, with the larger battery, the smartphone can easily stretch to two days of normal usage.

With heavy usage which includes browsing, viewing social media, and playing a heavy game like PUBG the Realme 6 can last easily for one day with 10-15 percent left.

With Realme 6 there is support for 30W VOOC charging which will replenish the smartphone from 0 to 100 within 68mins. The Realme 6 charges up to 70 percent in the first half an hour which is quite fast and one of the fastest charging solutions in this price segment.

Realme 6 Sound Quality:

Realme 6 comes with a single speaker and the sound is adequately loud. The output through the 3.5mm headphone jack is also good and there is also support for Dolby Atmos which enhances the sound quality further while watching movies or playing games.

Verdict:

The Realme 6 is a good overall package in its price segment. Indeed starting from the punch-hole display and that 90Hz refresh rate, the Realme 6 marks a unique appeal. Then there is the powerful Mediatek Helio G90T chipset which is best when it comes to gaming in this segment as all heavy games run with ease. The quad cameras deliver good photos and videos and do not disappoint.

Powering the smartphone is a larger 4300mAh battery which has support for 30W VOOC charging which is something very interesting in this price range. Compared to Realme 5 it is slightly priced higher but if you look at the display, performance, battery life, and charging speed it makes it the best buy under Rs.15000.

The Realme 6 seems to look like the successor to the Realme 5 Pro. The base variant 4GB RAM and 64GB storage is priced at Rs.12999, 6GB RAM and 128GB storage at Rs.14999 and 8GB RAM and 128GB storage is priced at Rs.16999 (all having UFS 2.1) which is great value and surely a very good option to consider. Realme 6 is truly worth buying and will surely take on many of its rivals making it stand from the rest of the crowd.

Check also: Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro review: Is this Note worth the price and the best to date?

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