realme Note 50 review: Bang for buck budget phone

realme returns to its roots with affordable bang-for-buck devices with its new Note Series. The realme Note 50 is the first model in the series, featuring a large 6.74-inch HD screen, a 5000mAh battery, and a dual camera setup. Is it worth buying? Let’s find out in this review.

Design & Display

The realme Note 50 has a clean and simple design, with a two-tone finish on the back. The shiny side houses the dual camera module, which protrudes slightly from the surface. Although it looks like it has three cameras, the third lens is an LED flash. The rest of the back is matte and smooth, with the realme logo at the bottom left side.

The phone has a polycarbonate plastic build, which makes it lightweight and durable. It also has an IP54 rating, which means it can resist dust and water splashes.

At the front, the realme Note 50 has a flat display with flat sides and curved corners. The screen measures 6.74 inches with a resolution of 1600×720 pixels. It also supports a 90Hz refresh rate, which makes the animations and scrolling smoother.

The display is bright and colorful, and offers a good viewing experience when watching videos and browsing social media. The bezels are thin on the sides, but there is a noticeable chin at the bottom and a water drop notch at the top for the selfie camera.

The power and volume buttons are on the right side, while the left side has the triple slot SIM tray. The bottom side has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microphone, a USB-C port, and the mono speaker. The top side is bare.

Cameras

The realme Note 50 has a modest dual camera setup on the back, consisting of a 13MP main camera and a B/W secondary camera. It employs a three-layout design, but instead of a third lens, it has an LED flash instead.

The main camera can take decent photos in good lighting conditions. It won’t win any awards for image quality, but it’s good enough for social media. It also struggles in low light, producing images with limited dynamic range and some noise.

The realme Note 50 only has digital zoom. Coming in close will result in lower sharpness and details. Edge detection also isn’t the best, but its expected of any budget phone.

The phone also has a 5MP selfie camera on the front, which can capture acceptable selfies.

For best results, shoot outdoors, near windows with a good amount of sunlight, or in areas with lots of indoor light, for both the back and selfie cameras.

Performance

The realme Note 50 runs on a Unisoc T612 chipset, paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, which can be expanded via a microSD card. The phone runs on realme UI T Edition on top of Android 13. The user interface is a toned-down version of the realme UI. It is clean and simple, with some customization options and features.

However, it comes with the usual bloatware, including Hot Apps and Hot Games. Good thing these can be uninstalled or disabled.

In terms of updates, realme promises 2 major updates and up to 3 years of security and minor software updates. This is unprecedented for any budget phone, let alone one that costs P3,599.

The chipset is almost 2 years old, but it can handle easily basic tasks like browsing, messaging, and social media with minimum lag or stutter. However, gaming performance is limited to low graphics settings.

Here are the benchmark scores for those who care about it:

• AnTuTu Benchmark: 245,602
• Geekbench 6: 421 (single-core), 1,509 (multi-core)
• 3DMark Wild Life: 422

Battery Life

The realme Note 50 has a 5000mAh battery, which can easily last a day of moderate to heavy usage. You can push for more if you use it lightly.

The phone only supports 10W charging via USB-C. It took us around 3 hours to charge from 0% to 100% using the included charger

Verdict

The realme Note 50 is a great option for budget-conscious consumers. For less than 4K, you’re getting a large display, long battery life, and decent cameras. However, it also has some drawbacks, such as low storage and slow charging speeds. But for the price, it’s hard to complain.

The realme Note 50 is priced at P3,599. It is now available in physical and online stores, including TikTok and Shopee. The phone is a compelling option that will compete against budget devices from Samsung, OPPO, vivo, and Redmi.

realme Note 50 specs