Realme benefits from less brand awareness than many of its competitors. However, the company has been on an upward trajectory for quite some time, especially in markets where affordable devices are sought after. For example, in India, in 2022, Realme became the second-largest smartphone manufacturer after Xiaomi, which is an impressive feat. The time has come for the company to launch new devices on the market; this time, it’s a very affordable device: Realme C55. If you’re curious about what it offers, read this detailed review:
Realme C55 comes in a good looking yellow box
When you open the box, you see the phone inside protective packaging and another smaller box containing several leaflets and the SIM ejection tool.
Unboxing the Realme C55 is a pleasant experience
When you take everything out, you should have the following items: the smartphone, a 33W fast charger with a detachable USB-A to C cable, a transparent silicon cover, the SIM ejection tool, the quick setup guide, warranty details, and safety information.
Everything you find inside the box
The unboxing experience offered by the Realme C55 smartphone is very satisfying. Even though you just bought yourself an affordable smartphone, you get a rich bundle that includes a fast charger and a protective cover for the phone. Samsung should follow this example.
Realme C55 is a large 6.7-inch smartphone
I received in testing the Rainy Night or black version, which looks very elegant, especially when you look at the back of the phone. In shops, you’ll also find a Sunshower version with a shower-like pattern that reflects rainbow colors at different angles, as shown in the picture below.
The different color versions for Realme C55
Being an affordable smartphone with a low-profit margin, Realme C55 doesn’t feature Gorilla Glass for protecting the display, and it isn’t certified against dust or water either. The smartphone has rounded corners and a centered punch hole for the selfie camera.
Realme C55 has rounded corners and a centered punch hole
The back of the Realme C55 is made of plastic. The Rainy Night version looks quite elegant, and I especially like the design of the camera system, with large rounded camera housings and a LED flash.
The only downside is that the plastic back feels rather slippery, and dust tends to gather quite quickly between the two camera lenses. Hence, you will need to clean it regularly.
Do you like the back of the Realme C55?
On the left side of the Realme C55, you find only the SIM tray and the punching hole for it.
On the left, you find only the SIM tray
You have the Power button on the right, which can act as a fingerprint scanner, and the Volume rocker.
The right side of the Realme C55
On the bottom of the Realme C55, you find the USB-Type C port for charging the smartphone, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a speaker, and a microphone.
Realme C55 has a headphone jack
Realme C55 looks like a smartphone that’s more expensive than it is. Its design is elegant, even though people with small hands won’t appreciate its size. However, the materials used for building the Realme C55 are not that different from what you find on phones with similar price tags.
Realme C55 has an IPS LCD display
The camera system on the back includes a 64-megapixel wide lens, a LED flash, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. It can record videos in 1080p, at a maximum of 60 fps. Unfortunately, there’s no optical image stabilization available.
Do you like the look of the camera system?
Inside the Realme C55, we have an octa-core MediaTek Helio G88 chipset that includes a processor with a frequency of up to 2 GHz and a Mali-G52 graphics unit. The phone can be equipped with either 6 GB or 8 GB of RAM and up to 256 GB of built-in storage. Furthermore, you can add 8 GB of dynamic RAM through software optimizations in the phone’s operating system.
Furthermore, the storage can be expanded up to 1 TB with the help of a microSD card. However, considering that this phone is not designed for taking great pictures and recording high-quality videos, most people won’t need additional storage. Realme C55 offers Dual SIM connectivity, using nano-SIMs, and dual stand-by implementation.
Realme C55 offers Dual SIM and a microSD slot
One of the positive aspects of the Realme C55 is that it includes a faster 33W charger in the box. The battery is generous as well, with a capacity of 5000mAh. You also get dual-band wireless connectivity using Wi-Fi 5, but not Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. GPS is also available, as well as NFC. However, the latter is market-dependent, so check the phone’s specs with the retailer you’re purchasing it from.
Realme C55 features 33W fast charging
To unlock the phone, you get both fingerprint and facial recognition. However, the fingerprint reader is not on the bottom of the screen like on most smartphones but on the Power button.
