Realme U1 review

Realme U1 with Color OS 5.2

The Realme U1 runs on ColorOS 5.2, based on Android 8.1 Oreo. The Chinese maker hasn't really extended any effort to customize the UI to differentiate the India-targeted Realme sub-brand. Instead, Oppo fans will find a familiar sight and should feel right at home.

The launcher benefits from a so-called AI engine with real-time translation, fast Face Unlock, navigation gestures, and split-screen multi-tasking. Introduced with v5.0 were also new app shortcuts (long tap), new security features including safe, and better gaming mode.

ColorOS customizations run deep, as usual, making it far off from the standard Google-developed mobile experience. The Realme U1 has all Google services pre-installed, so you are ready to start your complete Android experience right out of the box.

The so-called AI builds on-device user behavior models for faster app startups and better resource management. It also uses this behavior to show relevant information on the left-most homescreen pane - calendar appointments, quick shortcuts, weather, world clock, package tracking, flight info, among others. You can configure those, or just leave them to the "AI".

The user interface is very familiar. There's no app drawer on the default launcher. Instead, every app you install appears onto the homescreen.

Lock and home screens

The fingerprint sensor is always-on, and it's fast and accurate. You can also set up face unlock in addition to fingerprint security - it's equally fast as the Realme U1wakes up the moment you pick it up.

The face recognition is indeed blazing fast, faster than on the iPhone X. It relies on 120 recognition points and supposedly can't be fooled by a picture. Surely, this implementation is not as secure as Apple's Face ID, but it works well and it's user-friendly.

Face recognition settings

Oddly, our Realme U1 came without a Theme Store, but if you switch the region to India - one should pop on the homescreen.

The notification shade features notifications, quick toggles, and a brightness scrubber. The task switcher reminds of Apple's, though it has an End All button. And split screen is available for all compatible apps.

Notifications • Toggles • Task Switcher • Split screen • Split screen • Split screen

The Full-Screen Gesture model is available for the Realme U1. When enabled, Full-Screen Gesture navigation positions three small lines at the bottom of the UI. Swiping up from the middle one acts as a home button but if you stop the gestures mid-way - you'll summon the task switcher (like on the iPhone X). Swiping on the left or right ones acts as Back. You can change one of those to open the recent apps manager if you like.

You can hide those lines since they are only visual aids. And if you don't like these controls, there is a standard Android navigation bar to fall back to as well.

Navigation settings

Clone apps and file safe functions are on board, as well as real-time translation thanks to an improved voice assistant.

There is a Phone Manager quite similar to what Huawei and Xiaomi have on their phones under the same name. It handles memory cleaner functions, app permissions and encryption, and virus scanning, among other things.

Oppo provides multimedia apps of all sorts - Gallery, Music, Video, and even an FM radio.

Phone Manager • Gallery • Videos • Files • FM radio

An improved Game Space allows you to handpick which notifications to pass through when you are playing games and you don't want to be interrupted. There are also different performance modes and an option to lock the brightness only for certain games.

Game Space

Performance and benchmarks

The Realme U1 is the first phone to use the new Helio P70 chipset, but if you'd expected some major performance bump over the Helio P60 or Snapdragon 660, you'd be disappointed. The chip features the same octa-core processor from the P60, but the clock of the big cores has been raised by 100MHz. Which means the P70 CPU has 4xA73 cores at 2.3GHz (up from 2.2GHz) and 4xA53 cores running at 2.0GHz.

The GPU hasn't changed since the P60, too. It's still the tri-core Mali-G72 MP3, but its clock speed has also been raised by 100MHz and now it ticks at 900MHz.

The Helio P70 retains the P60 AI core and algorithms but promises improved image processing. It also has an FM radio chip inside, in case you were wondering about the differences.

Finally, the P70 chipset promises a steady 60fps in games thanks to gaming optimizations by Realme.

The Helio P70 processor easily aces GeekBench for this price bracket. Its CPU has the highest clock for the A73 cores, and the Realme U1 posted some excellent scores.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Realme U1
  6004
• Oppo F7
  5901
• Realme 1
  5741
• Oppo F9 (F9 Pro)
  5673
• Honor 8X
  5651
• Realme 2 Pro
  5531
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro
  4933
• Xiaomi Mi A2
  4625
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018)
  4446
• Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro)
  4388
• Sony Xperia XA2
  4215
• Realme 2
  3881

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Honor 8X
  1618
• Xiaomi Mi A2
  1617
• Realme U1
  1567
• Oppo F7
  1531
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018)
  1524
• Realme 1
  1511
• Oppo F9 (F9 Pro)
  1497
• Realme 2 Pro
  1462
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro
  1342
• Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro)
  881
• Sony Xperia XA2
  865
• Realme 2
  790

The higher speed of the Mali-G72 MP3 in the Helio P70 isn't always a factor when it comes to GPU benchmarks as it still scores the same as the Helio P60's Mali. Still, the GPU inside the Realme U1 is a great performer, bested only by the Adreno 512 of the Snapdragon 660.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi A2
  21
• Realme 1
  20
• Realme U1
  20
• Honor 8X
  19
• Realme 2 Pro
  18
• Oppo F9 (F9 Pro)
  18
• Oppo F7
  18
• Realme 2
  16
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro
  15
• Sony Xperia XA2
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018)
  15
• Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro)
  9.4

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi A2
  8.6
• Realme 1
  7.5
• Realme 2 Pro
  7.2
• Realme U1
  7.1
• Oppo F7
  6.7
• Honor 8X
  6.7
• Oppo F9 (F9 Pro)
  6.5
• Realme 2
  6.3
• Sony Xperia XA2
  6
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro
  5.9
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018)
  5.7
• Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro)
  3.4

Over at the compound AnTuTu test the Realme U1 shows some real muscle and scores better than all its competitors.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Realme U1
  144436
• Oppo F7
  139414
• Realme 1
  138524
• Honor 8X
  137276
• Realme 2 Pro
  132958
• Xiaomi Mi A2
  130927
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018)
  123883
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro
  115605
• Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro)
  77964
• Realme 2
  75434

The Realme U1 is the most powerful Realme phone so far. The difference between the Helio P60 in Realme 1 and the Helio P70 chip in Realme U1 can't be felt or seen in real life as it's mostly insignificant. But as far as benchmark scores are concerned, the minor gap is there and translates into smooth gaming performance in real life.

We didn't notice any particular areas of the Realme U1 body heating up even when running those benchmarks for longer durations and there was no throttling at all.

Overall, the U1 offers class-leading performance and nobody should be experiencing hiccups of any kind whatever the tasks at hand. And it's the phone you should get if gaming is your thing and you are on a budget.