narzo 50i Prime Review – Great Performing Smartphone with an Affordable Price

narzo, a sub-brand of realme, focuses on the budget side of the mobile phone market. Today, we have the narzo 50i Prime, their latest phone that caters to the entry-level market. Let us find out if the narzo 50i Prime can perform with its price.

narzo 50i Prime Specification

OS:Android 11 - realme UI R
Processor:Unisoc Tiger T612
Mali-G57
Display: 720 x 1600 6.5-inches IPS HD+ Display
Wireless Connections:Bluetooth WiFi, A-GPS, GALILEO, BDS
Memory:32GB UFS2.2 Internal Storage with 3GB RAM
Connectors:MicroUSB, OTG
Cameras:Rear Camera
8MP, f/2.0, 4P Lens

Front Camera
5MP, f/2.2
SIM Card Slots:Dual SIM (Nano-Sim) and dedicated MicroSD card
Battery:5,0000 mAh with 10W charging
SRP:32GB + 3GB: P3,999

The Unboxing

narzo 50i Prime Box

The narzo 50i Prime comes with a blue box with its large brand name, then a small realme logo and printed narzo 50i Prime text on the front side of the box. Upon opening the box, we were greeted with the “Feel The Power” text on its user manual compartment. We wonder if we can really feel the power of the narzo 50i Prime once we start testing the phone.

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Inside the box are the narzo 50i Prime unit, Micro USB Cable, SIM Card ejector, and User Manual. That is all we got and we didn’t get any silicon case. Also, the charging brick that typically includes in their other models is not also included. We also would like to take note that the narzo 50i Prime doesn’t have a screen protector that is pre-installed on it.

The Design

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As we can see, we got the narzo 50i Prime in its Dark Blue color aside from their Mint Green version. It has a boxed shape design with an 8.5mm thickness and a weight of 182g making it not clunky and has an average weight. At the back, it has its plastic textured lines too that isn’t slippery. There is also a huge single camera module on it with the narzo logo on the other side. The overall design is great and it doesn’t look cheap.

As for the buttons and port, we have the volume rocker and a power button on the right side. On the bottom part, you will find the audio jack, microphone hole, a micro USB Port, and a speaker grill. The SIM tray slot is located on the left side where it can accommodate two nano sim cards and a MicroSD card for its storage expansion. Sadly, as you noticed, it doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner.

The Display and Sound

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The narzo 50i Prime comes in a 6.5-inch 60Hz IPS display that has a 720 x 1600 pixels resolution with a teardrop-style camera on it. Its color reproduction of the display is decent and we will also get a vivid color, but unfortunately, it is not at the same level as an AMOLED display. But for its price, it is surely a great content consumption phone.

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For its speaker, it has a down-firing speaker that sounds good enough for its price point. It is loud and clear and it doesn’t clip with max volume which is quite surprising because it is common to hear such things at the same price point.

The Performance

The narzo 50i Prime uses a Unisoc Tiger T612 processor, it is an entry-level octa-core processor. The processor is a decent performer for daily use and also gaming on the side. It comes with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage, and its internal storage that is a UFS 2.2 making the phone snappy compared to other phones in the same price point that uses eMMC. Here are some benchmark scores of the narzo 50i Prime.

After several days of using it, we are amazed at how it performed for its price. We didn’t encounter a slowdown when using it by browsing the net, scrolling down on social media, and watching content. It uses an Android 11 realme UI R edition which is like an Android Go edition. Even if it is a year-old Android version, they still updated its security patch having it on the August 2022 version.

As for its gaming performance, it performs great when playing low-demanding games like Mobile Legends on its smooth graphics with a high refresh rate, you can also change it to high graphics with minimal stuttering when playing it. We also tried playing graphic-intensive games like Asphalt 9 and we were able to play it smoothly with default graphics. But if you will be playing games like Genshin Impact, which is heavy in both graphics and storage, you will for sure have a problem during your gameplay. Due to storage limitations in its internal storage, you will be utilizing the MicroSD card storage for it making it slow to load, and once loaded even if you have it on the lowest setting, you will experience uncomfortable gameplay due to its frequent fps drops. As for its thermals, it is warm in its touch but not alarming while playing games on it. We also ran a stress test on it and after 15 mins of full load, its only CPU throttled 7% of its max performance.

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The 32GB internal storage is quite odd in 2022. Having 14GB that is already allocated to its Android OS and almost 4GB for the pre-installed app, giving us only 14GB left to install our apps. Fortunately, you can install a MicroSD card to expand its storage and make the apps be installed to MicroSD. We can think that the reason they went to 32GB internal storage is because of the UFS 2.2 giving up the capacity over the speed it gives. It is reasonable to take that move to be able to give us a well-rounded phone.

The biometrics and security of the narzo 50i Prime uses only Screen Lock and Face Unlock. It is a letdown that narzo didn’t include a Fingerprint sensor that is common nowadays. Using the Face Unlock of the narzo 50i Prime is fast making it slightly forgiving for not including a Fingerprint sensor.

The Camera

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The narzo 50i Prime has only one 8 Megapixels rear camera that snaps acceptable pictures. It has an AI feature that can capture HDR up to 4x Digital Zoom with its different image features such as the Filters, Portrait, Timelapse, Panorama picture, Super Night, and a Pro mode.

Upon analyzing the pictures that we snapped with the narzo 50i Prime, it actually exceeded our expectations for its price. It shoots hit or miss. But if it hits, it gives us a vibrant and acceptable detailed picture with slight graininess to it, in a well-lit area. Moving with low-light pictures, it produces bearable pictures that are quite grainy but still having somehow details to them. Using the night mode, upon capturing images, it gives us a grainy image that has a slight boost to its exposure and saturation.

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Moving to its front camera, we have a 5 Megapixels teardrop-style camera that can also capture HDR and has a beauty filter that we can tweak around. The color is quite washed out, has high exposure, and has a soft detail regardless if the beauty mode is on or off.

For the video capability of narzo 50i Prime, it can record up to 1080p@30fps for its rear camera and only 720p@30fps for the selfie camera.

The Battery

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The narzo 50i Prime has a 5,000mAh battery which is commonly found in any smartphone nowadays with its huge battery that can last for a whole day. With an average of 12 hours of use, we were left with around 25% on our battery. We also ran a battery test with it and with a 50% brightness of the phone we got 14 hours and 11 minutes which is average.

Charging the narzo 50i Prime seems to age due to its slow 10W charging. They should make it even just 20W or 15W and not 10W. This is because, from 10% to 100%, it took us 4 hours and 15 minutes. So, if you will be getting this, you might want to charge it before you sleep and wake up full charge.

narzo 50i Prime Verdict

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The narzo 50i Prime is quite surprising for its performance, it is understandable that there will be a compromise for its price point, but they made a good call in cutting corners to deliver a decent phone for its price. For a daily driver’s phone that will not burn your wallet, this is a good phone to get. If you just need a phone for scrolling down social media, browsing the net, and low to mid-graphics gaming. But if you are looking for a phone that has an adequate camera and does do faster charging this might not be the phone suitable for you.

As announced, the narzo 50i Prime is priced at PHP 4,999, but they recently had a promo price of PHP 3,999. If you can spot it during its promo price, this phone is a steal deal. You can buy it via Shopee and Lazada.

8.6 Total Score
narzo 50i Prime Review

Design
9
Display
8.5
Performance
8.5
Software
8
Camera
8
Battery Life
8.5
Price
9.5
PROS
  • Great Body Design
  • Good Performance For Its Price
  • Long Lasting Battery
CONS
  • Still using a microUSB
  • Low Internal Storage
  • Slow 10W Charging
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