realme 6 review
-
- Battery Score
3
- Camera Score
4
- Design Score
3.5
- Performance Score
3.5
- Battery Score
3
Summary
Quick verdict: realme's new flagship phone comes in at a mid-range price, and it's an impressive proposition.
- Lots of camera shot choices
- Good app performance
- 90Hz display at a mid-range price point
- 90Hz screen comes at a battery life cost
- Plastic feel
- Side-mounted fingerprint sensor isn't great
Details
Pricing & Availability
RRP | $0 |
Launch date | 2020-04 |
realme isn't a firm that particularly sells itself on having "flagship" phones, because its focus is instead on the low-cost youth market, with an array of bright and shiny phones that offer good value without being market leading.
That changes – if even only a little – with the realme 6, the effective new "flagship" of the realme brand that brings mid-range pricing to an Android device with an appealing 90Hz display. 90Hz displays aren't novel in the premium space, but they're a new addition to the sub-$500 space for sure. Alongside that tempting display, realme crams in four rear cameras to give the realme 6 further appeal.
There are some budget-conscious corners at play here, especially in terms of how that display affects battery life, but in the ultra-competitive mid-range space, the realme 6 has some real appeal.
Design
Design
- 6.5-inch 90Hz display
- Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
- Blue or white finishes
Camera
Camera
- Quad lens has lots of flexibility
- Lacks optical zoom
Performance
Performance
- MediaTek Helio G70 isn't fast
- RealmeOS can be kludgy
- NFC onboard but not tested
Battery life
Battery life
- 4,300mAh battery life isn't as high as expected
- Fast wired charging
Verdict
Verdict
- A very good phone for the price
Should you buy it?
The realme 6 presents a good range of features for a phone that will set you back less than $500, and it's easily the best phone that we've seen from the Chinese firm to date.
The mid-range space is very competitive, and the realme 6 is a good indicator of just how good phones in this price space are getting, because there's relatively little in the usage needs of an everyday phone user that this won't provide for, along with some fancier features such as that nice 90Hz display and quad camera array.
Pricing and availability
Alternatives
The realme 6 is – more or less – the replacement for the realme XT, and that's a phone that actually started life with an RRP a little higher than that of the realme 6. It'd only be worth considering if you could score one cheaply.
Within the realme family, you could consider the realme 5, which only costs $30 more, comes with a 5,000mAh battery and a quad-camera array.
You could also consider the Oppo A91, if you wanted to stay within the same broad product ownership grouping as the realme 6.
If you wanted pure Android, consider Google's exceptional Google Pixel 3a, still our pick of the best all-round mid-range handset.