Review Verdict: the Note 50 is realme’s latest foray in the entry-level segment, having all the essentials that first-time phone owners in the Philippines will need.

Pros

-Solid battery life

-Smooth UI experience despite modest internals

-Great speaker for its price

 

Cons

-Only 10w charging

-No gesture navigation option

realme’s first launch for 2024 is geared towards the entry-level segment, and the Note 50 marks their first offering in a new line that aims to offer better value for budget-conscious buyers.

realme Note 50 Review Philippines: Unboxing

Just like all of realme’s products, you get a yellow box with the branding in black. Being an entry-level device, the box is a slide-out one, where you get the phone itself, a jelly case, documentation, a SIM ejector tool, a USB-C cable, and a 10w charger.

 

realme Note 50 Review Philippines: Design

If the Note 50’s design looks familiar, that’s because its design is based on the C51 with its dual-texture finish on the back panel: the bottom part has a matte finish, while the top part has a glossy finish.

Our review unit is in Sky Blue, which is also the same color for its frame sides. Like the C51, you have the SIM tray on the left side, volume controls and power button on the right side, and a headphone jack, USB-C port, and loudspeaker at the bottom.

While it is an entry-level offering, you do get a side-mounted fingerprint scanner with it. You also get an IP54 rating as well, making the Note 50 an affordable phone with added peace of mind in case of accidental water splashes.

 

realme Note 50 Review Philippines: Display and speakers

Like the C51, the Note 50 features a 6.74-inch HD+ display with a notch for the selfie camera and a 90hz refresh rate. While the notch makes the Note 50 feel dated, the 90hz refresh rate and 180hz touch response rate makes navigation through the UI buttery smooth.

The Note 50’s display covers the basics, though you need to be aware that YouTube streaming is capped at 1080p due to limitations with its modest internals. That should not be a big deal, since the average user is fine watching videos at 1080p resolution in most use cases. The brightness is serviceable, though you might have difficulties using the Note 50 under direct sunlight with its 560nits maximum brightness.

As for audio, we would have wished for stereo speakers, but the Note 50’s single speaker is loud and has great sound quality for an entry-level device. If that’s not enough for your liking, you still get a headphone jack for your favorite wired headphones.

 

realme Note 50 Review Philippines: Cameras

Unlike realme’s C5x series, you are getting a modest camera setup with the Note 50. The dual rear camera setup consists of a 13-megapixel main and a mono camera, while selfies are taken care of by a 5-megapixel shooter.

While the photos will not wow you–the Note 50 has a hard time toning down highlights in mixed lighting conditions–they are good enough for social media posting. As long as you have good lighting, you can take decent photos with the Note 50’s main camera.

For video recording, the Note 50 can shoot 1080p video at 30FPS, and can shoot at a rather unusual 480p resolution in case you’re after that old-scool, videotape aesthetic.

 

realme Note 50 Review Philippines: Internals and Battery Life

The Note 50’s modest internals consist of a Unisoc T612 processor that’s paired with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. The processor should ring a bell, as it is the same one you’d find on the C51 and C53. The T612 is roughly at par with the Helio G85 and Snapdragon 680, which means that it’s suitable for general use and is not meant for gaming.

Because of its modest internals, the Note 50 uses a “T” version of realmeUI, which is essentially a toned-down version that omits some features to keep the phone snappy. While we understand why realme did this, we found it weird that realme decided to remove the option for gesture navigation while retaining the Mini Capsule feature that’s found on the brand’s C series.

The Note 50’s 5000mAh battery lasted us 19 hours and 29 minutes, which is a very impressive figure considering that the T612 uses an older 12nm process. The only catch here is its charging speeds, where the Note 50’s USB-C port only supports 10w charging. From our tests, it took us around 3 hours to fully charge the battery from 0 to 100%.

realme Note 50 Review Philippines: Wrap-up and Conclusions

While it is technically a C series phone, the Note 50 marks a new era for realme, where they want to target the entry-level segment–specifically those who have a very tight budget. It has all the essentials that first-time phone owners will need, and its Php 4k price makes it not just the most affordable realme to date, but also a solid one for what it has to offer.

realme Note 50 Review Philippines: Price

The realme Note 50 has an official price of Php 3,599, and will be available on January 24.