Introduction
The Realme family has grown quite a bit ever since the first Realme 1 smartphone to a point where the company is now confident enough to release handsets slotting in almost every market segment and also releasing hardware refreshes on a regular basis. This review will be all about the hardware refresh of the Realme 5 - a decently-priced smartphone with nice build and relatively powerful hardware.
What lacked in the previous model, however, was a more competent camera setup. While the 12MP main camera on the Realme 5 was doing a fine job for the price, a trendy48MP camera might make it an even more tempting offer.
Enter the Realme 5s - the hardware refresh improves on this very aspect while staying at the same price. The rest of the hardware remains, which also means that the Realme 5s - similarly to the Realme 5 - offers great battery life, high price/performance ratio thanks to the Snapdragon 665 SoC.
Realme 5s specs
- Body: Gorilla Glass 3+ front, polycarbonate back; splash-resistant
- Screen: 6.5-inch, 19:9, HD+ (720 x 1600px), IPS LCD
- Rear camera: Primary 48MP, 1/2" sensor size, 0.8µm pixels, f/1.8 aperture; Ultra wide-angle: 8MP, f/2.2 aperture, 1/4" sensor size, 1.12µm pixels; 2MP macro camera; 2MP depth sensor; LED flash; 2160p@30fps video recording
- Front camera: 13MP, f/2.0 aperture
- Chipset: Snapdragon 665: octa-core CPU (4x2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver), Adreno 610 GPU
- Memory: 3/32GB, 4/64GB or 4/128GB; dedicated microSD slot for up to 256GB expansion
- OS: Android 9.0; Color OS 6.0 on top
- Battery: 5,000mAh, 10W charging
- Connectivity: Dual SIM (4G), Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, microUSB, FM radio
- Misc: Rear-mounted fingerprint reader
The Realme 5s also offers more RAM and storage for the same price, now starting with a more 2019-worthy configuration of 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. Unfortunately, though, the dated microUSB port is still here.
Unboxing the Realme 5s
The Realme 5s comes in the exact same box as the Realme 5 containing the user manuals you'd expect along with a transparent silicone case and the USB-A to microUSB cable for charging and data transfer. You also get a 10W charging brick as well.
Design
The design hasn't changed much or at all for that matter. It still incorporates a plastic body and Gorilla Glass 3 for the display. The plastic body, however, does imitate glass (for the back panel) and anodized aluminum (for the side frame) quite well. The frame and the back panel meet without creating a gap, making it pleasant to hold. Also, ergonomics-wise, the phone does feel pretty well in hand.
What's new here is the flashy red color called Crystal Red. Other than that, the design is just about the same - identical shape, identical weight and identical dimensions.
Which also means that we get decent bezels all around with the bottom one being the biggest as you'd expect. There's also the rather small notch peeking on top of the screen - not as obtrusive as some other implementations.
Going around the sides, we find the pleasantly deep and clicky power button on the right side and volume up and down keys on the left frame. The bottom side houses the 3.5mm audio jack, the microphone and the loudspeaker grille flanking the dated microUSB port in the middle.
The back side of the handset features a vertical camera alignment in the upper left corner, which isn't sticking out too much either. We find the bulge much less obtrusive as other solutions out there. The fingerprint reader placement, on the other hand, is less than ideal. It's a tall phone, and the scanner is just a tad too high for a normal reach, assuming you are holding the phone in the lower half. People with longer than average fingers, or bigger hands in general, probably wouldn't mind.
All in all, it's a well-built device, especially considering the price tag and the fact that plastic is the main choice of material here shouldn't worry you. It's the norm in this segment, and besides, the Crystal Red version looks stunning. And the fingerprint reader placement isn't all too bad either; we just think it would take some time getting used to for users with average-sized hands.
Here's a 360-degree spin to take a closer look at the phone and its glorious Crystal Red gradient.
Big and power-efficient IPS LCD panel
The Realme 5s borrows the same 6.5-inch tall IPS LCD panel with an HD+ (720 x 1600px) resolution with a modest pixel density of just 269ppi. So if you look closely enough, you might notice some sharp edges around round icons, for example, but this is not the proper way to use a phone anyway. In short - it's still sufficient. And it's good enough for reading too without being too hard on your eyes. Now off to the tests.
