Realme might just be the new OnePlus of the mid-range smartphone segment

There’s a new Me in town, and this time, it’s the Real thingIt’s a good time to be a smartphone customer in India. Companies are falling over themselves to give ‘more for less’. That said, it’s tough to keep track of the new smartphone launches every month. Which is why, when we tell you that OPPO’s Realme 1 is something to watch out for, you better sit up and take notice.OPPO is doing to the budget smartphone market today what the OnePlus did to the mid-range market in 2014. The company has launched Realme, its online-only sub-brand, and the Realme 1 is the first phone off the docks.And what a splash Realme 1 has made! Priced at Rs. 8,990/- for the 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage, and at Rs. 13,990/- for the 6GB RAM and 128 GB storage (just Rs. 13,990/- for 128 GB, can you believe it!)t, the Realme 1 is making heads turn with an amazing set of specs.Build and DesignRealme 1 is available in three bold colours. There's the mesmerising Diamond Black, eye-catching Solar Red and the beautiful Moonlight Silver. Let’s start off with the looks. The body is glossy plastic with a premium mirror-like finish. The diamond cut back reflection on the back is unlike anything that we have seen in budget smartphones, and it makes the Realme 1 stand out amongst its peers. For too long now, budget phone consumers have had to be satisfied with a cheap looking panel. Not anymore. The fibreglass body is light (158 g) but you know that the phone is not a delicate darling.The power button is on the right, the volume rocker on the left.  The speaker grille, 3.5mm audio jack and micro USB port are located on the base. Realme 1 has a 6-inch, full HD+ display, and the phone fits surprisingly well in the palm of our hand. The phone follows the trend of 18:9 displays.PerformanceThe Realme 1 is powered by the same chipset as the OPPO F7: The MediaTek Helio P60 processor. This is said to be MediaTek’s best mid-range processor to date, and also claims to be the world’s first 12 nm artificial intelligence processor.The AI processor makes gaming a pleasure on the phone. We played a bunch of graphics intensive games on the phone and it ran smoothly without heating up. There is a gaming mode to turn notifications and apps off, and that should make gamers happy.The phone takes a little over 90 minutes to charge, and the 3,140mAh battery runs for a whole day with medium usage, and 12 hours with heavy usage.The Realme 1 runs on Color OS 5.0 that is based on Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box. There are a lot of customization options, ranging from wallpapers to selecting your navigation keys.If you want to detox from your phone for a while, you can put it on ‘Quiet Time’. Here, you can set the phone on silent for a specified period. It’s heartening to see Realme take the lead on this. People have been talking about phone addiction, and when one of the country’s largest sellers takes a step like this, you have got to give them credit.The phone runs multiple apps without any lag. The audio quality is really good as is the call quality. The speakers are a fair set for the money that you pay for, though we wish that the next version comes with more boom.The face recognition feature on the Realme 1 is incredibly fast but on some occasions, you might have to use your pin to unlock the phone if you are out during the day, because there is no fingerprint sensor on this phone.CameraWhen the whole world is going crazy over the dual rear camera, Realme has chosen to give it a miss. There’s one 13 MP camera on the back and an 8 MP camera on the front for selfies.Just like the OPPO F7, the camera comes with AI Beauty Technology 2.0. Fans of Instagram and Snapchat will like the AR sticker mode (face filters). You also have the Bokeh effect (depth of field), and a Super Vivid mode that helps you enhance colours on your pictures. The camera app is simple to use and you have an option to edit images within the app itself. People looking at the Realme 1 as their first smartphone will have a lot of fun with the camera app.The Realme 1 breaks the market wide open in the sub-10,000/- range with the 4+64 GB variant and the sub-15,000/- range with 6+128 Gb variant, both in terms of looks as well as performance. Realme has sold 4 lakh units in 40 days, strongly indicating that customers expect more from their smartphones and companies can’t get away by providing strictly acceptable phones anymore.UpdateRealme 1 CPH1859EX _11_ A.16 _180613_ 8293a5e4 has been released by OTA in India. The changes are as follows:

1. Update your Android security patch
2.  Added built-in theme: diamond blue, diamond red, snow white
3. Optimize three-way application camera effects
4. Optimize background memory management
5. Unable to Unlock Faces While Closing Eyes
6. Improved System Stability

ConclusionRealme with its first smartphone has pulled off something incredible that no one was expecting. 6 GB of RAM with a storage of 128 GB along with AI capabilities in a smartphone that costs less than 15,000 is well, absolutely crazy. Just a few months ago people would have been dismissive about having features like these in a mid-range smartphone, but now it's selling like cupcakes! And one of the biggest reasons behind Realme's success in that while the brand has provided quantity, they have also maintained quality. Hence, we believe that Realme is the new OnePlus of the mid-range smartphone segment.This is a partnered post.