The Realme U1
I ran the phone through benchmark tests and found it to have some weak points. For one, the phone scores 6,115 and 2345 in the AnTuTu and Geekbench 4, respectively. Also, the phone had trouble keeping up in everyday gaming situations. In AnTuTu, it scored 41,856, which is around 2,000 points below the Realme 2 Pro (Realme U1 with Snapdragon 660, not Realme 2). In Geekbench 4, it scored 2536 in single-core and 6604 in multi-core. The phone’s fans were also not happy with the response time as it took almost 2 seconds to respond to a touch. Overall, the Realme U1 may not match up to the best Android devices, but it makes up for its shortcomings with great performance.
Realme U1 Specifications
Display: 6.3-inch (1080×2340 pixels) Full-HD+ (303 ppi) 6.3-inch (1080×2340 pixels) Full-HD+ (303 ppi) Software: ColorOS 5.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo ColorOS 5.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo Fingerprint Scanner: Yes, on the back Yes, on the back CPU: Up to 2.1 GHz octa-core Cortex-A73+ cores, PowerVR Rogue GE8320 GPU Up to 2.
Realme U1 Display
It comes with a tall 6.3-inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 2310 x 1080 pixels and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The screen is highly reflective and it isn’t the best display out there. The viewing angles are poor and the display lacks good brightness levels. Despite this, it can be used in sunny conditions as the brightness levels are high enough. As mentioned earlier, the screen has a little notch up top. The bezels on the sides are thin, though they are not slim, which means that there’s a tiny chin at the bottom of the display. The display offers a good level of brightness and the saturation levels are impressive too. You can choose from three color options for the display, including City Blue, Melody Pink and Ice Lake Silver.
Realme U1 Performance
The Realme U1 is a capable smartphone and handles day-to-day tasks very well. The MediaTek Helio P70 CPU is clocked at 2GHz, which translates into snappy performance throughout the day. I played graphics-heavy games like Asphalt 9: Legends for a few hours, which did not put a strain on the processor. For browsing, streaming videos and using social media apps, the Realme U1 is very responsive and there’s no sign of lags or stutters. It even copes well with the high-quality graphics in Asphalt 9. The gaming performance is also impressive and we did not have any major lags or stutters while playing games like Asphalt 9. The Realme U1 runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with ColorOS 5.2 overlay. I like the stock Android UI as it’s super clean and has a minimalist look and feel to it.
Realme U1 Battery life and Camera
The Realme U1 offers good battery life and the 3010mAh battery easily lasts for a day even if you use it moderately. It’s no match for the super-slim phones like the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2, which have a 3000mAh battery, but this is a more affordable option that’s not priced as aggressively. You can easily use the phone with its bright and colorful display for a full day and that’s thanks to the MediaTek Helio P70 processor, which can handle all the heavy lifting of games and heavy web browsing. It will take a while to heat up the phone when gaming and playing heavy webpages. The phone gets very warm after playing PUBG for hours on end and even the camera UI gets warm, but I have not seen any issues with this on the Zenfone Max Pro M2.
Conclusion
The Realme U1 is priced at Rs. 11,999, which is a reasonable amount for a smartphone of this spec. At this price, it’s a worthy contender to the Honor 7A and Redmi 6A and it’s the cheapest smartphone with a waterdrop notch that we’ve seen so far. It’s available on Amazon and Realme’s own website. There are many elements that make this phone a standout in the sub-Rs. 15,000 price segment and we especially like its design, screen, battery and performance. It may not look as sleek as the other budget smartphones in this segment, but there’s very little to complain about.