As one would expect, the display performed quite similarly to the one on the Realme 5. Brightness wise, it goes up to 487 cd/m2, which is just enough for fairly comfortable outdoor use even in bright conditions.
| Display test | 100% brightness | |||||
| Black, |
White, |
Sunlight contrast | Min brightness | Max auto | ||
| 0.273 | 512 | 1875:1 | 2.1 | |||
| 0.345 | 485 | 1406:1 | 1.8 | |||
| 0.345 | 487 | 1412:1 | 1.8 | |||
| 0.34 | 402 | 1182:1 | 3.093 | 4.3 | 0 | |
| 0.39 | 480 | 1231:1 | 1.0 | 501 | ||
| 0.413 | 501 | 1213:1 | ||||
| 0.311 | 473 | 1521:1 | 1.1 | 631 | ||
| 0.475 | 631 | 1328:1 | ||||
When it comes to color accuracy, Realme 5s is not that great but few people would mind at this pricepoint. The average dE2000 is about 6.5, with the usual suspects like white and gray being a bit too blue-ish. You can adjust the color temperature in the display settings menu if you want, but that won't shift the average dE2000 all too much.
Battery life
Thanks to the humongous 5,000 mAh cell inside, the handset aced all of our tests - on-screen and off-screen ones. The endurance rating matches the one we got from the previous generation - 144 hours, which is mighty impressive. After all, the big battery doesn't even break a sweat with the rather efficient Snapdragon 665 SoC and the not-so-power-hungry IPS display.
Fast charging is out of the question because the provided charger caps the smartphone's capability to draw juice at 10W - 5V/2A. In our 30-minute charging test, the handset did 21% from flat - not very flattering, but it's about right considering the price range.
Loudspeaker
The Realme 5s comes equipped with a bottom-firing loudspeaker that can get loud pretty loud - enough for you to hear it in a crowded and noisy place. And upon subjective hearing, you can still hear the strong emphasis on the vocals, whereas the background music and beat fade out a little. There's lack of depth in a way, but this is a smartphone loudspeaker we are talking about here so let's not get too picky.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing |
Overall score | |
| 66.2 | 71.7 | 80.0 | Good | |
| 66.3 | 72.9 | 85.8 | Very Good | |
| 71.5 | 73.8 | 83.1 | Excellent | |
| 66.5 | 73.2 | 89.2 | Excellent | |
| 66.8 | 73.0 | 89.3 | Excellent | |
| 78.8 | 72.9 | 81.3 | Excellent |
Audio quality
When it comes to the output through its audio jack, the Realme 5s was identical to the Realme 5 before it. It did impressively with an external amplifier, delivering an output of perfect accuracy and very high loudness.
In stark contrast, headphones caused the stereo separation to decrease significantly, while our equipment also detected some intermodulation distortion. Volume dropped to average too, rounding up a rather unimpressive showing in this second part of our test.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| +0.02, -0.01 | -93.5 | 93.3 | 0.0017 | 0.0073 | -90.1 | |
| +0.59, -0.03 | -91.1 | 92.2 | 0.0079 | 0.388 | -45.8 | |
| +0.03, -0.01 | -93.4 | 93.3 | 0.0018 | 0.0072 | -88.1 | |
| +0.40, -0.27 | -92.5 | 92.5 | 0.010 | 0.407 | -49.8 | |
| +0.03, -0.06 | -92.6 | 92.6 | 0.0020 | 0.0080 | -88.1 | |
| +0.30, -0.37 | -87.2 | 91.0 | 0.0081 | 0.356 | -48.4 | |
| +0.03, -0.04 | -92.9 | 92.7 | 0.0018 | 0.0078 | -91.1 | |
| +0.40, -0.27 | -92.7 | 92.5 | 0.011 | 0.411 | -50.2 | |
| +0.02, -0.01 | -93.7 | 90.7 | 0.0015 | 0.0098 | -93.0 | |
| +0.53, -0.22 | -90.6 | 88.8 | 0.0048 | 0.302 | -50.8 | |
| +0.02, -0.02 | -90.5 | 90.4 | 0.0050 | 0.015 | -91.7 | |
| +0.17, -0.25 | -90.8 | 91.0 | 0.087 | 0.256 | -58.9 | |
| +0.07, -0.01 | -90.0 | 90.1 | 0.0019 | 0.015 | -92.9 | |
| +0.16, -0.10 | -92.3 | 92.5 | 0.0069 | 0.164 | -64.8 |
Realme 5s frequency response
You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.
