The budget smartphone segment is a fiercely contested arena, where Android manufacturers like realme constantly strive to offer the most bang for your buck.
In this ring, two contenders emerge: the recently launched realme C67 and last year’s “stylish champion”, the realme C55.
Both reside in the same budget-friendly price range, with realme seemingly never failing to improve upon every iteration while still maintaining affordability.
This head-to-head comparison dives deep into both phones’ specifications, design, and performance, revealing the subtle yet impactful advancements the brand has made with the realme C67.
We’ll uncover whether the C67 truly justifies its title as the better buy or if the C55 still holds its own despite being an earlier release.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
The realme C-Series line has always been about vibrant design. Both phones’ back panels come in vivid color options, especially the Sunny Oasis on the C67 and Sunshower on the C55, with both handsets presenting a gradient look depending on the light.
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- realme C55 in Sunshower
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- Realme C67 in Sunny Oasis
Of course, muted options like Black Rock and Rainy Night, respectively, are available for those seeking a subtler look.
The realme C67’s build maintains its individual stripes on a satin finish, which are now diagonal compared to the C55’s vertically aligned pattern.
Apparently, the biggest design change lies in the camera island, with the realme C67 boasting fancier golden-accented, knurled-edge camera rings placed on top of a reflective area. Its layout combines dual rear cameras with a protruding, also golden-accented island.
Design-wise, this motif makes the realme C67 the winner in my humble opinion.
But the C55’s simpler look shouldn’t be ignored either with its silver-accented, individually-housed camera rings.
Even more impressive is the C67’s slimmer profile, measuring only 7.59mm compared to the C55’s 7.9mm in depth. The C67 is a little bit lighter too, only weighing about 185 grams from 189.5 grams with the C55.
Both phones have the same button and port layout, except the realme C67 now rocks dual-stereo loudspeakers, with one driver placed on the top side for a significant audio upgrade.
On the right, both have the volume rocker and power button combo, with the dual nano-SIM card slot with microSD support on the left.
At the bottom, you’ll find the usual USB Type-C port, 3.5mm audio port, microphone, and speaker grille.
Display and Multimedia
Flipping to the front, both devices boast a sizable 6.72-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD display with identical resolutions of 2400 x 1080 pixels.
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- realme C55
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- realme C67
Both support up to a 90Hz refresh rate for smoother visuals. However, the C67 shines brighter with a peak brightness of 950 nits compared to the C55’s 680 nits, making it significantly easier to view under direct sunlight. While not the highest, it’s quite impressive at this price point.
Nestled within the upper bezel, both phones house an 8-megapixel selfie camera. But it seems only the realme C67 has the more advanced ‘Mini Capsule’ feature that mimics Apple’s Dynamic Island, showing animations of notifications status indicators around the notch.
They’ve added more functionality in this iteration such as music playback and weather info.
The realme C55 should also get more Mini Capsule functionalities once it gets the Android 14 upgrade.
As mentioned earlier, the realme C67 has dual stereo loudspeakers, making consuming media content on this phone more enjoyable. Of course, both phones still retain the 3.5mm audio port, offering you the flexibility to connect your favorite wired headphones or Bluetooth earbuds for an even better audio experience.
Performance
In terms of performance, the realme C67 is clearly ahead of the game with its newer chipset, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 685.
Released in 2023, this chip benefits from a more efficient 6 nanometer process and delivers a higher clock speed of 2.8 GHz compared to the 12 nanometer MediaTek Helio G88 found in the realme C55, which clocks in at 2.0 GHz.
This translates to real-world performance gains, as shown in our AnTuTu benchmark results: the realme C67 outperforms with a significantly higher score of 312,826, compared to the realme C55’s 258,273.
However, it’s important to remember that raw numbers don’t tell the whole story. In day-to-day use, both phones will handle most everyday tasks reasonably well
— including running lighter games like Mobile Legends at medium to low settings.
However, demanding titles like Genshin Impact will require lowest settings on both devices.
The C67 boasts 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM by default, with up to an additional 8GB Dynamic RAM Expansion (DRE). It comes in either 8GB+128GB or 8GB+256GB variants.
Meanwhile, the realme C55 comes in either 6GB or 8GB LPDDR4x RAM that also supports up to 8GB extended memory. Its configurations include 6GB+128GB or 8GB+256GB.
While the C67’s higher RAM may justify its increased cost, the C55’s base model remains a thousand pesos cheaper. This makes it potentially more appealing to budget-conscious users.
If you happen to find that storage isn’t enough, again, there are microSD card slots for expandable storage featured on both devices.
Not to mention, it’s a dedicated slot allowing both phones to use two SIMs and a microSD card in one tray.
However, it’s worth noting that the realme C67 supports up to 2TB of external storage while the realme C55 supports only up to 1TB.
Cameras
Both phones feature a dual rear camera setup, but the realme C67 boasts a higher resolution 108-megapixel primary camera as compared to the 64-megapixel sensor on the realme C55.
As for selfies, both phones have 8-megapixel shooters.
Despite the larger megapixel count, the C55 captures sharp and color accurate photos that are acceptable-enough for your social media postings. This is the same case for the C67, but you’ll have the option to take photos with sharper details thanks to its 108MP high-res mode.
realme touts the C67 as the first in the series with 3x “in-sensor zoom,” which hints that photo detail are maintained even at 3x zoom.
