I love me a beautiful looking phone. That is something I have always insisted in all my phone reviews on this blog. But for years until recently, phone manufacturers have tortured us with gadget after gadget of dreary black or charcoal grey devices and no other choice. All of them. Like I said in a past article, “do I worry about phone colour that much? To a reasonable extent yes. Somewhere between ‘I will not diva my way to the factory to demand for a cerulean phone’ and ‘I will not spend my entire life with black or steel grey phones. There’s nothing wrong with a charcoal phone but there is everything wrong with lack of choice. You can see I still think about colour enough to start an article with that as my first paragraph.
Anyway, nothing brings me more joy than to see the kinds of handsets that are coming into the market now. We finally have colours to chose from and we do not have to scout heaven and earth to get them. And they are not shady psychedelic colours but classy and in just the right tone to blend into our lives. At least this girl’s life. A phone is a piece of lifestyle and colour is the first thing you see and live with in your hands. On your desk. In your handbag. On your bedside table…that is me trying to justify my love for a good looker.
Realme, the latest entrant into the Kenyan smartphone market hit town with a bang with the rollout of realme C3 having already taken the Kenyan market by storm. And if the slogan ‘Dare To Leap’ is anything to go by, we ain’t seen nothing yet. With Kenya being one of Africa’s biggest smartphone consumer, I think realme is in good waters. And yes, we have beautiful colours.
Realme has today unveiled two more models – the realme C11 and Realme 6 – making that a total of 3 phone variants in the country in the space of just one month. I doubt this would be the case if Kenya gave a poor reception. As per Communication Authority just last year, Kenya was at 91 percent mobile subscription penetration and customers are now looking out for affordable smartphones and value for money. After all, smartphones are no longer a luxury but a necessity.
With an entry level phone like the C11 retailing at Ksh9,999/-, realme is right on the money since it is affordable enough for many Kenyans to be able to get their hands on it. Among the phones impressive features is a massive 5000mAh battery and this is good value for money because there is really nothing good about a phone that’s always threatening to go off. The official first sale day for realme C11 will be on August 28th both online and offline.
The realme 6 is pricier at Ksh 29,999/- but the features! Among them 128GB internal storage, a 64Mp quad camera, and a 4300mAh battery that charges 70% in just half an hour. Or full charge in one hour. There is something about fast charging gadgets that give me even more assurance than a huge battery. For example, 30 minutes as you have a light meal at a restaurant and you have enough charge to save you from the anxiety of a dead or dying phone. Same goes with enough internal memory. You can take your photos, videos, store games and series episodes without that voice at the back of your head that the phone is about to slap you with a warning.
The official first sale day for realme 6 will be on September 2nd both online and offline and every customer will get a free realme band worth Kshs 2,999.
Realme is not just gloating about taking the world by storm. As it is, it has already marched into the top five rankings in 9 global markets. It is the fourth mobile phone brand in Southeast Asia which is the fourth largest mobile phone market in the world. It has sold 40 million smartphones across 59 markets globally and ranks top 7 in the world in terms of gadget shipments. In 2019, realme’s ranked number one fastest growing smartphone in the world.
With all these impressive stats, it does not seem like it will be difficult to achieve its goal of 100 million units in global smartphone sales in two to three years.
