Are you, by any chance, looking for a smartphone with a big screen, a generous battery, decent performance, and a low price? Well, in that case, the new realme C53 might be just what you need. It’s an Android smartphone made by Realme, a Chinese company that manages to stand out both in the mid-range and the budget Android phone sector. In this review, I take a closer look at what the new realme C53 has to offer to help you get a better idea of whether or not it’s worth buying. Let’s get started:
The box of the realme C53
When you open the box, you find the phone (wrapped in a protective foil), a fast charger (33 watts) plus a detachable USB-A to C cable, a clear silicone protective cover, a tool for removing the SIM card tray, and a user manual including warranty details and safety information.
Unboxing the realme C53
The unboxing experience offered by the realme C53 smartphone is a pleasant one. Even though we’re dealing with an Android smartphone available for an affordable price, the package contains a fast charger and a protective case for the phone. The only thing missing are wired headphones (the smartphone has a 3.5mm audio jack).
Color versions for the realme C53
The back of the realme C53 appears to be covered in glass, but it’s actually plastic. Still, it’s a great-looking plastic material. The phone is available in two color versions: Champion Gold and Mighty Black. I tested the Champion Gold one, a model with a color scheme clearly designed to catch the eye. The back of the smartphone actually glows, creating the illusion of radiance and making the device feel more expensive than it really is.
The back of the realme C53
Speaking of the back of the smartphone, I have to say that the camera system looks really good. It seems inspired by iPhone models: in the top-left corner (viewing the phone from the back), you find three rings inside a shiny rectangular section. At first glance, you might think there are three cameras here, but in reality, we’re dealing with a design trick: only one of the rings holds the smartphone’s camera. Another houses a depth sensor, and the third ring is actually the LED flash.
Designul sistemului de camere de pe realme C53
Given that this is an affordable smartphone, the manufacturer compromised a bit on the device’s build. Besides using mostly plastics, the smartphone is not certified for dust or water protection. Furthermore, its screen is covered with durable glass, but not a familiar one like Gorilla Glass.
The edges of the screen are slightly rounded, but the screen is essentially flat and, as a matter of fact, the smartphone doesn’t come with a pre-applied screen protector. I find this last aspect odd because all the realme phones I’ve seen and tested in the past had screen protection applied out of the box.
The realme C53's screen is large
As you may have noticed in the above image, the dark edges (black borders) of the screen are not very wide, but they’re not small either. On the plus side, they’re relatively symmetrical, the only one slightly wider being the one in the lower part of the smartphone. Furthermore, at the top, the black border is interrupted in the middle area by the teardrop-shaped selfie camera cutout.
The selfie camera on the realme C53
Other than the SIM card slot, you won’t find anything else on the realme C53’s left edge.
The left side of the realme C53
On the right side of the realme C53, at the top, you find the volume buttons (monobloc) next to the power button, which also serves as a fingerprint sensor.
On the right, you find the volume buttons and the power/fingerprint one
The top edge of realme C53 is completely clean, without any elements. However, the lower side contains several elements: a speaker, the USB Type-C port used for data transfer and smartphone charging, the phone’s microphone, and a 3.5 mm headphone audio jack.
The lower edge of the realme C53
The realme C53 is a big and beautiful smartphone. Despite its affordable price, the phone looks stylish and is sure to catch the eye of those around you. Its designers have somehow managed to create a device that looks much more expensive than it actually is. However, they had to compromise to keep the price as low as possible.
realme C53: System details
Of the 128 GB of total storage space, you have about 99 GB free after installation. Of course, after performing all the available system and app updates, this value drops slightly. While I think the internal storage is enough for most users, the good news for those who need more is that the smartphone allows adding a microSD card. Moreover, even though the realme C53 is a dual SIM device that supports two nano-SIM cards simultaneously, the SIM holder includes a dedicated microSD card slot.
realme C53 is a dual SIM phone with microSD support
The realme C53’s display is based on an IPS LCD panel, offering nice colors and good contrast, but its resolution doesn’t impress, and its brightness isn’t great. With a 6.74-inch diagonal and a 20:9 aspect ratio, the screen resolution is 720 by 1600 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of around 260 ppi - a bit low, in my opinion. The maximum brightness provided by the screen is 560 nits (candela per square meter), which is OK in most cases, but low when you’re using the phone outside, in bright light. On the other hand, one thing I like about the smartphone is that the screen has an above-average refresh rate of 90 hertz. That translates into smoother transitions and motion pictures than a standard 60 Hz refresh rate.
The screen has low resolution but a 90 Hz refresh rate
When it comes to its cameras, the realme C53 offers:
The main camera has 50 megapixels
As for connectivity options, it’s worth mentioning that the realme C53 can connect to dual-band Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac) networks on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. It is not compatible with Wi-Fi 6. The phone supports Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC (in some parts of the world). Additionally, the smartphone includes a fingerprint sensor (on the power button), as well as other useful sensors like an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, a compass, and a gyroscope.