You can unlock the Realme C55 using the fingerprint or your face
In terms of sensors, Realme C55 bundles the usual: a magnetic induction sensor (used for compass functionality), a light sensor (for tuning the auto brightness of the display), a proximity sensor (helps eliminate accidental touch inputs during phone calls), and an acceleration sensor (for adjusting the orientation of the apps on your screen based on how you’re holding it).
If you’d like to get into detail about this phone’s features and technical specifications, check out Realme C55’s official webpage.
Go to the next page to see my experience using the Realme C55 and learn more about the camera quality, performance in benchmarks, and bundled software.
Realme C55 has a decent IPS display
The audio experience is decent. The sound is relatively punchy, but it doesn’t impress. For a better experience, I recommend using a pair of headphones, especially if you like watching movies or listening to music on your smartphone.
Luckily, the audio jack found on the Realme C55 means you don’t have to buy new Bluetooth headphones too. Instead, you can use wired ones you already have around the house from an older phone.
Listening to music is best when using headphones
As expected for a budget smartphone, gaming is a rather frustrating experience on the Realme C55. You can’t enjoy high-quality graphics. For a fluent gaming experience, you must set your games to the lowest available video preset.
Gaming isn't a great experience
The fingerprint sensor that’s built into the Power button is rather frustrating to use. It was quite imprecise, and unlocking my phone with a PIN or using face recognition instead was faster.
The fingerprint sensor is finicky
Another annoying aspect I noticed is that the Realme C55 can’t use USB-C memory sticks. It just doesn’t detect them. Also, you can’t use the USB-C port to connect the phone to a computer and move files from one device to another. I found this limitation quite frustrating.
On the upside, the Realme C55 has a unique feature in the Android world: at the top of the screen, it displays a dynamic mini capsule (similar to the iPhones), which can show the battery charging status, data usage, and step count. While it is rather limited at this point, it does have the potential to be a feature appreciated by many users.
Realme C55 offers a dynamic mini capsule at the top
Battery life is a strong point for Realme C55. Its large 5000 mAh accumulator can keep the phone running for up to two days of normal use. On top of that, Realme C55 can also charge relatively quickly: it takes 58 minutes to get from 0 to 100% using its bundled 33W fast charger, which is excellent considering the battery’s capacity and the low price tag of this phone.
Charging the Realme C55 is fast
To summarize, the Realme C55 is a good Android smartphone for everyday tasks, with excellent battery life, a decent screen, and a unique mini capsule feature. While it’s a good enough device for most people interested in a budget phone, I don’t recommend it to gamers or those who are into photography or video recording. You’ll find more details on this topic in the following section.
The Camera app on the Realme C55
Portraits look good if you take them in good lighting condition, with a nice blur on the background and decent edge detection.
Portraits look nice when shot in good lighting
As expected for a budget smartphone, night pictures are not great, even when using the dedicated Night mode. The photos are grainy, and the shadows have too much noise. Still, you should use the Night mode instead of Auto because you get slightly better results. However, this also means you must wait after taking each picture, as Realme C55 needs some time to process it. You can’t shoot multiple images in quick succession with this phone.
On the upside, pictures taken during the day, in good lighting conditions, deliver natural colors, good contrast, and decent dynamic range. You may notice some overexposure in some photographs, but it’s not too annoying.
A winter landscape shot with the Realme C55
When shooting macro photos, the smartphone has difficulties focusing on the subject, and there’s more blur than I would’ve liked. But, for more on the actual picture-taking experience, look at the gallery embedded below, which includes several samples taken with the Realme C55.
The maximum resolution for recording videos is 1080p. This is the standard for budget smartphones. However, the experience you get could be better. While the colors are OK when shooting in good lighting conditions, the videos lack detail. Also, the lack of image stabilization doesn’t help at all. Watch the video below, filmed atop a beautiful mountain, for a better perspective.
