Realme 6 review

GSMArena team, 1 April 2020.

Realme UI on top of Android 10

The Realme 6 is among the first devices to boot Android 10 with the brand new Realme UI launcher. The maker has promised us a new take on ColorOS that's made by Oppo, and with the most recent Series 6 and X50 it surely delivered.

Realme 6 review

The new launcher looks a lot like vanilla Android with no-nonsense homescreens, simplistic notification/toggles area, and easy-to-use task switcher. An App drawer is available, too, and it is as clutter-free as one could hope for.

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Realme UI 1.0

The new Realme UI supports different icon packs, so if you are not happy with the default one, you can opt for material style, pebbles, or you can even fully customize them by your liking.

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Customizing system and icons

There are a lot of powerful tools within the settings menu if you want full control over your Android OS. Or you can leave everything as is and enjoy hassle-free Android experience optimized by Realme's AI algorithms and machine learning.

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Settings

Similar to the recent Galaxies, the Realme UI offers a Smart Sidebar on the edge of the screen - you can customize the actions and app shortcuts that appear there.

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Smart Sidebar

The multimedia apps such as Gallery, Music, and Videos - are provided by Realme. There is also a redesigned File Manager, and even a Phone Manager app. And with that, the non-Google app list is complete.

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Gallery • Music • Videos • Phone Manager • File Manager

Finally, the Realme UI supports 90Hz and is displayed with 90fps - meaning it looks buttery smooth and blazing fast.

Depending on the market your Realme 6 may or may not come with some pre-installed third-party apps that may or may not display annoying notifications. Worst-case scenario, you'd have to disable or remove such apps and services.

Performance and benchmarks

The Realme 6 employs the MediaTek Helio G90T - a gaming-centric SoC for mid-range purposes. It is fabricated on the 12nm FinFET manufacturing process from TSMC. The G90T packs an octa-core CPU with two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores ticking at 2.05GHz and six energy-efficient Corext-A55 cores working at 2.0GHz.

The Mali-G76 MC4 GPU takes care of graphically intensive tasks and should provide great performance for the class though we doubt any games will go beyond the 60fps mark and you'd need 90fps to utilize the full benefits of the 90Hz screen.

The Realme 6 here packs 8GB of RAM, but there are versions with 4GB and 6GB RAM.

Realme 6 review

So, we ran some benchmarks and the CPU scores are pretty much class-leading. The G90 CPU is a great performer, be it for single or multi-core tasks and you can clearly see the proof from the charts below.

GeekBench 4.4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

  • Huawei P40 Lite
    7846
  • Realme 6
    7815
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    6999
  • Realme X2
    6926
  • Realme 6 Pro
    6513
  • Realme 5 Pro
    6106
  • Realme 6i
    5890
  • Realme 3 Pro
    5881
  • Realme 5
    5707
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
    5620
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    5401
  • Honor 9X
    5345
  • Realme 3
    4936

GeekBench 4.4 (single-core)

Higher is better

  • Huawei P40 Lite
    2844
  • Realme 6 Pro
    2639
  • Realme 6
    2606
  • Realme X2
    2508
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    2472
  • Realme 5 Pro
    1913
  • Realme 6i
    1835
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    1668
  • Honor 9X
    1559
  • Realme 5
    1537
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
    1519
  • Realme 3
    1482
  • Realme 3 Pro
    1471

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

  • Huawei P40 Lite
    1862
  • Realme X2
    1750
  • Realme 6
    1726
  • Realme 6 Pro
    1666
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    1622
  • Realme 6i
    1349
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    1294

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

  • Huawei P40 Lite
    591
  • Realme 6 Pro
    565
  • Realme 6
    548
  • Realme X2
    545
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    493
  • Realme 6i
    388
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    347

The quad-core Mali-G76 is quite a treat for the budget class and the Realme 6 once again aces the GPU tests. In fact, Realme has managed to deliver similar and consistent gaming performance across all three Realme 6 smartphones in spite of their completely different platforms. Impressive!

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Huawei P40 Lite
    49
  • Realme 6
    45
  • Realme 6i
    43
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    40
  • Realme 6 Pro
    37
  • Realme 3
    34
  • Realme X2
    34
  • Realme 5
    33
  • Realme 5 Pro
    31
  • Honor 9X
    19
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
    16
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    15

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Realme 6i
    31
  • Huawei P40 Lite
    30
  • Realme 6 Pro
    27
  • Realme 6
    27
  • Realme 5
    26
  • Realme 3
    26
  • Realme X2
    24
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    24
  • Realme 5 Pro
    22
  • Realme 3 Pro
    20
  • Honor 9X
    12
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
    11
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    8.9

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Realme 6 Pro
    19
  • Huawei P40 Lite
    18
  • Realme 6i
    17
  • Realme 6
    16
  • Realme 3
    15
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    14
  • Realme 5
    13
  • Realme X2
    13
  • Realme 5 Pro
    12
  • Realme 3 Pro
    11
  • Honor 9X
    6.5
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
    5.9
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    5.6

Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Realme 6 Pro
    11
  • Realme 6
    10
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    9.4
  • Realme 6i
    9.3
  • Realme X2
    8.9
  • Huawei P40 Lite
    8.6
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    5.6

Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

  • Huawei P40 Lite
    12
  • Realme 6 Pro
    11
  • Realme 6
    11
  • Realme 6i
    11
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    10
  • Realme X2
    9.2
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    5.6

Only one smartphone can beat the Realme 6 on the compound AnTuTu test and it's the more expensive and slightly more powerful Huawei P40 Lite.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

  • Huawei P40 Lite
    325777
  • Realme 6
    288931
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
    279355
  • Realme 6 Pro
    268785
  • Realme X2
    257443
  • Realme 6i
    202275
  • Honor 9X
    187528
  • Samsung Galaxy A51
    175363
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
    167395

These benchmarks show the Helio G90T as one very potent chip, especially for this budget class. Sure, few, if any, games will be able to exceed 60fps and make use of the 90Hz display, but it will still deliver lag-free performance across the board and that's what really matters.

For a budget smartphone, we'd say the Realme 6 is over-equipped, and any user will be happy with it.

Reader comments

  • Bunny
  • 31 May 2023
  • t7T

Why? My realme 6 wifi connection in 2.4ghz is so low like one bar, but if I connect to 5g it's good. How do I fix this?

  • S Venkatesh Naik
  • 26 Nov 2022
  • upi

Super

  • Pathi
  • 18 Oct 2022
  • DkS

Still I using realme 6 Phone very good phone Thank you realme