We Got Our Hands on the Realme U1 and It’s a Real Game Changer
The best selfie-snapper is here.
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Guys, we’ve got to take a moment and thank smartphones for making our lives super easy and sorted. I mean who would’ve have thought that these sleek and beautiful state-of-the-art devices are going to pack all the nitty-gritties of entertainment and communication and how.
So when it comes to choosing the perfect smartphones, we usually tend to face the ultimate dilemma. Since the market’s filled with gazillion choices, we decided to do the extra work for you and find out the perfect smartphone just for you. And we didn’t just declare it the perfect smartphone. We did an in-depth comparison of the phone with its fellow competitor and turns out we have a winner. All this, so that you can have the perfect smartphone for yourself. Thank us later!
The Design
The thing is, if you’re a fan of looks and love to flaunt a bit, then the new Realme U1 is definitely the right one for you. It has a poly-carbonate frame with a metallic finish giving it a premium look. Say goodbye to good old solid color back designs because Realme U1’s back cover plate has a 13-layer micron-level coating which gives the shimmering panel the sense of depths, transparency and a premium look.
Realme U1 has used transparent acrylic composite material for designing the back panel. That’s one hell of a smart move. You see, it gets better durability and shatter resistance as well as the reflection of a glass. Win-win, right? That’s not it though. The phone is made lighter and gives a better in-hand feel experience. The carefully designed 2.5D edge offers smooth transition in both visual and haptic sense. The bezel adopts precise injection moulding process, making the phone more comfortable and tender toward users.
Redmi's Note 6 Pro has a combination of aluminum and polycarbonate frame which doesn’t add anything new to the table. It looks like any other metal phone in the town and there’s no uniqueness in that.
Dedicated microSD Card Slot
Now, if you’ve been an android user, you may have this habit of extending your phone memory via SD cards but you may also be aware of the fact that most devices these days give a hybrid slot which can either support a micro SIM or a SD card. Realme U1 gives a dedicated expansion slot so that you don’t have to compromise and go solo with one SIM. Redmi Note 6 Pro, on the other hand, has a hybrid slot which means your extended memory will come at a cost.
The Display
A lot of us prefer to consume video content on our phones and for that, having a decent display with a good resolution is quite important. And that brings me to a whopping 6.3 inches Dew-drop IPS LCD display of Realme U1. It has a 1080 x 2340 pixels Full HD+ resolution and 19.5:9 aspect ratio which achieves a 90.8 percent screen to body ratio. Yes, you heard that right. Isn't it a game changer being a budget phone? The Dew-drop notch design gives it an edge to edge display and sleek look with slim edges.
While the Redmi Note 6 Pro has a 6.26 inches marginally smaller display with 1080 X 2280 pixels Full HD+ resolution, it fails to beat the Realme U1 because of its screen ratio.
The Front Camera
Realme U1 boasts a 25-megapixel selfie camera for your amazing selfies. Now that proves why the phone is being called by the company as India’s “SelfiePro”. The AI selfie snapper easily beats every other camera in the price range with some really impressive high resolution selfies.
The Redmi Note 6 Pro has a 20-megapixel selfie camera with a 2-megapixel depth sensor for portrait selfies. While they have added a 2-megapixel sensor for portrait selfies, the resolution of the camera has dropped down significantly.
The Rear Camera
With a 13-megapixel (f/2.2) primary camera aided by a 2-megapixel (f/2.4) depth sensor on the rear, the Realme U1 captures some impressive portrait shots. If you’re thinking about the low light shots, let me tell you upfront that it has a large 1.8 µm pixels which lets you capture some decent shots even in low light. This phone also supports the AI-based scene recognition which adds another star to the rear camera.
Well, to compare the cameras better, I’d like to put on my photographer hat. And let me tell you, it was worth it. Also, here’s a portrait of Lionel Messi clicked by me.
The Performance
Talking about performance, the Realme U1 is powered by MediaTek Helio P70 12nm octa-core processor and comes with 3 and 4 Gigs RAM options. Fun fact: Realme U1 is world’s first smartphone to be powered by MediaTek Helio which already makes it a bit special. Also, the multitasking has been super smooth overall. Now, if you’re a bit skeptical about the latest MediaTek Helio P70, then here’s something about the world’s most powerful chipset.
The P70 chip uses TSMC's latest 12nm FinFET production process. Before you wonder how that helps. Well, it reduces power consumption by 15% compared to other 14nm class processor. That’s not all though. The P70 features an octa-core architecture with four Cortex-A53 high-efficiency cores and four Cortex-A73 high-performance cores, for a maximum clock speed of 2.1GHz. In short, it’s fast. It’s very very fast.
The Helio P70 is much faster and better than the Snapdragon 636 that the Redmi Note 6 Pro has. In the recent Antutu benchmark test, the Redmi Note 6 Pro scored 115611, while the Realme U1 scored a respectable 145021. The Helio P70 is definitely better in terms of pure performance and has no heating issues, even after a hours of usage.
If you spend a considerable part of your day on playing high end games like Asphalt 8 and PUBG then fret not, because Realme U1 has got you covered. When it comes to graphics processing, the P70 is equipped with a 900MHz ARM Mali-G72 MP3 GPU. This makes its overall computing performance 13% higher than the P60.
The User Interface
Truth be told, I like my phones super-fast and easy when it comes to usage. And Realme U1 doesn’t disappoint with its Color-OS 5.2 on Android Oreo 8.1. It comes with a barrage of added features like split-screen multitasking and gesture navigation. What’s new and really exciting for me is the Smart Scan feature, which allows you to point your phone at any written text and have it transcribed into an editable text.
Redmi Note 6 Pro runs on the Android Oreo-based MIUI 10. I, for one, never really had any problem with the MIUI but to be honest its placement of ads within the interface is quite annoying.
The Verdict
So, here’s what you should really consider before getting your next smartphone:
- Priced at 11,999 INR, the Realme U1 is absolutely a bang for your buck. The Redmi Note 6 pro is priced at 14,999. See, there’s the difference, right?
- The interface is neat and works the same while using multiple apps.
- Thanks to the huge screen, binge watching videos is pretty great with amazing clarity.
- The camera, as it’s clearly demonstrated, is an absolute winner. And the AI ‘selfie-snapper’, with that price, will give you some great pictures. I mean, you literally have to do nothing now. It’s AI and it’s amazing.
- Its 3500 mAH battery easily allows the device to run throughout the day.
- It is sleek, elegant and premium. If that doesn’t justify the pricing, I don’t know what will.
- Overall, the Realme U1 is the best choice in this price segment in all aspects. You can get Realme U1 on Amazon.
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