It launched a recent phone from Realme C series which was launched Realme c31 The name is given. This phone comes with attractive and slim design, 5000 mAh battery is available and triple camera setup is also given in the rear. The phone is from the same series in which Realme c35 Was launched, but this time the price has been kept low so that customers can be wooed. Does Realme C31 woo according to the price, and is there anything special in other than the design? Find out in this review.
Realme c31 price in India and variants
Realme C31 comes in two variants in India. The base variant was launched in March 2022 for Rs 8,999, but at the time of this review, its price has increased slightly to Rs 9,299. This variant comes with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage, while above the variant comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage and the price is Rs 9,999. The phone is available in light silver and dark green colors. I had a 4GB RAM model for this review.
Realme C31 Design
When you look as a device priced below Rs 10,000, Realme C31 looks good in hand and feels good. The light silver color gives a very slim look to the phone. When I first caught it in my hand, the phone was feeling quite tall from the beginning. The back panel of the phone is accompanied by triple-camera setup that is slightly out, so that the phone starts to waver when putting on the desk. The entire panel rear is given a focus texture, only the camera module is different from it. The back panel is made of polycarbonate. Its texcharged back does not allow fingers to get fingers and prevents scratches from falling.
Realme C31 has the power button on the right side and there is also a fingerprint sensor. I had no problem in reaching the fingerprint sensor as the power button has been given the right place and it is given in a mildly molded groove. The left side of the phone has SIM card slots and volume buttons. The back panel has a speaker grill. Personally, the speaker placement does not like me because the sound is pressed whenever the device is placed in the flat place.
The bottom of Realme C31 has a 3.5mm headphone jack, primary microphone and a micro-USB port. The company should have given a USB-type C port instead, given that Micromax in 2B For example, old phones also come with a type C port at this price. A charger of 10W is available in the box, but no protective case is found.
Realme C31 has a 6.5 -inch HD+ LCD display in which waterdrop notch is available. In this, the front camera has been fitted. The display has thin bezels, but Chin is slightly larger. The display has a standard 60Hz refresh rate. The phone weighs 197 grams which is slightly heavy. However, I had no problem while using it with one hand because the company has divided weight correctly.
Realme C31 Specifications and Software
Realme C31 provides UNISOC T612 SoC which is based on the 12Nm fabrication processor. It is an octa-core processor with clock speed up to 1.82GHz. Standard UFS 2.2 inbuilt storage is provided which is not seen many times in this price segment. The phone has two Nano-SIM cards and microSD card support for extra storage. Storage can be extended to 1TB with the help of cards.
For connectivity, Realme C31 gives 4G/LTE, Bluetooth 5.0 and only 2.4GHz Wi-Fi support. I had some trouble with Wi-Fi in my unit because C31 continued to disconnect from my router, while I was in the same room.
Realme C31 phone runs on Realme UI R Edition which is a more basic version of Regular Realme UI. This version has been designed to increase the performance of lower and devices. There are many types of blotware apps in the phone which include Facebook, Josh, Paytm, ShareChat and many other apps. You can also uninstall them if needed.
My unit was running on Android 11 and had a security patch of March 2022. I did not even receive the security patch update of April on this. The user interface feels like the Vanilla version of Realme UI. There are some mild adjustments in it and nothing is available for customization. For example, on the home screen I could not customize the apps, transitions or layouts of the apps.
The user interface is easy and straightforward to use. All the necessary settings and quick action are easily available. The phone has a feature of Smart Controls in which some modern features like Smart Wake, Smart Motion, POCKET MODE etc. are given. You do not get the dedicated gallery app in the device. You will either have to use Google’s pre-installed Google Photos or use a third party app.
Realme c31 performance and battery life
There is no problem in the phone in everyday use. There was no problem in scrolling and switching between apps in the user interface. The phone has two types of biometric authentication options- fingerprint and face unlock. The fingerprint is quite fast but face unlock looks slightly slow.
Talking about the performance, the phone scored 197,830 points on AnTuTu. In Geekbench’s single core and multi -core test, the phone scored 339 and 1279 points respectively. In the PCMark Work 3.0 Test, the phone scored 7,348 points. However, these results were not very good, and some were less than the company’s own Realme C25. Realme C25 was launched last year in which MediaTek Helio G70 SoC is available.
