iTWire – Review: realme C11 offers a number of good features for the price

Chinese smartphone maker realme appears to have taken a glance at the number of low-priced devices emerging from the precincts of its stablemates, and subconsciously said, “I’ll raise you on that.” That probably accounts for the C11 that was launched in the Australian market recently, a bargain at $199 and nothing to sneer at.

OPPO and vivo, both of which are brands owned by B.B.K. Electronics, released devices into the Australian market recently to take advantage of the forthcoming festive season, calculating that consumers would not have as much disposable income at their command as usual due to the pandemic.

Well, realme has just beaten these two firms to the punch with the C11. Based on a MediaTek 675 SoC, the device has good features for its price range, even though there is limited storage (32GB) and also limited memory (2GB). But it could face competition from TCL which released three Alcatel smartphones, all below $200, in the Australian market in May.

Taken with the main camera in Inner Mongolia. Supplied

This is the first time in the last five or six years that I have looked at a smartphone which has this amount of memory. To my surprise, it performed surprisingly well, with very few stutters. There was no drag which I have encountered on occasion with some low-spec Android devices, especially tablets.

The C11 is solidly built and feels quite heavy in the hand. The LCD display has a screen area of 6.5 inches — one of the bigger displays at the entry-level — and a resolution of 720 x 1560 pixels. The screen is quite bright and whoever designed the default wallpaper has made it quite striking.

The C11 is solidly built and feels quite heavy in the hand. The LCD display has a screen area of 6.5 inches — one of the bigger displays at the entry-level — and a resolution of 720 x 1560 pixels. The screen is quite bright and whoever designed the default wallpaper has made it quite striking.

There are no headphones supplied with the device, neither is there a case. It comes with no crapware, sparing one the annoying (for me) task of removing apps that have absolutely no use. There is no NFC and the device can only use one Wi-Fi channel – 2.4Ghz

A landscape photo taken with the main camera in Guandong Province. Supplied

But it has a big battery at 5000mAh which takes about three hours to charge from zero to 100%. On the plus side, the device is claimed to have 40 days of stand-by time on this giant cell, and allows for 12 hours of gaming.

The sound is, again, surprisingly good for a device of this price. I normally listen to a range of music when testing and the performance was more than acceptable.

The 13MP NightScape Dual Camera makes pictures taken after dark very clear. There is a second f/2.4 aperture 2MP lens that adds to the quality of the photos. For a change, all shots in this review are from the realme folk, providing a new perspective on what this camera can produce.

While the C11 comes with Android 10, it has started customising ColorOS, the user interface that OPPO and vivo use, with its own modifications under the name realme UI. It is yet to look substantially different from ColorOS.

A view of Chongqing taken at night. Supplied

There is no fingerprint scanner but facial recognition is available. There are what is now becoming the usual two SIM slots and one SD-card slot to add up to 256GB of storage. In the case of the C11, this may well be needed.

The realme C11 comes in two colours — Pepper Grey and Mint Green — and has been available for purchase since 12 November at the realme e-store, JB Hi-Fi, Bing Lee, Make it Mine, mobileciti, 5GWORLD, Essential Appliance Rentals, Amazon, Kogan, eBay and Catch.com.

SPECS

Product Name realme C11

Product Model RMX2185

SYSTEM

Android version 10

ColorOS version realme UI 1.0

DISPLAY

Screen size 6.52“

Touch screen Capacitive Screen

Touch panel technology In-cell

The C11 has eye-catching wallpaper. 

Screen texture LCD

Screen resolution 1600*720

Screen PPI 269

Screen ratio 20:9; 88.70%

Screen Contrast min: 800:1 Typ: 1200:1

Screen refresh rate 60Hz

Screen colours 16.7M

Colour saturation 0.71

Maximum brightness 420nit

Touch screen glass material GG3

Touch points 10

Oleophobic coating No

APPEARANCE

Size 164.4*75.9*9.1 mm

Weight 196g

Body colour Pepper Grey | Mint Green

Middle frame texture PC+GF and aluminium alloy

Back cover material PC

CPU

CPU core 8

CPU platform MT6765

CPU frequency 4*2.3GHz+4*1.8GHz

GPU Model GE8320

CPU technology 12nm

MEMORY

RAM 2GB

RAM technology LPDDR4X

Flash specification emmc 5.1

ROM 32GB

External memory Up to 256GB

FRONT CAMERA

PPI 5M

Sensor Sizes/pixel data 1/5 inch/1.12um

Photo Size 2592*1944

Sensor type CMOS

Sensor manufacturer and model GC5035-WC1X0

Focusing mode FF

Optical focusing No

Wide angle of front camera 77.9°

Aperture f2.4

Maximum Zoom multiples N/A

Focal length N/A

Front flashlight NO

Front camera lens material GLASS

Lens number 3P

Characteristic function for photograph Beauty, filter, HDR, panoramic view, Portrait, Timelapse

