Realme C21 Review: An Entry-Level Phone With A Big Battery But Weak Cameras
The Realme C21, a successor to the popular Realme C12, arrives on the market with an enticing entry-level price of Rs. 7,999. While it inherits some of the C12’s strengths, like its massive battery life, the C21 also comes with certain compromises, primarily in terms of camera performance and processing power. This budget smartphone aims to provide a decent Android experience for those on a tight budget, but it’s crucial to understand its limitations and whether it truly fits your needs.
Realme C21 Price In India
The Realme C21 is available in India at Rs. 7,999 for the base 3GB RAM + 32GB storage variant and Rs. 8,999 for the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage option, both offered in Cross Blue and Cross Black finishes. Notably, the Realme C20, which is almost identical except for its single rear camera and a 2GB RAM + 32GB storage configuration, is priced at Rs. 6,999.
Realme C21 Design: Familiar Looks with Improvements
The C21 retains a strong resemblance to its predecessor, the C12, with a design that is immediately familiar. The square-shaped camera module neatly houses all three cameras and the LED flash. The phone boasts a plastic body featuring a textured back with fine grooves that provide a decent grip. This matte finish effectively resists fingerprints and smudges, ensuring a clean look even with daily use. Weighing in at 190g, the C21 feels less bulky than the Realme C25 (209g) thanks to its smaller 5,000mAh battery.
One subtle design tweak is the relocation of the single speaker to the bottom left corner of the back, next to the Realme logo. A tiny dimple near the grille helps prevent sound blockage when the phone is placed on a flat surface.
Realme C21 Specifications and Software: The Familiar and the Dated
The C21’s specifications closely mirror the C12, with the notable exceptions of battery size and camera setup. It features a MediaTek Helio G35 processor, a chip common in this price segment. The base variant offers 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, while the higher-end model provides 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Both offer expandable storage up to 256GB via a dedicated microSD card slot.
Unlike the Realme C25, which debuted with Realme UI 2.0, the C21 runs Realme UI 1.0 based on Android 10, a somewhat outdated version. While the software feels relatively clean, it includes a few Realme apps like HeyFun, HeyTap Cloud, and Realme Link. These can be uninstalled if you don’t require them.
Despite lacking the latest Realme UI version, the C21 still offers basic customization options, allowing adjustments to the system font, icon shapes, and other visual aspects. The selection of static wallpapers is decent, and you can also apply and download new themes.
Realme C21 Performance and Battery Life: A Mixed Bag
With the same processor and RAM options as the C12, the C21 also inherits a few of its predecessor’s software performance niggles. I witnessed occasional lag on the 4GB RAM + 64GB variant I reviewed, with app switching being smooth most of the time but experiencing instances where apps restarted after being accessed from the Recents screen. The keyboard occasionally exhibited a delay in appearing, and apps required a few seconds to launch. While these hiccups aren’t ideal, the overall experience remains acceptable for a casual user who primarily utilizes basic apps.
The 6.5-inch HD+ LCD panel appears sharp at a glance, but closer inspection reveals jagged edges in text and around icons. Colors appear a bit too saturated and lean towards a cooler tone than natural. Nevertheless, the LCD screen achieves sufficient brightness for clear visibility in direct sunlight, a commendable feat for a budget smartphone. However, the brightness significantly drops when viewing content off-center. The display also picks up fingerprints easily, and they’re difficult to remove.
In terms of performance, the C21 managed to run casual games smoothly, but it struggled with games like Asphalt 9: Legends and Call of Duty: Mobile. Asphalt 9: Legends was barely playable at the Default graphics setting, exhibiting significant lag and pauses during races. Surprisingly, the game didn’t even allow switching to Performance mode for lowered graphics. Call of Duty: Mobile proved unplayable due to severe lag, even when graphics quality was set to Low and framerate to Medium.