ColorOS 6 based on Android 9 Pie
This is not our first time reviewing Realme's current and latest ColorOS 6 skin on top of Android 9.0 Pie. Luckily, Realme pledged on updating most of its phones, including the Realme 5-lineup with the latest Android 10 coming with ColorOS 7 so in a way, most of what we discuss here would probably change.
We predict that the navigation gestures won't change as much, though, given that one of the currently available options aligns with Android 10's default navigation method. Swiping left or right from the edge of the screen acts as a back button while a single swipe from the bottom bezel will bring you back to the home screen. Swipe and hold will open up the recent apps menu. The quick switch is performed by swiping from the left or right edge of the screen and hold - it's a bit slow compared to the bottom swipe-and-flick on vanilla Android 10.
Home screen, notification shade and general settings menu
As far as biometrics go, we have no major complaints, except for the slightly sub-optimal fingerprint reader placement, but we've talked about that in the design section of the review. Functionality-wise, it's great - it's accurate, it's responsive, ultra-fast, and reliable. Definitely not what you'd expect given the price point. Additionally, the face unlock does a pretty nice job of fast unlocking too, but it's needless to say it's less secure than the good old fingerprint reader.
Biometrics options
Like all Realme and Oppo phones, the Realme 5s also offers a set of screen-off gestures for quick launching apps on a locked screen. It's pretty neat in the cases where it recognizes the said gesture because it's not ideal. It can be a miss sometimes.
Some advanced features like split-screen are also supported, and even though it's an Android Pie-native functionality, it's still a rare sighting in this price range, so it's good to see it here. You split the screen by swiping upwards with three fingers. Don't mistake it for the downwards three-finger swipe, though, as this one makes screenshot.
The battery section offers all of the usual features with the addition of preset power modes like High Energy efficiency Mode and Balance Mode. Performance modes are also available ranging from High Performance to No Performance Improvements.
Battery options and optimizations
A relatively new addition to ColorOS is the so-called Game Space. It aims to optimize your gaming experience and get rid of distractions during gameplay. For example, you can handpick which notifications can go through and quick access to the performance mode.
In terms of usability and fluidity, we didn't notice any hiccups, lags or hangs at all, despite the budget-friendly hardware. And besides, the 720p screen doesn't seem to put all too much pressure on the Snapdragon 665 and animations looks snappy.
Performance and benchmarks
The Realme 5s runs on the rather new Snapdragon 665 SoC that aims to be a significant upgrade over the Snapdragon 660 chip by being more cost and energy-efficient while performance-wise, both SoCs should perform quite similarly. And the key advantage of the Snapdragon 665 over its predecessor is the 11nm manufacturing process allowing for lowered power consumption and less heat during load.
The chipset utilizes an octa-core CPU based on 4x 2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold cores and 4x Kryo 260 Silver cores ticking at 1.8 GHz. The Adreno 610 takes care of graphically-intensive tasks, which also doesn't offer that big of a performance leap but it asks less energy in return.
Here's how the chipset performed in our synthetic benchmark tests.
GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Realme 5 Pro
6106 - Realme 3 Pro
5881 - Realme 5
5707 - Realme 5s
5596 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
5590 - Realme 3
4936 - Samsung Galaxy M10
3662
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Realme 5 Pro
1913 - Realme 5
1537 - Realme 5s
1533 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
1512 - Realme 3
1482 - Realme 3 Pro
1471 - Samsung Galaxy M10
724
AnTuTu 7
Higher is better
- Realme 5 Pro
182765 - Realme 3 Pro
155647 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
141915 - Realme 5
139516 - Realme 5s
139103 - Realme 3
132764 - Samsung Galaxy M10
64144
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme 5 Pro
27 - Realme 3 Pro
23 - Realme 5
13 - Realme 5s
13 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
13 - Realme 3
13 - Samsung Galaxy M10
3.2
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme 5
26 - Realme 3
26 - Realme 5s
24 - Realme 5 Pro
22 - Realme 3 Pro
20 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
11 - Samsung Galaxy M10
6.3
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme 5 Pro
15 - Realme 3 Pro
13 - Realme 3
8 - Realme 5
7.2 - Realme 5s
7.1 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
7 - Samsung Galaxy M10
2
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme 3
15 - Realme 5
13 - Realme 5 Pro
12 - Realme 5s
12 - Realme 3 Pro
11 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
5.9 - Samsung Galaxy M10
3.7
3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited
Higher is better
- Realme 5 Pro
2253 - Realme 3
1189 - Realme 5s
1140 - Realme 5
1136 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 8
1126 - Samsung Galaxy M10
294
On the CPU front, the chipset performed expectedly well surpassing most of the similarly-priced alternatives and also performing exceptionally well in the GPU department as the screen resolution is gaming-friendly at 720p so the Adreno 610 doesn't have to deal with too many pixels.
