Early this month, we unboxed realme’ s latest smartphone the realme C30s, an entry-level smartphone now part of its most stylish smartphone line up the realme C series.

We’ve done several realme C-series reviews and the series houses some of the best budget phones that include the realme C21, the realme C25 and the realme C30. realme C30s is the latest effort into creating a product that is the perfect amalgamation of design and technology.

This is a budget phone so don’t expect so much of premium features and capabilities but it’s generally a good piece of work. You will get an average-use device, a moderate camera and features for such an amount. Most cameras for entry-level smartphones vary from 3000 to 4000mAh or slightly higher.

The 4GB/64GB unit retails at KES 13,699 while the 2GB/32GB unit retails at KES 11,000.

Realme C 30s features a 6.5-inch display, an 8.5mm slim design, an octa-core processor, a massive 500mAh battery and a fingerprint scanner on the side. The realme C30s is also the only smartphone in this segment with a side-fingerprint sensor.

realme C30s specifications

Here are the phone’s overall specifications:

In the box, we have
A stripe blue unit
USB Cable
10 W Charger
Sim-ejector tool
Quick guide
Safety guide

Features

Design and display

realme C30s was packaged in such an impressive minimalist design. Realme wasn’t mean on giving it a premium look despite the cost. It comes in a boxy body design that is easy on the hands. On the backside, it houses a single camera and an embossed realme logo at the bottom. The realme C30s uses a polycarbonate body, it looks good and has quite a solid build.
. The phone comes with a slim Micro-Texture Anti-Slip Design and curved edges which gives you a good grip when holding the smartphone. The back cover hosts a suitcase-like design with ridges running down on the back cover albeit toned down compared to the C30 unit.

Realme brought about premium quality exterior features on the phone. It adopted the set-up on premium phones that have buttons and ports minimalized or almost invisible. For instance, you’ll have to be close enough to notice the sim tray on the left. On the right panel, we have the fingerprint scanner also working as the power button instead of the usual separate buttons on entry-level phones or having the fingerprint at the back.
At the front, the realme C30s features a 6.5-inch IPS display with an HD+ resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels and a standard 60 Hz refresh rate.
The display is bright enough for outdoor usage and offers a good Colour reproduction for day-to-day usage though not as comfortable during bright sunlight as when using a phone with a full HD+ display. On your left, you get a 5-megapixel selfie snapper instead of the punch hole but this is within the price range of the phone so no big issue.
On the sides, we have a sim tray on the left which houses two sim slots and a slot for a MicroSD card for additional storage. On your right, we have the volume rack and a fingerprint sensor which also acts as the power button. This is the first entry-level smartphone that comes with a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that also acts as a power button.
On the bottom panel, the phone hosts a USB charging port, a single speaker and an audio jack.
Realme C30s comes in two colour variants that include Stripe Blue, and Stripe Black. Our unit is stripe blue.
The realme C-series was brought to life to provide the best of features to those users who go for inexpensive smartphones. realme understands the diverse needs our users have and the varying backgrounds that they come from.

Performance and software

The realme C30s equips an entry-level octa-core CPU from Unisoc, this is a 1.6 GHz octa-core Cortex-A55 processor that powers the phone. It uses the realme UI Go Edition is based on the lite version of the Android 12 (Go Edition) and is designed for budget smartphones with low-end hardware.
The realme UI 3.0 is rather a more advanced Android update than the realme UI Go Edition and comes with better UI performance and with more features like a customized interface from realme.
The Octa-core CPU is stable enough for most activities like calling, messaging, video streaming, lite gaming, listening to music, and average clear photos. We expect some lags especially when gaming or under heavy use.
In my period of use, I haven’t experienced any lag during normal usage or when downloading heavy files. This could probably be a result of the Go Edition OS. However, this is an average-use device and running abnormal apps or opening multiple apps at a go will slow it down.
The phone comes with a few pre-installed apps but thankfully you can uninstall most of them.
Memory
The realme C30s comes with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage, the storage can be expanded via a microSD card

Battery

Realme C30s is equipped with a massive non-removable 500mAh battery. It takes slightly more than an hour to charge to full charge. On a full charge, the phone lasted for about 36 hours with normal usage. I’m heavy on Spotify music so I would spend most of my days listening to music and a little bit of social media. So generally, will give you good performance or more on medium use.
The battery experience might be different depending on how you’ll use it. Definitely, over time, the battery wears out and you might not get the prolonged use hours but it’s great.

Camera

Realme C30s comes with a single 8MP main camera at the rear and a 5MP camera at the front. The photos are quite good, there’s not much amount of details given like in the premium cameras but you get some detailed photos, no washed skies or grey shadows in the photos.
Generally, the image output is good for the price though realme should have considered a better camera sensor like 13MP instead of 8.
You need great lighting to capture good photos, you will not get high-definition photos but they’re quite clear. Pictures captured in low light conditions are also quite appealing albeit with minor hitches such as saturation issues and not-so-great colours but are still ideal for a budget phone.
On night mode, the phone managed to capture images with much wider dynamics, less noise and a bit of detail and good colours.
We took some camera shots from its 8 MP camera to see how is the quality of its camera, take a look at the samples below.