Although the local market has seen a surge in 5G-ready smartphones in recent months, but most of these devices launched were catered toward the higher-end segment of the smartphone market.
The recently announced Realme X50 5G however, will be an exception. It’s one of the few 5G mid-ranger smartphone that’s available in Singapore that will not burn a hole in your pocket.
Priced at S$599, the Realme X50 5G isn’t just the cheapest Snapdragon 765G-powered smartphone in the local market, but is also one of the two 5G devices in Singapore (including Huawei Nova 7 SE) that cost under S$600.
Geared with a future-proofed 5G connectivity, powerful Snapdragon 765G chipset, versatile quad camera system and 30W fast-charging support – the Realme X50 5G certainly looks promising on paper.
However, does its mouth-watering specs sheet pan out well in real life? Let’s find out in the following Realme X50 5G review!
Design & Display
The all-new Realme X50 5G continues to ride on the trend of bold and striking color options after finding success with the Realme 6 series smartphones.
For the Ice Silver Realme X50 5G review unit which I’d received, its rear panel features an iridescent sheen that shifts between Blue and Silver color depending on the angle of incident light. It also has the usual reflective patterns etched on its back panel to up its visual appeal.
Sitting on the top-left corner, the Realme X50 5G maintains the same elongated camera island as the Realme X50 Pro (Review) to accommodate its quad camera system. Most importantly, the rear camera bump isn’t really obvious on the device.
Despite its low-price, the Realme X50 5G went ahead of its competitors by utilizing a glass back instead of a plastic panel. Other than being more durable, its glass back undeniably makes the device feels luxurious on hand than a cheaper plastic back.
Coupled with the subtle curves along the side edges of its back panel, the device is nice and easy to hold with one hand despite its pretty hefty weight. However, its glossy back finish seems to pick up smudges quite frequently but that shouldn’t be an issue since it can be wiped off easily.
Jumping to the front, the Realme X50 5G employs the same dual hole-punched design as the Realme X50 Pro 5G. The only difference is that the Realme X50 5G has a slightly larger screen real estate which stood at 6.57-inches diagonally.
The front display will be a LCD display that bring users a buttery-smooth 120Hz refresh rate that put the device on par with more expensive flagship models like the OPPO Find X2 Pro (Review) and Samsung Galaxy Note20 series smartphones.
The high refresh rate makes the user interface more fluid and eliminates the text ghosting effect which you may encounter when scrolling a web page on a device with lower refresh rate.
At arm’s length, the front display looks sharp and colors are great. It also offers enough brightness to ensure the screen remain visible under direct sunlight. Overall, the Realme X50 5G’s display is certainly among the best within its price range.
Performance
At the helm, the Realme X50 5G is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G platform which boast greater performance over any other Snapdragon 6 and 7-series chipsets we normally see among mid-ranger smartphones.
Although it isn’t as powerful as the flagship Snapdragon 865 chipset, but it certainly has more than sufficient horse power to handle day-to-day usage with a breeze. In fact, it can easily support all the graphic demanding games you find in the Play store including PUBG Mobile or Call Of Duty.
That’s precisely how good the Snapdragon 765G chipset actually is, and its why other premium models like the Vivo X50 Pro 5G (Review) and Google Pixel 5 are using the same chipset.
To sweeten the deal, the Realme X50 5G also comes with a dedicated Liquid Cooling 3.0 System that works remarkably well to keep the device cool in order to deliver a more consistent performance during prolonged gaming.
Its really impressive that Realme managed to squeeze in an advanced cooling system at such a low-price, since we hardly even see them among flagship phones which are priced much higher. In this aspect, Realme had really did a commendable job.
Other than that, the Realme X50 5G is also equipped with a hefty 8GB RAM that provides plenty of headroom for simultaneous apps and multi-tasking.
Camera
For photography, the Realme X50 5G features a versatile quad camera setup at the back which has a 48 megapixels (f/1.8 aperture) primary shooter leading the pack, along with three other auxiliary cameras that include an 8 megapixels (f/2.3 aperture) ultra-wide lens, 2 megapixels (f/2.4 aperture) macro camera, as well as a 2 megapixels (f/2.4 aperture) depth sensor.
Although this is a pretty standard setup for mid-ranger smartphones including the more recent OPPO Reno4 Pro (Review), but the Realme X50 5G’s primary shooter clicks some of the best images within its price range.
Even when the scene (Default Camera Sample #1) isn’t exactly well-lit, the device still managed to pull off a good dynamic range with ample of details. On top of that, it also offers an impressive color depth as seen by the different shades of Green in the above image that brought us a realistic color profile.
As for night scenes, the device also has a dedicated Night mode to assist in brightening up the scene. Once again, colors are on point and level of details are pretty well-preserved. However, highlights within the images do occasionally exhibit some light artifacts, but those usually are subtle and don’t really affect the overall photo.
Coming to its ultra-wide shots, although its a step below those images clicked by its primary shooter, but overall dynamic range and details remain amicable whether in a well-lit or a low-light environment.
Since the Realme X50 5G doesn’t come with a dedicated telephoto lens for zooming, the device will rely on its primary shooter which makes use of the usual cropping technique to achieve up to 10x digital zoom.
Generally, image taken between the 1x to 5x zoom level remain fairly usable. However, when you edge further down, image quality inevitably took a blow. Despite the deterioration of quality, image at the maximum zoom level still retains decent level of details and we are still able to easily make out words within the image.
Selfie-wise, there will be a pair of 16 megapixels primary shooter (f/2.0 aperture) and 2 megapixels depth sensor (f/2.4 aperture) at the front. Selfies taken by the primary shooter has natural color profile free of facial beautification. On top of that, its additional depth sensor also did a splendid job in blurring out the background for portraits.
Battery & Charging
To keep its lights on, the Realme X50 5G is equipped with a 4,200mAh battery under the hood. During normal usage, you can expect to end the day off with at least 20%, while days of lighter usage can easily leave you with at least 40% battery remaining.
Its enduring battery life is also complemented by 30W Dart Charging support which is able to bring your device from 0 to 70% within a short span of just 30 minutes, and a full charge around an hour.
In this category, its pretty much on par with the newly announced OnePlus Nord 5G, even though the Realme X50 5G has a slightly beefier battery capacity.
No doubt, its really outstanding for mid-ranger of its price to hit the 30W fast-charging mark given that some of the latest flagship phones that cost considerably more didn’t even came near to the number.
In fact, Realme is one of the few OEMs that truly understands the importance and efficacy of fast-charging support for consumers. Even for its budget range of smartphones, including the Realme C15 and C17, they are beginning to feature at least 18W fast-charging as standard.
In the near future, we are likely to see more mid-ranger smartphones from Realme to come with 65W SuperDart charging support, since some of the recent smartphones including the Realme 7 Pro and Realme X7 Pro were already equipped with this technology. Therefore, it really gives other OEMs a lot to catch up in this aspect.
The Realme X50 5G however, doesn’t come with any wireless or reverse charging support, but there’s nothing we can really complain about given its price.
Conclusion
Overall, the Realme X50 5G is certainly one of the most powerful, feature-packed smartphone in the market that redefines what we normally expect from a mid-ranger smartphone.
Its holistic specs sheet and compelling design shape it to be a perfect smartphone for mainstream users who do not require those insanely good cameras we saw on flagship phones that cost more than twice its price.
I definitely welcome more of such devices in the market that can serve as pacesetter for future smartphones. That way, it will benefit us all as consumers.
For those who’re interested, the Realme X50 5G will be available at S$599 off-contract on Shopee.
