narzo 50i prime review: Easy on the budget

When narzo first entered the local market, it had the backing of realme, currently the no. 1 smartphone brand in the country. Now that it has made the bold move to go solo, it needs to try and establish its footing in the market as a strong contender.

The narzo 50i prime has been one of their best-selling devices—setting new records during past online sales events on Lazada and Shopee. To make it even more appealing to budget hunters, narzo has further slashed the price bringing it down to P3,799 making it one of the best options in the entry-level category.

For those looking for a smartphone that for basic tasks like browsing the web and social media, watching videos and needs a long lasting battery, here’s why the narzo 50i prime should be your top pick.

Build and Design: In terms of looks, the narzo 50i prime stands out from the competition with its vertical stripe pattern. Available in Dark Blue and Mint Green, this textured finish on the back panel looks good and helps give you a better grip. There’s a rectangular module on the upper right for the rear camera and LED flash, the narzo branding below. The rest of the back panel is clean and minimalist.

Exploring the buttons and ports, the power button and volume rocker are located on the right while the SIM tray which houses two SIM slots and a microSD card slot is on the left side. On the bottom is the 3.5mm jack, USB-C port, speaker grille, and microphone. There’s also a secondary mic on the top of the phone.

The narzo 50i Prime has a big 6.5-inch HD+ IPS LCD display with a 1600 x 720 resolution. There’s a waterdrop notch that houses the selfie camera. The side bezels are thin enough to maximize the screen real estate.

The display is quite decent, and is comparable or better than other HD+ display of other phones. The display has good contrast and color saturation making watching your favorite videos a lot of fun. But to make sure you get the best viewing experience its best to use it indoors. I wouldn’t suggest using it under the bright as the brightness levels as you’d expect is quite low.

The mono speaker is respectably loud enough to use when watching YouTube videos or playing games in a quiet room. For a more personal experience make sure to plug in those earphones via the 3.5 mm jack.

The narzo 50i Prime has a Unisoc Tiger T612 processor which is a popular choice among devices in this price point. This means that its proven quite dependable and could handle most of the basic tasks you throw at it. Just make sure you are aware of the apps and browser windows you open to ensure smooth performance. The handset uses a UFS memory which translates to fast data transfer speeds.

Can you play games on this phone? Of course! The narzo 50i prime can handle most casual games and even those popular ones like Mobile Legends. Just keep the settings on default for the best gameplay experience as changing the settings may result in some sluggish framerates.

Camera: The narzo 50i prime only has a single rear camera. This 8MP camera is good enough for capturing photos when you need it. You get the basic photography modes like Photo, Video, Panorama, Time lapse and with the f/2.0 aperture, it is expected to work best in good lighting conditions. Photos taken outdoors have enough detail and good color, but when used indoors you might want to experiment using the flash to get clearer shots. There’s also a 5MP selfie shooter again it can take good photos for your social media posting as long as you are in a well lit environment.

For software the narzo 50i prime runs Android 11 alongside its realme UI “R Edition.” The UI is easy to understand and you can also do a lot of customizations on your phone.

Finally the narzo 50i Prime packs a whopping 5000 mAh battery. This is perhaps its best feature especially for users who find themselves out most of the time. For delivery riders or those who work out of the office most of the time the narzo 50i prime can easily last you a day of use. Charging the phone from 0 to 100 does take a bit of time so its best to charge it once you get home and before you sleep.

Conclusion: For budget-conscious users who need a phone that looks good with a long-lasting battery and reliable performance, very few could compare to the narzo 50i prime. It has a solid light-weight build and nice design, a hardworking chipset that can keep up with your browsing, calling and messaging needs, a dedicated microSD for storage expansion and a big display to enjoy those YouTube videos while on a break.