Hands-On

Realme X Hands-On: It has something for everyone

Taking over the batton from Xiaomi

Published

July 31, 2019

Shivam Vahia

Realme is barely over a year old, but in this short span, it has managed to grab a huge chunk of the market. While Xiaomi has established itself as the king, Realme wants to take over this title and its coming with all its might. This young brand is targeting the youth, but does it have everything that everyone wants?

Going by the name, you’d expect it to be a flagship but it’s an affordable phone that aims to get everything right. An all-new design, powerful processor, and fancy pop-up camera, what more does it have to offer?

An all-new design that looks exceedingly premium

Our Polar White unit gives a very refreshing vibe. Metal builds and gradient backs have become mainstream and Realme has something new in store. A ceramic texture along with mild colors at different angles, coupled with a glass build is unmatchable in this segment. It isn’t very slippery to hold and the weight distribution is on-point. Lastly, subtle edges make it very comfortable to hold for long durations.

AMOLED doesn’t mean a hefty price

Majority of the phones in this segment come with an LCD display along with a notch. Realme has eliminated the notch to offer a high screen-to-body ratio of 86 percent. The front looks immersive and many might mistake it for a flagship phone. The 6.53-inch panel is sufficiently bright and colors are well saturated. Adding to this, an in-display fingerprint scanner has been incorporated and it’s super fast.

The notch is often intrusive and the brand has opted for a pop-up selfie camera. This feature has been limited to mid-range and flagship phones so far.

Old on paper, but still packs a punch

Many have been disappointed with Realme’s choice of Snapdragon 710 chipset since its more than a year old. But just like Xiaomi’s romance with the Snapdragon 625, it’s a capable processor that fares well. With eight cores clocked at 2.2Ghz, it can breeze through demanding apps and games.

You can also choose to lock apps onto the RAM and multitasking is usually handled smoothly. Overall, it performs on par with our expectations from an affordable phone and the average Joe will never have any complaints.

A standardized camera setup

On the rear, it has a 48-megapixel camera that’s pretty much become a norm in the segment. It’s coupled with a 5-megapixel depth sensor for portrait photos. For selfies, the sliding module houses a 16-megapixel lens. The camera app has a plethora of built-in features like beauty mode, auto scene recognition, stickers, as well as a night mode.

The same ‘ol colorful skin

It runs on ColorOS 6.0 based on Android 9 Pie out of the box. We expect the company to roll-out updates quickly because it has used the same processor on the Realme 3 Pro. Hence, the skin can be universally customized and pushed out to users.

A battery that charges at lightning speed

Backing these internals is a 3765mAh battery that may be smaller than the competition, but comes with a secret weapon. Thanks to VOOC 3.0 fast charging technology, it can charge up to 65 percent in just half an hour. We recorded a screen-on-time of approximately five hours. This is also the first phone from Realme to embrace a USB-C port.

Is this your GadgetMatch?

If you’re looking for a phone that gets everything right, this should be your first choice. It’s built keeping everyone in mind, and this includes the gamers, photographers, casual users, as well as entertainment addicts. Realme has cleverly cut costs since there are no gaping shortcomings. The standard 4GB+128GB configuration costs INR 16,999 and the 8GB+128GB option is priced at INR 19,999.

For now, the only phone that comes close to it is Vivo’s Z1 Pro. However, it lacks a pop-up module which is a flaunting factor for many. At the end of the day, Realme has again created a product that has rattled Xiaomi’s sky-high ceiling.

Hands-On

OPPO Reno15 F 5G hands-on

More question marks than exclamation points?

Published

March 6, 2026

Manila Connoisseur

The OPPO Reno15 Series 5G made its way to the Philippines last month, and reception has been pretty great so far.

With a powerful camera package, AI, and a slew of upgrades, there’s a lot to love and not much negative to say. But that’s with both the standard and Pro models.

On the other hand, with the Reno15 F 5G — the series’ supposed budget-friendly “lite” variant —there were more question marks than exclamation points.

