Realme Narzo 10 Review

Realme has launched the Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A smartphones to focus on younger individuals, significantly those that worth fashion and gaming efficiency above all else. The firm wished to create a brand new sub-brand to emphasize these options, and to create a separate persona for what would in any other case be easy low-cost telephones. The Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A are each priced to satisfy particular targets, they usually slot in beneath the Realme 6. Today, we’ll be reviewing the Narzo 10, which is the dearer mannequin of the 2.

There aren’t many surprises to find about this telephone – Realme introduced the Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A smartphones earlier than the nationwide lockdown went into impact, however was solely in a position to truly launch them now due to the coronavirus imposed guidelines to implement social distancing prevented any sale. In addition to that, the Narzo 10 is already bought because the Realme 6i in another international locations, with some India-specific touches.

We’re fascinated with seeing what Realme has give you, and whether or not that is actually a price range gaming powerhouse that may tackle the newest from Xiaomi and others.

Realme Narzo 10 design

Although it is a price range telephone, Realme has give you a moderately premium-looking design for the rear. The Narzo 10 is on the market in That Green and That White (which in different international locations are bought as Green Tea and White Milk). Both choices function a sample of vertical pinstripes down the rear that appear to shift back and forth if you transfer this telephone round underneath the sunshine. It reminds us of the Onion and Garlic finishes of the Realme X Master Edition, and in reality they’ve all been created by the identical Japanese designer, Naoto Fukasawa.

It is not garish in any respect, in like a few of the gradients and patterns we have seen earlier than, and nonetheless catches the attention. Our That White unit seems to be fairly recent and complicated, and in case you aren’t a fan of the color or sample you possibly can at all times use a case. We would have appreciated one thing totally different for the digicam module although – Realme has recycled the identical vertical strip within the higher left nook for a number of generations now.

The entrance of this telephone is totally plain, with a waterdrop notch on the prime of the display screen and a considerably thick chin beneath it. The white unit has a matte silver body, whereas the inexperienced model could have an identical inexperienced one. The general look may be very slick for a price range smartphone.

The stripes on the rear seems to shift back and forth underneath the sunshine

Thanks to its 20:9 side ratio display screen, the Realme Narzo 10 is comparatively tall and slim, nevertheless it’s additionally 9mm thick and comparatively hefty at 199g. It’s comparatively simple to make use of and reside with, and the upside of that weight is a 5000mAh battery – which we’ll get to shortly. We discovered it a bit exhausting to achieve the highest of the display screen when utilizing this telephone with one hand. Thankfully, the again is not slippery in any respect.

Realme has used Gorilla Glass Three for the show and there is a pre-applied display screen protector, nevertheless it would not fairly attain the sides of the glass, leaving the corners weak. You do get a plastic case within the field, although.

The Narzo 10 has a fingerprint sensor on the again, which we discovered barely out of attain. The energy and quantity buttons are effectively positioned on the suitable and left respectively. The detachable tray has two Nano-SIM slots in addition to a microSD card slot. We’re comfortable to see a USB Type-C port on the backside, together with a 3.5mm audio socket and a single speaker.

The general polish of the Realme Narzo 10 is fairly spectacular, contemplating its worth of simply Rs. 11,999. It would not come throughout as a price range telephone, however then once more your entire section is very aggressive.

The display screen protector would not fairly attain the sides of the entrance

Realme Narzo 10 specs and software program

The principal attraction of this telephone is its MediaTek Helio G80 SoC, which is supposed to be focused at players. The Helio G-series chips have highly effective built-in graphics capabilities, and this can be our first expertise with the G80 though others within the sequence have confirmed themselves prior to now. It has two 2GHz ARM Cortex-A75 cores for energy and 6 extra Cortex A55 cores for effectivity. MediaTek states that it will probably dynamically handle the CPU, GPU and reminiscence based mostly on warmth, energy, and the calls for of various utilization situations.

Another attention-grabbing a part of Realme’s Narzo technique is to launch this telephone in just one configuration, with no variants. You solely get 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, each of that are comparatively beneficiant. We like this method, because it avoids additional complication within the firm’s already crowded lineup – there are already loads of different choices at close by worth factors.

The 6.5-inch show has an HD+ 720×1600-pixel decision. Some consumers would possibly desire a full-HD panel, and yow will discover these in different telephones at this worth degree. For gaming although, a decrease decision means much less stress on the GPU, so it would truly be a bonus.

