realme’s latest entry-level smartphone, the realme C63, aims to standout by sporting a fast charger, durability rating, fancy Air Gestures, and a commitment of lag-free use for four years.
But with its price of under Php10,000, the device is facing tough competition from other brands that also promise to give customers the most out of their money. So, in our realme C63 review, we’ll see if this is the phone you should go with, or if you’re better off with something else.
realme C63 Specs
- Android 14, realme UI 5.0
- Dual SIM, Dual standby
- 6.75-inch HD+ IPS display, 1600 x 720 pixel resolution, ~260ppi
- 90Hz refresh rate
- 1.8GHz UNISOC T612 octa-core processor
- Mali-G57 GPU
- 8GB RAM
- 256GB internal storage, expandable via microSD
- 8-megapixel front camera
- 50-megapixel (f/1.8, PDAF) + depth sensor rear cameras, LED flash
- Side-mounted fingerprint scanner, Face unlock
- Single loudspeaker
- IP54 dust and splash resistant
- HSPA+, 4G LTE
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band
- Bluetooth 5.0
- GPS, GALILEO, GLONASS, BDS
- NFC
- USB-C
- Dimensions: 167.3 x 76.7 x 7.7mm
- Weight: 189g (Jade Green), 191g (Leather Blue)
- Colors: Leather Blue, Jade Green
- 5,000mAh non-removable battery, 45W wired charging
Design and Build Quality
Most phones usually come with one or two hero colors — colors that are more interesting than the usual white and black they come with — but not the realme C63.
It comes in two variants: Jade Green, which has a “Magic Glowing Design” as realme calls it. It has a shiny, glass-like surface with an accent that looks like reflective water. The other one is called Leather Blue, the model I have here. It uses a Vegan Leather surface that feels soft and durable against stains and fingerprint marks. I personally prefer this color compared to the green variant.
Interestingly, it still has a similar layout to other C-series devices I’ve seen before. There’s a large camera island with the lenses in an iPhone Pro-like layout.
The build quality feels very nice. The metallic frame made the device sturdy — for an entry-level phone, at least. It did bend a little when I tried a few bend tests, but not as bad as other phones I’ve tested in this segment.
It is also IP54-rated for being dust and splash-resistant. realme also included a clear case in the box that does a good job protecting the screen and the camera island on the back.
What I really like is how incredibly thin and light it is. On paper, it weighs 189g for the Jade Green and 191g for the Leather Blue, which is similar to other phones in the market, but its thinness of 7.7mm makes it feel extra lightweight and comfortable in the hands.
Bottom line is that realme did a great job at building the realme C63. While the camera layout looks the same as before, the elegant design and comfortable build make it a nice device to carry on a daily basis.
Taking a tour, we have the 6.75-inch HD+ IPS display on the front, with a traditional waterdrop notch for the 8-megapixel selfie camera. The bezels are decently thin, but obviously not as thin as flagships.
The left side has a large SIM tray that can hold two nano SIM cards and a microSD card for storage expansion.
On the right, we have the volume controls and the lock/power switch with the fingerprint scanner inside. The buttons are nice and tactile. They are flat and sits flush with the frame, but I wish it was protruded a little higher, so it’s more convenient to press.
The top is clean, while the bottom has the 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone, USB-C port, and single loudspeaker.
On the back, we have a large but thin camera island, so a camera bump is not an issue. The lens on top houses the main camera, the depth sensor below it, and the LED flash on the right. There’s a 50MP camera logo and realme’s branding at the bottom left corner.
Display and Audio
The realme C63 has a 6.74-inch HD+ IPS display, with a 1600 x 720 pixel resolution, ~260ppi, 60Hz/90Hz adaptive refresh rate, 180Hz refresh rate, and 1-560 nits of peak brightness.
Display quality is nice for the price. Colors and contrast is decent and sharpness is acceptable. Outdoor visibility, even during sunny days, is not an issue. I also appreciate the high refresh rate that makes browsing the interface and other apps smoother.
Unfortunately, it lacks Widevine L1 support, so no HD streaming on platforms like Netflix. But as long you set your expectations right, you can still have an enjoyable experience binging on this device.
It also lacks stereo speakers, like most phones in this segment. On the upside, the single bottom-firing speaker provides decent performance with enough volume (200% volume boost mode) and surprisingly audible bass.
Hardware and Performance
The realme C63 is equipped with an 1.8GHz UNISOC T612 12nm octa-core processor, with a Mali-G57 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of expandable storage up to 2TB. Is it the best CPU you can get for the price? Definitely not. For a similar price, the MediaTek Helio G99 on the Infinix NOTE 40 and the Helio G91 Ultra on the Redmi 13 4G should offer better performance.
On the upside, it apparently received a 48-month fluency certification from realme Labs. The fine print states that “it does not mean that there is absolutely no lag. Due to factors such as network environment and personal usage, the actual experience may be different.”
That said, there’s no guarantee that it will still be smooth for four years. And I don’t expect to, as it’s only an entry-level device.
realme C63 Benchmark Scores
The poor benchmark scores above don’t really give much confidence. So, let’s see how it actually performs in real-world use.
Basic and day-to-day tasks like taking pictures, browsing the interface, and scrolling through social media apps perform okay. Apps open fast, but expect the inevitable lags here and there.
Now, you might be thinking, there’s no way you can play games on this. Surprisingly, yes you can still play games, as long as you’re okay with poor graphics quality.
Genshin Impact was playable under the Lowest settings, but you should expect lags especially in crowded areas. PUBG Mobile, under Balanced/High, is playable but not the smoothest. Even Call of Duty Mobile on Low/Medium is playable.
