Realme Q33 review: After 2 weeks with the phone
Contents In The Box
- Realme C33
- 10W Charging Adapter
- USB Type-A To MicroUSB 2.0 Cable
Design & Build Quality
As expected from a phone priced below the ₹10,000 mark, the body of the Realme C33 is made using plastic. It’s well built, though, and it looks attractive. It has a shiny pattern on the back. When light hits the rear panel of the Realme C33, it glows. Not everyone may like this design, and some may call it Gaudi. It is designed for the younger crowd and they can appreciate the shimmery design. If you are not someone who likes this kind of design. You can opt for the Night Sea color variant of the phone as it looks more understated.
The dual cameras at the back are individually extended and they extend quite significantly. So, the phone wobbles on flat surfaces. Moreover, since there is no protection for the camera lens. It can get scratched if you handle the phone carelessly. If you know you are not careful enough with your phone then you should use a case. There is no IP rating, so you should be careful about using it in the rain or on the beach.
The flat sides of the phone make the device easy to grip. Power and volume buttons are placed in comfortable positions. The power button doubles as a fingerprint reader, but it feels wobbly and a bit mushy. I have come to expect better from Realme as they have made some really well designed phones in the past even in. the affordable segment. One area where the Realme C33 surprised me was in terms of weight. It feels light for its size.
Audio
The phone has a single loudspeaker. It’s loud enough for general use, but don’t expect it to sound rich. The speaker is tuned for vocals, so it’s thin on bass and treble.
There is a 3.5mm headphone jack. Which has disappeared from high-end and even some mid-range phones. So there is at least one advantage to buying an affordable phone. The device does not come with wired earphones and you have to either use existing ones or buy new ones
Cameras
One of the key marketing points of the Realme C33 is its 50MP primary camera. Which is an upgrade from the previous generation of affordable Realme phones. It has a 0.3MP depth sensor, which I think is completely unnecessary. Chipsets and software are competent enough these days. That they don’t need a secondary camera . depth sensor to capture images with a background blur effect. The phone also has a 5MP selfie camera on the front.
Rear Camera
The main camera captures decent images when there is enough ambient light. Noise is well controlled, and colors are mostly realistic. Some images look a little dull, but nothing to complain about, especially for the price. The dynamic range could have been a bit wider. Shadows are sometimes underdeveloped. It’s more than worth the price though. When you zoom in and pixel-peep. You notice that detail is toned down, especially in things like leaves and grass.
Portrait images captured using the Realme C33 look quite unnatural . the blur effect is applied across the image (except the subject) with an even amount of blur. Also, most of the dynamic range is lost. Highlights are blown out and light sources (and even the sky) are overexposed. So, we would say avoid clicking portrait images.
Video Recording
Below are the videos shot using Realme C33 in detail. The dynamic range is quite narrow. And the camera sometimes struggles to focus even in daylight. There is no image stabilization, so the video looks quite shaky if you walk while recording the video. Videos look like they were shot at 720p resolution and upscaled to 1080p. In low light conditions, videos are completely unusable.
Front Camera
The 5MP selfie camera is pretty low resolution for the price. And it can only record video at 720p resolution. Many other phones offer 8MP selfie cameras with 1080p video recording. Still images had a surprising amount of detail for the resolution. Still, we would say that the selfie camera of this phone could have been better. Portrait shots from the front camera also have the same issues we saw with the portrait mode on the rear camera
Performance
The Unisoc Tiger T612 is a mid-range chipset that powers the Realme C33. It’s the same chipset that powers some other affordable Realme phones. Including the Realme C30, Realme C30s, Realme Narzo 50A Prime, and Realme Narzo 50i Prime. Unisoc Tiger T612 specifications are like MediaTek Helio G85 with two Cortex-A75. high-end CPU cores and six Cortex-A55 power-efficient CPU cores. It has Mali-G57 GPU for graphics processing and a 4G LTE modem.