Ways of taking photos Timer, Touch, Gesture,Volume Button,Fingerprint

Continuous Capture modes N/A

Supported resolution and frame rate in video “720P>>>30fps 1080P>>>30fps”

Slow motion No

REAR CAMERA

Number of rear cameras 2

PPI rear main 13M + mono 2M

Sensor Sizes/pixel data “13M：1/3 inch, 1.12um 2M：1/5 inch，1.75um”

Photo size “13M:4160*3120 2M:1600*1200”

Sensor type CMOS

Sensor manufacturer and model “13M: OV13B10-GA5A(OV) 2M：GC02M1B(格科微)/OV02B1B（OV）”

Focusing method “13M:PDAF/AF 2M:FF”

Optical focusing No

Maximum Zoom multiples 4x

Aperture “13M:2.2 2M:2.4”

Focal length 13M:25.53mm

Wide Angle of rear camera “13M: 83.3° 2M: 88.8°”

Flashlight Yes

Rear camera lens material Glass

Lens number “13M：5P 2M：3P”

Macro Lens No

Slow motion 720p 90fps

Characteristic function for photograph Beauty, filter, HDR, panoramic view, Portrait, Timelapse, Slo-mo, NightScape, Expert,

Continuous Capture modes Yes, max 20 limit

Ways of taking photos Timer, Touch, Gesture,Volume Button,Fingerprint

SR AUTO Yes

Image Format jpg

Supported resolution and frame rate in video “720P>>>30fps 1080P>>>30fps”

Video storage format MP4

Image stabiliser no

BATTERY

Full charge time (0-100%) 3H

Battery capacity 5000mAH

VOOC flash charge No

Wireless Charging No

Theoretical Calling duration 39.20H

Theoretical standby duration 1084.86H

Energy density 695Wh/L

Simulated duration 18.17H

Theoretical Audio playing time 48.60H

Charging speed/power 10W

Theoretical Video playing time 22.51H

OTHERS

Headset jack 3.5mm

USB jack Micro-USB

USB transmission standard USB2.0

Flashlight Yes

Notification light No

Double mic noise suppression No

Fingerprint No

Linear Motor N/A

Vibrating motor Flat motor

Dual speaker No

Super linear speaker No

Glove Mode N/A

OTG Yes

HDMI No

SIM card slot Dual NaNo Card + TF Card (Three Cards Independent)

NFC No

Infrared ray remote control No

FM Yes

CONNECTIVITY

Bluetooth version BT2.1+EDR,BT5.0

Bluetooth Shared network Yes

Bluetooth support protocol A2DP、AVRCP、HFP、HSP、PBAP、AVDTP、OBEX、OPP、HID

Wi-Fi band 2.4GHz

WLAN protocol 802.11b/g/n

Maximum number of connected devices at a hotspot 8

WLAN Display Yes

Wi-Fi antenna technology No

GPS navigation GPS, Glonass, Beidou

Dual frequency GPS No

NETWORK

Technology GSM / HSPA / LTE

2G bands GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – SIM 1 & SIM 2

3G bands HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100

4G bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41 – International

Speed HSPA 42.2/11.5 Mbps, LTE-A

ENTERTAINMENT

Video format .mp4, .3gp, .3g2, .3gpp, .3gpp2, .m4v , .mkv

Audio format AAC,HE-AAC v1, HE-AAC v2,AMR,AWB,MIDI,MP3,OGG VORBIS

Image format JPEG , GIF , PNG , BMP , WebP,Raw ,HEIF (HEIC)

Supported WideVine level L3

Record format mp3

Vdeo record format mp4

Ringtone format ogg

HD format Yes

Web page video play Yes

Sound effect type dirac

PACKING LIST

Handset 1

Adapter 1

Headset No

Micro USB Cable 1

Important Info booklet with Warranty Card 1

Quick Guide 1

SIM Card Tool 1

Screen Protect Film 1

Case No

OTHER BASIC FUNCTIONS

Text Input Default:English

Call records (how many can be stored) According to the space left.

Upper limit for mass text messaging 200

Data backup Yes

Office tools n/a

Files compression and decompression Yes

World time Yes

Timing SMS function No

Import and export messages No

Import and export contacts Yes