A couple of years ago, Realme launched a lifestyle sub-brand named TechLife to launch AIoT devices. At the beginning of this month, the company announced that TechLife has been rebranded to Narzo. The Narzo N55, which was announced after the rebranding, is the company’s first Narzo N-series phone. The N55 is aimed at people who are looking for a stylish phone with lots of features on a phone that’s priced under Rs 12,000. Continue reading ahead to learn what’s in store for people looking forward to purchasing the Narzo N55.
Realme Narzo N55 review: What’s in the box?
The Realme Narzo N55 retail package includes the following items:
- Realme Narzo N55 handset
- SIM ejector tool
- 33W SuperVOOC charger
- USB-C to USB-A cable
- User manual
- Safety Guide
Design and Display
| Dimensions | Display | |
| Size – 165.6 x 75.9 x 7.89mm | 6.72-inch IPS LCD display | 392 ppi pixel density |
| Weight – 189.5 grams | 1080 x 2412 pixels (FHD+) | Widevine L1 |
| No IP rating | 20:9 aspect ratio | |
| 90Hz refresh rate | ||
| Color variants | 180Hz touch sampling rate | |
| Prime Black | Up to 680 nits of brightness | |
| Prime Blue | 91.4% screen-to-body ratio |
Realme sent us the Realme Narzo N55 in Prime Blue edition, which sports an attractive dual-tone design and flat edges. In Realme’s words, it is dubbed “Dynamic Splicing Design.” The top portion housing the cameras has a slightly darker finish, whereas the remaining portion has a lighter shade with a subtle shimmery pattern. The rear shell and frame of the device are made from polycarbonate material. The thickness of the device is 7.89 mm, and it weighs 189.5 grams. In terms of design, I can say that Realme has done a good job in the design department on the N55.
The top edge of the Realme Narzo N55 is barren, whereas its bottom features a speaker grille, a USB-C port, a microphone, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The left side of the phone features a SIM slot, while its right edge has a volume rocker and a power key, which are integrated with a fingerprint sensor.
The phone’s retail package doesn’t come with a protective case, so I recommend purchasers of this phone consider buying one to prevent it from getting damaged if it falls.
Moving on to the display, the Narzo N55 is fitted with a massive 6.72-inch ISP LCD panel with a punch-hole design and slim bezels, which allows it to offer an impressive screen space. The screen produces an FHD+ resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. There are three refresh rate options: Auto Select, High (90Hz), and Standard (60Hz).
The screen color mode available in display settings provides Vivid and Natural color profiles. The former produces richer colors, while the latter offers softer colors. Both color schemes offer color temperature options like Cooler, Default, and Warmer. The phone supports Widevine L1 DRM. The Narzo N55, with its large display, is a good device for content consumption. While the screen is quite bright, as it offers up to 680 nits of brightness, users are likely to encounter viewing issues under direct sunlight, which is a common issue on most phones in this price segment.
Performance and Software
| MediaTek Helio G88 | 5,000mAh battery |
| 4GB / 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM | 33W charging |
| 64GB / 128GB of eMMC 5.1 storage | Android 13 OS with ColorOS 13 |
| 12GB of virtual RAM |
The Realme Narzo N55 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G88, which is a 12nm chip. The review unit, which was provided to me, has 6 GB of RAM and a large storage capacity of 128 GB. There is a dedicated microSD card slot onboard. In addition, it offers up to 12 GB of virtual RAM.
The Narzo N55 comes equipped with a decent 5,000mAh battery. Using the 33W charger that came with the device, it took approximately 73 minutes for the phone to fully charge from 0 to 100 percent.
The Narzo N55 is good enough for playing lighter games. The Realme UI 4.0-based Android 13 feels smooth and feature-rich until you open the app drawer, where you can find bloatware, such as Hot Apps, Hot FreeGames, and Hot Games, to name a few. While these cannot be removed, other preloaded apps like ShareChat, Moj, Josh, and so on can be uninstalled. Otherwise, the overall performance of the device is smooth and offers a clutter-free experience.
