Last week narzo, the former gaming sub-brand of realme, announced that it was going solo–establishing itself as its own entity as it revealed two of its latest smartphones, the narzo 50 5G and narzo 50 pro 5G.
narzo then made its local debut via Facebook and LazLive last July 14, complementing the launch with both offline and online availability nationwide in a daring effort to provide cutting-edge technology to all Filipinos at an accessible price. The narzo 50 5G retails for P12,999 and the narzo 50 Pro 5G at P12,999.
But if those two phones are a bit out of reach for your current budget, you might want to check out the narzo 50.
We’ve been using it for the past month along with several other smartphones that are priced way higher; still, the narzo 50 impressed us with a balanced set of features, all-around performance, and friendlier pricing.
UPS
- Smooth 120hz Display
- Long-lasting battery
- Surprisingly good cameras
- Gaming-centric Processor
DOWNS
- No ultra-wide-angle camera
- Not the best narzo Design
- Still Android 11
realme narzo 50 Specs
Dimensions: 164.1mm x 75.5mm Depth ≈ 8.5mm
Weight ≈ 194g
Display: 6.6-inch Full HD+ 120hz refresh rate
Processor: Helio G96 processor
Memory: 6GB LPDDR4X RAM
Storage: 128GB internal storage
Cameras:
Rear Camera: 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera with PDAF + 2-megapixel f/2.4 macro camera + 2-megapixel f/2.4 mono camera
Front Camera: 16-megapixel f/2.0 selfie camera
Battery: 5000mAh battery with 33w fast charging
Connectivity: 4G, LTE WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0,
Rear-mounted fingerprint scanner
What’s in the Box?
The phone arrives in a bright blue box with narzo branding on top. Lift the box cover and you’ll find a sleeve that contains the jelly case, sim ejector tool, and paper documents, underneath is the phone unit and below it is the USB-C Cable, and 33W wall charger.
Build and Design
Exploring the ports and buttons of the narzo 50, you’ll find the volume rocker on the left side just below the sim card tray. The sim tray can hold two sims and a microSD card. The power button, which also doubles as a fingerprint scanner, sits nicely on the right side, making it is easily reachable. At the bottom, there’s a USB-C port, a loudspeaker, and a headphone jack.
On the back, you’ll find the triple cameras neatly arranged in a rectangular module, with the fourth circle housing the LED flash. It looks good, but you can’t shake the feeling that you’ve seen this similar camera design in some other phones. I would have preferred a more unique-looking module to make it truly stand out. With narzo becoming its brand, hopefully we can expect different designs as well.
Thankfully, the finish does make it more eye-catching. According to the brand, the narzo 50’s Kevlar Speed Texture Design is inspired by the Kevlar design on racing cars. This presents a sleek gaming-inspired look that can make you feel as if you’re in a racing car with the smoothness and speed—two traits that the narzo 50 represents.
It comes in two color options Speed Black and Speed Blue both of which look sleek and more premium.
The narzo 50 also has a good level of grip, thanks to the curved sides, though I’d still suggest you slap on the jelly case just in case your hands get all sweaty from playing nonstop for hours or if you are playing one of those games with jump scares– just to be on the safe side.
DISPLAY AND AUDIO
A good gaming phone requires a large clear display with a high FPS rate and the narzo 50 delivers on all these aspects.
The narzo 50 boasts of a 6.6-inch screen with a Full HD+ resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 180Hz touch sampling rate. To ensure that you don’t miss your chance to victory, the narzo 50 has a 120Hz Ultra Smooth Display which means it supports higher FPS (frames per second) games and allows for buttery smooth scrolling between apps.
It also has a touch sampling rate of 180Hz allowing faster reaction times and faster commands when gaming so you’ll never have to worry about any lags.
To ensure that you can clearly see your opponents even in less than ideal lighting conditions, the narzo 50 can reach up to 480 nits of brightness and 600 nits on auto under direct sunlight. Its large screen has a 90.8% body to screen ratio that also makes it a good device to stream movies, tv-series or watch YouTube videos. Colors are vivid; details are quite sharp even for an IPS panel.
Its in the audio department that the the narzo 50 comes up a bit short, which for its price point is something you have to expect. It only has a single bottom-firing speaker, and though it is still loud and clear, I suggest you use your favorite pair of headphones for the best experience.
CAMERAS:
As this is more of a gaming phone, I didn’t expect much from its cameras. So I was a bit surprised that the narzo 50 cameras can hold their own even against other phones, that are a few thousand pesos pricier.
Default camera modes include Night, Video, Photo, portrait, 50MP. Tap more to access dual view video, slow-mo, timelapse, movie, Pro, Pano, text scanner, and ultra macro.
Check out these test shots:
The narzo 50 can capture quality images with its 50MP AI Triple Camera setup. The 50MP Primary Camera makes your pictures clearer and brighter, while the B&W lens gives that special artistic effect for portraits. I just wished they swapped the Macro lens with a more useful ultrawide lens.
More test shots:
The primary camera is capable of producing sharp details, whether it’s daytime or nighttime but you do lose sharpness when using the zoom feature.
What even impressed me more was its 16MP Selfie Camera. Again, it has one of the better selfie cameras in its price point, especially when using portrait mode. Selfies are natural looking with good details; just ensure you have enough lighting for best results. For videos, the narzo 50 can shoot up to 1080 on both back and front cameras, and both can take decent videos for your stories and social media postings.
PERFORMANCE AND GAMING.
At the heart of the narzo 50 is an Helio G96 processor that’s paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. It is a good processor choice for its price segment as the Helio G96 is a serviceable processor for games because of its superior GPU. The Mediatek Helio G96 is one of the more powerful chipsets and can expect you to play most of your favorite games at medium to high settings with little to no lag.
One helpful feature the narzo 50 has, is that it carries with it realme UI’s Game Space app. It allows mobile gamers to choose different performance modes when playing their favorite games. You can go from low power, to balanced and Pro Gamer Mode!
Game space also allows you to set the brightness level for when you’re specifically gaming and automatically adjust the game’s resolution to save power. The app also enables you to enter a gaming focus mode where notifications won’t pop up, and calls would be rejected for that “in the zone” laser focus you need when gaming competitively.
Also worth mentioning is that the narzo 50 comes with Dynamic Expansion RAM or DRE for short. This means that the narzo 50 can have RAM of up to 11GB with 6GB baked in plus 5GB allocated for DRE using the device’s internal storage. This helps in multitasking and handling heavier workloads much better. This will surely be much appreciated by users who love to game as it means that they will experience little to no lag when playing even more demanding titles.
I’ve tested it with several demanding games, such as Asphalt 9, and League of Legends: Wild Rift, and it can even run Genshin Impact smoothly at low graphics.
For software, the narzo 50 comes with Android 11, and as of the latest update, there is still no news if there will be an Android 12 update.
Now, what good is a gaming phone if it can’t keep up with your marathon gaming sessions? The narzo 50 has a 5000mAh battery and is one of the more battery-efficient phones we’ve used recently. It was able to pull off more than 15 hours in our benchmark test. In real-world use, it could easily last me a day without needing to recharge it. The narzo 50 also supports 33w fast charging, and can top up the battery from 19% to 80% in around 30 minutes and fully charge it in around an hour.
Final word:
For those looking for a budget gaming phone, the narzo 50 is one of your best options. At a price tag of Php9,999 it has a good gaming processor, a long-lasting battery, a big screen, and an impressive camera. Our only complaint is the lack of an ultra-wide-angle camera and it being stuck on Android 11.
For more promos and updates about the game changing narzo, make sure to follow its official
Facebook page, and head over to the Lazada official store or Shopee.
