The Realme Narzo 10 is aimed at young gamers with tight budgets, and has a new processor as well as a huge battery. Will that establish it as a low-cost king?
Realme has launched the Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A smartphones to target young people, particularly those who value style and gaming performance above all else. The company wanted to create a new sub-brand to emphasise these features, and to create a separate personality for what would otherwise be simple low-cost phones. The Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A are both priced to meet specific targets, and they slot in below the Realme 6. Today, we’ll be reviewing the Narzo 10, which is the more expensive model of the two.
There aren’t many surprises to discover about this phone – Realme announced the Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A smartphones before the national lockdown went into effect, but was only able to actually launch them now because of the coronavirus imposed rules to enforce social distancing prevented any sale. In addition to that, the Narzo 10 is already sold as the Realme 6i in some other countries, with some India-specific touches.
We’re interested in seeing what Realme has come up with, and whether this is truly a budget gaming powerhouse that can take on the latest from Xiaomi and others.
Although this is a budget phone, Realme has come up with a rather premium-looking design for the rear. The Narzo 10 is available in That Green and That White (which in other countries are sold as Green Tea and White Milk). Both options feature a pattern of vertical pinstripes down the rear that seem to shift from side to side when you move this phone around under the light. It reminds us of the Onion and Garlic finishes of the Realme X Master Edition, and in fact they’ve all been created by the same Japanese designer, Naoto Fukasawa.
It isn’t garish at all, in like some of the gradients and patterns we’ve seen before, and still catches the eye. Our That White unit looks quite fresh and sophisticated, and if you aren’t a fan of the colour or pattern you can always use a case. We would have liked something different for the camera module though – Realme has recycled the same vertical strip in the upper left corner for multiple generations now.
The front of this phone is completely plain, with a waterdrop notch at the top of the screen and a somewhat thick chin below it. The white unit has a matte silver frame, while the green version will have a matching green one. The overall look is very slick for a budget smartphone.
The stripes on the rear appears to shift from side to side under the light
Thanks to its 20:9 aspect ratio screen, the Realme Narzo 10 is relatively tall and narrow, but it’s also 9mm thick and relatively hefty at 199g. It’s relatively easy to use and live with, and the upside of that weight is a 5000mAh battery – which we’ll get to shortly. We found it a bit hard to reach the top of the screen when using this phone with one hand. Thankfully, the back isn’t slippery at all.
Realme has used Gorilla Glass 3 for the display and there’s a pre-applied screen protector, but it doesn’t quite reach the edges of the glass, leaving the corners vulnerable. You do get a plastic case in the box, though.
The Narzo 10 has a fingerprint sensor on the back, which we found slightly out of reach. The power and volume buttons are well positioned on the right and left respectively. The removable tray has two Nano-SIM slots as well as a microSD card slot. We’re happy to see a USB Type-C port at the bottom, along with a 3.5mm audio socket and a single speaker.
The overall polish of the Realme Narzo 10 is pretty impressive, considering its price of just Rs.11,999. It doesn’t come across as a budget phone, but then again the entire segment is highly competitive.
The screen protector doesn’t quite reach the edges of the front
The main attraction of this phone is its MediaTek Helio G80 SoC, which is meant to be targeted at gamers. The Helio G-series chips have powerful integrated graphics capabilities, and this will be our first experience with the G80 although others in the series have proven themselves in the past. It has two 2GHz ARM Cortex-A75 cores for power and six more Cortex A55 cores for efficiency. MediaTek states that it can dynamically manage the CPU, GPU and memory based on heat, power, and the demands of different usage scenarios.
Another interesting part of Realme’s Narzo strategy is to launch this phone in only one configuration, with no variants. You only get 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, both of which are relatively generous. We like this approach, since it avoids extra complication in the company’s already crowded lineup – there are already plenty of other options at nearby price points.
