With back to back launches since its debut in India earlier this year, Realme has been steadily developing a following for itself. However, the company is now looking to make a splash with the launch of a youth-centric and powerful budget device, the Realme U1.

Instead of jumping straight in to talk about my experience, let us first take a quick look at the complete specs sheet for the Realme U1:

What’s in the Box

If you remember, Realme just recently unveiled its new brand identity and the packaging of the Realme U1 reflects the same with its gray and yellow box, along with a U1 imprint on top. It contains everything we expect to find in a smartphone box these days, including a pre-applied screen protector.

In typical fashion, let’s first talk about the build and aesthetics of the Realme U1 smartphone and right off the bat, you will notice one thing: Realme didn’t really have time to design a new smartphone in the two months since its last phone. It has picked the same design from the Realme 2 Pro, which worked in the past (straight out of Xiaomi’s playbook!).

Yeah, the design of the Realme U1 is about the same as the Realme 2 Pro and there’s no major surprise in store for you – except for maybe the more comfortable grip and in-hand feel of the new Realme device. It’s slightly thinner than the 2 Pro and that makes a considerable difference in daily use.

The newest member of the Realme family is definitely a looker and the ‘Fiery Gold’ variant with us got people drawing comparisons to the iPhone XS. The light pillars (as Realme likes to call the reflective pattern on the back) on Realme U1 set it apart and make it look stunning in different lighting conditions.

The power button (on the right edge) and volume rockers (on the left edge) of the Realme U1 are made out of plastic and may feel cheap to the touch but are quite tactile, so I have got no qualms about them. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack and microUSB charging port at the bottom, but the secondary microphone up top is missing — which is disappointing.

Realme U1 Display

Moving along, if someone were to ask me one of the key highlights of the latest Realme smartphone, then I would say that the display on the device is gorgeous. The dewdrop notch makes the Realme U1 look a lot more bezel-less than it is, and beautiful.

The color reproduction is on point, the display gets quite bright in indoor conditions and holds up quite well in direct sunlight as well. I have got no major criticism here, except for the fact that the Realme 2 Pro has a much better LCD panel that offers users more brightness and color range.

However, I love the dewdrop notch design and it feels like you are using a single slab of glass at night when the chin disappears and only the non-intrusive notch is visible to the eye.

The biggest flaw in the Realme U1, as has been said time and time again with Realme phones, is the software experience. The device runs Android 8.1 Oreo-based ColorOS 5.2 and though it’s quite feature-packed, which is something I appreciate. But the company’s skin requires a lot of work and remodeling to make the experience worthwhile for the user.

Another major problem is with notifications. The Realme U1 is missing the notification LED and ColorOS is typically never in the mood to surface the latest notifications as they come in. The device usually just lights up the screen and vibrates when a new notification arrives and doesn’t show which app has sent it, which gets frustrating very soon.

As we’ve already pointed out, Realme U1 is the first device to debut with the backing of MediaTek’s latest flagship chipset – the Helio P70 and it’s mighty enough to handle almost any of the tasks thrown at it. I have been using the device for around a week and didn’t notice any lag or stutter across the user interface, even though it’s heavily skinned.

Finally, for those who love to judge and compare smartphone performance via benchmark scores, we’ve attached screenshots of our Geekbench 4 and AnTutu results of the Realme U1 (codename RMX1833) down below. These numbers amazed us when we ran the tests, well, because they are clearly better than the Redmi Note 6 Pro, running Snapdragon 636.

Coming to the highlight of the Realme U1, the company is pitching this device as a Selfie Pro and it goes up against the likes of Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 6 Pro and Redmi Y2. The device packs in a dual camera system, with a primary 13MP (f/2.2) sensor and a secondary 2MP (f/2.4) sensor on the rear and a 25MP (f/2.0) sensor on the front.

  • Daylight Conditions

In broad daylight, the Realme U1 performs well but you will notice that while some of the photos look stunning with great detail, the others look oversharpened and a bit saturated (even though the Super Vivid mode was off). The device is quick to focus and manages to capture details and shadows right, but has a tendency to blow out highlights.

