realme C65 Review

Today, we’re here to cover realme’s latest entry-level budget offering.

The realme 48 C65 offers users a handful of features that aim to improve a user’s quality of life. In addition, it’s also recognized by TÜV Rheinland for a 48-Monthly Fluency Rating.

The question here is — how good is it really? We took some time to look under the hood to find out what makes the C65 tick.

In this review we’re going to cover how convenient the C65 can be from a day-to-day standpoint.

But for reference, our review model came in the Sunny Oasis color option. It also comes with a configuration with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of available storage.

Design and Construction

Kicking off with the phone’s design and build, the realme C65 comes in a simple design language. It’s pretty slim and comfortable to hold, weighing at 185 grams.

At the back, users will get a glass panel with glossy material. Users will also find the realme branding on the lower left of the device.

It was surprising to see that the back panel didn’t get smudged as much as it should’ve. Still, I’d advise users to use a case — which is luckily provided with the box.

On the upper left, users will find three camera sensors with a LED flash situated closely. However, readers should take note that the phone is only equipped with dual-rear cameras.

At the front, we have the C65’s display panel and the device’s front camera situated in a punch hole. It also has their own version of a Dynamic Island with Mini Capsule 2.0! Users can find this active when playing music, or when notifications and toggles are active.

For buttons and ports, the power switch and volume rocker can be found on the right side of the phone. The left side houses the dual nano-SIM card and dedicated microSD card slot.

By the way, the realme C65’s power button also works as its Dynamic Button and fingerprint scanner. The Dynamic Button enables users to custom-map the power button when double tapped to open an app or function.

Users will also find a loudspeaker on the bottom, a USB Type-C charging port, and a 3.5mm audio port. The top side is clean from anything, but it does raise a question.

Where is the other loudspeaker?

Well, after some tinkering — I assumed that the other speaker is situated around the punch hole on top for calls. When I played music, it didn’t make a peep. BUT, it did work when I tried to use it for calls over Wi-Fi.

For those wondering and before I forget, the phone has an IP54 rating against dust and splash resistance. Users should be alright from droplets of water or dust, just don’t submerge your phone.

Bottom line, I’m alright with how the C65 was designed. It looks good, but it’s not the best.

Display, Multimedia, and Biometrics

Going back to display, the phone sports a 6.72-inch IPS LCD screen with a refresh rate of 90Hz. If you’re power conscious, you can toggle between frame rates under settings.

While I do recommend staying on auto-select, it’s subjective to the user. Other options include standard for 60Hz and High for 90Hz.

It has a resolution of 2400 by 1080, and has 800 nits for typical brightness. However, it peaks at 950 nits when maxed out (high brightness mode).

Further, there’s also a toggle for the lowest allowed brightness with the phone. It pops out when users turn on auto brightness, and from there you get the option to tinker with it.

The pixel density seems to be lacking with this device, albeit it is under the entry-level segment. The asymmetrical bezels are alright too, despite my reservations for it.

Practically speaking, it didn’t defeat the purpose of daily browsing and my multimedia experience. It’s also fairly decent outdoors, but you do have to max the brightness out for continued use under certain conditions.

The display is also equipped with Rainwater Smart Touch, which lets users continue using the screen despite wetness. This is great for when users have moist hands or when you’re on-the-go under rainy weather.

Moving on, I’m sure that the device has dual stereo speakers for audio. Again, one is situated on the bottom, while the other is embedded with the punch hole on top for calls.

It bothers me that when gaming or binging videos, I have to rely on the single speaker on the bottom. Since the other speaker seems to only work during calls, I can’t make the most out of it.

When watching videos, users usually hold their phones in a landscape orientation. I noticed there are times that I naturally ended up covering the speaker when using the phone.

So, readers should definitely keep that in mind if you don’t have earbuds or headphones.

Speaking of, the audio experience when I paired the C65 with the realme Buds T110 was excellent. It’s loud, clear, and crisp. I recommend people to look into it, since both are relatively fresh releases at a good price.