And if you’re curious about the results you get when filming during the night, with some movement involved, check out this clip:
You’ll notice a general lack of detail and quite a bit of pixelization. Also, the sound quality is rather poor.
The camera experience offered by the Realme C55 will not impress anyone. You would expect it from a typical smartphone in its price range. The cameras do their job well enough during the day or in excellent lighting. Still, I wouldn’t recommend this phone for low-light photography or quality video recording.
Realme C55 comes with many preinstalled apps
I generally like the realme UI 4.0 interface, but I don’t like that the company has bundled many preinstalled apps. Here’s what you get with your newly purchased Realme C55:
The default Home screen on the Realme C55
I like the clean user interface offered by Realme UI 4.0. However, the number of bundled apps is high. Some of them, like games or some shopping apps, are unnecessary. A better approach would’ve been for Realme to let the users choose the apps they want to install.
Benchmark results in Geekbench 6
The second benchmarking app that I used was 3DMark. In the Wild Life test, the Realme C55 scored 743 points, while in Sling Shot, it got 1665 points. These scores prove that Realme C55 is not built for gaming.
Benchmark results in 3DMark
I continued running PCMark for Android, a benchmarking app that can test the average performance of smartphones and the battery life you should expect in real-world situations. In the Work 3.0 performance test, the Realme C55 had a decent score of 8581 points, which confirms that this smartphone can handle everyday productivity tasks reasonably well.
Benchmark result in PCMark 10
The Work 3.0 battery life test showed me how long the Realme C55 lasts when used continuously. As you can see, it managed to last 13 hours and 50 minutes. A good result. 🙂
Battery life measured by PCMark 10
The last aspect I checked was the wireless performance of the Realme C55, which supports Wi-Fi 5 but not Wi-Fi 6. Using Ookla’s Speedtest app, I measured the Wi-Fi speed on my 1 Gbps internet connection. The results were similar to those achieved by Realme 10: 229 Mbps for the download speed and 322 Mbps for the upload.
Internet speed results in Speedtest
According to the benchmarks, the Realme C55 is a decent entry-level smartphone that delivers reasonable performance in productivity tasks and social media use. However, there are better choices for mobile gaming. The battery life of the Realme C55 is good, though, and should keep you going for about two days of normal use.
Realme C55: Who is it good for?
This smartphone is an excellent choice if you:- Want a good-looking smartphone with a very affordable price
- Are looking for a smartphone suitable for regular tasks, that don’t require powerful hardware
- Want a phone with good battery life and fast charging
Pros and cons
Here’s what I like about the Realme C55:
- Good-looking design
- Solid battery life and fast charging
- Promising mini capsule feature
- Affordable price
- Generous bundle of accessories
- Imprecise fingerprint scanner
- The operating system is rather bloated
Verdict
Realme C55 is a budget smartphone that does a good job of catering to people’s basic needs. It offers good signal reception and in-call audio quality, decent connectivity options, and hardware adequate for regular tasks, like browsing the web or social networks, listening to music, or working with productivity apps. Battery life is good too, and the fast charging is a nice addition. Overall, it offers good value for money. However, if you’re looking for an Android smartphone that is better at gaming, you should check out its more expensive brother, the Realme 10.Unboxing the Realme C55
The packaging for the Realme C55 is typical for the smartphones sold by the company: it comes in a bright yellow cardboard box with the name of the product boldly printed on the front cover. On the bottom of the box, you find some details about the phone’s main features, together with some of its more technical specifications.Design and build quality
The Realme C55 is a large 6.7-inch smartphone with a screen protector applied during manufacturing. This is a nice touch, especially in this market segment, as you won’t need to increase the acquisition cost of this phone by purchasing screen protection separately. The phone measures 165.6 x 75.9 x 7.89 mm or 6.51 x 2.98 x 0.31 inches in length x width x depth. It also weighs 189.5 grams or 0.41 pounds. Because of its size and weight, it’s not a great choice for women or people with small hands.Hardware specifications