The principal cause for the Narzo 10’s weight is its 5000mAh battery which ought to be a bonus for customers who do not wish to minimize their gaming classes quick. 18W quick charging is supported and also you get an 18W adapter within the field, which is sweet to see.

The energy button is on the suitable, whereas the quantity buttons and SIM tray are on the left

You will not discover lots of the newest connectivity requirements however we do have all of the fundamentals lined with Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth 5, and GPS. All the same old sensors are listed, together with a gyroscope which is able to turn out to be useful for gaming.

Realme ships this telephone with Android 10 and model 1.zero of its Realme UI, which is analogous to sister firm Oppo’s ColorOS. It seems to be pretty recent and consists of main Android options comparable to Digital Wellbeing, however nonetheless has many customisations that can be acquainted to customers of Oppo telephones. These embody a Game Space device that claims to spice up efficiency, App Cloner to allow you to use a number of accounts, and numerous gestures.

You can use the Smart Sidebar from inside any app to rapidly multitask or launch actions. There are a number of gesture navigation choices to select from, however the inventory Android 10 or 9 schemes should not amongst them. The calculator app can run windowed on prime of different apps. The most attention-grabbing contact is that you may spoof your name historical past, messages, contacts, and calendar, so apps that attempt to learn your private data get ineffective junk as a substitute.

On the draw back, there’s numerous bloatware even after selecting to not set up a bunch of sponsored apps throughout the preliminary setup course of. Thankfully the third-party apps are all detachable. We additionally noticed numerous spam notifications with deceptive or sensational clickbait from the default Realme UI browser earlier than we had even opened it as soon as. The browser itself is filled with advertisements and sadly it will probably’t be eliminated or disabled.

The 4 rear cameras are housed in a vertical pill-shaped protrusion

Realme Narzo 10 efficiency and battery life

We discovered the Narzo 10 nice sufficient in on a regular basis use however we did face very occasional contact response points, which made it appear as if the machine did not wish to do what we had been asking it. We additionally observed a little bit of sluggishness when loading or quitting heavy apps. 4GB of RAM ought to be greater than sufficient for most individuals’s wants although, and we had no hassle multitasking between on a regular basis apps.

As for the model new MediaTek Helio G80, we discovered benchmark efficiency that was superior to that of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 used within the Realme 5s (Review), however no match for the Snapdragon 720G present in some barely dearer telephones. Surprisingly, the Helio G80 managed solely barely higher scores than the Helio G70 used within the Realme C3 (Review) and the Narzo 10A. AnTuTu gave us 202,637 factors, and Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core checks confirmed scores of 386 and 1,342 respectively. Graphics efficiency is meant to be this SoC’s robust level, and it managed 1,796 factors in 3DMark Sling Shot Unlimited, in addition to 31fps and 17fps respectively in GFXBench’s Manhattan 3.1 and Car Chase scenes.

We discovered the show to be vivid and crisp sufficient for gaming and video streaming. Colours aren’t probably the most vibrant, however as soon as once more now we have to remind ourselves of the low worth of the Realme Narzo 10. The single speaker can also be nearly okay for video games and informal video watching, however you would not wish to use it for music.

PUBG Mobile ran moderately effectively on the High setting, and we discovered that gameplay was clean. We did discover the higher rear and the highest a part of the body getting fairly toasty after lower than 5 minutes, however a case ought to assist individuals reside with this. Asphalt 9: Legends was additionally pleasing and we did not have hassle with stuttering or lag.

One of the Realme Narzo 10’s finest belongings is its 5000mAh battery. In our expertise, the telephone lasted by way of a full day of use, which included about an hour of enjoying video games, streaming a full-length film, and many informal Internet utilization. We had been left with over 30 % on the battery indicator on the finish of a full day. Our HD video loop take a look at ran for an unbelievable 25 hours, 31 minutes. For many consumers, this may greater than make up for the telephone’s weight.

The Narzo 10 has a matte metallic body and feels effectively constructed

Realme Narzo 10 cameras

We have a quad rear digicam setup on this telephone, which fits to point out how simply a price range telephone could be made to appear high-end. The 2-megapixel macro and 2-megapixel depth sensors at the moment are fairly widespread throughout all low-cost telephones, so you will not really feel as if you are lacking out on something. However, they’re of restricted utility, as we have seen many occasions already. Macros are blotchy and tough, with the decision restricted to solely 1600×1200 pixels, so this digicam ought to be used extra for enjoyable than anything.

