realme C33 (Sandy Gold) Unboxing and Review

In celebration of realme’s Yellow Christmas campaign, realme released a new color variant for its latest entry-level smartphone, the realme C33. The new Sandy Gold color makes for a fresh new take on the C-Series with its minimalist premium look, making it the perfect Christmas present for your loved ones.

Officially launched in the Philippines last October 14 during a realme TikTok livestream, the realme C33 features a Boundless Sea design, a 6.5-inch HD+ LCD display, and a 50MP dual-camera setup. It is also backed by a Unisoc T612 processor, 4GB of RAM plus 64GB of internal storage, a 5,000mAh battery, and a side fingerprint sensor.

I was able to get my hands on one. Hence, this review will aid you in deciding whether this smartphone is the one you are looking for. Let's deal first with the unboxing.

Unboxing the realme C33

As expected, the packaging comes in realme's signature yellow-colored box. The front portion indicates the realme C33 branding; while the brand details—model number, IMEI number, serial number, color, and the four important features of the realme C33, are imprinted on the back portion of the box.

You can also find the realme C33 print on both sides.

Inside the Box and Accessories

After sliding the cover, you can find the pack which contains: a quick guide, SIM card ejector tool, and important information guide (including the Warranty Card).

Revealed underneath is the realme C33 smartphone wrapped in white matte plastic. Beneath is the micro-USB to USB-A charging cable and 10W power adapter. The realme C33 does not come with a protective case or headset – you have to provide your own.

Design and Walk Around

For the design, the realme C33 features a unique model that makes the back of the phone look like a whole boundless sea. When the back panel is exposed to light it resembles water flowing in the sand, giving it a cool holiday seaside vibe.

However, the phone’s glossy back is very prone to fingerprint smudges, so it’s best to find a case right away.

The realme C33 arrived in the Philippines initially in just two colors: Aqua Blue and Night Sea; but it was recently made available in Sandy Gold color.

On the front, the realme C33 is equipped with a large 6.5-inch HD+ (1600 x 720) IPS display. At the top, there’s a waterdrop design notch that houses the front-facing camera and the earpiece. Like most smartphones in this segment, the side bezels are relatively slim but with a pretty thick chin. Also, there is no pre-installed screen protector.

Found at the back are two circular camera modules that house a dual-camera set-up along with a single LED flash. The two cameras are the 50MP main and the 0.3MP depth.

Found on the left side is the card tray with a 3-card slot for two nano-SIM cards and a dedicated slot for a microSD card capable of up to 1TB of expandable storage, a must for users who want to improve further the storage capacity.

On the right side, are your standard volume rocker button and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that is embedded in the power button.

Located at the bottom of the phone, you can find the micro-USB charging port, downward-firing speaker, microphone, and 3.5mm audio jack.

In addition to its design, the realme C33 is very slim at 8.3mm thick and weighs about 187g. The phone also comes with a squared-off box-type build, paired with rounded corners that add comfort and allow ease of use with one hand.

Display and Multimedia

The realme C33 offers an immersive viewing experience through its 6.5-inch HD+ (1600 x 720) IPS display that has an 88.70% screen-to-body ratio, which is larger than other smartphones in its price segment.

The IPS panel of the realme C33 produces good colors; viewing angles are also decent and the screen can also get bright, up to 400 nits automatically depending on the ambient lighting conditions. At 270ppi, the display looks sharp even though the display comes with an HD+ resolution.

The audio quality of the loudspeaker is like your typical smartphone at this price range. It can get loud and the audio quality is average. I recommend using headphones or an external speaker for better audio quality.

Camera

Rear Camera

As for the camera, the realme C33 boasts a dual-camera set-up—consisting of a 50MP primary camera with Phase Detection autofocus (PDAF) and a 0.3MP F2.8 depth lens.

Quality from the rear camera under bright lighting conditions is surprisingly good, though dynamic range and sharpness can be better.

