Realme C25s Review – Gaming chipset makes it all worth it

Realme C-series comprises smartphones in the entry-level spectrum of pricing. Realme C25s is a clear example with its sub Rs 12K pricing for the base model which is pretty cheap. Realme has blended the cheap pricing with a powerful but budget processor that spices things further.

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The device handles a lot of pros and cons that I have discussed in this detailed hands-on review on Realme C25s that you must read. Follow along to know more about the smartphone. Also, it is C25s and not C25 which uses an Helio G70 SoC (the rest is the same).

The price tag mounted on Realme C25s is pretty impressive. The lower 4GB+64GB variant goes for sale at Rs 11,800/- while the topmost variant goes up for sale at Rs 12,499/-. You can choose between Watery Grey and Watery Blue colour variants and avail yourself of a whopping 5% discount on using HSBC Cashback cards. You can also check out other offers on Realme C25s on Amazon India to get the phone at the best price.

Before we talk in detail about the Realme C25s let’s see what the on-paper specs look like?

• Display: 16.51 cm (6.5 inch) HD+ Display
• Processor: MediaTek Helio G85
• Storage: 4GB, 64GB/128GB
• Software: realme UI 2.0 based on Android 11
• Rear cameras: 13MP + 2MP + 2MP
• Front camera: 8MP
• Battery: 6000 mAh
• Weight: 209g
• Dimensions: 16.4 x 7.6 x 1 cm‎

If you have seen or used a few Realme smartphones, it goes without saying that the C25s aren’t any distinct from the newest line of smartphones of the Chinese manufacturer. The phone has a plastic back and a plastic frame joined with a glass top.

Realme calls the design carved on its back panel “Geometric Art”. To simplify it, the back panel has two sections both with a gradient texture. The sections are bifurcated right at the middle of the rear camera bump which makes the first (left) section almost 1/4th of the other section that extends from the middle of the camera bump towards the right edge when holding the phone face down. There’s a clear line dissecting the back in two sections and it reflects light a little differently in each section.

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The back panel isn’t too distractive since there’s a camera bump, a circular-shaped fingerprint scanner, and a Realme brand that’s all. The panel curves and moulds into the side frame allowing for better grip. On the front, you get a beautiful display and of course, the bezels are pronounced given that C25s is a budget-friendly phone. Overall, the phone has a solid build quality even for a phone at the price (not bragging though).

The ports and button placement on C25s are fairly common. A SIM card slot is on the left; a power button and volume rockers are on the right. Further, there’s a secondary mic on top; a speaker grille, a USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom and that’s all.

Don’t expect any sort of protection against water. I wasn’t able to detect any protection but even if it is P2i, I would suggest keeping the phone away from water as much as you can because water damage isn’t included in the warranty unless your phone has an IP rating.

Realme C25s is an entry-level smartphone and thus, all the specifications reflect the same. The device arrives with a 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel with 480 nits of typical and 570 nits of a peak in auto mode performance. With 720×1600 pixels resolution, the display has a 20:9 aspect ratio making it taller. Here’s how the display actually performs when tested with real-life use cases.

As you may have already guessed, the display is capped at HD+ resolution whereas some of the devices in this price range are FHD+. The display comes with a standard 60Hz which isn’t surprising either.

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Talking about the display, it is quite large so the media consumption experience will be refined. Clubbed with decent bezels, you won’t have issues with the borders and a mini-drop notch doesn’t intrude too much in the display section either.

The phone gets sufficiently bright in order to make texts on the screen readable under harsh sunlight. The colours are vivid and as per the performance exerted by an LCD panel. If you compare it with AMOLED panels, you would definitely feel that the LCD is inferior (and it is) but LCD panels are far more popular at the sub Rs 12K price tag in India.

About the powerhouse, the Realme C25s comes equipped with a MediaTek Helio G85 SoC under the hood built on a 12nm node. The chipset comes with a max 2.0GHz frequency and has a Mali-G52 MC2 GPU that handles the graphics part. You also get two storage variant i.e. 4GB RAM plus 64GB eMMC 5.1 and a 4GB+128GB eMMC 5.1 storage. Realme has fitted the phone with dedicated microSDXC storage as well.

It is nice that Realme opted for an Helio G85 SoC instead of any underpowered processor. Note that G85 isn’t the best processor but it definitely falls in the best at this pricing. However, a 4GB RAM traps the phone in an underwhelming standing in day-to-day performance since you can have too many apps open at a time. Realme should have gone for 6GB at least with a higher variant but Realme chose to stay with 4GB RAM instead.

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Talking about the performance, the Helio G85 does a remarkable job in keeping the device afloat with many apps and processes with ease. App management and battery management on Realme C25s have been refined as well.

