Here’s our realme C53 review! realme touts that the C53 to be an affordable device with a power-packed battery life and faster charging tech that is usually not seen in phones within its price range. Can it charge through competiton and shine on its own? Here’s our full review.
realme C53 specs:
| realme C53 | |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.74″ HD IPS LCD 1080 x 2400 px |
| Processor | Unisoc Tiger T212 12nm 1.8GHz octa-core Mali-G57 GPU |
| RAM | 6GB + 4GB VRAM |
| Storage | 128GB with microSD card slot |
| Rear Camera | 50MP f/18 + 0.3MP depth |
| Selfie Camera | 8MP f/2.0 |
| SIM and Connectivity | Dual SIM (nano) 4G WiFi 802.11ac Bluetooth 5.0 GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO |
| Audio | single-firing loudspeaker 3.5mm audio jack |
| Security | Fingerprint scanner (side) Face Unlock |
| Other Features | |
| OS | realme UI T Android 13 |
| Battery | 5000mAh, nonremovable |
| Charging | 33W SUPERVOOC |
| Colors | Champion Gold, Mighty Black |
The unit that realme Philippines lent to us has the following: the phone itself in a Mighty Black colorway, documentation and a TPU case, a SIM ejector tool, plus the 33-watt SUPERVOOC charging brick and a USB-C data and charging cable.
WalasTech Top Feature (WTF):
Stunning Battery Life
I’d say that the biggest highlight for the realme C53 is the fact that it has a 5000mAh battery and can last quite a bit with a near-vanilla Android software right out of the box. Our unit is powered all throughout the day with medium usage of calls, SMS, and mobile/apps both on WiFi and mobile data.
Here’s my personal experience using this phone: I started the day with 100% of power and went to work, with my mobile data always on as I needed to pay my motorcycle taxi using e-Money and have to answer inquiries while on the way. I switched to WiFi as I got into the office and took in calls and messages not only via mobile network but also from different apps such as Messenger and Teams. I even played a bit of mobile games during lunch break, took photos and videos while on the way home (where I switched back to mobile data as I left the office), and got home at around 8PM with still 18% left and ready to recharge.
Recharging is also easy with the device, thanks to its 33-watt SUPERVOOC charging (why did realme revert back to this name when it had SUPERDART already as its charging tech branding?) The phone gets half the battery in around half an hour, which is very helpful if you need quick juice to do quick things, then it trickes down to a slower speed until it reaches the 100% mark in around 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Design and Display
The C53 offers a fresh, stylish take from realme’s recent releases. Its boxy edges with rounded corners, flat sides with a matte black finish at the back, and the overall size is not a hurdle to hold it comfordably even in longer periods.
At the back of the device is the realme logo, and a glossy protruding camera area with what looks like a three-camera setup but actually is just two. The 50MP shooter and the accompanying depth camera, along with the dedicated LED flash, are housed in these three circular modules.
Let’s have a tour at the sides. At the bottom are the 3.5mm audio jack, the microphone, the USB-C port, and the loudspeaker. The right part has the volume keys and the power and lock button which also acts as the side fingerprint scanner for added device security.
The left side houses the tray with dedicated slots for two nano SIM cards and one microSD card. Despite being all-boxy at the back, the display glass edges curves seamlessly into the boxy polycarbonate chassis.
Display and Audio
Speaking of display, the 6.74-inch screen may be quite big for some but it definitely is responsive. The colors on the IPS LCD display are of decent vividness, brightness, and contrast. There is quite a color change when you look at some angles which is typical of LCDs, and the HD resolution sharpness is just okay though it could’ve been sharper with a display this big.
The bottom-firing loudspeaker is tuned well enough to hear music at acceptable mids, lows, and highs at 75% volume, enough to occupy a quiet medium sized room. Blast it anymore than that and you may find your music cracked during playback. There’s a 3.5mm audio jack for wired music which works well when we tried, and the Bluetooth connectivity with our wireless audio devices are just as great.
Camera
Low-end phones doesn’t usually have stellar cameras, but the 50MP f/1.8 shooter at the back of this device is a revelation. Shoot it at scenes with good lighting, and you got yourself photos with great sharpness, well-saturated colors, and good contrast and range. It’s not much of a help with low-light scenarios, but the flash that comes with it seem to be sufficient to assist in night lighting.
The 8-megapixel selfie shooter should not be underestimated as well with its portrait mode with a digitally adjustable bokeh effect, but could work on its edge detection as there are scenes where my environment was not completely blurred. See for youself in photos below:
You can take up to Full HD videos with the device at 30 frames per second, and can digitally zoom them up to 10x where there are already evident grains. The best zoom is at 2x where you’d still see much of the scene without any noise. Colors are similar in taking photos. Also to note, there’s no stabilization so expect shaky clips. Here’s a sample video recording from the phone:
Performance, Security, and Connection
Similar to last year’s realme C35, the C53 comes with a near-vanilla version of Android 13, which the company dubbed as the realme UI T. Very little modification was done on the OS itself, what surprised me is that the usual preinstalled apps are still here as we launched the phone for the first time, except for major apps such as contact, weather, and messages.
You’re only getting around 106GB of free space for everything you’ll store, with additional storage available via a dedicated microSD card slot. You can also allocate some of the space for RAM expansion — by default the device has 4GB, but you can stretch that to 6GB, giving you up to 12GB of usable RAM for your daily multitasking needs.
Using the phone heavily at times would heat up the upper back part of the device, but is nowhere near untolerable levels. With its AnTuTu Score (252,985)This is not the phone for graphics-heavy mobile game titles – though you can play Mobile Legends at lowest to medium graphics settings, while Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail and Summoners War Chronicles struggle to render graphics one way or another.
Security-wise, the device does it job of protecting your phone. The fingerprint scanner can register up to five fingerprints and easily unlocks your phone upon recognition. Face Scanner works great as well.
You can place two nano SIM Cards here, only one of which can connect to 4G mobile networks at any given time. The connection we got was decent inside our house, though this can change depending on your environment. WiFi and GPS works well, too.