Quad-camera setup, 48MP main sensor
There's no denying that the "quad-camera" saying is more of a marketing talk here mostly because you have three actual usable cameras and going by our previous review of the Realme 5, only the main camera is a consistent performer. And with the Realme 5s, we expect the main camera to be better in general too as it uses the popular 48MP sensor coupled with a fairly bright f/1.8 lens. The sensor size is 1/2" with 0.8µm pixels - significantly bigger than the 12MP unit on the previous Realme 5.
The ultra-wide camera remains at 8MP with f/2.2 aperture and the dedicated macro unit also stays the same - 2MP with f/2.4 opening. The fourth camera is just a 2MP depth sensor.
The selfie camera also remains untouched with 13MP sensor and f/2.0 aperture.
Camera menus
Thea carousel-styled camera menu is still here - swiping left and right switches between camera modes while those that couldn't fit can be find under the "hamburger menu" on the left. In the normal photo mode you have the option to do a 2x zoom, 5x zoom and a dedicated button is used to switch to the ultra-wide camera. An AI software does all the scene recognition and you will notice the HDR icon and the scene optimization popping up on your viewfinder. The Chroma boost feature is still at hand, which tends to boost colors a little along with the contrast.
Camera menus
Advanced settings like fingerprint shooting are available in the general settings menu in the upper right corner of the viewfinder. Touching the fingerprint scanner instantly starts shooting a video or captures a still, depending on which mode you are using right now. It's quite comfortable when doing portrait-oriented shots.
In other words, nothing has changed over the last couple of iterations of the default camera app in the Realmes so off to the actual photo samples.
Daylight samples
The Realme 5 had a decent main camera but the Realme 5s confidently delivers better experience in this regard with the upgraded 48MP main sensor effectively shooting in 12MP resolution thanks to the so-called pixel-binning. And the upgrade is apparent from the daylight photos themselves. For one, the new camera resolves more fine detail and images are noticeably sharper. Dynamic range is also pretty good (it was good before too) but we did notice more noise in uniform areas like the sky or the windows on the buildings.
12MP daylight camera samples
Still, considering the price point of the handset, the daylight camera performance is more than ideal. Moreover, we noticed that the new camera is somewhat wider than before and delivers much better uniformity - edge to edge sharpness is great, whereas the previous model had visible edge softness.
12MP daylight camera samples
Switching on the 48MP mode doesn't really give you much of an advantage. In fact, the detail is comparable and the noise is more prominent so we would advise sticking to the default 12MP mode.
48MP daylight camera samples
The same 119-degree ultra-wide camera makes its way to the module on the back delivering much of the same experience, which isn't satisfactory. Detail is poor and dynamic range is pretty narrow. The good news is that distortion is handled well.
Ultra wide-angle camera samples
We've expected more from the macro shots as well. The dedicated macro unit lets you get really close to the subject but detail is lacking (just a 2MP sensor after all) so we think better results can be achieved by using the main camera and cropping around the subject.
Macro shots
Low-light samples
The image quality in the night has also been improved but the difference isn't as big. You still get much of the same noise, narrow dynamic range and poorly-lit scenes are downright soft. The same isn't true for the well-lit parts of the image, though, this is where the 48MP outperforms the 12MP one on the vanilla Realme 5. Resolves a lot more detail on well-lit buildings, for example.
Low-light samples in normal mode
Switching on Nightscape fixes almost all of the issues above. Dynamic range is largely improved as information in the shadows is extracted without clipping the highlights. In fact, highlights and light sources look well-preserved and natural. Images also come out considerably sharper with more fine detail and removes noise to a point where it's hard to be seen.
Nightscape samples (8MP)
Once again, we are impressed by the night mode's performance and we strongly recommend using it in almost all environments, except during the day, of course. You can also try shooting with it indoors where lighting is limited.