Naturally, both devices struggle in challenging low-light scenarios, but expect them to do well in bright environments. For video capabilities, both devices capture a maximum of 1080p resolution at 30 frames-per-second (fps).
Battery Life
Like many of the phones in the entry-level segment, both the realme C67 and realme C55 pack 5,000mAh battery. During our time with both phones revealed impressive battery life, with the realme C67 lasting noticeably longer, exceeding a full day of use.
Perhaps, the efficiency of the Snapdragon 685 chipset inside the C67 likely plays a key role in its superior battery life. Our PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test results confirm this, with the realme C67 achieving an impressive 18 hours and 1 minute compared to the realme C55’s 10 hours and 55 minutes.
Should you recharge them, both phones conveniently include a 33W SuperVOOC power adapter in the box. In the C55’s case, then this fast-charging tech is a must have that charges the device from zero to 50% in just about half an hour.
Connectivity & Other Features
Both the realme C67 and realme C55 stick to 4G LTE connectivity, as expected in their price range. However, their chipset differences likely explain the varying Bluetooth versions: Bluetooth 5.0 for the C67 and Bluetooth 5.2 for the C55.
To compensate for its single, downward-firing loudspeaker, the realme C55 features Dirac sound tuning and lets you increase the audio volume by up to 200%. Notably, the realme C67 does not get the same treatment, which could’ve been great considering it has dual-stereo loudspeakers.
Only the realme C67 boasts an IP54 rating for water splashes and dust protection. However, this ingress protection rating is relatively low, thus submerging the phone or any other IP54-rated device is not recommended. Essentially, this only means that it can withstand some splashes like from rain for example.
Software-wise, both devices run realme UI, but the realme C67 enjoys the latest Android 14.
Meanwhile, the realme C55 runs Android 13 out of the box, with recent reports suggesting it already received the Android 14 update this February.
For biometrics, both phones employ side-mounted fingerprint sensor, as well as face unlock should you prefer it. Additionally, both support NFC.
Which one should you get?
Weighing all the factors we had just discussed, the realme C67 clearly dominates in this budget phone showdown.
Thanks to its better display and a more capable camera system, the realme C67 14 serves to be a camera powerhouse on a budget, starting at just PHP 9,999. Its longer battery life is also commendable which is made possible by the realme C67’s more efficient Snapdragon 685.
On the other hand, the realme C55 shouldn’t be overlooked. Its trump card is its enticing price tag, starting at only PHP 8,999 — a thousand pesos less that makes it a tempting option for those with a tighter budget. Albeit it comes with a lower RAM configuration at 6GB, there’s always the 8GB dynamic RAM to count on.
Furthermore, you can snag the 256GB storage option for both phones at the same price at PHP 10,999.
| realme C67 | realme C55 |
|---|---|
| 6.72” FHD+ IPS LCD | 6.72" FHD+ IPS LCD |
| 1080*2400 pixels, 90Hz refresh, 950 nits (peak) | 2400*1080 pixels, 90Hz refresh rate, 680 nits (peak) |
| Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 (6nm) | MediaTek Helio G88 (12nm) |
| 8-cores, up to 2.8GHz | 8-cores, up to 2.0GHz |
| 8GB LPDDR4x RAM (+8GB extended memory) | 6/8GB LPDDR4X RAM (+8GB extended memory) |
| 128GB, 256GB storage | 256GB storage |
| Expandable up to 2TB via microSD (dedicated slot) | Expandable up to 1TB via microSD (dedicated slot) |
| Dual rear cameras: | Dual rear cameras |
| - 108MP f/1.75 Samsung ISOCELL HM6 camera (3x in-sensor zoom) | • 64MP main |
| - 2MP f/2.4 depth | • 2MP depth sensor |
| 8MP front-facing selfie shooter | 8MP selfie shooter |
| Dual nano-SIM | Dual nano-SIM |
| 4G LTE | 4G LTE |
| Wi-Fi 2.4GHz/ 5GHz | Wi-Fi 2.4/5GHz |
| Bluetooth 5.0 | Bluetooth 5.2 |
| GPS / GLONASS / GALILEO / Beidou / QZSS | GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS |
| USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| 3.5mm audio jack | 3.5mm headphone jack |
| Side-mounted fingerprint sensor | Side-mounted fingerprint sensor |
| IP54 splash and dust resistance, dual stereo speakers | Dirac audio |
| realme UI (Android 14) | realme UI 4.0 (Android 13) |
| 5000mAh battery | 5,000mAh battery |
| 33W charging (SuperVOOC) | 33W SuperVOOC |
| 164.6 x 75.4 x ~7.59mm | 165.6 x 75.9 x 7.9mm |
| ~185g | 189.5g |
| Sunny Oasis, Black Rock | Sun Shower, Rainy Night |
| PHP 9,999 | 8GB+128GB PHP 10,999 | 8GB+256GB | PHP 8,999 | 6GB+128GB PHP 10,999 | 8GB+256GB |
Ultimately, the decision boils down to your priorities. Do you crave better performance and camera experience, even at a slightly higher cost? Then the C67 might be your ideal choice. But if budget reigns supreme, the C55 offers a compelling option without sacrificing solid key features.
With that said, do you think the realme C67 is THE better buy? Or the realme C55 still stands out with a much more affordable price? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
