realme C53 Full Review
In an interactive live stream held earlier today, realme officially launched the much-awaited realme C53 in the Philippines!
Following the success of the realme C55 launched last April, which resulted in numerous sold-out records within the first day of its online and offline availability, the realme C53 is a bang-for-your-buck smartphone and positioned as a stylish, segment-leading device for the young.
Since we are already finished with the unboxing and first impression of the realme C53, this review will further explore the capabilities offered by this smartphone and in turn, shall help you to decide whether this gadget is the one you are aiming for.
Design and Walk Around
For the design, realme made sure that its new Champion device will turn heads by implementing what’s called the “Gold Filament Gradient Coating Process”. According to realme, it is a segment-first manufacturing process that envelops the realme C53’s exterior with six layers of optical gradient coating and shows a shiny golden texture effect when held under certain angles and lighting conditions.
The realme C53 will be available in the Philippines in just two color variants: Mighty Black and Champion Gold.
On the front, the realme C53 is equipped with a large 6.74-inch HD+ (1600 x 720) IPS display. At the top, there’s a dewdrop 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. There is no pre-installed screen protector.
Found at the back are three 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 0.8MP 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 2TB of expandable storage, a must for users who want to further improve the storage capacity.
On the right 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 USB Type-C charging port, downward-firing speaker, microphone, and 3.5mm audio jack.
In addition to its design, the realme C53 is very slim at 7.49mm thick and weighs about 182g. The phone also comes with a squared-off box-type build, paired with rounded edges at the corners that add comfort and allow ease of use with one hand.
Display and Multimedia
When it comes to display, the realme C53 boasts the largest display on a realme C-Series phone to date at 6.74-inch. However, it only comes with HD+ (1600 x 720) resolution. On top of the aforementioned features, the realme C53 has a 90.3% screen-to-body ratio and 90Hz refresh rate paired with a faster touch sampling or touch response rate of 180Hz.
The IPS panel of the realme C53 produces good colors. Viewing angles are also decent and the screen can also get bright, with a maximum brightness of up to 450 nits depending on the ambient lighting conditions. At 260ppi, 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 C53 boasts a dual-camera set-up—consisting of a 50MP F1.8 main camera with Phase Detection autofocus (PDAF) and a 0.8MP depth lens.
The main camera utilizes realme’s usual camera features inclusive of the standard Photo Mode, Night Mode, and 50MP Mode, among others. It is also fine-tuned with realme’s own color reproduction algorithms.
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, still, it is good enough and usable for casual social media postings.
Front Selfie Camera
In terms of the front camera, the realme C53 boasts an 8MP front camera with an F2.0 aperture and an FOV of 78°. The camera is paired with the usual camera UI features for selfies from realme such as Face Beautification and Photo Filters.
For selfies, it produced 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 C53 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 T Edition, Apps, and Security
The realme C53 runs on a compact and stable realme UI T Edition, which is based on Android 13. The UI is seamless, clean, and easy to navigate. Pre-installed are the standard Google suite of apps, as well as some bloatware apps. The software will also be supported by realme Labs with regular updates and patches for up to three years.
The realme C53 also comes with Mini Capsule which is designed to show detailed information for selected items such as charging & battery status, mobile data usage, and step tracking/step counting.
In terms of security, realme C53 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 C53 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. Meanwhile, 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 C53 also supports Dynamic RAM Expansion technology. Dynamic RAM Expansion lets you expand your phone's RAM virtually by using the phone's internal storage. realme C53 can make use of up to 6GB for up to 12GB total usable RAM.
The realme C53 is available in the Philippines in one storage variant - 128GB storage, with 23GB of used storage out of the box. If you need additional storage, you can further expand the storage up to 2TB via its dedicated microSD card slot, which is beyond the previous C-series smartphones that only supported 1TB.
Below are the benchmark scores from this device:
- AnTuTu v10.0.1 – 260,056
- AnTuTu Storage Test v10.0.1 – 13,512 (316.0 MB/s Seq. Read, 248.7 MB/s Seq. Write)
- Geekbench 6.1.0 – 418 (Single-core), 1,501 (Multi-core)
- PCMark – 7,588 (Work 3.0)
- 3DMark – 987 (SSE – OpenGL ES 3.1), 980 (SSE – Vulkan)
Battery and Connectivity
The realme C53 features a large 5,000mAh battery 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 21 hours and 51 minutes.
With realme C53’s 33W SUPERVOOC, the 5,000mAh battery can be charged up to 50% in 31 minutes and to 100% in just 88 minutes.
Aside from the battery, the realme C53 has your usual connectivity features, including dual SIM (nano-SIM, dual stand-by), 4G LTE, WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, a 3.5mm audio jack, and USB Type-C.
realme C53 Specifications
6.74-inch HD+ (1600 x 720) IPS display, 260ppi
90Hz Refresh Rate / 180Hz Touch Sampling Rate
Unisoc Tiger T612 processor, 12nm
ARM Mali-G57 GPU
6GB LPDDR4X
128GB of internal storage
microSD card up to 2TB (dedicated slot)
50MP F1.8 main + 0.8MP depth camera
8MP F2.0 selfie camera
Dual-SIM (nano) / 4G LTE
WiFi 5 / Bluetooth 5.0
GPS/AGPS / GLONASS / GALILEO
USB Type-C / 3.5mm audio jack
realme UI T Edition (Android 13)
5,000mAh battery w/ 33W SUPERVOOC
167.26 x 76.67 x 7.49mm (dimension)
182g (weight)
Colors: Mighty Black and Champion Gold
What’s inside the box
If you haven't seen the unboxing of the realme C53 yet, the box contained the smartphone itself, SIM card ejector tool, important information (including the Warranty Card), 33W SUPERVOOC charging adapter, USB type-C to USB-A charging cable, and silicone case.
Price and Availability
The realme C53 officially retails at Php7,999 SRP, but is now currently available online for only Php6,999 as an early bird discount, exclusive to realme’s official TikTok Shop and Lazada flagship store until June 23.
For those who prefer buying in-store, the realme C53 will be available for Php7,999 and comes with a nationwide bundle: from June 23 to July 2, customers get a FREE TechLife Portable Blender 40W, worth Php999.
In addition, for the first selling weekend of June 23 to 25, walk-in customers who purchase a realme C53 are also entitled to join the realme Mystery Box promo at selected stores. Get a chance to win prizes worth up to Php1,699 like the DIZO Watch 2 Sports, realme Cooling Back Clip, and more on top of getting the TechLife Portable Blender 40W default freebie.
Verdict
Aside from its decent performance, surprisingly good camera, and eye-catching design, the realme C53 brings many upgraded specifications versus the usual realme C-Series smartphones in the past such as: 33W SUPERVOOC charging, a 6.74-inch HD+ screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, and 128GB large storage that allows up to 2TB expandability.
Is this the smartphone you are looking for? The answer is a big “YES”. With the aforementioned features, the realme C53 once again elevates the entry-level smartphone.
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