realme C55 review: Redefining the C Series

realme Philippines just introduced the realme C55 smartphone in the Philippines. It’s a midrange phone with a sub-PhP8K price tag but offers an array of features and capable performance. It also sports the new Mini Capsule similar to the Dynamic Island found on Apple’s iPhones.

With that affordable pricing, can it really deliver on its promises? We find out.

Unboxing

Let’s begin with the box. Not much has changed when it comes to packaging and you still get an all-yellow box and once you open it, you’ll be greeted and welcomed to the realme family.

Lifting and opening this smaller box reveals the usual manuals and guides in addition to its included jelly case if you want to add some sort of protection to your device.

What’s left in the box is the realme C55 unit and digging deeper will introduce you to the power brick and USB-C cable that supports SuperVOOC charging. More on that later.

Design

For the device itself, the realme C55 has a sleek and modern design with a well-designed back that’s available in two colors – Sunshower and Rainy Night. Even though the back panel is made of plastic, it still exudes that premium look and feel thanks to its rounded edges.

What we have here is the Rainy Night color and just like its name suggests, the back has these textures and patterns that look like showers of light rain pouring at certain angles. Looking at it could get trippy.

The phone feels comfortable in the hand, and the buttons are well-placed and easy to reach. All the buttons are on the right side with the volume rocker sitting above the power/lock button that also doubles as a fingerprint scanner. There have been a few fingerprint misreadings during our time but overall, it has been quick and responsive and had no major issues.

The left side houses its dual SIM tray and microSD slot for storage expansion. Meanwhile, at the bottom, you have an audio jack for wired headphones, its USB 2.0 Type-C port, and a speaker grille.

As for the rest of its back panel, there are two prominent camera sensors at the back namely a 64-megapixel main and a secondary 2-megapixel depth sensor. We’ll expound on the optics later on.

Display and multimedia

In terms of display, this phone comes with a 6.72-inch FHD+ IPS display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels. The display is bright and vibrant, and the colors are accurate. There’s a bit of chin at the bottom but the rest of the bezels are pretty thin but still a bit noticeable.

The realme C55 also features a 90Hz refresh rate, which makes scrolling and navigating through the UI feel smooth and fluid. I always turn set my phone’s refresh rate to the highest since scrolling just looks very fluid even though it depletes the battery faster. That’s what its fast-charging tech is there for, at least for me.

Using it when watching videos on YouTube or streaming TV shows and movies on Netflix, its large display makes for easy viewing. Although I would appreciate it better if it had stereo speakers rather than just one bottom-firing grille. But of course, that would bump up the price.

Camera

As mentioned earlier, the realme C55 has a dual camera setup on the back, which includes a 64-megapixel main camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. Having the same main sensor as the realme GT Edition, the camera performance is impressive for its price point, with good color accuracy and detail in well-lit conditions.

Photos have a generally cool tone to them and dynamic range is actually good as it preserves details both in the dark and light areas for each shot even with HDR turned off.

One of the things I noticed, though, is that it sometimes struggles in focusing when taking photos of subjects up close. Usually, this is where a macro feature would come in handy, but that’s not present in this phone. Night Mode also works well and is able to get needed light into its sensor for a clear image at the expense of holding still for about 3 seconds on average.

Something that I missed shooting with a realme phone is its Street Mode which automatically applies Kodak-approved filters to produce more of those street-style vibe photos. But, this is the entry-level C series, after all, so we’re not complaining.

Video recording maxes out at 1080p at 60fps which is good enough for shooting reels. But since this phone isn’t meant to specialize in videos, we don’t have any complaints.

The phone also features an 8MP front-facing camera, which takes decent selfies. One of my observations, though, is that its night mode has the same long shutter approach so it wasn’t the best thing to use in low light with a large group of people unless they’re willing to keep still for about 3 seconds while the selfie camera lets more light into its sensor.

Performance

This midrange phone is powered by a MediaTek Helio G88 chipset paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. This is the first time that a model from the C series comes with this RAM and storage combo.

In terms of daily usage, switching between apps is effortless and its realme UI 4.0 based on Android 13 makes navigation intuitive. The phone, in general, can handle your usual social media apps and even video editing software for creating short videos on TikTok or IG Reels, for example.

The phone also features a Mali-G52 GPU, which is capable of handling most games and apps. I did experience some frame drops when playing resource-intensive games like Genshin Impact. It’s quite understandable but I was still able to enjoy playing on the device and lags were not something I experienced on a regular basis.

Special to this phone is realme’s Mini Capsule feature that appears on top of the screen to show useful notifications. As of writing this review, it just displays the battery status that pops up when the battery is running low, charging, or fully charged. It can also alert you of your data usage when you’ve consumed more than 90% of your daily data usage limit.

realme says it will still add more features to the Mini Capsule via downloadable updates in the future.

Battery life

The realme C55 has a 5000mAh battery, which provides impressive battery life. The phone can easily last for a full day on a single charge with moderate usage and we were even able to use the phone as our wireless display for our DJI RSC 2 while shooting our video reviews.

The phone also supports 33W SuperVOOC fast charging, with claims that it can charge the phone from 0 to 100% in about an hour. This proved true during our experience and even just charging the phone for 30 minutes already yielded around 50% of battery life from empty.

For context, previous iterations from the C series could only charge up to 18W with their Quick Charging feature.

