Realme C71 Review: The Energizer Bunny of Mediocre Smartphones

Hello everyone. Gather ‘round, because today we’re going to talk about the Realme C71 – a phone where the company clearly said, “You know what, let’s duct-tape a car battery to the back of a phone and pray people don’t notice the rest of the sins.” And oh, there are sins aplenty. My medical training may help me diagnose rare illnesses, but even I wasn’t prepared for the chronic case of mediocrity this handset suffers from. Let’s dissect this under a powerful microscope – or at least a cheap Amazon one, which is still more high-tech than this processor.

The Specs Sheet: A Frankenstein Monster

Right, here we go. On paper, the Realme C71 tries very hard to look respectable. A 6.67-inch LCD panel with 120 Hz refresh rate, a 50 MP camera slapped on the back, 8 GB RAM with a comical “dynamic 16 GB” claim, and a whopping 6,000 mAh battery. Fantastic! But here’s the thing – specs are just bullet points on a marketing PowerPoint. And like most PowerPoints, the reality is you start tuning out after slide three.

• Screen: 120 Hz on a 720p panel. That’s like putting a spoiler on a donkey cart. Technically it exists, sure, but why?
• Processor: The Unisoc T7250. A name that inspires about as much confidence as “diet mayonnaise.”
• Camera: A 50 MP sensor… but only one that actually matters. The other 5 MP bits are more like pity invites to the party.
• Battery: 6,000 mAh, big enough to power a microwave if Realme had just stuck in an inverter.

In other words, this is the gaming equivalent of building a PC with a shiny RTX 4090 GPU but pairing it with a hamster on a wheel as the CPU. Spoiler: it won’t end well.

Design: Plastic Surgery Done on the Cheap

At under €150, you’re not getting brushed aluminum or fancy frosted glass. Nope, it’s plastic with “military certification.” Which, as always, is a phrase that means diddly-squat. Because let’s be honest, if you hit it with anything actually military grade, like a tank or even a mildly angry pigeon, it would still shatter like a politician’s promise.

Sure, it’s thin, it’s light, it’s vaguely stylish with its square edges. But it’s about as inspiring as IKEA flatpack furniture: functional, but don’t you dare call it premium. The most interesting bit is a glowing LED ring on the back that’s basically a diet version of Nothing Phone’s flashy gimmick UI. Except here it looks like someone glued an LED dog collar onto the back of your budget phone.

Screen: 120 Hz of Disappointment

Let’s talk about this “120 Hz HD+ panel.” This is where Realme really leans into conspiracy territory. Because what good is buttery refresh when the content looks like you’re staring at a smeared watercolor painting? That’s like giving you a Ferrari chassis, but under the hood is a lawnmower engine coughing its way down the motorway.

The whites look slightly yellowed, the edges of the panel fade into darkness like a badly-rendered Skyrim cave, and the peak brightness gives up completely when the sun shows up. The end result: you’ll want to use this indoors only, as in “preferably under a candle with low expectations.”

Performance: Barely Crawling, Pretending to Walk

The Unisoc T7250 is a curious beast. It’s efficient, sure. Efficient at conserving power by not actually doing anything efficiently. The benchmarks tell a story clearer than your Uncle’s conspiracy rants about lizard people running the Wi-Fi. Geekbench single-core scores under 500? Games like Fortnite? Forget it. This GPU literally burst into tears when I opened Genshin Impact. It managed to run at what I call “PowerPoint Slide Show mode”- a solid 25 FPS on the lowest settings, making even Snake on the Nokia 3310 look like modern esports.

Oh, but at least it doesn’t get very hot. Which makes sense – if you refuse to do any heavy lifting, you won’t sweat either. This phone is essentially that guy in your friend group who conveniently “forgets his wallet” every time the bill arrives.

Cameras: Big Numbers, Small Results

Slapping a 50 MP camera on a budget phone is like giving a fish a bicycle. Impressive on the box, hilarious in practice. Don’t get me wrong, daytime photos are serviceable. You can post them on Instagram, and no one will scream in horror. But the moment the sun sets? Oh dear lord. The night shots look like the camera dipped the photo in watercolor, crumpled it, and then decided to post it anyway.

• Day shots: Fine. Social-media ready. Overexposed skies, but whatever.
• Zoom: The 2x digital zoom is workable, which is like saying the Titanic “reached” the bottom of the Atlantic successfully.
• Night shots: Utterly tragic. Even an Etch A Sketch has better clarity.
• Selfies: A mere 5 MP. Expect detail levels similar to Minecraft mobs.

Battery: The One Saving Grace

Now, I will give credit where credit is due. The 6,000 mAh battery is nothing short of ridiculous. Seriously, this is the phone equivalent of rolling into an MMO raid with 15 health potions strapped to your chest. Four days of use with light activity, two days if you actually press buttons, and seven hours of screen time on heavy days. This thing doesn’t need a power bank – it basically is the power bank. Bravo, Realme, you turned this device into a survivalist’s dream. Preppers everywhere now have something new to store next to their canned beans.

Caveat: There’s no charger in the box, because of course not. Congratulations, the penny-pinching is now industrial-grade. At least fast charging alleviates the pain, but you’d better already own a decent adapter. Otherwise, you’re just staring at this 6,000 mAh slab, waiting for lightning to strike it like a Frankenstein monster just to get some juice.

Software: A UI So Bloated It Needs a Diet

Realme UI on this device is… fine. And by fine, I mean it mostly works as long as your expectations are next to subterranean mole levels. It’s Android 15 with stripped animations, a few scatterings of thoughtful features, but dear lord the bloatware! Realme apparently thinks you wanted your phone pre-stuffed with random shopping apps, and a sprinkle of games nobody played even back in 2013. Thankfully, you can uninstall the majority, but the fact it’s shoved into your face in the first place? Laughable.

Bugs? Oh yes, plenty. Notifications that vanish in landscape mode? Volume sliders that refuse to show volume? This software has all the polish of a bootleg Windows XP theme pack. Functional, but barely.

Verdict: Worth It?

The Realme C71 is like eating plain toast – filling, cheap, technically food, but don’t call it cuisine. The only reason this phone deserves consideration is its monster battery and affordable price point. But you must pay the price of sluggish performance, an unimpressive screen, weak speakers, camera mediocrity, and UI annoyances that pile up faster than lootboxes in a badly designed gacha game.

So should you buy it? If you need nothing more than a glorified power bank that can make calls and run WhatsApp? Sure. If you’re a teenager whose parents won’t spring for anything above €150? Fine. If you want to play games, take good photos, or just… y’know, look at a decent display? Absolutely not. Walk away, friend. There are better hamsters on better wheels out there.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.

Article source: Realme C71, análisis: si la gama de entrada es así, bienvenida sea. No me importa renunciar a todo lo demás, :url