One of the most important aspects of a smartphone is the screen. Realme C55 has an IPS LCD display with a peak brightness of 680 nits and a screen-to-body ratio of 86.7%. On the top side, the phone has a notch in the middle, hosting the 8-megapixel selfie camera, capable of recording videos in 1080p resolution, at 30 frames per second (fps).The smartphone experience on the Realme C55
As always, one of the first things I test when reviewing a smartphone is the phone experience. I appreciated that Realme C55 had solid signal reception, and the audio quality of phone calls was good. However, I was surprised it was especially good when speaking with someone using the speaker. The other parties heard me loud and clear every time. The display of the phone is of average quality. You get a good experience when using the phone indoors, no matter what you do: browsing the web, killing time on Tik Tok, or watching movies. However, the screen brightness could be better, and using it outdoors on a sunny day might be challenging.The camera experience on the Realme C55
The camera specs of the Realme C55 are similar to that of many entry-level smartphones, so you shouldn’t expect too much out of it. Its Camera app has a simple user interface that offers all the standard shooting options. Navigating it is easy and intuitive. If you’ve ever used a smartphone for taking pictures, you won’t have any problems understanding what’s what. It’s worth pointing out that the cameras support HDR, night mode, and a special 64-megapixel shooting mode. Zooming is possible up to 5X, but 2x is the maximum recommended, as anything above that will result in poor quality. However, 2x is just a cropping result, not achieved using the actual lens. This means the end result looks pixelated, with pictures lacking details.Android 13, realme UI 4.0, and bundled apps
This smartphone comes with the realme UI 4.0 user interface based on Android 13. The software only includes a few changes to the stock Android experience. For example, you get a new card-like layout for app notifications, dynamic widgets, and a private safe with advanced encryption for protecting sensitive information.- Amazon Shopping: it allows you to purchase stuff from Amazon’s stores worldwide
- App Market: an alternative to Google Play, with various apps and games. I don’t see the point of using it, and it's unfortunate that you can’t uninstall it.
- Booking.com: useful for planning trips and making hotel reservations
- Bolt: handy when you need a taxi service
- Clone Phone: allows you to migrate your data from an older phone to your new Realme C55
- Compass: a simple app that indicates the cardinal points
- Calculator: can be of service when you’re struggling with math
- Clock: does what it says, which is telling what time it is 🙂
- Facebook: the app of the popular social network
- Games: a hub where you can find and manage all the games installed on the Realme C55
- Joom: a shopping platform for products made in China
- LinkedIn: the app of the popular business and employment-focused social network
- Lords Mobile: Kingdom Wars: a mobile strategy game set in a fantasy world where players build and manage their own kingdoms and armies, battling others in real-time
- My Files: useful for managing the files and folders on your smartphone
- Music: an app that helps you manage and play the music you store on your phone
- Notes: a simple note-taking app that you may find useful
- Phone Manager: helps you keep an eye on the well-being of your smartphone and perform optimizations
- Photos: an alternative to Google Photos. I prefer Google’s app because it also allows me to back up my pictures and videos to the cloud and integrate them with other Google services.
- Recorder: lets you record sound using the phone’s microphones
- Screen Lock: does one thing only, and that’s locking your screen as soon as you tap on it 🙂
- Sneaker Art: a game where you can paint sneakers and other footwear and sell them in your own shoe store
- Spotify: the popular music streaming service
- ThiefPuzzle: a game in which you have to set the trajectory of your thief’s arm to steal things
- TikTok: the gate to the social network bearing the same name
- Videos: a relatively simple app that lets you play locally stored videos
- Weather: displays the weather forecast for the upcoming days
Performance in benchmarks
While the Realme C55 is a decent smartphone for day-to-day use, it is good to know how it compares performance-wise to other phones. To give you a clear picture, I ran a series of benchmarks, starting with Geekbench. The phone got a Single-Core score of 424 points and a Multi-Core score of 1421 points, which is lower than what you get from the much older realme 8 5G.
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