As the successor to Realme C31, we expect to see a more powerful processor in Realme C33. The chipset, which is paired with 4G RAM and 64GB storage, performs just-ish. While it’s not flashy, it doesn’t cause any major stuttering or lag. Most things open quickly and work well. Even under great pressure
Although the phone isn’t built for gaming. It can handle most popular games without a major performance drop. Yet, you need to be generous with the graphics settings. I played simple games like Alto’s Odyssey and heavy titles like Call of Duty Mobile and both ran well. In comparison, the Redmi 10’s Snapdragon 680 chipset performs twice as fast in games. And that’s something to consider even if you’re casually gaming.
CPU Benchmark Scores
- Geekbench 5.4.4 Single-Core CPU Score: 343
- Geekbench 5.4.4 Multi-Core CPU Score: 1405
GPU Benchmark Scores
- 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test Score (Loop 1): 418
- 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test Score (Loop 20): 422
- GFXBench Car Chase ES 3.1 (On Screen): 9.1FPS
- GFXBench Car Chose ES 3.1 (Off Screen 1080p): 5.1FPS
- GFXBench Manhattan ES 3.1 (On Screen): 17FPS
- GFXBench Manhattan ES 3.1 (Off Screen 1080p): 8.7FPS
- GFXBench T-Rex ES 2.0 (On Screen): 34FPS
- GFXBench T-Rex ES 2.0 (Off Screen 1080p): 23FPS
- GFXBench Aztec Ruins Vulkan Normal Tier (On Screen): 8.3FPS
- GFXBench Aztec Ruins Vulkan Normal Tier (Off Screen 1080p): 4.6FPS
Storage & RAM Benchmark Scores
- Storage Speed (Sequential Read): 535.68MB/s
- Storage Speed (Sequential Write): 210.34MB/s
- Storage Speed (Random Read): 15.38MB/s
- Storage Speed (Random Write): 38.97MB/s
- Memory Speed (Copy): 3.83GB/s
Software
Realme C33 runs Android 12 with Realme UI S on top. It’s a toned-down version of Realme UI but more feature-rich. Than the Realme UI Go version that’s present on some phones like the Realme C30. Realme has promised two major Android OS updates. and three years of security updates to the phone.
The software looks like a mix of Realme UI and Android UI on Pixel phones. It has a very simple app launcher with very few options and features. It’s like Pixel Launcher, but very basic. There is a permanent clock and weather widget that you cannot remove. And there’s no option to change the styling or size of icons on the home screen or app drawer.
Also, the phone comes pre-installed with a bunch of bloatware . Apps including Hey Fun, ShareChat, DailyHunt, Josh, Moz, Public, Spotify, LinkedIn, Amazon, Facebook, PhonePay and Snapchat. Fortunately, you can uninstall most of them.
I would have liked to see a fuller version of Realme UI. But at least it’s better than the Realme UI Go version of Realme C30 and Realme C30s based on Android GO.
Battery Life
The phone takes around 3 hours to charge from zero to 100% and that’s a lot. Realme should use at least 15W fast charging, which will reduce the charging time to less than 2 hours.
On a single charge, the Realme C33 will last between 1 and 1.5 days depending on your usage. I expected slightly longer battery life due to its HD screen. But I guess that’s the price you have to pay for a 12nm chipset. In comparison, some phones that come with 6nm chipsets (such as Redmi 10 with Snapdragon 680). offer better power efficiency and longer battery life.
Is The Realme C33 Worth Your Money?
So, should you buy the Realme C33 if your budget is around the ₹10,000 mark? Well, that wouldn’t be our direct recommendation. The phone looks good. has a decent processor, okay primary camera quality, and long battery life. But, its screen could be better, and video quality isn’t up to the mark. More importantly, the phone comes with the old microUSB port. While many other phones around the same price have a USB Type-C port.
With all these drawbacks, we’d only recommend the phone to those who want a good primary camera for stills. An up-to-date version of Android, or a slick design. Some rival phones, like the Redmi 10. which carry the same price tag, have faster processors and better front-facing cameras. Even the similarly priced Narzo 30A has a better processor. a better front-facing camera, a bigger battery, faster charging and a USB Type-C port.