Biometrics include the usual options for modern mobile security. Users will get options from pattern, numeric, alphanumeric, a fingerprint sensor, and face unlock.

The fingerprint sensor can be found on the device’s power button, but I do have an issue with it. It’s not as responsive as I would’ve liked.

As for the face unlock, I noticed it’s not as polished either. For reference, I took my first facial recognition with bangs. When I had my hair pulled up, the device wouldn’t remember me.

Long story short, I just stuck to using a numeric code for unlocking the device.

Cameras

The realme C65 is equipped with dual-rear cameras. It has a 108-megapixel main shooter paired with another 2-megapixel sensor. At the front, users will get an 8-megapixel front camera.

The cameras have modes for Night, Street, Hi-Res, and Tilt-Shift. It also has the usual Pro, Pano, Movie, Slo-Mo, Time-Lapse, and Text Scanner modes.

I have to admit, it produces decent images with vibrant colors. However, it drastically falls off with bad lighting and becomes grainy.

Selfies with the front camera are admittedly good, with the colors popping off in spite of the specs it has.

I also have to mention that clarity does feel a bit washed out, even in well-lit outdoor photos. I’ll leave readers with our sample photos below.

For video recording, the C65 can shoot with a capped resolution of 1080p at 30fps. Users can also shoot videos with 720p at 30fps to save space if needed.

Considering that realme was aiming for a phone to handle everyday tasks that highlight convenience, this segment was okay. I can vouch that photos taken with the device are usable for social media under the right conditions.

OS, Apps, and UI

The device runs on realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14 out-of-the-box. Frankly, the software segment could be polished a bit in favor of smoothness and decluttering.

Going into detail, the bloatware is pretty hard to ignore. While most are segmented into folders, I can surely feel that they’re still there.

Apart from that, I’m alright. It’s a standard Android skin slated to feature realme’s personal touches that we’ll get into.

The C65 has a handful of key features that are present under this segment. First, we have Smart Sensing. Smart Sensing gives users options to use air gestures or double-tap to scan.

With air gestures, the C65 uses the selfie camera with low power to identify hand gestures with AI algorithms. From experience, it lets you swipe up and down without really making contact with your screen.

This is random, but I imagine this would be insanely useful for when I’m eating chicken wings or anything oily.

As for double-tap to scan, it offers users a means to scan a code on-the-go. By tapping a sensor on the back panel, the camera opens to scan QR codes.

With cashless payments these days, it’s pretty straightforward on why this is a great feature. Kudos to realme for this simple touch.

Next, we have AI Boost. This feature lets users power up in terms of general or gaming performance. As you can see, you can tinker with general optimizations and even allocate processor frequency from here.

Lastly, users are treated to Riding Mode. This mode shows you a user-friendly app window where you can access Google Maps, Music, etc. The mode is a cool feature intended to help motorcycle riders and drivers.

We don’t have details on the phone’s software update and security patch timeline at the time of writing. We’ll update the review as soon as we do!

There’s nothing worth writing home about under the Apps segment, apart from the App Market’s presence. It’s a separate market from the Play Store where you can get apps ‘based on your preference’.

For UI, it’s a pretty standard Android skin. Users can personalize it, edit quick settings on the drop down, etc.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the realme C65 is a Helio G85 chip courtesy of MediaTek. This is paired with a Mali-G52 MP2 GPU. For reference again, our review unit has a configuration with 8GB of RAM with 256GB of available storage.

Surprisingly, the device was able to handle games pretty well. I played a ton of Teamfight Tactics and a bit of Wild Rift with the device with Game Boost active.

Frame drops weren’t evident, and the device didn’t really slow down either. In addition, it didn’t heat up that much during our testing period to get benchmark scores.

Speaking of, for those interested, I’ll leave our benchmark scores below.

