Oppo Realme U1 Brings 25MP Selfie Camera & Waterdrop Notch

Oppo’s budget Realme series is getting a new phone called the Realme U1. Following in the footsteps of its “selfie expert” brethren, Realme U1 features a 25 MP camera on the front.

There’s more than what meets the eye with this new phone. Let’s dive in.

Design and Display

Starting off with the display, Oppo Realme U1 has a large 6.3″ Full HD IPS LCD display with an impressive 90.8% screen to body ratio.

The front camera is housed in the waterdrop notch on the front. The front is very similar to recent Oppo phones like the F9 or A7.

Moving on to the back we have acrylic on the Realme U1, with a polished look to make it feel like glass. It isn’t curved like the Oppo F9 and is instead a single flat piece of 2.5D material on the rear. There’s also horizontally arranged dual cameras on the back and a fingerprint sensor on the upper half of the phone.

Internals and Storage

This is the first phone to come with MediaTek’s latest octa-core Helio P70 chipset. There’s 3/4 GB RAM and 32/64 GB storage with a dedicated microSD card slot. Dual SIM support is included as well.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have Android 9.0 Pie onboard and makes do with 8.1 Oreo (and a ColorOS 5.2 skin).

Oppo is promising steady 60fps in games thanks to the new Mali-G72 MP3 GPU and software optimizations, we’ll have to see how it measures up against other mid-rangers in this department

Cameras

The rear cameras aren’t very interesting and house a 13 MP + 2 MP dual lens setup, same as Realme 2. It doesn’t support 4K video or even 1080p video at 60fps.

As mentioned earlier, there’s a single 25 MP selfie shooter on the front, which uses a Sony IMX576 sensor which employs pixel binning for better low light shots.

Battery and Price

Powering everything on the Realme U1 is a 3,500 mAh cell with battery optimizations included. It still has the aging microUSB port sans fast charging.

Finally, we’ll talk about its price. It starts at INR 11,999 ($170) for the 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage model while the 4 GB/64 GB variant costs INR 14,999 ($215). It is currently available in India, with no release date for Pakistan for now.

Oppo Realme U1 Specifications

• Chipset: MediaTek Helio P70
• OS: Android 8.1 Oreo with ColorOS 5.2
• Networks: 2G, 3G, 4G LTE; Dual-SIM
• Display:
  • 6.3” 18:9 IPS LCD with Full HD+ (1080 x 2340) resolution (409 PPI)
• Memory
  • RAM: 3/4/GB
  • Internal: 32/64 GB
  • Card slot: Yes
• Camera:
  • Primary: 13 MP, f/2.2 + 2MP f/2.4 + LED flash
  • Secondary: 25 MP, f/2.0,
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Battery: 3,500 mAh
• Price: $170 (3 GB), $215 (4 GB)