Oh and the same restrictions on the night mode are imposed here - Nightscape stills come out in 8MP instead of 12MP. It probably has something to do with processing power but there's no way to know for sure.
As to be expected, the ultra-wide camera struggles to achieve satisfactory results when the light is limited - images come out soft, sometimes blurry, underexposed and quite noisy. Switching on the night mode doesn't help too.
Ultra-wide low-light samples: Normal • Normal • Nightscape
Now let's take the time to compare the phone to some of its competitors in a more controlled environment.
Realme 5s against the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 and the Realme 5 in our Photo compare tool
Portraits
When enough light is introduced to the scene or the subject, the phone is capable shooting some really nice portraits using the main camera and the so-called 2MP portrait sensor. In reality, it's a depth sensor but Realme says it uses the camera for adjusting the contrast as well.
Portraits
The result is pretty convincing background blur with impressive edge detection. As the light drops, the sensor starts to struggle so you will lose some detail along the way.
Selfies
With fixed focus, you might get the occasional out-of-focus selfie but otherwise it's pretty decent. Detail is good, dynamic range is wide and portraits are surprisingly good too. Bokeh shots are saved in 8MP, though.
Normal selfies
Portrait selfies
Video recording
The handset supports 4K recording in 30fps and 1080p recording in 30fps as well. The electronic stabilization works only on the 1080p videos, though, as you'd expect.
The 4K video looks quite impressive with nice level of detail, wide dynamic range, despite the challenging scene we had to shoot. Colors pop and contrast is just right while noise can be barely seen. That's definitely one of the best 4K videos in this segment.
Full HD videos look just as nice with expectedly lower detail, of course. But rendering is quite similar. Oh and there's no edge softness like on the previous Realme 5.
Competition
A few months later, things haven't changed as much. The Realme 5s remains largely uncontested and now with the 48MP and the bump in memory configurations it's even more lucrative than before. In reality, only the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 is a viable alternative to the Realme 5s.
The Redmi Note 8 offers arguably better camera experience, glass front and back design (Gorilla Glass 5), brighter screen and a USB-C connector. However, the Realme 5s goes for even longer battery endurance and more adequate memory configurations (the Redmi Note 8 starts at 3GB/32GB). It might seem that the Redmi Note 8 is the more sensible choice here and you'd probably be right. But you also have to consider the difference in the OS. It really depends on which skin you prefer - Oppo's ColorOS or Xiaomi's MIUI, this will surely tip the scales in one of the two directions.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 • Realme 5 Pro • Samsung Galaxy M10s
And in case your budget doesn't hit the INR 10,000 wall, you should also consider the Realme 5 Pro. For around INR 3,400 more, the Realme 5 Pro offers better all-round camera experience, nicer display, faster chipset and still great battery life. Not to mention the 20W VOOC 3.0 fast charging makes a really strong case for the 5 Pro. In our opinion, you get considerably more for the extra cash, or in other words - the Realme 5 Pro is the better "bang for the buck" of the bunch.
Finally, Samsung's Galaxy M10s springs to mind if you are into Super AMOLEDs and Samsung's One UI software. And it's marginally cheaper too. Unfortunately, choosing the M10s will strip you from the rather competent 48MP main camera on the Realme 5s and you won't be getting that Snapdragon 665-like performance either. Battery life won't be as great too although still pretty nice for its class.
Verdict
Our opinion on the Realme 5, or in this case Realme 5s, hasn't changed and it's an easy recommendation once again. For the same asking price, Realme is giving you a hardware refresh of the original Realme 5 with better main camera and more adequate storage variants, now starting at 4GB/64GB. And aside from the dated microUSB connector, the Realme 5s would probably remain largely uncontested in this price range. Then again, if you are able to get a hold of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8, you should really consider it as well - pretty much the only real rival to Realme's 5-series.
Pros
- Nice-looking and solid design, splash-resistant body.
- Big and bright enough screen.
- Uncontested battery life.
- Excellent performance, great even for gaming.
- Upgraded main camera, it's even better now.
- Realme promises an upgrade to ColorOS 7 based on Android 10
Cons
- Screen is low-res and might appear grainy to some.
- Outdated microUSB connector instead of USB-C.
- The macro and ultra-wide cameras are underwhelming.
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