realme C75 Review – Tough budget phone with huge battery tested

The new realme C75 that has just arrived in Malaysia is an interesting smartphone as it is an affordable sub-RM700 device that also features an impressive level of drop, dust and water resistance that makes it ideal for the butter-fingered on a budget.

realme Malaysia issued us a sample for field testing ahead of launch. After tossing it about in the field, here’s our realme C75 review where we share if it’s worth its modest price point.

Realme C75 review – Build and design

Mention budget smartphones to almost anyone and they’ll likely conjure up images of plasticky offerings that will like crack the moment they encounter any gravity-related mishap but the realme C75 is a different beast altogether with significantly enhanced durability on top of dust and water resistance.

While it is indeed a budget phone with a sub RM700 price tag, realme has claimed that the C75 has the kind of toughness and durability you’d typically get in higher end and more specialised designs. 

According to the official literature, the realme C75 is officially bestowed with the world’s first ‘Rugged Smartphone Certificate’ from TÜV Rheinland, has a MIL-STD-810H shock resistance rating  and officially has an IP69 rating which is the highest level of dust and water resistance currently available along with the ability to withstand high-pressure, high temperature jets of water along with immersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for up to 30 minutes- making it the only device in its price range to have this rating. 

To achieve this level of water resistance, the realme C75 features integrated foam seals and waterproof components as well as a polycarbonate casing to resist water and dust ingress. As an added feature, the phone also has a SonicWave Water Ejection setting that uses the mono speaker to vibrate at a specific frequency to eject accumulated water from the chassis to let it dry faster.

One of the key aspects that ensure its front display is highly drop and damage resistant is the use of what realme refers to as ArmorShell Glass. For the uninitiated, the ArmorShell Glass material is infused with a 35% lithium aluminium borate mix along with other proprietary elements that offers 2.6x more shock resistance and 4x more scratch resistance while the chassis itself has an internal airbag design with significant cushioning material around key components to allow it to resist drops while a die-cast aluminium chassis ensures high structural strength.

As far as build quality goes, the realme C75 is pleasantly well built for its price point. Beyond its exceptional durability, the realme C75 has a contemporary looking design with rounded corners, a flat display and backplate as well as a fingerprint resistant finish. 

Our realme C75 review sample in Storm Black has a satin black finish across its backplate with subtle geometric tones across it though these are only apparent if you look up close along with a squarish camera housing in the upper left that houses what looks like three cameras though in actual fact the phone itself only has a single 50MP rear camera with the remaining consisting of an LED flash and what realme refers to as a ‘flicker’ sensor.

 

The right side has the customary power button and volume rocker while the left has a dual SIM card tray that also supports microSD cards to augment the onboard storage. The base of the phone has a single USB-C port as well as a grille for the mono speaker while the top is otherwise unremarkable.

Up front, our realme C75 review unit has a flat 6.72-inch IPS LCD with a FHD+ (2,400 x 1080 pixels) resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate and a quoted 580 nits peak brightness with a small punch hole up top for a single 8MP selfie camera. Oddly enough, they’ve also applied a screen protector on the display itself which seems somewhat like overkill seeing how tough the Armorshell Glass sheathed display is.

There’s not much to quibble on seeing its price point and realme has generously added in a 45W fast charger, USB-C cable and a casing to go with the phone on top of the aforementioned screen protector.

realme C75 review – Performance and benchmarks

Bearing in mind its intended RM699 price point, the realme C75 isn’t exactly a performance powerhouse and runs a modest but relatively effective hardware setup appropriate for its price point. 

Our realme C75 review sample which is indicative for units sold in Malaysia runs on a MediaTek Helio G92 Max octacore processor built on a 12nm process that is built for cost effectiveness with a pair of Cortex A75 2GHz cores for heavy duty work and six Cortex A55 1.8GHz cores for simpler tasks while a Mali G52 MP2 GPU handles graphics duties.  Interestingly, the realme C75 is the first phone in the market to use the Helio G92 Max chipset.