Price and conclusion

The realme C55 has a starting price in the Philippines of PhP 8,999 for the 6GB and 128GB model while the 8GB and 256GB variant that we have is at PhP 10,999.

Overall, the realme C55 is a solid midrange smartphone that offers good value for money. The phone has a sleek and modern design, a large and vibrant display with a high refresh rate, powerful performance, and a capable camera system.

The phone also has excellent battery life and supports fast charging. So if you’re looking for an affordable smartphone that offers good overall performance, the realme C55 definitely reinvents offerings from the C series and is well worth considering.

RELATED: realme 9i review: Power for days!

Search
-

Harman Kardon Esquire Mini 2 review: A chic and personal Bluetooth speaker

06/07/2021

If there’s one thing I love about Harman Kardon, it would have to be its designs. The company has long been merging tech and aesthetics to produce beautifully designed products with premium sound.

The Esquire Mini 2 is no exception. While not radically different from its predecessor, it boasts of useful upgrades and features to help easily integrate itself into almost any lifestyle. Apart from being your usual Bluetooth speaker, the Esquire Mini 2 also functions as a speakerphone and a power bank. With these added features, does the Harmon Kardon Esquire Mini 2 do well as an all-around device?

Design

There’s no denying that the Esquire Mini 2 is quite a looker. It flashes a pretty polished metal grill design upfront and a faux leather finish on the back.  There’s also a nifty kickstand to prop up the speaker which makes it look oh-so-elegant.

We have the device in a classic silver color but there’s also a black version for a more subtle look. If you fancy a bit more color in your life, it also comes in blue, copper, and pink.

All of the device’s buttons can be found on the top and include the power, Bluetooth, and call buttons. Just opposite it is the volume rocker. Buttons are tactile, easy to press and feel just as durable as the rest of this device. There’s also a 3.5mm jack for accessories and on the side are 5 small LED lights that indicate battery level.

The size of the Esquire Mini 2 is one of my favorite things about it. It’s as big as today’s smartphones and about an inch thick. Weighing just a quarter kilogram, it’s extremely portable and easy to stash in just about any bag and maybe even some pockets. Additionally, a plain faux leather case is included for protection.

Performance

Let’s just get this out of the way, the Harmon Kardon Esquire Mini 2 is not going to be your party speaker. It’s going to be the speaker you have set up on your desk or home office, or the speaker you use when you’re binge-watching on your laptop or phone.  In a word, personal.

Thinking of it this way made me appreciate the device even more. And since it also does more than the usual speaker, the Esquire Mini 2 was able to integrate itself nicely into my work environment as well.

But before we get into that, let’s talk about sound quality. For a speaker its size, it’s produces a relatively balanced sound given it’s at a moderate volume. It does lack bass but not so much that it’s unenjoyable. Call quality is clear but unlike music, vocals had heavier lows.

When you max out the volume, sound quality takes a rather noticeable dip. The bass struggles the most and gets drowned out by the mids. The sound blows out the speakers and produces less than desirable output. You can easily remedy this, though, by not maxing out the volume of the speaker and increasing the volume of the connected device instead.

Now back to how I used it on a daily basis. I propped the speaker on my desk, just next to my computer, and would mostly play music while I was working. The sound quality and volume were just right to pleasantly fill up my work area.

What’s great is when I’d receive a call, I could use the Esquire Mini 2’s conferencing system that basically turns it into a speakerphone. At a press of a button, I can go hands-free and continue what I’m doing since I didn’t need to literally pick up the phone. And if I ever wanted to go wired, there’s a 3.5mm jack ready and waiting.

This feature is also really useful during my meetings and video calls since I could hear everything much clearer. The dual microphones also seemed to pick up my voice pretty well provided I wasn’t too far from it. Noise cancellation isn’t too great, though, so it’s still best to be in a pretty quiet room if you don’t want other sounds to be heard.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the sound quality of the Esquire Mini 2 as a personal speaker. I imagine it will work even better in a more enclosed environment like a small home office or working space but it’s proven to be a reliable speaker in most situations so far.

Battery

As mentioned earlier, the Esquire Mini 2 is also a power bank. I wouldn’t recommend solely relying on this, though, since capacity is only at 2200mAh. With today’s smartphones, that won’t be enough for a full charge. It’s best to think of this as a primary feature but as a neat add-on to the device.

If you’re not sharing battery power, you can get about 8-10 hours of use on a single charge. It took about 4 hours to charge the device to full. Personally, that’s enough for me since it lasts long enough to match my working hours.

Creature Feature

In our reviews, The Modern Creatures aims to find special features in a device that make it stand out — something that gives it an edge over its competitors. Its Creature Feature. And for the Harman Kardon Esquire Mini 2, it would have to be its ultra-chic and portable design.

In true Harman Kardon fashion, the Esquire Mini 2 not only prides itself in quality sound output but also a stand-out and elegant design. Combining that with its premium build and materials, you’re getting a multi-function portable speaker that can easily find a home on your desk.

Final Thoughts

The Harman Kardon Esquire Mini 2 is something I could easily see myself pick out in a store. It’s beautifully designed, produces quality sound for its size, and can function as a speakerphone and as a backup power source.

Priced at US$ 130 (PhP 8,499 in the Philippines), the Harmon Kardon Esquire Mini 2 is a great fit for those who value aesthetics just as much as performance. It’s available for purchase on the company’s official online store, Lazada PH, or Amazon US.

REVIEWS