Realme C55 review

Realme UI 4.0 with Android 13

The Realme C55 boots Android 13 with Realme UI 4.0 out of the box. Realme UI 4.0's most notable improvement is the new Aquamorphic theme, which offers a modern yet clean take on Android. It is a theme also available across Oppo and OnePlus phones. The C55 model also has a new software feature, called Mini Capsule, which takes after Apple's Dynamic Island.

The new Media Controls as part of Android 13 are present, better animations (read faster, less obstructive ones), dynamic widgets, and improved notification and control centers also come as part of Realme UI 4.0.

And while we are talking about personalization, Realme UI 4.0 is flexible when it comes to this. There is an entire Style (and Wallpapers) page in Settings. You can change wallpapers (live and static), switch to different icon packs, different quick toggles icon shapes, change fonts, and choose completely different colors that will change the entire Realme UI look.

Personalization options

The launcher has no-nonsense homescreens, a simplistic and clean notification/toggles area, and an easy-to-use task switcher. An app drawer is available, too, and it is as clutter-free as one could hope for. You can opt out of the app drawer if you prefer. This time around, the app drawer automatically opens up with the keyboard ready to type in your search. This can also be turned off.

Home screen, recent apps, app drawer, notification shade, settings menu

To our surprise, the new large folder features and dynamic widgets we found on the Realme 4.0 running on the C55 are not present here. It's quite strange to see such core features missing that don't require specific hardware to run.

For better multitasking, Realme has integrated a handful of neat features, none of which is particularly new, though. You can also minimize an app to a floating window, now called a flexible window, because it's super easy to resize it on the go. You can exchange files between the full-screen and flexible apps by drag and drop. Flexible windows are available within the Task Switcher or the Sidebar. If an app is compatible, you can do either of these or use the familiar Split Screen. The so-called Smart Sidebar is here to stay, allowing you even easier access to apps of your choice, especially if you have commonly used ones for multitasking purposes.

Task Manager, Split screen, Flexible window, split-screen, Smart Sidebar

And although the Smart Sidebar feature isn't new, it gains a neat new feature called Background streaming, which allows you to play videos from YouTube in the background without having to pay for Premium. You just open a video on YouTube, pull the Sidebar, and there should be a shortcut there.

The fingerprint reader works great - it's fast, accurate and reliable. You can set it up to unlock the screen after a firm touch (basically, a press) or light touch. The latter may trigger unwanted unlock attempts if you fidget with the phone in your pocket, for example.

The Realme C55 also supports the RAM Expansion feature. As evident from the name, this feature lets you expand your smartphone's RAM - albeit virtually - by using the phone's internal storage. You can add from 2GB up to 6GB virtual RAM. This feature is active by default, and Realme has chosen 4GB for the default setting.

Within the Realme lab section, you will find Dual-mode audio, Sleep Capsule, and Mini Capsule.

The Dual-mode audio allows you to connect both wired and wireless headphones and listen to music through both. Sleep Capsule is a night mode, which restricts specific apps.

Realme labs, Sleep Capsule, Dual-mode Audio

Mini Capsule is an Apple's Dynamic Island imitation, one that can show only two things - the charging status upon plugging in the phone and upon charging completion. And send you a reminder if you've you are close to your data usage limit. That's it. It's neat and looks novel, but it's not much, and it's also optional if you don't find it useful.

Mini Capsule

The multimedia apps such as Photos, Music, and Videos - are provided by Realme. There is also a revamped File Manager and even a Phone Manager app. Oh, and a web browser called the Internet. This completes the non-Google app list.

Photos • Music • Videos • Phone Manager • Tools • File Manager

Realme 4.0 UI also supports this cool auto-pixelate feature, which can blur/pixelate sensitive information when you take a screenshot in WhatsApp or Messenger, and you intend to share it with others.

We liked Realme UI 4.0. The interface is clutter-free and easy to use, and it feels great when working with 90fp. Yet, it retains plenty of powerful tools should you choose to dig deeper and use them.

Performance and benchmarks

The Realme C55 uses the Helio G88 chipset by MediaTek, a slightly upgraded version of the Helio G85 SoC. The G88 version officially supports 90Hz at 1080p+ and can work with 64MP main cameras instead of 48MP. This wasn't possible before without further OEM customizations.

The octa-core CPU has 2x Cortex-A75 cores ticking at 2.0 GHz and 6x Cortex-A55 clocked at 1.8 GHz. The GPU is Mali G52 MC2 working at 1 GHz.

The Realme C55 has five different RAM/storage configurations in existence - 4GB/64GB, 6GB/64GB, 6GB/128GB (ours), 8GB/128GB, and 8GB/256GB. There is a dedicated microSD slot, too.

We ran some benchmarks, and the scores are not bad but somewhat subpar for the class.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Poco X5
  2088
• Redmi Note 12 5G
  1998
• Nokia X30
  1920
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  1896
• Poco M5s
  1831
• Redmi Note 12 4G
  1797
• Realme 10
  1762
• Motorola Moto G53
  1594
• Realme C55
  1452
• Tecno Spark 10 Pro
  1358
• Redmi 10
  1294

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Poco X5
  693
• Nokia X30
  663
• Redmi Note 12 5G
  588
• Realme 10
  567
• Motorola Moto G53
  557
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  550
• Poco M5s
  516
• Redmi Note 12 4G
  440
• Realme C55
  374
• Redmi 10
  361
• Tecno Spark 10 Pro
  359

GeekBench 6 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 12 5G
  2017
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  1956
• Motorola Moto G53
  1797
• Realme C55
  1413
• Tecno Spark 10 Pro
  1376
• Redmi Note 12 4G
  1341

GeekBench 6 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 12 5G
  763
• Motorola Moto G53
  733
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  722
• Redmi Note 12 4G
  469
• Realme C55
  425
• Tecno Spark 10 Pro
  424

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G53
  29
• Poco M5s
  18
• Nokia X30
  17
• Realme 10
  17
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  12
• Realme C55
  9
• Tecno Spark 10 Pro
  8.1
• Redmi Note 12 4G
  7.5

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto G53
  67
• Poco M5s
  49
• Realme 10
  44
• Nokia X30
  42
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  35
• Realme C55
  23
• Redmi Note 12 4G
  23
• Tecno Spark 10 Pro
  22

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Poco M5
  1321
• Realme 10
  1320
• Nokia X30
  1214
• Motorola Moto G53
  981
• Tecno Spark 10 Pro
  756
• Realme C55
  740
• Redmi Note 12 4G
  652

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Nokia X30
  403732
• Poco X5
  400895
• Xiaomi Poco M5
  386311
• Realme 10
  385829
• Redmi Note 12 5G
  360745
• Poco M5s
  360681
• Redmi Note 12 4G
  319219
• Motorola Moto G53
  314195
• Realme C55
  257263
• Tecno Spark 10 Pro
  249938

We also ran our usual stress tests, and they returned excellent scores. The CPU stress test ended with 72% stability, though the processor has kept 80% and above for most of the time. Meanwhile, the GPU stability is 98%.

CPU stress test • GPU stress test

The phone never became hot during these stress tests, just lightly warm.

Overall, the Realme C55 offers decent performance, though there are faster phones. And while its software suite doesn't feel laggy, and we observed no stutter, it is somewhat slow (with slow load times), and you can tell that after a while.