Realme Narzo 50 review: a good everyday driver on a budget

 

Review Summary

Expert Rating3.5/5

Realme looks to be continuing its strategy of launching new smartphones in the Indian smartphone market at regular intervals, as it did last year. So far this year, the firm has debuted three smartphones in the Realme 9 series, and we're only halfway through March. Now, a new device will be added to the Narzo budget collection. I reviewed the Realme Narzo 50a (review) in September of last year, and now, over 5 months later, the erstwhile OPPO sub-brand is expanding its lineup.

I'm carrying the Realme Narzo 50, which starts at Rs 12,999 for the basic 4GB RAM + 64GB storage edition. Because the overlapping of Realme's signature number and the Narzo series' is nothing new, it is up to us reviewers to separate the two product ranges based on value for money. Is it worthwhile to invest money on the Narzo 50, or are there better options from Xiaomi, POCO, and even Realme? In this comprehensive assessment of the gadget, I will attempt to address these questions.

VERDICT

According to the specifications, the Narzo 50 is reasonably priced. It lacks an OLED display and an ultra-wide camera, but it more than makes up for it with respectable performance and a pretty user-friendly software experience.

The outer design of the Narzo 50 is similar to that of the market's standard selection of low-cost phones. With a few noteworthy exceptions, innovation in this area has mainly stayed static. A whole unibody polycarbonate build welcomes my palms with a smooth, matte-like feel that doesn't do anything to prevent fingerprints. On the rear, there's a carbon fiber-like design that looks great in the sunshine. The remainder of the design is substantially similar to previous Narzo phones. There's a power button and fingerprint sensor on the side, as well as a USB C port, 3.5mm headphone connector, and a speaker grille on the bottom.

On the right, there's a volume button and a SIM card slot. The three cameras and LED flash module are positioned in a matrix, and the enclosure is generally flush with the chassis. In terms of weight, I found the phone's 194g bulk to be nicely dispersed over the device, making it fairly pleasant to grip, which is enhanced by the smooth curves on the back that meet the rails. Overall, the design of the Narzo 50 does not wow me, but given the price, it would be absurd to expect much more.

Realme has incorporated a 6.6-inch IPS LCD panel with FHD+ resolution, significant bezels, a huge but mainly unnoticeable punch hole at the top-right, and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. Because it's an LCD screen, the viewing angles aren't as good, and the colour profiles are less saturated than on standard OLED displays. However, in terms of the Narzo 50, the overall viewing experience is satisfactory. The WideVine L1 certification, which the Narzo 50a lacked, is present and ensures HD content on OTT networks.

There are several display customizations available to fine-tune the screen to the user's tastes. Backlight leakage around the punch-hole is apparent but not alarming. I was impressed by the phone's ability to keep the full 120Hz refresh rate throughout compatible apps and the UI in general. Although the brightness settings looked to be enough for indoor use, I did have some trouble reading the screen on sunny days.

The device's triple cameras include a 50MP primary sensor, as well as the standard macro and depth shooters, and a 16MP selfie shooter on the front. The inexpensive category has gradually improved its grasp on computational photography to the point where it is now possible to capture more than a respectable image in strong sunshine. I have some qualms regarding the lack of an ultra-wide camera in instead of the overused and, in my opinion, useless depth sensor. However, the primary camera's overall daytime performance was sufficient in my perspective. The dynamic range isn't the ideal, with some gloomy regions underexposed, but the shots are usable.

Detailing is nice enough on the standard 12.5MP pixel-binned images that I seldom used the full 50MP setting. Overprocessing was noticeable in a few circumstances, the majority of which had low illumination. Night photography isn't one of Narzo 50's strong skills, but that shouldn't come as a surprise. With the exception of a few phones, low-light image-taking skills in the inexpensive class still need to be improved. My main difficulties were with focusing rates and overexposure of regions with aided lighting. The specialised Night mode functioned rapidly, although it was inaccurate in processing details. All of this is to say that the low-light camera experience isn't horrible, but there are some flaws.

During my testing of the Narzo 50, the macro and depth sensors appeared to have a limited use case. I believe the former has a greater potential for use than the latter. In varied shooting settings, HDR kicked in automatically, and I kept the AI Color Enhancement turned off to prevent the colour saturation from going berserk. Even with Ultra-steady stabilisation (EIS), the phone can capture a maximum of 1080p video at 30fps. On the front, the 16MP selfie camera takes realistic selfies with mostly correct skin tones, but there is some overprocessing.

The MediaTek Helio G96 is the processor of choice for the Narzo 50, as it is on many other smartphones in this category. In general, the Narzo 50 will not lag or stutter under moderate to light workloads. That is, your normal smartphone activity, such as switching between applications, utilising numerous tabs in Chrome, and surfing social media, is unlikely to be impeded.

The phone contains 6GB of RAM, which can be expanded by an additional 5GB utilising virtual RAM via internal storage. On smartphones, having 11GB of capacity to play with is usually good, if a touch overdone. A microSD card may be used to expand the 128GB UFS 2.1 storage by up to 1TB. Of course, gaming, particularly BGMI, will not be a particularly interesting endeavour, with the device achieving a maximum of 45fps on balanced visuals.

The gadget has a single bottom-firing speaker unit that gets quite loud but also crackles a little. The fingerprint sensor is quick and effective. There is no 5G on the Narzo 50, but I'm sure Realme will aim to create a 5G model of the phone. The 4G speeds are adequate, as is the connection on the Jio network in Noida. In terms of software, the phone runs Realme UI 2.0, which is based on Android 11.

As I've said in past Realme phone evaluations, the company's execution of an Android skin has improved significantly over time. The short version is that, with the exception of a lot of bloatware, the majority of which can be deleted, RealmeUI is intuitive and user-friendly. However, the absence of Android 12 at a time when Android 13 is on the horizon is a sore point for me. Glance is built into the phone's lockscreen, and you can customise it to display stuff such as news and sports updates, games, and more. The nicest aspect is that Glance does not consume data while it is not in use.

The Realme Narzo 50 includes a 5,000mAh battery with 33W charging capabilities. At this pricing range, this is a fairly regular capacity cell that performs as expected. During my time with the gadget, I was typically concluding the day with up to 40% of the tank's juice remaining. Granted, my day was not spent gaming on the device, but I don't believe users will find GPU-intensive jobs very enjoyable. The 33W charging takes roughly 90 minutes to charge the battery from 0% to 100% using the USB C connector.

FINAL VERDICT

With the exception of an OLED screen or an ultra-wide sensor, I believe you are getting precisely what you pay for in terms of overall value for money. The relevant question is whether you should spend an extra Rs 500 and get the Redmi Note 11 (review) for Rs 13,499. I believe the answer is yes, particularly if you prefer a better display, a better overall design, and a camera experience that isn't short on details. However, if its performance and simple user interface appeal to you, the Narzo 50 is the way to go.

Pros: 

• Decent display
• Good daylight camera performance
• Smooth performance

Cons: 

• Still on Android 11
• Depth sensor serves little purpose