Realme 6: the complete Review

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To thwart the European conquest of Xiaomi, the Chinese group BBK Electronics which is already hiding behind Oppo, OnePlus and Vivo, launched the Realme brand. In addition to creating confusion with the Redmi range of its best competitor (thanks to a skilful prosonomasia), this new brand offers ultra competitive entry-level smartphones.But in the entry-level smartphone world, Xiaomi reigns supreme. Its Redmi Note range has found the perfect balance between trendy design, decent performance and remarkable autonomy … while remaining below the 200 euro mark. The Redmi Note 8T, the latest model while the Redmi Note 9 has just been announced, excels in just about all areas. It is still one of the favorite smartphones of the editorial staff of artbzen.com today.

Marketed just under 230 euros, the Realme 6 is an entry-level model that intends to come and shade the Redmi. Can he do it? Here is the full Review

90 Hz screen at record price  

To make you want to buy your smartphone, Realme had the idea of ​​offering in its entry-level mobile functions that are usually exclusive to the most expensive devices. Thus, the Realme 6 becomes the first smartphone sold for less than 300 euros, equipped with a screen with a refresh rate of 90 Hz. This setting allows it to display more images per second than a conventional smartphone (60 Hz). in order to improve the flow of navigation.

Unfortunately for Realme, we are not totally convinced by the experience. If 90 Hz has proven itself on other mobiles, on this smartphone, the slap does not live up to our expectations. Because of sometimes jerky software animations, the magic of 90 Hz is not there. In addition, the LCD screen of the mobile phone has a lower brightness than that of competitive mobile phones (431 cd / m2 according to our measures against 631 cd / m2 on the Redmi Note 8T, for example) for an unexceptional contrast ratio of 1390: 1. The display quality is clearly not staggering and in the end, 90 Hz may be pleasant to read an article, it does not revolutionize the user experience here.

A rather successful design

However, aesthetically, the Realme 6 has many qualities. Its edge-to-edge screen has no notch. The front camera is hidden in a punch at the top left, Galaxy S10 or Honor 20 style. This gives the impression of having a device with a truly modern design despite its low price. The back of the smartphone, made of glass-like plastic, reflects light in the form of colored waves. It’s pretty pretty. Realme really took care of this part.

To unlock the mobile, in addition to an ultra-fast but non-secure facial recognition technology, there is a capacitive fingerprint sensor on the right edge of the Realme 6. Easily accessible from the thumb, it is very effective. We still blame him for being too sensitive. When you put away the Realme 6 in your loved one, it vibrates thinking that you are trying to unlock it. And be careful not to put the palm of your hand on the sensor too many times at the risk of locking the mobile.

The Realme 6 still has a big flaw: its size. If its 6.5 inch diagonal screen is fairly standard for a large smartphone, its thickness of 9.2 millimeters is less. It is not very easy to handle with one hand. It is all the more regrettable that its 4200 mAh battery remains very classic in terms of capacity, unlike Realme C3, our autonomy champion, which stood out for its 5000 mAh battery.

A disappointing autonomy…

Precisely, let's talk about the autonomy of Realme 6. Like other manufacturers, the young Chinese brand fell into the trap of the higher refresh rate. The 90 Hz consumes as long as the mobile has only withstood 10:06 to our versatile autonomy Review which, frankly speaking, is really not that great. It’s just enough to last an entire day using it occasionally, much less if you spend a lot of time on your phone. The difference from its predecessor, the Realme 5, is still 8 hours (when the latter was cheaper). Same observation in video streaming where the measured autonomy of 9:52 a.m. of Realme 6 is lower than the competition. It is only in communication, when the screen is off, that the Realme 6 records an excellent autonomy with more than 40 hours spent on the phone.

By switching the screen to 60 Hz, we notice a slight gain in autonomy. There is nothing really impressive, however, the Helio G90T, the mid-range processor Mediatek of the smartphone probably consumes too much.

… But a very fast recharge  

Fortunately, Realme had the good idea to equip its entry-level smartphone with an ultra-fast charging function. Thanks to its 30W charger, the device goes from 0 to 100% of autonomy in one hour all round. 23 minutes are enough to recover 50% of autonomy. Here is an undeniable advantage. Five minutes spent on the charger can recover 13 precious percent.

A mixed experience  

Equipped with MediaTek's Helio G90T processor, the Realme 6 records excellent results according to our benchmark tests. The problem is that MediaTek is suspected of rigging these … which forces us to take them with great reservations. In use, the Realme 6 proves to be efficient, nothing more. The jerky animations we told you about earlier prove that the smartphone is often overwhelmed by the requests of its user, which gives a little too much the impression of using a low-cost device. For example, if you move too quickly from one application to another, opening it may take time or cause a display fault. The vibrator of the mobile, extremely low-cost, is much too firm and lacks discretion in the face of what is practiced by certain competitors.

Besides, let's talk about Realme UI, the new overlay of Realme smartphones. This fork of ColorOS, the overlay of Oppo, succeeds in recovering all the faults of its source of inspiration without adding any quality. The interface is confusing, the menus lack clarity (with a few spelling mistakes, fortunately rare) and the user experience is … mixed. It's a shame, Oppo has made huge progress on its side in a few months … which do not seem to benefit realme. The number of applications preinstalled on the mobile is large, without being colossal – we are surprised to see Opera in the default browser! – and, more anecdotally, we are still having fun with this system alert which recommended that we delete unnecessary applications … Including those preinstalled. For 229 euros or more depending on the storage capacity chosen, users deserve better.

A good surprise in photo  

Before tackling the photo chapter, it should be noted that due to the confinement, we were unable to take all the photos usually necessary for our tests. Our opinion on the photography capabilities of Realme 6 is therefore to be taken with reserve, we were, for example, unable to take our sights (telework requires) and we were not really able to confront it with difficult conditions night.

That said, the configuration of Realme 6 is interesting. The smartphone sports a quadruple camera module with, it is now fashionable, two sensors that can be considered unnecessary. Indeed, a module dedicated to portrait mode and another dedicated to macro mode are mainly there to inflate the technical sheet of the phone. The two main sensors, one of 64 Mpix associated with the main wide-angle lens and the other of 8 Mpix linked to an ultra wide-angle are the only ones that really count.

By day, we must admit that we are very satisfied with the photo quality of Realme 6. The smartphone is doing honorably and succeeds in restoring reality with very good fidelity. We did not expect as much at such a price level. The photos from the main sensor are based on the pixel-binning principle, which means that the 64 Mpix sensor gives 16 Mpix (64/4) images.

At night, to our surprise, it is also quite positive. If we did not have the opportunity to push the smartphone to its limits in night conditions, we notice that the Realme 6 is doing honorably in a lit street. For an entry-level smartphone, it's really good.

Finally, the ultra wide-angle fulfills its mission without miracles. The corners are a little too distorted according to us but the quality is generally there.

For its price of 229 euros, in photo, the Realme 6 is doing very well. We believe it does better than Xiaomi's Redmi Note 8T.

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