Realme’s Narzo series has consistently aimed to provide budget-friendly smartphones with compelling features. However, with the release of both the Narzo 30 and Narzo 30 5G, consumers face a crucial decision: which device offers the best value? This in-depth comparison dives into the design, specifications, performance, camera capabilities, and battery life of both models, helping you determine which Realme Narzo phone—or perhaps a competitor—best suits your needs and budget. We’ll explore whether the incremental price jump for the 5G model justifies its added features, or if other budget contenders offer superior value.
Realme Narzo 30 Price and Variants: A Budget-Friendly Offering
The Realme Narzo 30 launched with two variants, catering to different budgetary needs:
- 4GB RAM + 64GB storage: Priced at Rs. 12,499
- 6GB RAM + 128GB storage: Priced at Rs. 14,499
While slightly more expensive than its predecessor, the Narzo 20, the Narzo 30 aims to provide substantial improvements in performance and features. The pricing strategy is clear: offer different storage options to meet varying user demands within a relatively accessible price range.
In comparison, the Realme Narzo 30 5G, offering 5G connectivity, a superior processor and higher refresh rate display, came with a single configuration:
- 6GB RAM + 128GB storage: Priced at Rs. 15,999
The price difference between the top-end Narzo 30 and the Narzo 30 5G is relatively small, warranting a careful consideration of the features each offers.
Realme Narzo 30 Design: A Step Up from the Narzo 20
The Narzo 30 presents a significant design upgrade from the rather basic Narzo 20. Available in Racing Silver and Racing Blue, the Narzo 30, particularly the silver variant, exhibits a more premium aesthetic. The shimmering strip that runs through the camera module adds a touch of visual flair.
Although still constructed with a plastic unibody, the Narzo 30 feels surprisingly well-built, without undue creaking. While its 9.4mm thickness might feel a bit substantial, its weight remains manageable at 192g. The seamless design offers a comfortable hand-feel ensuring a solid grip. The inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack, alongside the Type-C USB port, primary mic, and speaker, adds practical convenience.
A notable enhancement over the Narzo 20 is the 6.5-inch full-HD+ LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate. This upgrade significantly improves the visual experience, providing smoother scrolling and enhanced responsiveness for a better overall user experience.
Realme Narzo 30 Specifications and Software: Power and Performance
The Narzo 30 is powered by MediaTek’s Helio G95 processor, a gaming-oriented chip designed to deliver solid performance. The processor incorporates two high-performance 2.05GHz Cortex-A76 cores and six power-efficient 2.0GHz Cortex-A55 cores. Graphics are handled by the integrated Mali-G76 GPU, clocked at 900MHz. This combination ensures fluidity in daily operation and a decent gaming experience.
The available RAM and storage options provide flexibility for different user needs. The choice between 4GB or 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage, coupled with microSD card expansion up to 256GB, makes it adaptable to various storage requirements. The inclusion of features like dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, and NFC provides complete modern connectivity features.
Running on Realme UI 2.0 based on Android 11, the phone offers a substantial level of customization options. Users can tailor the interface to their preferences, adjusting icon shapes, colours, fonts, and even notification tray icons. While a few pre-installed third-party apps are present, they generally don’t intrude on the user experience. Some Realme apps are also included, several of which are removable, highlighting Realme’s efforts to strike a balance between bloatware and essential applications.
Realme Narzo 30 Performance and Battery Life: A Solid Everyday Performer
The Helio G95 chipset seamlessly handles daily tasks, providing a lag-free experience in everyday usage. Apps open and close swiftly, and multitasking is responsive, especially on the 6GB RAM variant. Benchmark scores confirm its capabilities; 3,56,846 points in AnTuTu, and 532 and 1,700 in Geekbench’s single and multi-core tests respectively, demonstrate its solid performance within its price category .
While the Narzo 30 handles gaming well at lower settings, it does exhibit heating under stress with higher graphics settings. Games like Call of Duty: Mobile run smoothly, but pushing the graphics to the maximum can lead to significant heat generation. This underlines the need for careful consideration of visual settings during gameplay to maintain optimum performance and temperature.
The 5,000mAh battery is a standout feature, easily providing a day and a half of usage. This impressive battery life is further complemented by the bundled 30W fast charger. Charging speed is notable, with the battery reaching 55 percent in 30 minutes, and a full charge in just over an hour.
Realme Narzo 30 Cameras: A Mixed Bag
The Narzo 30 boasts a triple rear camera setup: a 48-megapixel f/1.8 primary camera, a 2-megapixel monochrome camera (used only for Portrait mode depth calculation), and a 2-megapixel macro camera. A 16-megapixel f/2.1 front-facing camera handles selfies.
Daylight photography produces crisp, saturated images with good dynamic range. However, the macro camera delivers merely average results with decent detail but inaccurate colours, particularly due to its fixed focus.
Low-light performance is a significant weakness. The camera struggles with focus and produces images riddled with noise in standard and Portrait modes. While the Night mode improves brightness and detail, results remain highly dependent on ambient lighting conditions. Similarly, video recording exhibits varying quality, with daylight 1080p videos appearing oversharpened, lacking detail but showing relatively decent stabilization. 4K video offers improved detail but lacks stabilization. Low-light video recording should largely be avoided due to pervasive noise and poor output quality.
Realme Narzo 30 vs. Narzo 30 5G: Which One to Choose?
The choice between the Realme Narzo 30 and the Narzo 30 5G hinges on individual priorities and budget. The Narzo 30 5G, with its 5G connectivity, superior processor, 90Hz refresh rate, and slimmer design comes at a premium. However, with 5G networks still in their nascent stages in many areas, the immediate need for 5G and the higher price should be weighed heavily against the improvements.
The Realme Narzo 30, despite not having 5G, presents a compelling value proposition for its price. It offers a solid everyday experience, decent gaming performance (with caveats around heat), good daytime photography and decent battery life. However, it’s crucial to consider strong competitors in this price bracket.
The Xiaomi Redmi 10S, for example, offers competitive features including an ultra-wide-angle lens, AMOLED display, slightly faster charging, stereo speakers and a higher degree of water resistance (IP53), for a minimal price increase and represents a solid alternative for many users. Similarly, Poco’s M3 Pro 5G, at a marginally higher price point, presents itself as a comparable option offering 5G connectivity along with other upgrades. Finally, the better value proposition among the two Narzo phones depends heavily on individual user priorities and how important features like 5G and the other enhancements are to them. Careful consideration of the alternatives is key to making an informed purchasing decision.
