Realme C31 Review: An expensive looking phone at a low price!

There are many options available for those who want a budget smartphone today. The segment below Rs 20,000 and Rs 15,000 has improved a lot, as companies have started launching smartphones equipped with big batteries, AMOLED displays, 5G connectivity. Still, the segment below Rs 10,000 cannot be ignored, as companies have launched many good handsets in this price segment too.

A recent phone was launched from the Realme C series, which is named Realme C31. This phone comes with an attractive and slim design, 5000 mAh battery is available and triple camera setup is also given in the rear. The phone is from the same series in which Realme C35 was launched, but this time the price has been kept low so that customers can be attracted. Does Realme C31 attract according to the price, and is there anything special in it apart from the design? Let’s find out in this review.

Realme C31 price in India and variants

The Realme C31 comes in two variants in India. The base variant was launched in March 2022 at Rs 8,999 but its price has increased slightly to Rs 9,299 at the time of this review. This variant comes with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage, while the variant above it comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage and is priced at Rs 9,999. The phone is available in Light Silver and Dark Green colours. I had the 4GB RAM model for this review.

Realme C31 design

When viewed as a device priced under Rs 10,000, the Realme C31 looks and feels good in the hand. The light silver colour gives the phone a very slim look. The phone felt quite tall right from the beginning when I held it in my hand for the first time. The back panel of the phone with the triple-camera setup protrudes slightly, which makes the phone wobble when placed on a desk. The entire back panel has an attention-grabbing texture, with the only difference being the camera module. The back panel is made of polycarbonate. Its textured back does not easily leave fingerprints and also prevents scratches.

The power button on the Realme C31 is placed on the right side and it also houses the fingerprint sensor. I had no trouble reaching the fingerprint sensor as the power button is well placed and is housed in a slightly sloping groove. The left side of the phone has the SIM card slot and volume buttons. The back panel has a speaker grille. Personally, I don’t like the speaker placement as the sound gets muffled whenever the device is placed on a flat surface.

The bottom of the Realme C31 has a 3.5mm headphone jack, primary microphone, and a micro-USB port. The company should have provided a USB-Type C port instead, considering that older phones like the Micromax In 2B also come with a Type C port at this price. A 10W charger is available in the box, but no protective case is available.

Realme C31 has a 6.5-inch HD + LCD display with a waterdrop notch. The front camera is fitted in this. The display has thin bezels, but the chin is a bit big. The display has a standard 60Hz refresh rate. The phone weighs 197 grams which is a bit heavy. However, I did not face any problem while using it with one hand as the company has distributed the weight properly.

Realme C31 specifications and software

Realme C31 gets Unisoc T612 SoC which is based on 12nm fabrication processor. This is an octa-core processor with a clock speed of up to 1.82GHz. Standard UFS 2.2 inbuilt storage is provided which is not seen very often in this price segment. The phone has support for two nano-SIM cards simultaneously and microSD card for extra storage. With the help of the card, the storage can be expanded up to 1TB.

For connectivity, the Realme C31 supports 4G/LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, and only 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. I had some trouble with the Wi-Fi on my unit as the C31 kept disconnecting from my router even when I was in the same room.

The Realme C31 phone runs on Realme UI R Edition which is a more basic version of the regular Realme UI. This version is designed to enhance the performance of lower end devices. There are many bloatware apps available in the phone which include Facebook, Josh, Paytm, Sharechat and many other apps. You can also uninstall them if needed.

My unit was running on Android 11 and had the March 2022 security patch. I did not receive the April security patch update on it either. The user interface feels like the vanilla version of Realme UI. There are some minor adjustments and there is not much in the way of customization. For example, on the home screen, I was not able to customize the icons, transitions or even the layout of the apps.

The user interface is easy to use and straightforward. All the necessary settings and quick actions are easily accessible. The phone features Smart Controls which include some modern features like Smart wake, Smart motion, Pocket mode, etc. You do not get a dedicated gallery app in the device. You will either have to use Google’s pre-installed Google Photos or use a third-party app.

Realme C31 performance and battery life

There is no problem with the phone in everyday use. There was no problem in scrolling the user interface and switching between apps. There are two types of biometric authentication options available in the phone – fingerprint and face unlock. Fingerprint is quite fast but face unlock seems a little slower than expected.

Talking about performance, the phone scored 197,830 points on AnTuTu. In Geekbench’s single core and multi core tests, the phone scored 339 and 1279 points respectively. In the PCMark Work 3.0 test, the phone scored 7,348 points. However, these results were not very good, and some were even lower than the company’s own Realme C25. Realme C25 was launched last year which gets MediaTek Helio G70 SoC.