The realme C53 supports Wi-Fi 5
realme C53 is powered by a non-removable Li-Po battery with a generous 5000 mAh capacity. An unexpected detail for a smartphone in its price range is its support for 33-watt fast charging. The package includes the appropriate charger, which, in theory, is capable of charging 50% of the battery in 31 minutes. I will elaborate on this in the next section.
The realme C53 comes with a 33W fast charger
If you want details on all the features and technical specs, check out the official webpage for realme C53.
The realme C53 official specs tell the story of an Android smartphone that should be able to provide a good user experience in everyday activities. While it’s not a powerful phone, the hardware is good enough for everyday tasks. It doesn’t seem to be a device suitable for those who want to play games or for photography enthusiasts.
Visit the next page of this review to read more about the user experience offered by the realme C53, its camera quality, its benchmark performance, and the software you get with this smartphone.
Phone call quality is good
The latter is also true when watching movies or listening to music on your phone. The realme C53 has only one speaker at the bottom, and while the volume can be turned up very high, sound distortion does occur. For me, it was annoying, so I preferred to play content at a lower volume (somewhere around 70%).
I recommend using headphones for a much more enjoyable audio experience, especially since the smartphone also includes a 3.5mm audio jack, so you don’t have to buy Bluetooth headphones - you can use some classic, wired ones you probably already have lying around in a drawer somewhere.
The speaker distorts sound at high volumes
Still on the subject of multimedia, specifically watching movies, series, or videos on YouTube and other platforms, I can say that the realme C53’s screen is satisfactory. Although its resolution is not very high, its diagonal is large, and the colors and contrast are good. The brightness alone could’ve been a little higher, for those times when you decide to watch a movie on the beach. 🙂 But let’s face it, how often does this happen? If you’re watching movies in the evenings, before going to bed, the display is bright enough.
Watching a video on the realme C53
Regarding the interaction with the smartphone’s user interface, i.e. transitions between apps, games, interface, and so on, the realme C53 is both good and bad. For most of the regular apps, be it Gmail, Facebook, YouTube, etc., the phone performs well and feels like a smooth, fast device. However, when it comes to gaming, don’t expect any miracles: use the minimum settings, and your games will run fine; otherwise, be prepared for crashes and low frame rates.
Playing Genshin Impact on the realme C53
I was impressed with the accuracy and speed of the fingerprint sensors on the more expensive realme phones I’ve recently tested. I can’t say the same for the fingerprint sensor included in the home button on the realme C53. It’s quite inaccurate, and I’ve often given up trying to press it, preferring instead to unlock the smartphone with the PIN.
The fingerprint sensor is inaccurate
I promised earlier in this review that I would return with details about the smartphone’s battery. In my experience, the 5000 mAh battery can power the realme C53 smartphone for at least a day and a half, even two. Obviously, this time depends a lot on how you use the device, but for my usual activities (email, news, YouTube, Facebook, occasional photos and games), the battery is so generous that I don’t need to charge it daily. And the really good part is that the realme C53 supports fast charging, and the necessary charger is included in the package, something I rarely see when it comes to budget smartphones like this one. In my tests, I found that the realme C53 gets to 45% battery after 30 minutes, and it needs an hour and 23 minutes for 100%. Those are very good results for a budget phone.
Battery charging time for the realme C53
Subjectively, I can say that the realme C53 is a good Android smartphone for regular, everyday use. It won’t let you down in terms of audio quality during phone calls, its screen is large, so watching movies or videos is a pleasant experience, its battery is generous, and its fast charging makes it stand out from the competition. On the other hand, this phone doesn’t offer a great audio experience, though it’s decent value for money, the screen brightness might disappoint when using it outside, in bright light, and the fingerprint sensor isn’t very fast or accurate.
The cameras on the realme C53 fail to impress
The Camera app on the realme C53 is similar, if not identical, to those on other realme smartphones. Its interface is simple, easy to use and browse. To toggle through the different shooting or video recording modes available, you can swipe your finger across the screen or tap on the name of the mode you want to enable. It’s worth noting that the realme C53 can take HDR photos, and the app includes both a Night mode and a Pro mode.
The Camera app on the realme C53
In terms of photo quality, if the light is good, the photos are good. Overall, the colors are vivid and natural, the contrast is good, and details are captured fairly accurately. However, in some cases, the contrast is a little too high in brightly lit areas, like when capturing a white cloud on a very bright sky. And in other cases, some photos appeared slightly too post-processed at the edges of objects, resulting in a somewhat high contrast.
