Friends+Design
- Great design - similar to the Realme 5 & 5s, the Realme 5i has both a good build quality, and trendy looks - this time with a new sunrise design pattern on the back
- The front is modern and sharp too with a 6.5-inch display, with a small dewdrop notch and fairly slim bezels all around
- Both the rear fingerprint sensor, and face unlock work accurately and fast
- There is an anti-fingerprint layer at the back which is effective to keep smudges off
- This is a fairly large phone though - the size does make one-handed use cumbersome, and even with large hands, you will struggle to tap anywhere near the top of the display (thankfully, ColorOS offers a one-handed mode to help tackle this issue)
- The Realme 5i is a bit heavy too, at 195g
Display
- Nice, large 6.5-inch IPS display, well suited to media consumption - with good color saturation, decent viewing angles and good sunlight legibility
- Screen resolution is on the low side, so long text reading is not the most ideal experience
Software
- ColorOS is now more streamlined, and cleaner than before, and of course packs a bunch of additional functionality over stock Android
- There is, as always, a plethora of preinstalled apps which will spam you with notifications (though thankfully these can be uninstalled)
Performance
- Very good performance for the price bracket, with the excellent Snapdragon 665 at the core - everything from day-to-day use to high-end games is fairly smooth
- Thermal control is good too - the phone doesn't get more than a little warm, even with long sessions of gaming
Camera
- Realme 5i offers the exact same rear camera setup as the Realme 5 - there is a 12MP primary camera + 8MP wide-angle camera + 2MP depth sensor + 2MP macro camera for closeup shots
- Overall image quality is good from the primary camera, especially in daylight - it meters light correctly - photos have decent dynamic range with good levels of detail, which is evident even after zooming in
- Shots of people have good-looking skin tones, and edge detection is handled well when shooting in Portrait mode
- The macro camera activated by switching to the ‘Ultra macro' mode yields some good results too - there's no autofocus, but when positioned correctly over a subject, you will manage to get some stunning details which aren't possible with a regular lens
- Video recording is decent too - you can shoot at up to 4K (though stabilisation is only there till 1080p) - detail levels in videos are good in daylight
- Overall, this is a good cameraphone for the price bracket, especially for day-time images
- The new 8-megapixel selfie camera is just average - backgrounds are often overexposed when shooting outdoors - the Realme 5i also offers portrait mode for the selfie camera, which is decent, but the edge detection could have been better
- Low light performance is, as expected, average however, both for images, and video - there is some noise, and less detail in low light images - the Nightscape mode helps a bit, but not a lot
- The wide-angle camera offers an interesting perspective but does not deliver the same level of detail as compared to the primary lens - the edges of frames appeared to be slightly stretched
Audio
- Decent bottom loudspeaker
Battery
- Outstanding battery life with a gigantic 5000mAh battery same as the Realme 5 & 5s - you will get a cool 2 days of moderate use
- No fast charging support - with the supplied charger, you will get around 24 percent charge in half an hour, around 43 percent in an hour, and 100 percent in about 3 hours
Verdict
- Overall, the Realme 5i is another great device from Realme, - if you're on a tight budget and looking for a good all-rounder or a very good gaming phone, Realme 5i makes sense with its fast processor, and nearly two-day long battery life
- The main caveat to keep in mind is the size and weight of the phone - if you like your phones compact, and your routine involves a lot of one-handed use, then this might not be for you
- At a slightly higher price, you could also grab some other very good phones in the under 10k price segment that offers higher resolution displays, better cameras, fast charging and equal or better processors such as the the Redmi Note 8 and the Realme 3 Pro
