Review Verdict: the realme narzo 50A sticks to the things we loved about the narzo 30A, but improves on its design and main rear camera for the Philippines. As an entry-level phone, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a phone like the narzo 50A that has a capable processor and a huge 6000mAh battery that supports 18w wired charging.

Pros

• Helio G85 is a great processor for the price
• Upgraded optics

Cons

• Same old HD+ display that’s present on a number of realme phones
• Mediocre low-light performance

realme narzo 50A Review Philippines Specs

• Helio G85 processor
• 4GB LPDDR4X RAM
• 64GB internal storage
• 6.5-inch HD+ IPS display
• 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera with PDAF, 2-megapixel f/2.4 macro camera, 2-megapixel f/2.4 mono camera
• 8-megapixel f/2.0 selfie camera
• 4G, LTE
• WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, rear-mounted fingerprint scanner
• 6000mAh battery
• 18w fast charging
• Android 11, realme UI 2.0

realme is updating its entry-level offerings with the narzo 50A. Aside from having a new, more-rugged-looking design, the narzo 50A looks to be a more versatile phone than its predecessor, thanks to a new 50-megapixel main rear camera. But does a design change and new optics enough to make the narzo 50A worth your money?

Packaging and Contents

The narzo 50A comes in a light blue box with the brand’s bold narzo branding on it. The contents are typical of what you expect on a realme phone: you get the phone itself, jelly case, documentation, USB-C cable, and 18w wall charger.

Design

The narzo 50A has a rather unusual camera module design that looks freaking huge. Closer inspection of the phone shows why: the camera module holds the fingerprint scanner, along with three cameras and an LED flash. Despite the odd inclusion of the fingerprint scanner in the camera module, the overall ergonomics hasn’t changed as it relates to unlocking the phone since it sits where your finger naturally goes anyway.

Like the narzo 30A, you still have that Rimowa-like pattern, along with a rather chunky body because of the 6000mAh battery inside it.

Button and port layout are the same as previous narzo phones: USB-C, 3.5mm jack, and loudspeaker at the bottom, power and volume control buttons on the right side, and SIM tray on the left side.

Display

One of the things we dislike with the narzo 50A is that it uses the same 6.5-inch HD+ IPS panel used on other narzo phones and even on some C-series phones like the C15. The said panel has been in use on a number of phones (other than realme) for over a year, and we wished the brand gave the narzo 50A a proper display upgrade to a full HD+ resolution  panel along with a higher refresh rate. As it stands, the display looks pretty dated, a feeling that’s exacerbated by the notch that holds the selfie camera.

Since we’re very familiar with the display, the narzo 50A’s display is average at best. While colors are decent, its automatic brightness can be inconsistent at times–especially when using the phone under direct sunlight.

Cameras

Our gripes with the display aside, the narzo 50A gets a better camera setup than its predecessor on paper. You get a 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera and a pair of 2-megapixel cameras: one for depth-sensing and one for macro shots.

The main camera offers a significantly better performance in daylight photos compared to the narzo 30A, though it still struggles when it comes to low-light–and that’s despite having a higher-resolution sensor and a brighter aperture.

There are also instances where the narzo 50A tends to overprocess photos, making them too saturated. These issues boil down to software optimization, and we’re optimistic that realme will address them in a future software update to maximize the narzo 50A’s 50-megapixel camera.

Performance and Battery Life

Like the narzo 30A, you also get a Helio G85 processor that is paired with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. While it might feel underwhelming that realme used the same processor, the Helio G85 is still one of the best processors for budget phones at this price point and has proven itself capable of handling most games without many issues.

Even the newer Helio G88 offers very few performance improvements, which should explain why realme stuck with the Helio G85 on the narzo 50A. We have tested multiple phones using a Helio G85 in the past, and it is proven to handle demanding games like Genshin Impact as long as you keep the settings at low to medium graphics.

As a budget gaming phone, the narzo 50A packs a large 6000mAh battery. That huge cell lasted us close to 20 hours on our video test, which should easily translate to a good day’s worth of gaming. Topping up the battery is done via 18w USB-C charging, and it took us around 3 hours from 19% to 100%.

Wrap Up and Conclusions

While it is let down by a very dated display, our review of the realme narzo 50A shows that the brand is sticking to what works when it comes to the highly competitive budget gaming segment in the Philippines. The 50-megapixel main rear camera upgrade is very much welcome, though we hope realme optimizes the software to make the most out of it.

realme narzo 50A Review Price Philippines

The realme narzo 50A is priced at Php 7,990 in the Philippines and will be available exclusively through Lazada. It will have a promo price of Php 6,990 and free shipping during Lazada’s 11.11 Mega campaign.