The placement of the speaker on the back is not ideal, as it directs sound away from the user. When streaming movies or playing games, my fingers often covered the speaker, resulting in muffled sound and reduced loudness. Furthermore, the single speaker is quite tinny, and sound distorts at higher volumes.
Given the C21’s lack of prowess in demanding 3D games, I primarily used it for messaging, checking emails, streaming movies, and taking photos. With this casual usage, the phone’s 5,000mAh battery easily lasted for two days. Our HD video loop test ran for 24 hours and 21 minutes on a single charge, which is 7 hours shorter than its predecessor (Realme C12) but still very impressive.
Unlike the Realme C25, the C21 does not include an 18W charging adapter. Instead, you get a 10W charger that takes 30 minutes to charge the 5,000mAh battery to 22 percent and one hour to reach 44 percent. In my experience, the phone reached 100 percent in 2 hours and 19 minutes. This remains quicker than the Realme C25’s 3 hours and 7 minutes to reach 100 percent, thanks to the smaller battery capacity.
Realme C21 Cameras: A Disappointing Performance
While the 13-megapixel primary camera with its f/2.2 aperture and the 2-megapixel depth sensor remain the same as in the C12, Realme has replaced the 2-megapixel monochrome camera with a 2-megapixel macro camera on the C21, which many will find more useful. The selfie camera remains similar, sporting a 5-megapixel sensor but with an f/2.2 aperture compared to the f/2.0 aperture in the previous model.
The camera app’s interface is the standard Realme UI 1.0 camera setup, featuring easy one-tap access to filters and the Chroma Boost feature, which amplifies the colors in photographs. However, the interface is not very responsive, and there’s noticeable lag when switching between camera modes. Even simply swiping from photo to portrait or video mode requires some patience.
In terms of photo quality, the overall performance is below average. Daylight photos emerge bright but lack detail, resulting in murky textures. Capturing subjects in broad daylight leads to blown-out highlights, both on the subject and the background. This issue extends to Portrait mode when using both the front and rear cameras. Similar to the Realme C25, the rear camera excessively boosts color saturation when shooting a human subject in Auto mode, a phenomenon not observed when photographing inanimate objects.
As expected, post sunset, photos become murkier, with a significant drop in detail. Most low-light photos ended up looking like paintings, and the dedicated Night mode failed to improve things in my experience. Photos taken in Night mode came out blurry with oversaturated colors, lacking depth and appearing flat. Auto-focus speeds also take a hit at night, requiring patience, especially when shooting darker scenes. Selfies captured in low light were marred by noise and lacked any sense of depth.
The 2-megapixel macro camera captured images that appeared overly dramatic due to excessive contrast and unusual colors. Shots taken with the main camera looked considerably better, displaying good sharpness and colors closer to reality.
Daylight video recording is satisfactory, but the quality is unusable in low light. Videos shot at 1080p 30fps exhibited blown-out highlights in brighter areas of the frame. The absence of any stabilization makes videos captured while walking quite shaky.
Realme C21 Verdict: A Budget Phone With Compromises
Considering its price point, the Realme C21 is intended to be a first smartphone for those upgrading from a feature phone or seeking a device for basic app use and calls. It’s a basic budget smartphone that performs with a few hiccups but is sufficient for casual users who don’t expect much. The camera performance is quite weak, and the same can be said about gaming, making battery life its biggest selling point.
That said, many recently released budget smartphones offer similar hardware. For instance, the Poco C3, priced at Rs. 7,499, appears slightly superior in terms of camera quality but falls short in software performance. Those seeking a near-stock Android experience in this price range can also consider the Moto E7 Power, starting at Rs. 7,499 (3GB + 32GB). While it delivers slightly weaker performance and has two rear cameras, it adds an IP52 rating to the mix.
The Realme C21 represents a solid budget option with its strong battery life, but its weaknesses in camera quality and performance might lead you to explore other, potentially more compelling, alternatives within the same price range.