The review will be incomplete without talking about the Mini Capsule feature, which seems to be inspired by Apple’s Dynamic Island available on iPhones. The Mini Capsule feature can show charging status and data usage limits on a capsule-like screen space occupying the left and right sides of the display punch-hole.
The Mini-Capsule as well as other features like Dual-Mode Audio and Sleep Capsule are available through the Realme Lab section in Settings. With Dual-Mode Audio, you can connect both wired and wireless headphones to enjoy music through either option. Meanwhile, Sleep Capsule is a night mode that limits access to certain apps. The Realme UI 4.0 also includes a feature named “Auto Pixelate” that, upon a single tap, will promptly identify and pixelate profile names and photos in screenshots.
Here is a look at the Narzo N55’s performance on Geekbench, AnTuTu, and CPU Throttle.
Photography and Other Features
| Rear Camera | Other features |
| 64MP OmniVision OV64B primary camera | Side-mounted fingerprint scanner |
| 2MP B&W camera | Face unlock |
| Dual-LED flash | Wi-Fi 802.11ac |
| Bluetooth 5.1 | |
| Front Camera | GPS |
| 8MP camera | USB-C |
The Narzo N55 has an 8-megapixel camera on the front. Its back panel has a flagship-grade 64-megapixel OmniVision OV64GB camera and a 2-megapixel B&W sensor. The N55 comes with the same primary camera as the Realme GT Master Edition, a more expensive phone. However, to fully utilize the capabilities of the camera sensor, it is also crucial to have a powerful chipset like the Snapdragon 778G that’s available on the GT Master Edition. While the Helio G88 is a good chip, it is not as powerful as the Snapdragon 7-series chip, which is usually on phones priced around Rs 25,000. Nevertheless, the N55 does not really disappoint in the camera department.
The camera app on the N55 offers modes like Night, Street, Video, Photo (default), Portrait, 64MP, Pano, SlowMo, Timelapse, and Pro. The man snapper offers four digital zoom shorts, such as 1x, 2x, 5x, and 10x.
By default, the primary camera captures 16-megapixel photos with good detail and colors that are slightly saturated. The close-up images were sharp and distinct, exhibiting minimal noise and excellent details. If the lighting conditions are poor, the night mode can be useful in reducing noise, but this may also result in a decrease in image sharpness. Additionally, taking a photo in the night mode takes longer, around 4-5 seconds, and requires holding the phone still. The phone supports up to 60fps 1080p video recording. It does not offer any sort of stabilization feature.
When there is ample light, the 8-megapixel selfies captured turn out well, exhibiting natural colors. When using the front-facing camera’s Portrait mode, the edge detection feature was typical for this category. However, selfies taken in low light appeared slightly soft and noisy, and the edge detection feature was not precise.
The Realme Narzo N55 possesses a solitary speaker located at the bottom. It includes a 200% volume boost capability that appears to amplify high-frequency sounds. However, the rise in volume is not particularly substantial.
Verdict
To sum up, the Realme Narzo N55 is an attractive device that tries to do many things at an affordable price. Some may feel that the device should have included an AMOLED display, but doing so would have increased its price. Its features, like a flagship-level camera, 33W fast charging, a big battery, a decent processor, and a massive display, are enough to recommend it to someone who is looking for a budget-friendly device.
The Narzo N55 competes with the likes of the Tecno Spark 10 Pro, the Redmi 12C, and the Moto G32. There are two 5G phones as well with similar pricing, such as the Vivo T2x and Blaze 5G. While these offer 5G connectivity, their other specs could be inferior to the N55.
Variants, Price and Availability
The Realme Narzo N55 is available for purchase through Amazon and Realme India’s website. It is also available for purchase through offline stores across India. It comes in the following variants and color options:
- 4 GB RAM + 64 GB storage – Rs 10,999 (~$134)
- 6 GB RAM + 128 G storage – Rs 12,999 (~$158)
- Colors: Prime Black and Prime Blue
Disclaimer: All of the opinions in this Realme Narzo N55 review are mine and based on my own experiences. There has been no editorial input from Realme.
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