realme Philippines has unveiled its latest gaming phone, the narzo 50A, in a live stream unboxing event on its official Facebook page.
The handset targets the budget gaming crowd with an impressive set of features. It has a 6.5-inch HD display, an efficient and capable Helio G85 chip, and a large 6,000mAh battery with 18W fast charging. realme even threw in a 50MP camera to the mix, adding more credence to their value-to-performance mantra.
With a price of just Php 7,990, the narzo 50A is already looking like a budget champ. But as spec sheets go, we all know it’s always more than what we see on paper. In this review, we’ll dive a bit deeper to see if it is worth our money. Let’s go.
Inside the Box
realme’s narzo phones come in a blue box, instead of the yellow we’re used to. In the box, the narzo 50A has the customary set of accessories. We have the travel charger, a USB-C cable, a silicone case, a SIM eject tool, and the usual set of documentation.
Design and Display
The overall shape and size of the narzo 50A is pretty much a standard affair as far as realme goes. Our review unit comes in the Oxygen Green colorway. It is visually appealing, sporting a textured back panel that resists fingerprints and a large square plate that encloses the rear cameras and the fingerprint sensor. It’s a nice touch, giving the handset a grittier look.
A large 6.5-inch HD+ IPS display dominates the front, with a waterdrop notch housing an 8MP selfie camera. Despite the 1600 x 720 resolution, the display looks surprisingly sharp with punchy colors.
On the right side sits the volume rocker and power button. While on the left, we have the SIM tray with dual SIM slots and a separate slot for the micro SD card.
ALSO READ: realme Narzo 30A review
The top is bare. But on the bottom, there’s a headphone jack, a microphone, a USB-C port, and a mono speaker.
Performance and Battery
The narzo 50A is powered by a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio G85 with 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, and realme UI 2.0 on top of Android 11. Basic navigation is fast and snappy, and animations are smooth without any issues.
Not surprisingly, the phone easily handles most apps and games. As for graphics-intensive games, the best move is to set graphics at modest settings. It can handle higher settings, though, but do expect gameplay issues such as stutters and skipped frame rates.
On Genshin Impact, graphics performance defaults at low. I set it to medium and it played okay. The handset did get a little warm, but nothing alarming.
Here are the benchmark scores.
- AnTuTu – 213219
CPU – 71206
GPU – 38865
MEM – 44015
UX – 59133 - Geekbench – 388 (Single-core), 1363 (Multi-core)
- 3D Mark – 182 (Wild Life Extreme)
Depending on how you use the handset, the 6000mAh battery can last two days of use. It can comfortably go through a day with heavy usage at the very least.
The phone supports 18W quick charging, taking a little over 3 hours to fully charge to 100%. Of course, it will take less than that if you charge from 20% and up (which we recommend you do).
Cameras
The narzo 50A has three rear cameras — 50MP main, 2MP depth, and 2MP macro — and an 8MP selfie shooter.
For the most part, the main camera shoots decent photos, slightly above its price range. Images have a surprising amount of detail with good colors and sharpness. The phone struggles in low light shooting, though, losing points in details and sharpness, but the color remains solid. Overall camera performance is good, especially if you’re main medium is social media.
As for the 8MP selfie camera, colors look accurate for the most part with good detail, but you do get some softness. It comes with AI Beautification, smoothing out pores and fine lines, depending on how high you set it.
Check out our camera samples below.
Final Thoughts
The realme narzo 50A is a capable gaming phone aimed squarely at the budget-conscious. The MediaTek Helio G85 chip does a good job of keeping things snappy and the large 6000mAh battery ensures you game for longer.
But it’s not all about gaming, as the narzo 50A delivers consistent performance for everyday use. Moreover, its 50MP main camera delivers good photos in the right conditions and is likely more than enough to satisfy its intended audience.
If you’re on the lookout for a budget gaming phone that offers more than what its price tag suggests, then the narzo 50A is a good option for Php 7,990.
Price and Availability
realme narzo 50A: Php 7,990
The narzo 50A will be available in the 4GB + 64GB variant during realme’s 11.11 mega sale on Lazada.
As an exclusive early-bird offer, it will be available at a discounted price of Php 6,990, Php 1,000 off its SRP of Php 7,990. Check it out on the realme official store in Lazada.
realme narzo 50A specs
| Display | 6.5-inch HD+ IPS Display, 1600 x 720, Up to 570 nits |
| Processor | MediaTek Helio G85, 2GHz Octa-core, 12nm |
| RAM | 4GB RAM |
| Storage | 64GB Storage |
| Rear Cameras | 50MP Main 2MP Depth 2MP Macro |
| Front Camera | 8MP Selfie Camera |
| Network | 4G LTE |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi AC Dual Band, Bluetooth 5, GPS |
| Others | Rear Fingerprint Scanner, USB-C, Headphone Jack |
| OS | realme UI 2.0, Android 11 |
| Colors | Oxygen Blue, Oxygen Green |
| Battery | 6000mAh Battery, 18W Fast Charger |