For low light, photos can be muddy in certain situations even with the Night Mode feature turned on, but is good enough and usable for casual social media postings.

Front Selfie Camera

In terms of the front camera, the realme C33 boasts a 5MP front camera with an F2.2 aperture. The camera also supports different features such as Face Beautification and Photo Filters.

For selfies, it produces good photos for its price, especially in bright conditions. Background blurring for portrait selfies isn’t that perfect but good enough.

Video

For video, the realme C33 supports 1080p@30fps video recording with its main camera and 720p@30fps for the front-facing camera.

The recorded video from the main camera is shaky having no image stabilization.

realme UI S Edition, Apps, and Security

The realme C33 runs on realme UI S Edition, which is based on Android 12 and is a stripped-down version of realme UI. The UI is seamless, clean, and easy to navigate. Pre-installed are the standard Google suite of apps, as well as some bloatware apps.

In terms of security, realme C33 is equipped with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that is embedded in the power button. It is also equipped with facial recognition for unlocking the device.

Both work well---the side-mounted fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate. However, the face unlock feature can slow down in situations where there isn’t much light.

Hardware and Performance

The realme C33 is powered by a Unisoc Tiger T612 processor. This processor is made using a 12nm process and is equipped with two high-performance Cortex-A75 cores at 1.8GHz and six high-efficiency Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8GHz, along with Mali-G57 GPU.

The device can perform smoothly in casual and light tasks; the gaming experience in graphics-intensive games is okay and tolerable with slight stutters and lags, even with the use of the lowest available settings. Take note that this is not a gaming smartphone so don’t expect too much.

The realme C33 is available in the Philippines in one storage variant - 64GB storage, with 15GB of used storage. One of the main advantages of the realme C33 is the UFS 2.2 which has a better performance and boosted speed than the eMMC 5.1. If you need additional storage, you can further expand the storage up to 1TB via its dedicated microSD card slot.

Below are the benchmark scores from this device:

• AnTuTu v9.5.2 – 211,813
• AnTuTu Storage Test v9.5.2 – 30,240 (935.1 MB/s Seq. Read, 249.1 MB/s Seq. Write)
• Geekbench 5.4.4 – 341 (Single-core), 1,416 (Multi-core)
• PCMark – 7,595 (Work 3.0)
• 3DMark – 983 (SSE – OpenGL ES 3.1) 975 (SSE – Vulkan)

Battery and Connectivity

The realme C33 features a large 5,000mAh battery with a 10W power adapter and is good enough to last you a day of moderate usage without an additional charge. In the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life Test, the unit yielded a score of around 15 hours and 2 minutes.

Aside from the battery, the realme C33 has your usual connectivity features, including dual SIM (nano-SIM, dual stand-by), 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, a 3.5mm audio jack, and micro-USB.

realme C33 Specifications

6.5-inch HD+ (1600 x 720) IPS display, 270ppi
Unisoc Tiger T612 processor, 12nm
Mali-G57 GPU
4GB RAM LPDDR4X
64GB storage (UFS 2.2)
microSD card up to 1TB (dedicated slot)
50MP main + 0.3MP F2.8 depth camera
5MP F2.2 selfie camera
Dual-SIM (nano) / 4G LTE
WiFi / Bluetooth 5.0
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS
micro-USB 2.0 / 3.5mm audio jack
realme UI S Edition (Android 12)
5,000mAh battery
164.2 x 75.7 x 8.3mm (dimension)
187g (weight)
Colors: Aqua Blue, Night Sea, and Sandy Gold

Price and Availability

The realme C33 is available in a 4GB+64GB storage variant and retails at Php7,499 SRP. It can be purchased via offline and online channels.

Verdict

For those looking for a premium-looking and reliable smartphone worth getting or gifting to your loved ones this holiday season without breaking the bank, the realme C33 contained all the essential features - excellent battery life, surprisingly good cameras, and performance.