Farlight 84 was surprisingly smooth under Minimal/Low, but you have to be okay with the very poor, almost too blurry image quality. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was unsurprisingly smooth under High. Asphalt Legends Unite is fluid on High Quality, but the graphics are noticeably terrible probably because of the low HD+ resolution.
At the end of the day, the realme C63 was clearly not made for gaming. But if you really need to, you can still play with it, as long as you’re okay with poor gaming experience.
| Game | Graphics Settings |
| Call of Duty: Mobile | • Graphics Quality: Low • Frame Rate: Medium |
| Farlight84 | • Graphics Quality: Minimal • Frame Rate: Low |
| PUBG Mobile | • Graphics Quality: Balanced • Frame Rate: High |
| Genshin Impact | • Graphics Quality: Lowest (Default) |
| Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | • Graphics Quality: High • Frame Rate: High • HD Mode: On |
| Asphalt Legends Unite | • Visual Quality: High Quality |
Software and User Interface
The realme C63 is powered by Android 14-based realme UI, and comes with a bunch of extra features that should make the user experience exciting.
Air Gestures are here, which lets you answer or mute calls or scroll on select apps by hovering your palms about 20-40cm from the front camera. It’s a nice feature to have, but I can’t get it to work for some reason as there seems to be a steep learning curve. Maybe it’s just me or the unit I’m testing, but I think it’s not worth the hassle because the traditional way of answering and muting calls is really not that hard.
Mini Capsule 2.0 is a Dynamic Island-like feature that shows an interactive window within the punch-hole cutout when you’re charging, shows data usage, steps, weather, and events. It also shows music playing on Spotify and lets you skip music by swiping the Capsule. It works fine, but it feels extra small to be useable.
Dynamic Button lets you double-tap, double-press, and press and hold the power button to enable different shortcuts. You can swipe the power button to adjust the volume, swipe up/down the screen, or bring down/up the quick settings for better accessibility.
AI Noise Reduction Call is also a useful feature, especially since the device appears to be lacking a secondary microphone for noise isolation.
A bunch of other extra features are also here like Screen-off gestures, Smart Motion, lift to check phone, and more.
Virtual RAM expansion is also here which lets users expand the RAM by 6GB, 8GB, or 16GB by borrowing from the storage. As with most phones, the difference in performance is barely noticeable.
For those worried with storage, the 20GB is saved for the System and I was still left with 117GB of space after 8 heavy games installed and tons of photos taken. A Phone Manager app is built-in that scans the device with unnecessary files to save you storage space.
Game Space is a dedicated app that lets users optimize the system before playing games. It also has an in-game window you can easily access to block notifications, see real-time FPS, GPU, and CPU usage, and more.
All in all, the interface looks nice, neat, and straightforward. realme didn’t promise major software upgrades in the future — unlike a few other phones in this segment — so I’m hoping that’s included in the “48-month fluency certification” it received from the company’s own labs team.
Cameras
The realme C63 features a 50-megapixel 1/2.5-inch main camera with an f/1.8 aperture and a 25mm equivalent. It lacks an ultra-wide and a macro lens, but it does have a depth sensor. An 8-megapixel selfie camera is on the front.
Daylight image quality from the main camera is decent for the price. The contrast is okay, and the colors are appealing. Dynamic range could be better, but I’ll cut them some slack due to the price limitations.
Details and sharpness are also nice, but you can instantly see a drop in quality with a little bit of zoom or crop.
Shots taken at night are terrible, but not surprising for the price. Grains and noise are visible. I tried Night Mode but it barely made a difference. The colors are decent, though.
Finally, we have the 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Skin tones are decent, details are enough, and low-light performance is surprisingly good. It’s a capable camera for both selfies and video calls.
Despite its limitations, the image quality is decent for the price. It would have been better if realme used an ultra-wide or macro lens on this thing, though.
Battery Life and Charging
The realme C63 has the usual 5,000mAh battery but with a speedy 45W SUPERVOOC charging — one of the fastest you can get for the price.
It scored high in PCMark’s battery test, where it loops synthetic workload until the battery drops to 20%. At 17 hours and 18 minutes, it scored higher than the average score we get of around 14 hours on other devices with similar capacity.
PCMark’s battery test indicates good battery life in mixed usage. However, longevity isn’t as good in watching content. In our 1080p YouTube video loop test (50% brightness and volume), it lasted 11 hours and 33 minutes before dropping completely to 0% from 100%. That’s not a bad score, mind you, but way below the average score we get of about 17 hours.
For charging, the 45W SUPERVOOC adapter did a quick job of refueling the C63. A 15-minute charge provided 22% of juice, with a full charge only taking an hour and a half. See the full test details below:
- 15mins: 0-22%
- 30mins: 42%
- 45mins: 65%
- 1hr: 86%
- 1hr 27mins: FULL
Verdict
If you’re looking for an affordable and reliable daily driver, then the realme C63 is worthy of consideration. It has a nice and elegant design that’s easy to carry around, large display, good loudspeaker for watching TikToks and YouTube videos, and decent cameras for casual snaps.
It also has a long battery life for those who just want a device that lasts for a day or two. Oh, and by the time you need to charge it, don’t worry as the speedy charger can fill it back up fairly quickly.
But if performance is top priority, this is definitely not the smartphone for you. As mentioned earlier, there are a couple of alternatives out there that offer more powerful processors for day-to-day tasks and gaming.
See also: realme 12+ 5G Review
realme C63 pricing and availability in the Philippines
The realme C63 comes in a sole 8GB/256GB variant for a price of Php8,999. It’s available in physical stores nationwide and through Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop.
Pros
- Comfortable build, elegant look
- Decent front and main cameras for the price
- Good single speaker
- Reliable battery life, 45W fast charging
Cons
- No Widevine L1 for HD streaming
- CPU choice behind the competition
- Poor gaming performance
- Unpolished software features