Realme Narzo 50A Review: A Budget All-Rounder with Big Battery

Realme Narzo 50A, a budget phone from Realme’s sub-brand Narzo is the brand’s first phone in Nepal.

Narzo 50A price in Nepal is Rs. 19,499 (4/64GB) and Rs. 21,199 (4/128GB). This is a budget phone from Narzo with a decent spec sheet and an affordable price.

Can it compete with the offerings from Samsung and Xiaomi? I’ll tell you all about it in this review of Narzo 50A.

Realme Narzo 50A Review

Good Build

• 164.5 x 75.9 x 9.6mm
• 207g
• Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
• Plastic back, polycarbonate frame

Realme Narzo 50A might be a budget phone but it looks and feels a bit more premium than its price tag.

The plastic back has a gradient finish on one half and a plain finish on the other. It also has a huge camera module on the rear that houses a fingerprint sensor and a “narzo” badging. To be fair, the camera module looks too big and the fingerprint sensor’s position feels a bit higher than ideal.

The plastic frame houses a power button and volume rocker on one side and a hybrid slot on the other. On the bottom, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, mic, USB-Type C port, and a speaker. The top part has been left empty.

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Narzo 50A doesn’t feel too big in the hands and the curved edges help with the grip. However, it does feel heavy as it weighs around 207 g. Overall, the build and design of the Narzo 50A are quite good for the price.

720p IPS Display

• 6.5 inches HD+ IPS LCD
• 720 x 1600 pixels 60Hz
• 570nits (HBM)

Narzo 50A comes with a standard 6.5 inches IPS panel with a screen resolution of 720X1600 pixels and a 60Hz refresh rate.

For the price, the 720p panel is definitely not an ideal choice as many smartphones now provide an FHD panel at the same price tag. Some even offer a 90Hz AMOLED panel around this price tag. But, it is a good 720p panel nonetheless.

Narzo claims peak brightness of 570 nits at HBM and the panel does back this claim. The phone is easy to use under direct sunlight and I never had any problems with its auto-brightness.

The color reproduction is decent and has a slight hint of saturation. And, the panel also has pretty good viewing angles. The only downside of this panel is that the icons and texts will not look as sharp as they will on an FHD panel. To add, it also doesn’t support Full HD playback on popular streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. So, it is not the best panel for content viewing in its segment.

Good Performance

• MediaTek Helio G85 (12 nm)
• Octa-core (2×2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55)
• Mali-G52 MC2
• 64/128GB 4GB RAM

Narzo 50A rocks Helio G85 chipset from MediaTek along with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. It is not a new chipset but it’s a good chipset under 20,000 NPR.

The Helio G85 provides good performance on the Narzo 50A. Opening apps, navigation, and multi-tasking run smoothly without a hitch. And, it offers good performance too.

PUBG Mobile can be played up to HD graphics and High frame rate option. But we tested it on Smooth graphics and Ultra frame rate. At this setting, 50A was able to deliver consistent 39.9 average fps with little to no frame drops.

Likewise, COD Mobile enjoyed consistent 58.5 average fps without any significant frame drops or stutters. COD Mobile can be played up to Medium graphics and High frame rate but we tested it on Low graphics and High frame rate options.

On the other hand, we saw very rare stutters on Free Fire but the game was running smoothly with average fps of 59.2. This game was tested with Smooth graphics and High fps settings but you can play up to Ultra graphics with High fps option.

Good Camera

• Rear Camera: 50 MP, f/1.8, (wide), PDAF
  • 2 MP, f/2.4, (macro)
  • 2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)
  • Video: 1080p@30/60 fps, 720p@30/60/120fps

• Front Camera: 8 MP, f/2.0, 26mm (wide), 1/4″, 1.12µm
  • Video: 1080p@30fps

Narzo 50A features a triple-camera setup on the rear. There’s a 50MP main sensor, a 2MP Macro sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, it gets a single 8MP selfie camera.

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NORMAL IMAGES

50A manages to capture decent photos from the main sensor with average detail and good enough dynamic range. The color is more or less on the neutral side with a slight hint of saturation.

If you zoom in on the photos, you will notice that the photos do not look sharp. Overall, this budget phone can surely capture good photos.

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LOW-LIGHT IMAGES

I was not expecting much from the 50A in low light conditions but it did surprise me a little. The low-light photos came out much better than expected. The details were decent and it was able to control the highlights to some extent.

However, it was not able to totally control the glare of light sources. This issue was improved by the included Night mode and it also helped sharpen the photos.

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MACRO AND PORTRAIT IMAGES

Portrait photos from 50A look average. The background blur is decent but it is not convincing. Plus, the subject separation looks weird sometimes.

On to the macro’s, the 2MP can only do so much. The images look dull and lack sharpness. Images also lack contrast and are not appealing whatsoever.

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SELFIES

Moving on to the 8MP front camera, the selfies look good both indoors and outdoors. But they do have oversharpened look and some selfies turn out to have a warmer profile.

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VIDEO

50A can capture videos up to 1080p 30fps. The videos look sharp but the footages come out shaky as it lacks any kind of stabilization.

Battery Life

• Non-removable Li-Po 6000mAh Battery
• Fast charging 18W
• USB Type-C 2.0

In terms of endurance, Narzo 50A can last up to 3 days if you are a light user. With moderate usage that includes playing games, it can easily last up to 2 days. However, its 18W charger will take at least 3 hours to take it from 0 to 100%.

Speaker & Security

The single bottom-firing speaker of the Narzo 50A is loud enough but it doesn’t have depth or bass. It sounds flat and sounds annoying at max volume.

For security, it gets a fingerprint sensor and face unlock. The fingerprint sensor is fast and reliable as expected. The face unlock also works well if the lighting is ideal but it struggles at night time.

OS

• Android 11
• Realme UI v2

Narzo 50A runs on the Realme UI V2 on top of Android 11.

Realme UI on the Narzo 50A is filled with bloatwares. While some of the pre-installed apps can be uninstalled, apps like “FinShell Pay” cannot be uninstalled. Plus, this app also sends push notifications from time to time.

I have also noticed ads being displayed via Realme UI’s file manager. As for extra features, there’s an option called Smooth Scrolling inside the “Realme Lab” settings. But, I didn’t notice any difference with this turned on.

Overall, it is not a clean experience but the Realme UI V2 feels optimized and stable.

Should You Buy Realme Narzo 50A?

If you are looking for a good budget smartphone other than the offerings from Xiaomi and Samsung, you can definitely go for this.

ALSO READ: Realme Mobiles Price in Nepal: Features and Specs

The Narzo 50A is a good smartphone under Rs. 20,000 but it’s definitely not the best one. You can get an FHD display and better cameras with the Redmi lineups and if you add a few bucks, you can get Samsung F22 with an AMOLED display and very good cameras.

It is not the best budget smartphone but it is one of the top 5 smartphones under Rs. 20,000.

Hope you like our Realme Narzo 50A review. If you have any questions regarding the device, you can leave them in the comments!

In the meantime, you can watch our full review of the Realme GT Neo 2.