Realme C15: Fires up budget segment with huge battery

Realme India has now added two new smartphones to its budget C-series line-up -- Realme C12 and Realme C15.

The major highlight with C15 is a massive 6,000mAh battery, with which the company promises a standby time of up to 57 days.

The Realme C15 will be available in two variants. There's a base variant with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage priced at Rs 9,999 and the other with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage at Rs 10,999.

The C15 will be available on Flipkart and realme.com starting August 27 and at offline stores from September 3.

We used the Realme C15 (4GB RAM and 64GB) in Power Silver colour for a couple of days and here is what this smartphone offers.

In terms of design, the phone looks fresh. The back gives a texture-like feel.

The volume buttons are on the right, above the power button, as opposed to the left like on most recent budget Realme phones.

There's a micro-USB port and 3.5mm audio jack on the bottom, along with speakers.

At the back, the smartphone features a square-shaped camera module with almost no bump, just like its predecessor Realme C11.

Up front, the smartphone sports a 6.5-inch HD+ (720x1,600 pixels) display with 20:9 aspect ratio and 88.7 percent screen-to-body ratio.

The display offers adequate brightness levels indoors. The display quality is decent for its price and users won't complain too much at this price point.

The Realme C15 comes with the quad rear camera setup that includes a 13MP primary sensor with an f/2.2 lens and an 8MP secondary sensor with an f/2.25 ultra-wide-angle lens that provides a field-of-view (FoV) of 119 degrees.

The camera setup also comprises a 2MP monochrome sensor with an f/2.4 lens and a 2MP sensor with an f/2.4 "retro" lens.

The quality of photos was good for the price, especially in ideal lighting conditions.

However, when it came to the low-light shots, the smartphone really struggled.

For selfies, the device houses an 8MP camera sensor at the front which did a satisfactory job. The selfie shooter supports AI Beauty, HDR, Panorama, and Timelapse modes.

Interestingly, the Nightscape mode makes the C15 one of the best night-shooters in this price segment. The algorithm of nightscape mode takes several photos in different exposures and combines them to provide a result that is much brighter and clearer.

The phone packs the octa-core MediaTek Helio G35 SoC, paired with up to 4GB LPDDR4x RAM. It features up to 64GB of onboard storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 256GB) through a dedicated slot.

However, apps like Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp took a good few seconds to open.

This handset is not for playing high-end games so try basic games instead.

Coming to the software, the device runs the Android 10 operating system topped with the company's own layer of Realme user interface (UI). The smartphone offers a neat and clean UI.

The smartphone houses a massive 6000mAh battery which is its USP.

With everyday usage, involving audio and video streaming, camera use, making video calls and surfing the Web, we were able to make the C15 last almost around a day and a half.

According to the company, the device uses fireproof material to prevent the back cover from burning.

Conclusion: The Realme C15 is a decent budget offering in the Rs 10,000-Rs 12,000 segment where there are several options like from the house of Samsung and Xiaomi.

Consider C15 for a good battery life, display and design at the back.