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I have played a few games such as Candy Crush, Subway Surfers and I didn’t notice any lag. I can say the same for graphics-intensive games like BGMI although you will have to keep the graphics at Balanced or HD to get good gameplay and worry less about the lags you would invite if you yank the graphics to any higher.

Realme C25s runs on the latest iteration of Realme UI i.e. 2.0 based on Android 11. Realme UI 2.0 is among the best UIs available in the market that offers a tonne of features including dark mode, customizations, optimized night charging, new notifications panel, and so on. As it was released with Android 11 out-of-the-box, it should get Android 12 too although the timeline is not available.

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The Indian variant of Realme C25s sports a triple rear camera downgraded to a 13MP module for its primary sensor that can record up to 1080p videos at 30 and 60fps. The other two sensors are 2MP depth and macro sensors with f/2.4 aperture. The front camera remains the same between the Indian and the international variant i.e. 8MP shooter with f/2.0 aperture, 1.12micron pixel size, and the ability to shoot 1080p@30fps videos.

I would have preferred the 48MP primary snapper on C25s on its international variant over the Indian variant with a 13MP. In any case, you end up with a 13MP shooter that captures some good images. Did you thought  I was going to say “it’s bad”? Well, truth be told, the 13MP snapper isn’t that bad after all. It captures accurate colours, a lot of details, and sharpness only capped by the resolution. Image quality is topnotch as per the price tag but that’s for daylight photography.

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Night-time photography on Realme C25s is a different story altogether. The shots are grainy and a bit blurry depending upon how steady you hold the phone. Details are a bit scarce on the auto mode whereas the night mode adds a bit of highlight and overall clarity to the shots. Even with that, I don’t have much hope with the nighttime shots as you would eventually end up with sort-of-usable images in lowlight conditions whereas there’s no way you can capture shots in very low light for instance.

The 2MP macro camera and the 2MP depth camera are summoned as auxiliary and decorative modules by other reviewers and I don’t think any different of it. I am pretty sure Realme wanted to call the rear setup a triple-camera setup.

The macro sensor is okay as you can capture objects up close but it works well in daylight, nighttime, on the other hand, is strictly a big NO. Then we have a 2MP depth sensor that works with the primary camera to capture shots with portrait mode. I am pretty sure Realme can capture portrait shots without needing a depth sensor (something which it does with the selfie camera) but it’s there.

Finally, we have a 5MP selfie camera and it does its job responsibly. It lets you capture good shots in the daytime, ideal to upload on social networking sites as selfies and you can video call someone too. Likewise,  it is a small sensor at5MP so you will have to compromise over the quality of the shots. Images will be grainy at times and details won’t be enough to call it sharp. Overall, it works in line with the price tag.

From a specifications point of view, the Realme C25s sports a 6,000 mAh battery with 18W fast charging tech and it has a reverse charging capability. Read along to know how the battery actually performs in real life.

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As you can check out that the Realme C25s is at 6,000 mAh, it is competent enough to produce a battery backup of approx 2 days. It should last for a day on heavy usage be it gaming or otherwise. On the other hand, you can spend almost two days or more on binge-watching videos, messaging, calling, and other services.

The device comes with an 18W fast charging tech which goes in line with the price tag it arrives with. Even with that, it takes approx 2 hours to juice up the battery to its full extent. There’s support for reverse charging as well. With a solid standby time, I kept it idle for a week only to see an 8% depletion in the battery percentage from 100%.

With a single bottom-firing loudspeaker, Realme C25s produces loud sound, to be honest. I was able to listen to music even at 60% of the volume. Here, the bass at low is lacking the required depth while the mids are well-defined and highs are bright. Overall, the sound quality is good for a single speaker setup.

Realme C25s sports dual-band Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth v5.0 with A2DP and LE, GPS that covers BDS, Glonass, and A-GPS. There’s no NFC on-board C25s. You get a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner on the device. Finally, there’s a USB Type-C 2.0 port for data sharing and charging the battery.

Realme C25s isn’t a 5G phone as usual.  It comes with LTE (4G) support without LTE-A or LTE-CA. It is backwards compatible so it connects to 2G and 3G as the usual stuff. When it comes to calling quality, C25s won’t disappoint you for sure. Network reception, call quality, and sound quality are up to the mark. I have been using both Jio 4G and Airtel 4G and I didn’t have any problems with the two carriers either.

There are only a handful of smartphones in this price tag to get a fingerprint scanner and luckily, C25s has it. The fingerprint scanner is a rear-mounted solution placed adjoining to the rear camera bump and it is quite responsive. A single tap and you will unlock the phone in a fast and responsive manner. Other usual candidates for authentication are PIN and Pattern.

Pros 

• MediaTek Helio G85
• Large 6000 mAh battery
• 18W fast charging
• 48MP triple-rear camera
• Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor

Cons 

• No Gorilla Glass protection
• 720-pixel display
• Bulky with 209 grams of weight
• No dust and water resistance