Daylight Conditions

  • Low-light Conditions

In low-light and artificial conditions, the Realme U1 performs pretty well and manages to capture a lot of light. The rear, as well as the front camera, does a good job in capturing details but like daylight, some of the images seem to be oversharpened. The highlights, as well as shadows, are handled with ease and the images appear good enough for the price.

Low-light Conditions

  • Selfies/ Portraits

Coming to the selfies and portrait, which the company touts to be the highlight of Realme U1. Well, it’s not completely wrong. The 25-MP selfie snapper on here is considerably better than the Realme 2 Pro (which you’ll see in our comparison below) and manages to capture more detail in the subject’s face and hair. But again, if there’s a light source in the background then it’s overexposed and Realme U1 find it difficult to act during such scenarios.

Selfies/ Portraits

The device comes with a portrait mode, much like any other phone these days, and I’ve been quite satisfied with its quality. The edge detection is average, the background blur looks natural, and the photos don’t look dull like they did from the Honor 8C.

Add-on Features

Well, the camera on the Realme U1 also comes with portrait lighting effects – similar to iPhones but certainly not as good. There are also AR face stickers, which make Akshay and Rupesh look particularly attractive, don’t they?

Realme U1 vs vs Redmi Note 6 Pro vs Realme 2 Pro Camera Shootout

Now let me also give you a brief look into how the Realme U1’s camera compares against its similarly-priced competitors, including Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 6 Pro and the Realme 2 Pro. And well, there’s no doubt about the outcome of the showdown as the Redmi Note 6 Pro still comes out on top with flying colors (quite literally), but the Realme U1 is not far behind.

Finally, speaking of the video capabilities of the Realme U1, it packs support for up to 1080p video recording at 30fps and from the looks of it, the video quality is decent enough for casual recordings. The colors seem dull and sections of the video are blown out, with the camera having issues with varying lighting, as shown in the sample attached below:

Realme U1 Connectivity

Realme U1 is carrying forward the triple-slot tray that we’ve seen on the Realme 2 Pro, which means you can use two nano-SIM cards, as well as expand the storage by up to 256GB via the dedicated microSD card slot. This will come in very handy for users who might be looking to use their device to record or download YouTube videos.

The device packs 4G dual VoLTE connectivity support and the reception was decent during my usage, with no network issues during calling or Internet surfing. You also get support for Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac, which suggests Realme U1 can seamlessly connect to 5GHz networks, but I was disappointed to see my 5GHz Wi-Fi network not appear in the available network list.

The Realme U1 packs in a single bottom-firing speaker, which now seems to be the norm for most smartphones, however, I despise this placement. It is easy to muffle the speaker with your hand while playing games and that can certainly get frustrating in no time.

My telephony experience with the Realme U1 has been good. I had been using my Airtel and Jio SIMs on the device for the past week and did not notice any connection or calling woes. However, the absence of a secondary microphone affected the call quality a tad bit as callers asked me about the increased background noise – which isn’t the case with my usual daily driver, the Nokia 7 Plus.

Finally, the Realme U1 includes a moderate-sized 3,500mAh battery on board and it has served me quite well over the past week. I was comfortably able to milk the device’s charge for around one and a half day during regular use, carrying out daily office work, speaking to friends on call or WhatsApp, scrolling through Instagram, and watching a handful of videos on the way back home.

Well, after everything, we have finally made it to the end of our Realme U1 review and it’s now time to tell you whether the latest device from Realme is worth buying or not. And let me start by giving you the green light for that decision as Realme U1 (Buy here from Rs 11,999) is trying to offer you the best it can in its price bracket – except for the few caveats that we found in the software department.

  • Classy and lightweight
  • Waterdrop notch
  • Superfast face unlock
  • Snappy performance
  • Solid battery life

CONS:

The Realme U1 has shaped up to be the company’s best effort to date but with its flaws in the software and camera, there might be some pause for potential buyers. We hope that Realme optimizes ColorOS for the new MediaTek SoC and also improves its image processing, which would definitely make it a worthy contender to take on rivals. The overall package of the Realme U1, given the price and the more snappy processor, could turn out up be a huge threat to Xiaomi and Honor’s dominance.