Even though the benchmark scores were weak, the games ran smoothly on the phone. I played games ranging from BGMI, Call of Duty: Mobile to PES 2021, Asphalt 9 Legends on the phone. As far as I experienced, Call of Duty: Mobile ran well on the phone with low graphics and frame rates. The phone started stuttering when taken to medium graphics. Also, after 15 minutes of continuous play, the phone became very hot in some parts of the back panel. Asphalt 9: Legends ran fine in high quality settings.

The phone played BGMI in high frame rate settings without any lag. Here the phone started stuttering in HD graphics. The gyroscope also worked well and I was able to control the recoil during the gunfight.

Games like Temple Run and Subway Surfers ran smoothly on the phone. The phone has an option of ‘Auto Resolution’ in which the screen resolution is reduced during games so that the phone’s battery can be saved and the heating is also reduced. However, even after enabling it, I did not notice any difference in its performance or usage.

The Realme C31 display has good viewing angles. You can choose from presets of standard, warm and cool color tones. I got the most balanced look in standard mode. The screen is large and the HD Plus resolution seems insufficient for it. The brightness of the screen is 400 nits and it is easily readable even outdoors or in direct sunlight.

The colors look good on the display. You do not get support for Widevine L1 in this, so you will be able to watch content only in standard definition (SD) quality on OTT apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The speaker quality is good and it sounds quite loud when held in hand.

The phone has a video display enhancement feature which makes the colours more vibrant and vibrant while watching videos. When I enabled it, the videos started to look a bit artificial so I kept it off.

The Realme C31 packs a 5,000mAh battery that lasted 13 hours and 53 minutes in our HD video loop test, which was slightly less than expected. On average, the phone comfortably lasts a full day of regular use, including some gaming and media consumption, on a single charge. With light use, I was able to get it to last a little over a full day. The 10W charger that comes in the box charges it from 0 to 23 percent in 30 minutes and it took 2 hours and 30 minutes to fully charge the battery.

Realme C31 cameras

The Realme C31 sports a triple-camera setup at the rear, consisting of a 13-megapixel primary camera with f/2.2 aperture, a 2-megapixel macro camera with f/2.4 aperture, and a black-and-white camera with f/2.8 aperture. On the front, there is a single 5-megapixel camera with f/2.2 aperture. The camera interface is also a simplified version of the regular Realme camera app. I noticed some frame drops in the viewfinder while trying to capture a few shots.

The camera app is easy to use and easy to navigate between the options provided. The actual camera performance of the phone is average. Photos taken in daylight were good but lacked details which was evident on zooming. The 13-megapixel camera manages to maintain good colours but misses out on dynamic range. Switching to auto HDR mode resulted in images becoming over-sharpened and some colours becoming over-saturated. The phone offers 4X digital zoom but grains are visible in the captured images.

Macro shots taken with the phone’s camera were below average and there was a pinkish tinge in the photo. It took several attempts to take macro shots as it was not easy to get the right focus. The photo also lacked details. Portrait mode only works on the rear camera and for some reason works only on human subjects, not objects. Edge detection was good but at times it blurred some part of the subject which should not have been done. You can also set the blur level before clicking the photo.

Photos taken with the front camera in light were overexposed and looked quite ordinary. The 5 megapixel camera fails to capture good facial details. A lot of noise was also visible in the photos.

Photos taken in low light had noise while photos taken in good light were soft and lacked details. The camera also struggled to focus in low light. Photos appeared a bit brighter when switched to Night Pro mode.

The phone can capture videos at a resolution of up to 1080p at 30fps. Videos captured in daylight were average and the lack of stabilization was clearly visible. Videos in low light showed a lot of noise. Since there is no electronic stabilization, there is no shimmer effect in the videos, which is a good thing.

Verdict

The phone is good for everyday use. There is no problem in multitasking or switching between apps. I would not recommend playing games in heavy graphics on this as it is not designed that way. The phone looks quite modern and stylish, and it is hard to say that this is a budget device by looking at it. The phone’s 5,000mAh battery gives good backup.

There is a lot of scope for improvement in the phone’s camera. Portrait mode should not have been limited to human subjects only. If you are going to buy this phone, I would suggest you buy the version with more RAM, as there is not much difference in its price and it will be beneficial in the long run. If you are looking for an option in the same price range, then you can look at the Moto E32s, which can be quite tempting.