revü Realme 6i review: A budget phone you should not miss

The Realme 6i is now official in the Philippines, adding to the list of capable yet affordable smartphones in the country.

(Update, June 3: There’s a new color variant! Read Realme 6i in Blue Soda to be available in PH starting June 4.)

And like other devices from the company, the 6i is loaded with features you’ll be hard-pressed to find in other budget models. Realme‘s latest local release also upgrades to the new MediaTek Helio G80, and it’s actually the first to use the said chipset.

Additionally, the 6i improves on its predecessor with a better rear camera and a USB-C port that can charge the battery fairly quickly. There’s more — so much more — so to find out if the former OPPO sub-brand has succeeded in introducing another quality handset for less, check out our review of the Realme 6i.

Realme 6i price and availability

In the Philippines, the newly announced Realme 6i is initially available on Lazada at these prices:

You can choose between two color options — White Milk and Green Tea. The first flash sale is scheduled for May 15; the next one will be on May 20. Early adopters will enjoy a P500 ($10) discount on both models.

Hardware

The Realme 6i features a plastic build with a waterdrop notch and a slightly chunky bottom bezel in front and quad cameras on the back. The highlight of the hardware is the rear design, which is made to look like it has vertical lines running from top to bottom.

If you can’t see the pictures on this page properly, try imagining a Rimowa suitcase in white or green. Despite the use of plastic all around, the build quality is mostly solid; no one would fault you for thinking this phone costs more than it actually does. It is designed by renowned Japanese product designer Naoto Fukasawa, after all; he’s the man behind the Realme X series’ Master Edition models.

The overall dimensions and weight of the Realme 6i are manageable, but you might encounter some difficulty wrapping your fingers around the handset because of its width and sizable battery.

It’s nice to look at, and it feels great in the hand, too — a real joy to use. Realme used a matte finish on the back of the 6i, so it’s smooth and easy to clean and remove fingerprints from the casing. Realme also eased the edges of the frame, making one-handed usage a lot easier.

The physical buttons on the side are responsive, and they’re quite easy to reach with one hand. The right edge of the phone is where the power key sits, while the separate volume keys are located on the left.

Located at the bottom is a USB-C port flanked by a 3.5mm audio jack and a single loudspeaker, which is decent for media and alerts. For private listening, you can plug in a pair of headphones or connect to an external speaker using Bluetooth 5.0.

Or you can do both; the 6i supports Dual-Mode Audio on Realme UI. This experimental feature allows a Bluetooth connection and the headphone jack to be used simultaneously for audio output. Do note, however, that the phone doesn’t ship with a wired headset.

The fingerprint scanner on the back has a smooth matte finish and works really well to conveniently unlock the phone. There’s also face unlock, but the absence of an infrared sensor up front means you can’t rely on it to work consistently in dark areas.

What’s inside the box

Screen

The Realme 6i sports a 6.5-inch HD+ LCD screen with a waterdrop notch on the top bezel, just like the Realme 5i before it. There’s also Corning Gorilla Glass 3 layered above the display glass to make it more durable against scratches and scuffs. The aspect ratio remains 20:9, which makes the device taller and easier to operate one-handed.

Though it isn’t a marked upgrade over its predecessor, the picture quality here is decent for the money. We have no major complaints about the display. It’s a good LCD screen overall.

Unfortunately, the 6i doesn’t have Widevine L1 certification, so it can’t play HD content from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and other similar apps on the Google Play Store.

Camera

The Realme 6i packs four cameras on the back, with a 48-megapixel main sensor and dedicated sensors for ultra wide, portrait (mono), and macro photography.

The 48-megapixel, f/1.8 camera is a notable step up from the 12-megapixel unit on the back of the Realme 5i, while the other sensors remain the same. There’s no telephoto option, which is understandable given the price point. The front-facing camera in the notch gets 16 megapixels and f/2.0 lens.

Looking at the camera app, the 6i is capable of bright low-light shots with Night mode enabled. It has Expert, Ultra Macro, and Slo-mo modes for creative shooting options, too.

As with other Realme devices, the 6i’s native camera app includes Chroma Boost, which enhances the vibrancy and saturation of colors for a more dramatic look. It also lets you apply some basic color and beauty filters.