realme C35 Review

The realme C series is the company’s lineup for budget-conscious consumers, and to keep the ball rolling, they have released the realme C35. While it can be considered entry-level, we can say it’s the most stylish C series smartphone we’ve tried. If you want to know more about it, read our full review.

Table of Contents

Design and Construction

Right from the get-go, the realme C35 is a large phone to hold, it has a thickness of 8.1 mm and comes in at a weight of 189 grams. The frame has flat edges and a metallic paint job that reminds us of the newer iPhone models but it isn’t particularly comfortable to hold if you have small hands.

More on its back, we have a polycarbonate rear panel that features a glass-like finish; which is prone to smudges and fingerprints. There’s also a protruding camera to the upper corner of the rear. The unit that we have now comes in Glowing Green which looks pretty cool especially when reflected on by light. There’s a Glowing Black version as well if you’re interested.

Looking at the front, the realme C35 has a mini-drop notch design, which is pretty dated, since a lot of entry-level phones are starting to adopt the punch hole camera layout. It also has a very noticeable bezel by the chin. Another thing that might bother you is the lack of Corning’s Gorilla Glass protection, but we do get a pre-installed screen protector which is a good thing, to say the least.

On the left, we have the card tray for two nano-sized SIM cards and a dedicated slot for the microSD card. Below it is the volume buttons.

To the right, we have the power/lock button that also works as the device’s fingerprint scanner. The buttons are tactile, soft, and quiet. They’re placed in the middle of the frame so they’re easy to reach.

Down at the bottom, we have the 3.5mm audio jack, microphone, USB-C port, and loudspeaker.

Display and Multimedia

Checking out the display, we get a 6.6-inch IPS panel running at a resolution of 2408 x 1080, which equates to 401ppi. Colors are nice and vibrant, viewing angles are decent, and show good contrast especially when watching multimedia content.

The LCD panel does have up to 600 nits of peak brightness which is quite useful in sunny outdoor conditions. It also has a touch-sampling rate of 180Hz for better touch responsiveness.

Audio-wise, the C35 boasts of a single downward-firing speaker, and you’ll be better off using your favorite pair of earphones or external speakers if you want to listen to anything other than voice calls. The sound can easily get distorted at max volume. Lowering it, though, would make it sound too soft.

Cameras

For cameras, the realme C35 has a total of four. We get a triple rear setup consisting of a 50MP main, 2MP macro, 2MP depth, and LED flash. In front, we get an 8MP sensor for selfies.

Shots taken with the rear camera are not bad, colors look a bit washed out although this can be remedied to some degree with auto HDR and AI scene recognition. Portrait mode using the main shooter works well but could use a little work when it comes to subject-background separation. As for the macro shooter, it was a hit or miss depending on the amount of light.

When it comes to low-light shots details were captured reasonably well for a budget phone, though there was the occasional flaring on the lens. Selfies were average, images would sometimes come out blurred and it lacks clarity but still usable for social media postings. Same thing with the front camera’s portrait mode.

When it comes to video recording, we have a choice of shooting at either 720 or 1080p at 30FPS. Quality is enough for casual use, and since this doesn’t have any form of stabilization, you’re gonna have to keep your hands steady if you want those smooth shots.

OS, Apps, and UI

Running the software department is realme UI R Edition based on Android 11. The R edition is still on Android 11, and an update to the next iteration could take time with realme’s budget phones.

Its notifications and custom apps aren’t too obtrusive, the menus actually look very similar to stock Android but are still far from being stock Android. Pre-installed apps include the standard Google suite and realme’s native applications including realme Link and realme Community.

Storage-wise, the C35 packs 64GB of internal storage. Expanding the storage is more than welcome as this device has its dedicated micro SD card slot.

Performance and Benchmarks

At the core of the C35 is a Unisoc Tiger T616 chipset with an octa-core processor clocked at a maximum of 2.0GHz, a Mali-G57 GPU, along with 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB of internal storage.

Performance is sufficient for most basic tasks like browsing social media and other light apps. When it comes to multitasking, when several things are happening in the background at once you’ll notice some lag, but if you’re not the type to juggle through different apps, it should work just fine.

When it comes to gaming, the phone can handle graphic-intensive games pretty well, albeit at lower frame rates. We were able to run Asphalt 9 without any glitches, although higher-end phones will definitely be able to process graphics better.

For some numbers, check out the benchmark scores we got below:

• AnTuTu v9.3.9 – 223,638
• AnTuTu v9.3.9 Storage Test – 29,490 (829.4 MB/s Seq. Read, 239.4 MB/s Seq. Write)
• Geekbench 5 – 370 (Single-Core), 1,355 (Multi-Core), 586 (OpenCL)
• PCMark – 7,903 (Work 3.0)
• 3DMark – 464, 2.80 FPS (Wild Life)

Connectivity and Battery Life

The realme C35 comes with standard wireless connectivity features such as 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and USB-C. For power, it comes with a 5,000mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging.

The PCMark’s Work 3.0 battery test rated it at 15 hours and 50 minutes; making this device a good companion for continuous multimedia consumption, while charging the device up from 0 % took an hour and 30 minutes to reach full battery life.

Conclusion

If you’re a casual user who’s just looking for a solid daily driver for light tasks, keep you connected online, a device that can cater to your binge-watching needs, and capable cameras without breaking the bank, keep this device in mind. The realme C35 is priced at PHP 8,499 for the 4GB + 64GB, and PHP 9,499 for the 4GB + 128GB.

realme C35 specs:
6.6-inch FHD+ (2408 x 1080) IPS display, 401ppi
Unisoc Tiger T616 SoC
Mali-G57 MP1 GPU
4GB LPDDR4X RAM
64GB, 128GB UFS 2.2
microSD card slot (dedicated)
Triple-rear cameras:
• 50MP F1.8 main
• 2MP F2.4 macro
• 2MP F2.8 depth
8MP F2.0 front camera
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
WiFi 5
Bluetooth 5.0
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
USB-C
Fingerprint scanner (side)
3.5mm headphone jack
realme UI R Edition (Android 11)
5,000mAh battery w/ 18W fast charging
164.4 x 75.6 x 8.1mm
189g
Glowing Green, Glowing Black