Realme 5 and 5 Pro hands-on review

Realme 5 hardware

The Realme 5 is defined by its 6.5" screen and 5,000mAh battery. The battery is unmatched by other members of the family, the screen is one of the biggest - quite a jump from the 6.22" panel on the Realme 3.

Realme has stretched the 720p+ resolution of the screen to its limit. That said, Netflix's new phone-only plan in India streams SD video so it wouldn't benefit from a 1080p panel. And if the Realme 5 is the only smart device you use to watch video on, the larger screen is a boon.

It's not really the resolution that worries us, however, it's the brightness. The screen is quite dim and hard to see on a bright sunny day. The settings menu lets you adjust the color temperature and schedule Night Shield (which has a separate color temperature adjustment).

The teardrop notch at the top of the screen is a third smaller than the one on the Realme 3, making it less obtrusive. The company officially claims 89% screen to body ratio.

The screen has a Gorilla Glass 3+, though we're not quite sure what the upgrade is over GG3, which was used in the outgoing Realme 3.

The Realme 5 has the same precautions against water damage as the Pro - it's officially only splash resistant, but features O-rings and rubber gaskets around the ports and slots to prevent water from getting in.

The Realme 5 is available in two colors at launch - Crystal Blue and Crystal Purple. They have a holographic texture that creates a tessellated pattern that is reminiscent of the original Realme.

It also makes it stand out from other phones, which typically have smooth gradients or some variation of an S-curve reflection. The back is quite the fingerprint magnet, though, so it will need regular attention to keep it clean.

While we were looking at the back, we set up the fingerprint reader. It was a quick process and we're happy with the speed and accuracy of the reader.

Realme is a firm believer in the 3.5mm headphone jack, all of its phones have one. Unfortunately, most also have a microUSB port - including the Realme 5. You get a 10W charger and a cable in the box.

They will be used to charge the 5,000mAh battery - as we said in the opening paragraph, that's the largest battery on a Realme. There's no fast charging support, but there are a couple of features that will help you stretch the battery between charges.

The Performance mode tunes the chipset with the option to be always in high gear or allow the system to determine the right mode based on what you're doing. There's also a toggle for deep sleep (which saves power, but you may get notifications with a delay) and a way to tone down the screen eye candy to lighten the load on the chipset.