The phone lacks 5G but does have 4G LTE connectivity and has 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB eMMC 5.1 storage expandable via a microSD card slot. Under the hood, the realme C75 runs Android 14 with their own realme UI 5.0  and notably has the option to assign storage as virtual RAM with options for 6GB, 8GB by default and 16GB of virtual RAM. Optionally, you can disable this option entirely if you’re running short of storage space. Here’s our realme C75 review unit stacks up on paper:

 

Price	RM699
Display	6.72-inch IPS LCD, 2,400 x 1080 pixels, 90Hz refresh rate, 120Hz refresh rate, 580 nits peak brightness
Processor	MediaTek Helio G92 Max octacore
OS	Android 14 w/ realme UI 5.0
Memory	8GB LPDDR4X / 256GB sMMC 5.1 + microSD card
Camera	50MP F/1.8 camera [rear] / 8MP [front]
Battery	6,000mAh w 45W SuperVOOC charging (50% in 38 minutes, 100% in 90 minutes, quoted)
Size/Weight	165/69 x 76.22 x 7.99mm / 196g

According to realme, the phone will have two years of OS and security updates which means it stays secure and will get Android 16 during its lifespan. When subjected to synthetic benchmarks with the default 8GB of virtual RAM, our realme C75 review sample scored the following:

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	79
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme	188
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	185
Geekbench 6 Single core	403
Geekbench 6 Multi core	1,364
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	573
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	1,068
Geekbench AI (CPU quanticised)	675
PC Mark Work 3.0 Score	7,805
PC Mark Battery Life 12 Hours	12 hours 33 mins

In terms of synthetic benchmarks, our realme C75 review sample with its Helio G92 Max processor offered underwhelming results for single, multicore and graphics performance which is to be expected seeing as the chip is built on a less efficient 12nm process in comparison to flagship chipsets like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that are built on a vastly more efficient 4nm process though both come at vastly different price points.  

When subjected to more practical field tests, our realme C75 review did an adequate job for day to day tasks, bearing in mind its role as a budget phone. It handled social media, web browsing and was able to manage most Malaysia app staples like Grab, Touch ‘n Go and the like without issue.

It’s not intended for gaming and can run Call of Duty Mobile in a pinch but struggled with Genshin Impact with long loading times though it was able to run albeit with occasionally jerky frames and at low settings. 

Gaming aside, the realme C75 fulfills its primary role as a budget phone for day to day use though it is best to bump up the virtual RAM to its maximum at 16GB to ensure it runs in smoother fashion.

The provided IPS LCD display does an adequate job with fair brightness under daylight and decent detail. For watching movies, TikTok and YouTube, the phone acquitted itself well with the mono speaker at the base offering a good level of volume though understandably poor sound staging and detail.

In terms of endurance, our realme C75 review unit with its 6,000mAh battery has modest but acceptable endurance. In benchmarks, the realme C75 managed to offer 12 hours and 33 minutes of battery life and has enough juice to last most of the day for normal tasks like web browsing, phone calls and the like though gaming and movie watching rapidly drain battery life.

Fortunately, it does have 45W wired fast charging and somewhat slower 6.5W reverse wired charging to juice other smaller devices like earbuds and the like. With the bundled charger, our realme C75 review sample was able to get a 50% charge in 40 minutes. The phone also unfortunately lacks 5G connectivity but that isn’t a deal breaker seeing as it is intended for a cost-conscious audience.

realme C75 review – Cameras

The realme C75 has a basic camera setup with a rear 50MP F/1.8 camera with autofocus and which has the ability to snag stills and a very modest 1080p at 30fps video with both modes offering at up to 10x digital zoom. Up front, the phone has a single 8MP camera for selfies and also offers 1080p at 30fps video capture.

This setup is adequate for basic use like remembering where you parked your car or to shoot a quick off-the-cuff shot of your meal and perhaps a selfie or two.

Shots work best in bright daylight at up to 2x zoom which basically is crop zooming the feed from the sensor but beyond that, images lack detail and look rather soft. 

 

 

Shots in low light are noisy affairs even without zoom and you need a steady hand or a tripod to yield decent shots. Videos aren’t the realme C75’s strong suit and a maximum of 1080p@30fps falls short of what is needed by a content creator.

Much like outcomes in low light photography scenarios, our realme C75 review sample needs a very steady hand or tripod though that is to be expected in this price range.

Should you buy the realme C75?

The realme C75 stands out as a budget phone on account of its exceptional durability, large battery and modest RM699 price point. If you can live with the middling camera setup, 4G connectivity and relatively short 2 years of OS and security updates, this makes for an ideal as a starter phone for younger users and those who simply need something sufficiently capable to handle modern tasks like calling a Grab, getting about with Waze and the like.

Realme C75 review sample courtesy of realme Malaysia. For more details and to purchase please visit https://www.realme.com/my/realme-c75