I can infer that the phone did well for its segment. If readers are curious about the OpenCL scores, it’s low because it couldn’t detect the device’s face unlock.

In terms of storage, it’s decent. I wasn’t expecting fast storage, so this was an expected outcome.

Battery and Connectivity

This phone packs a sizable 5,000mAh battery with support for 45W of SUPERVOOC charging via USB Type-C. For those who might be wondering, the adapter comes with the box.

Considering that it’s a large battery, most end users should be content under this segment. To make sure, we took the phone for some practical tests with varying results.

In our video loop test, the realme C65 lasted 24 hours and 4 minutes. This test was conducted with 50% brightness, muted volume, in airplane mode, and with a full HD movie.

We also conducted a gaming test for the realme C65. Users are treated to 11 hours and 30 minutes of gameplay with the phone. For this, we had both brightness and volume set to 50% over a Wi-Fi connection with Game Boost toggled on.

For charging speed, the C65 takes 26 minutes to charge to 50% of power. For a full battery, it takes 1 hour and 10 minutes. This test was conducted by draining the device battery and using its 45W adapter.

The C65’s battery is insanely good, being able to take gaming and multimedia tasks for extended periods.

Wrapping up with connectivity, the phone offers Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, and 4G LTE from its dual nano-SIM card. The phone’s call quality is standard with either a signal or over Wi-Fi.

Pricing and Conclusion

The realme C65 has a suggested retail price of PHP 9,999USD 170INR 14,445EUR 162CNY 1,241 for 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Interested readers can also get this for as low as PHP 8,799USD 150INR 12,711EUR 143CNY 1,092 in Lazada and Shopee until June 21, 2024.

Buyers who act fast may also get the realme C65 for PHP 8,299USD 141INR 11,989EUR 135CNY 1,030 via TikTok during a live selling event.

The device comes with freebies inclusive of a TechLife Dust Mite Vacuum (on Shopee) and either TechLife Wireless Earbuds or a TechLife 12W Charger (on Lazada). Just keep in mind, Shopee vouchers (worth PHP 1,200USD 20INR 1,734EUR 19CNY 149) can only be redeemed once for this. Meanwhile, Lazada shoppers can use their Mega Discount vouchers from 10% to 30% (up to PHP 1,200USD 20INR 1,734EUR 19CNY 149) off as well.

Don’t miss out on these freebies while stocks last!

Going back, as a new budget offering, this phone stands out with a lot of features to satisfy your smartphone needs.

I can certainly say it’s good enough to be someone’s daily driver. It’s got a good design, decent performance, great features, and an insane battery. These are all topped off by its good price.

While biometrics could definitely be polished, pros definitely outweigh the cons. The speaker setup and bloatware are solid gripes, but I can look past it.

General consensus — you should definitely look into this phone if you need a reliable device that can do it all. It’s not the best at everything, but it can surely step up!

But please, let us know what you think of the realme C65! Would you consider getting this phone? Leave a comment below!

What we liked:
* Design
* Insane battery life
* Decent performance
* Affordable price
* Added features

What we didn’t like:
* Biometrics
* Bloatware
* Speaker setup

realme C65 specs:
6.72-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) IPS LCD
90Hz refresh rate
800 nits (typ), 950 nits (HBM)
MediaTek Helio G85
2x Cortex-A75 @ 2GHz
6x Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz
Mali-G52 MP2 GPU
8GB RAM
128GB, 256GB internal storage
microSD card support (up to 2TB)
108MP main camera
2MP camera
8MP front camera
Dual stereo speakers
3.5mm audio port
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 5 (2.4GHz, 5GHz)
Bluetooth 5.0
USB Type-C
realme UI 5.0 (Android 14)
5,000mAh battery, 45W SUPERVOOC charge support (wired, in-box charger)
IP54 rating for dust and splash resistance
164.6mm x 75.4mm x 7.59mm (dimensions)
185 grams (weight)
Sunny Oasis, Black Rock (colors)