Realme Narzo 10 macro picture pattern (faucet to see full measurement)

However, the first 48-megapixel digicam shouldn’t be dismissed so simply. Shots that we took underneath vivid daylight had numerous element and exposures had been effectively balanced. We did discover somewhat blurring and unsteady focus in a number of of our take a look at samples, although. Close-ups had been after all higher outlined than landscapes. This won’t be the type of digicam that you just’d wish to depend on for capturing all of your essential moments, nevertheless it’s good for such a low-cost telephone and can do for many informal functions.

Realme Narzo 10 daytime customary (above) and wide-angle (beneath) picture samples (faucet to see full measurement)

Even the 8-megapixel wide-angle digicam delivers pretty respectable photographs so long as there’s good lighting, however there was undoubtedly some distortion even in the direction of the center of the body generally. We observed duller colors and a yellower tone general, although some compromises had been to be anticipated.

Realme Narzo 10 daytime picture samples (faucet to see full measurement)

The portrait mode seemed prefer it was utterly lacking our topic when the impact was being processed for the telephone’s viewfinder, however the saved photographs appeared extra pure. Selfies had been beatified by default and we did not like how aggressive the pores and skin smoothening impact was. The Narzo 10 can even try and make your face slimmer and enlarge your eyes, and it takes a number of faucets to disable all of this. Selfies had been nearly okay, however we weren’t too impressed.

Night mode works with the first in addition to the wide-angle cameras, and it does make a slight distinction in case you handle to face nonetheless for 5 seconds every time you’re taking a shot. There wasn’t a lot element, and fairly a little bit of noise in most of our take a look at photographs. The wide-angle digicam shouldn’t be used at night time as a result of it merely can’t seize sufficient mild to be helpful. All in all although, we weren’t too dissatisfied with the Narzo 10’s low-light efficiency contemplating its worth.

Realme Narzo 10 low-light (above) and Night Mode (beneath) picture samples (faucet to see full measurement)

Video will not be stabilised, and the standard was tough once we had been strolling whereas filming, however respectable sufficient once we stood nonetheless. Colours and movement aren’t that nice, however the Narzo 10 does effectively sufficient for informal use. You cannot swap cameras whereas recording video, however the wide-angle digicam’s high quality is not nice and we would not wish to use it a lot anyway. Video shot at night time had little or no element.

The digicam app is not certainly one of our favourites – it takes a minimum of three faucets to get to the macro mode, and the wide-angle digicam is activated by utilizing a set of zoom buttons starting from Wide to 5X, although all zooming past 1X is completed digitally by way of the first digicam. There’s scene recognition that did recognise cats and canines, nevertheless it’s unclear what impact it has on the digicam’s settings. In Macro mode we had been advised to remain 4cm from our topic for the very best focus, however there have been no prompts to maneuver nearer or farther so we had no concept when our positioning was optimum. Other modes embody 48MP full-resolution, Expert, Slow-mo video, Panorama, and Timelapse.

Verdict

Realme has injected recent power into the price range smartphone market. The Narzo 10 is not fairly an all-rounder however it’ll meet the necessities of many individuals, particularly the goal demographic of younger players with tight budgets. We suppose somewhat extra emphasis on digicam high quality would make individuals even happier, however Realme does supply telephones solely somewhat increased up the worth ladder for individuals who want extra. Performance is unquestionably improved in comparison with the earlier era of telephones at this worth degree, and gaming is the pure software of a extra highly effective CPU.

Battery life is clearly the largest power of the Realme Narzo 10. It’s additionally fairly enticing and effectively constructed. On the draw back, the cameras aren’t that nice, and we actually dislike the software program bloat and spam that we needed to take care of.

The Narzo 10 is a really robust contender in case your price range is capped at Rs. 12,000. If you possibly can spend somewhat extra, you would possibly wish to think about the Realme 6 (Review) and the Redmi Note 9 Pro (Review) as a substitute.

Which is the bestselling Vivo smartphone in India? Why has Vivo not been making premium telephones? We interviewed Vivo’s director of brand name technique Nipun Marya to search out out, and to speak in regards to the firm’s technique in India going ahead. We mentioned this on Orbital, our weekly expertise podcast, which you’ll subscribe to through Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or simply hit the play button beneath.