Photos in good lighting are OK
Portraits look pretty good too, but the device isn’t very accurate in separating the subject from the background, as the blur effect around the edges gets too prominent.
Portraits/selfies could be better
When it comes to night photography, the realme C53 does not excel. Even if you turn on night mode, the photos you capture suffer from high granulation, significant detail loss, and strong noise in dark areas.
Night photography is not high quality
Recording videos is a similarly mediocre experience, I would say. The 30 frames per second rate, coupled with the maximum 1080p resolution and lack of image stabilization, lead to results I can’t recommend to those who want to capture special moments in videos. The colors are fine in good lighting conditions, but the image lacks detail, and videos are often shaky due to the lack of stabilization. For a better idea, here’s a video of a panoramic view from the Red Mountain in Romania:
And if you want to see how the camera performs when there’s a bit more movement involved, here’s another clip from the route to the Gropșoarele Peak in Ciucaș Mountains, Romania:
The cameras on the Realme C53 are, in short, weak, and I wouldn’t recommend them to photography enthusiasts. The main one manages to capture nice images in good light but fails to impress at night or when shooting video. The selfie camera can also capture decent portraits, but their quality suffers from too much blur at the edges of the subject.
The mini-capsule provides charging information
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find out the number of years that the company plans to offer updates for this smartphone. However, given that realme’s policy is to offer three OS updates and up to four years of security updates, let’s hope that the realme C53 also gets at least a few years of updated software.
Android update for realme C53
As I said, the realme UI T Edition interface is clean and doesn’t seem cluttered by any means. I can say the same about the preinstalled apps. Except for the Google apps, here are the apps I found on the smartphone after setting it up and declining all the recommended apps during installation:
Apps preinstalled on the realme C53
In conclusion, I can say that I’m satisfied with the software of the realme C53. Its interface is clean, the operating system is up to date, and the number of preinstalled apps is by no means large.
Benchmark results in Geekbench 6
The second benchmarking app I used was 3DMark. In the Wild Life test, the realme C53 scored 1369 points, while in Sling Shot, it got 3637 points. We’re talking about very low scores, which shows us that this smartphone is not meant for gaming. You can run casual games at a decent rate, but regardless of the game, you have to settle for minimal visual quality settings. You should also expect occasional interruptions.
Benchmark results in 3DMark
We went on to PCMark, an app that provides tests for measuring performance in everyday activities, as well as battery runtime in such scenarios. In the Work 3.0 performance test, the realme C53 scored 8083 points. This result shows us that the smartphone can deliver decent performance in everyday use. In the battery test, the result was exceptional, with the phone running for fourteen and a half hours!
Benchmark results in PCMark
The last thing I tested was the wireless performance. The realme C53 can connect to Wi-Fi 5 networks but doesn’t support Wi-Fi 6. Ookla’s Speedtest showed me that the realme C53 reaches a speed of 195 Mbps for download and 232 Mbps for upload on my 1 Gbps network. The smartphone shouldn’t have any trouble streaming videos and movies in 4K resolution either.
Benchmark results in Speedtest
The benchmark results indicate that while not recommended for gaming, the realme C53 is a decent entry-level smartphone for browsing the web, as well as working with productivity and entertainment apps. Furthermore, the realme C53’s battery life is excellent.
realme C53: Who is it good for?
The realme C53 smartphone is a good choice if:- You want a device with a good-looking design and a low price
- You’re mainly interested in a smartphone good for everyday activities
- You’re looking for a phone with long battery life and fast charging
Pros and cons
Here’s what I like about the realme C53:- Smart and beautiful design
- Extra large screen
- Good battery life and fast charging
- Enough RAM and internal storage, plus a dedicated microSD card slot
- Affordable price
- Generous accessories package
- Low resolution and dimly lit screen
- Inaccurate fingerprint sensor
- Underwhelming when taking photos or videos
- Poor performance in games
Verdict
The realme C53 is obviously an entry-level smartphone with an affordable price. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not worth buying. Offering a nice design with a large screen, a generous battery, and decent performance in everyday activities, it can be a good choice for those who don’t have high expectations. I personally see it as an option to consider for grandparents or parents. But if you need something powerful enough for gaming or want a good phone for photos and video, you might be better off looking for alternatives.Unboxing the realme C53
Like all the other realme smartphones I’ve had the joy of testing, the realme C53 arrives in a brightly colored box. The background is a vibrant yellow, and the text is black. This color scheme immediately catches the eye, and it somehow makes me think of bees every time. 🙂 The box’s top cover is minimalistic, featuring just the smartphone’s name and a message printed in small fonts in the top left corner, announcing the company as Europe’s fastest-growing brand.Design and build quality
With a generous 6.74-inch (109.7 cm) screen, the realme C53 is a large smartphone. But despite its sheer size (167.3 x 76.7 x 7.5 mm or 6.59 x 3.02 x 0.30 inches in length x width x depth), it doesn’t weigh very much - just 182 grams or 6.42 oz. Considering how long and wide it is, I don’t think this smartphone makes a great choice for those with short fingers, like many teenagers, for instance.Hardware specifications
The realme C53 is equipped with a Tiger T612 chipset, developed by Unisoc and launched in May 2022. This chipset is a 4G SoC (System on a Chip), built on a thin 12 nm manufacturing process, which includes an eight-core processor (two Cortex-A75 cores and six Cortex-A55 cores, all running at the same frequency of 1.80 GHz). On the graphics side, the chipset offers a Mali-G57 processing unit. When it comes to memory and internal storage, the smartphone is available in one configuration: 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal flash memory.- A main (wide) camera with a 50-megapixel sensor, f/1.8 aperture, and PDAF (phase-detection autofocus). This is accompanied by a depth sensor (depth camera), whose technical specs I couldn’t find details on.
