Realme Note 70

The Realme Note 70 is a battery-first phone. Its 6300 mAh battery, tough build and IP54 rating are the reasons to buy it. Almost everything else is basic: an HD+ screen, the entry-level Unisoc T7250 chip, a single 13 MP rear camera and slow 15W charging.

At our listed price of Rs. 45,999, that is a hard sell. The Samsung Galaxy A07 costs Rs. 35,599 and has the faster Helio G99 chip, a 50 MP camera and up to six major Android upgrades. The Honor X6c at Rs. 44,995 adds a 120Hz screen and 35W charging, though with a smaller 5300 mAh battery.

• Buy it if you mainly call, message, browse and watch videos, and want a phone that lasts two days and survives rough handling.
• Skip it if you play games, care about photos or want a sharp, bright screen.

Verdict: a dependable long-battery phone for light users, but at Rs. 45,999 most buyers get more phone from the Galaxy A07 or Honor X6c.

The Realme Note 70 has a 6.74-inch LCD with 720 x 1600 (HD+) resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. Scrolling feels smoother than on a basic-refresh-rate phone, and the large size suits videos and social media.

The weak points are sharpness and brightness:

• At about 260 ppi, text and video look softer than on a Full HD screen.
• Peak brightness is low for this price, so the screen is hard to read in direct sunlight.
• The dewdrop notch looks dated and is noticeable in full-screen videos and games.

One useful extra is wet-touch support. The screen keeps responding with wet fingers or in light rain. For indoor use the panel is fine; for outdoor use it is one of the phone's main compromises.

The Unisoc T7250 is an entry-level 12 nm chip with two Cortex-A75 cores and a Mali-G57 MP1 GPU. In daily use it handles calls, WhatsApp, YouTube and social media without trouble, but heavy multitasking and big apps load slower than on Helio G99 phones in the same price range.

Gaming is limited:

• PUBG Mobile runs at around 30fps with occasional frame drops.
• Casual and lighter games are fine on low to medium settings.

The phone has a gyro in the spec sheet, but whether it is a real hardware gyro is not confirmed, which matters for gyro aiming in shooters. Buyers who game regularly should look at the Samsung Galaxy A07 or Honor X6c instead.

Storage is 128 GB, and a microSD card can be added in the shared SIM slot.

The rear has a single 13 MP camera with autofocus, and the front has a 5 MP selfie camera. Most phones at this price now use 50 MP sensors, and the extra detail is missing here.

• Daylight: colours and dynamic range are pleasing, and skin tones look natural. Fine detail is limited when you zoom in.
• Low light: photos get noisy quickly. The night mode helps a little but does not fix it.
• Selfies: usable in good light, but poor indoors and at night. Portrait mode struggles to separate hair and edges from the background.
• Video: the rear camera records up to 1080p at 30fps and the front up to 720p at 30fps, with no stabilisation, so walking shots look shaky.

Opinions differ on the rear camera: some find it good for the price, while others find it weak overall. Everyone agrees the selfie camera is the weakest part. Snapchat and Instagram users should not choose this phone for its cameras.

Battery life is the Realme Note 70's biggest strength. The 6300 mAh cell is larger than the 5000 mAh batteries most rivals use, and light to medium users can expect around two to three days between charges. The phone stays slim at 7.9 mm, but the battery makes it heavy at 201 g.

Charging is the trade-off:

• It supports only 15W wired charging, and a 15W charger is included in the box.
• Filling such a large battery at 15W takes a long time, so overnight charging suits it best.
• It can also charge another phone or earbuds through 6W reverse wired charging.

If you want long battery life and can live with slow charging, this is the reason to buy it. If you often need a quick top-up, the Honor X6c's 35W charging is more practical.

The phone runs Realme UI on Android 15 out of the box. The interface is smooth enough on this hardware and includes some useful features for a budget phone:

• AI Eraser to remove objects from photos and AI Clear Face to fix blurry faces (both need an internet connection).
• Circle to Search, by long-pressing the home button.
• AI call noise reduction to cut background noise in calls.
• Pulse Light, a ring light on the back that flashes for calls, notifications, alarms and charging, with custom colours, styles and a quiet-hours schedule.
• A 300% volume mode for the single speaker, and a speaker-cleaner that vibrates water out after rain.

The main downside is bloatware: many pre-installed games and apps come out of the box and need removing. Realme has not published an official number of Android updates or security patch years for the Note 70, so do not count on long software support. The Samsung Galaxy A07, by comparison, lists up to six major Android upgrades.