The benchmark scores may be weak, but the game was smooth on the phone. On the phone, I saw BGMI, Call of Duty: from Mobile to PES 2021, Asphalt 9 Legends. As far as I experienced, Call of Duty: Mobile phone went well with low-graphics and frame rates. When taken to medium graphics, the phone started to falter. Also, after 15 minutes of continuous play, the phone became quite hot in some part of the back panel. Asphalt 9: Legends went well in high quality settings.
The phone played BGMI without any lag in high frame rate settings. Here the phone started to falter in HD graphics. Georoscopa also did a good job and I was able to control the recording during gunfight.
Games such as Temple Run and Subway Surfers run without any hindrance in the phone. The phone has an option of ‘Auto Resolution’ in which the screen resolution is reduced during the games so that the battery of the phone can be saved and the heating is also reduced. However, even after enabling it, I could not see any difference in its performance or use.
Realme C31 displays have good viewing angles. You can choose from the presets of standard, warm and cool color tone. I got the most balanced look in standard mode. The screen is large and for this the HD Plus resolution seems to be low. The brightness of the screen is 400 knots and can be readily read in outdoor, or even in the direct sunlight.
Colors look good on the display. In this, you do not get the support of Widevine L1, so on OTT apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, you will only be able to see the content in Standard Definition (SD) quality. The speaker quality is good and it does a lot of loud sound when caught in the hand.
Video display enhancement feature is available in the phone, which makes the color more bright and alive while watching the video. When I enabled it, the video started appearing with a little artificial, so I kept it closed.
Realme C31 has a 5,000mAh battery which lasted for 13 hours 53 minutes in our HD video loop test, it was slightly less than expected. On average, the phone goes comfortably throughout the day, which includes a little gaming and media consumption in addition to regular use once charged. With mild use, I could run it for a little longer than a day. The 10W charger found in the box with the phone charges it to charge 0 to 23 percent in 30 minutes and took 2 hours 30 minutes to fully charge the battery.
Realme c31 cameras
Realme C31 supports the triple-camera setup in the rear, including a 13-megapixel primary camera with f/2.2 aperture, f/2.4 aperture 2-megapixel macro camera and black-end-white camera with F/2.8 aperture. There is a 5 megapixel single camera with f/2.2 aperture at the front. The camera interface is also a simple version of the regular Realme camera app. I saw some frame drops in the viewfinder while trying to capture some shots.
The camera app is easy to use and is easy to navigate between the given options. The real camera performance of the phone will be called average. The photos taken in the day-light were good but there was a lack of details which was clear when zoomed. The 13 -megapixel camera maintains a good colors but misses in the dynamic range. On switching to auto HDR mode, the image became more sharp and some color over became saturated. The phone has 4X digital zoom but grains appear in the captured image.
Macro shots taken from the phone’s camera were less than average and the photo looked pink. Many efforts had to be made in taking macro shots because the correct focus was not easily available in it. There was also a shortage of details in the photo. Portrait mode works only in rear camera and for some reason works on human subject, not on things. Edge detection was good but many times it also blurred some part of the subject which should not have been done. You can also set the blur level before clicking photos.
Photo over the front camera in front of the light exposed and looked quite simple. The 5 megapixel camera is missed in capturing a good detail of the face. A lot of noise was also seen in the photo.
The photo taken in low light found noise while the photo was taken in good light. It looked soft and there was a shortage of details. The camera also struggled to focus in low light. The photo looked a bit bright when switching to the night pro mode.
The phone can capture the video in a resolution of up to 1080p on 30fps. The videos captured in daylight were simple and the lack of stabilization could be clearly seen in them. The video showed a lot of noise in the video. Since, it did not have an electronic stabilization, the video did not even have Shimmer effect, which was a good thing.
Verdict
The phone is good for everyday use. There is no problem in switching between multitasking or apps. I would not recommend playing games in heavy graphics on it as it is not designed in that way. The phone looks quite modern and stylish, and it is difficult to look at it that it is a budget device. The 5,000mAh battery of the phone gives good backup.
There is a lot of scope for improvement in the phone’s camera. Portrait mode should not have been limited to human subjects only. If you are going to buy this phone, then I would suggest that there is not much difference in its price and it will be beneficial in long run. If you are seeing any option in this price, then you can see Moto E32S, which can be quite attractive.