- A front selfie camera using an 8-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture.
The smartphone experience on the realme C53
Perhaps the most important aspect of using a smartphone is how well it works as a phone. After all, that’s its primary purpose, with multimedia being the next best thing. The realme C53 performed well in this regard, as the cell service was good everywhere I went while testing it, and the audio quality during calls was also above average. I could easily understand what the other party was saying to me on the phone, just as they confirmed that my voice could be heard loud and clear. The only small complaint I have is about the speaker's sound quality, where I felt the voices weren’t very clear and the sound was slightly distorted.The camera experience on the realme C53
NOTE: The pictures in the article are resized for optimization purposes. If you want to see the full-sized original photos and videos shot with the realme C53, open this gallery: I’ll start this section by mentioning that the camera specs on the realme C53 do not impress in any way. I was actually expecting this, considering the price point for this smartphone. As I mentioned in the technical specs chapter, the realme C53 has a 50-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel front/selfie camera. On the back, there’s another depth camera, intended to measure the distance between the phone and the subject. But the phone doesn’t include an ultrawide camera or a macro camera, and it doesn’t offer lossless zoom options. Moving on, one limitation I never thought I’d encounter on a modern smartphone is not being able to shoot video at a higher frame rate than 30 fps. I was equally surprised by the resolution of the front camera, which is limited to a maximum of 720p.Android 13, realme UI T Edition, and bundled apps
Out of the box, the realme C53 comes with Android 13 at its core and a proprietary realme UI T Edition interface. This appears to be a version of the standard realme UI optimized for entry-level phones with weaker hardware. In my time testing the smartphone, I can’t say I noticed anything radically different from the realme UI 4.0 I saw a few weeks ago on the realme 11 Pro+ 5G. Maybe just the lack of the smart sidebar (similar to Samsung’s Edge Panels). realme UI T Edition is a clean and relatively simple interface with plenty of customization options, and it includes an interesting feature called dynamic mini-capsule. Based on an idea borrowed from iPhones, this is an area that shows information around the selfie camera. However, the data displayed is limited to details about charging, data usage, and number of steps.- Amazon Music: Amazon’s music streaming app
- Amazon Shopping: gives you access to the Amazon store
- Calculator: obviously better at math than any of us and useful when you don’t know how to split the bill
- Compass: an app that helps you find your way around by indicating the cardinal points
- Clock: a clock app that also lets you set alarms
- Facebook: access to the amazingly redundant world of the social network bearing the same name
- File Manager: useful when you need to manage files and folders on your smartphone
- LinkedIn: the app of the professional social network bearing the same name
- Lords Mobile: Kingdom Wars: a strategy game set in a fantasy world, where you build and manage your own kingdom and army, battling other players in real time
- Music: an app for managing the music on your phone
- Sound Recorder: record sound using your phone’s microphone
- Spotify: the app of the popular music streaming service
- TikTok: the social network where time speeds up 🙂
- Weather: the weather forecast for the upcoming days
Performance in benchmarks
You’ve seen what the realme C53 smartphone looks like, its hardware specs, and my experience using it on a daily basis. It’s all been subjective so far though, so it wouldn’t hurt to get some more objective details on its performance. To that end, I ran a few benchmarks; here are the results: The first benchmark I ran was Geekbench. In its tests, the realme C53 got a Single-Core score of 416 points and a Multi-Core score of 1489 points. GPU Compute scores were 446 for OpenCL and 441 for Vulkan. These results show that the smartphone has an entry-level chipset with low-performance levels. In terms of processor scores, we can compare the realme C53 smartphone with models like its sibling - the realme C55, the old Google Pixel 3, or a Samsung Galaxy A32. When it comes to graphics performance, the realme C53 is just as powerful as the realme C55 but at least twice as weak as the other smartphones mentioned.
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