I attack this piece once more from a consumer standpoint: shelling out PhP 23,000 to PhP 26,000 for a midrange smartphone that feels and performs like it’s a few notches below its segment doesn’t sound too pleasant.

Performance

With a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor, the OPPO Reno15 F performs pretty much like any sub PhP 20,000 mid-ranger. It’s acceptable, but does not punch above its weight as expected.

No major hiccups for light and casual usage. But performance struggles a lot for demanding video games.

It also heats up significantly just 10 minutes into a title like Honkai: Star Rail. This is a stark contrast to the marketed 25℃ and up to 10 hours straight of smooth gameplay.

Although, the experience was still enjoyable with several wins and MVP runs in Call of Duty Mobile. It only means the F variant remains a more camera-centric phone rather than an a hard-hitting all-arounder.

As with other devices, the 7000mAh battery with 80W SUPERVOOC is a strong suit. You’re fueled from dawn ’til dusk, with much to spare. Recharging takes a breeze, too.

Display

The OPPO Reno15 F has a 6.57-inch 120Hz display, with a 92.8% screen-to-body ratio. At least, that allows you to focus on content on the screen.

Content leans more towards the cooler tone, so you’ll have to adjust it manually if you want a warmer or more vivid look.

The 397ppi pixel density is fine to ensure sharper visuals, while the 1400 nits peak brightness is helpful outdoors.

Camera

The device’s 50MP main camera captures decent quality. The color science leans on being natural anew, without being too dull nor washed out. You can pull off smooth portraits too.

I hardly used the phone for stills as I focused on videos, but here are some samples, on the occasions I was able to take the handset with me:

The 50MP front camera is an intriguing add-on, as it is capable of up to 4K video and a wide 100° field of view.

What this does is it essentially removes the need to flip your phone for the popular “0.5” shots. And the quality doesn’t get compromised given the pixel count.

Here are some selfies from different focal lengths:

To its credit, filming with the back camera at 60fps does look and feel smooth, although it can be improved.

Same with the front camera; and the zoom range can be switched from 0.6 to 2x without cutting the recording.

Although, it’s still best to use a selfie stick or small tripod if you’re just after talking head videos.

Speaking of which, here are a few I’ve made with just this device:

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But for travel and on-the-go captures, as OPPO markets for the series in general, even the Reno15 F can cover a lot of background along with your or your groups’ faces.

Make no mistake, there are some useful AI editing features here. In particular, AI Portrait Glow gives your raw capture an effect to make it look it was taken with flash.

I do not recall the device heating up as well when taking many photos or videos, so you can say it’s more optimized for that task rather than gaming.

Connectivity issues

Meanwhile, AI LinkBoost 3.0, as in the case of the OPPO A6 Pro, doesn’t seem to punch above its weight either.

Once, I also played Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and the session opened to a jittery start despite being on Wi-Fi and having a stable connection. I don’t know what triggered this.

Design, feel

We got the Aurora Blue variant which does kind of resemble the northern lights when you tilt the phone a certain way and when light hits its back panel.

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The cursive “Reno” on the large, protruding camera island gives it more style.

However, it’s all just aesthetics. On the downside, the phone is all sorts of slippery.

I couldn’t hold it properly without think of it slipping away from my hands; nor could I put it on my lap with confidence.

So I guess it’s good that it has structural integrity and waterproofing, because you’ll need that.

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The 6.57-inch body does have a good balance between being too compact and too large, like ultras and pro maxes.

It has a squarish body and has already adapted to the premium, aluminum frame look from the sides.

Is this your GadgetMatch?

Sadly, the OPPO Reno15 F 5G is a Swipe Left unlike its bigger, more capable siblings. There are plenty of plus points for the camera package but take that away, and I don’t see much difference between the Reno15 F and something like the A6 Pro.

Granted, the asking price of this phone will drop significantly in a few months. But throw in a little more, and you’ve got a legitimate mid-ranger that’s more on the premium side rather than the cheap end of the spectrum.