realme’s C Series of smartphones tend to have the essentials of what users expect. Those include a decent high refresh rate screen, a big battery with fast charging, and a decent camera. Recently, phone makers are making durability a priority in budget and midrange phones. realme’s latest C Series phone is the first in its segment to get three ingress protection (IP for short) ratings: IP66, IP68, and IP69. While I appreciate the better durability, does it have more to offer than that? Find out in my realme C75 review.
Disclaimer: realme Philippines sent over the realme C75 review unit in Storm Black. It arrived on January 13 and was unboxed on the same day. I’ve been using the C75 on and off for a month.
Unboxing Experience
The C75 continues to bring the typical realme unboxing experience, including the jelly case and the charger in the box. For every year that phone brands continue to include chargers, I will continue to question the others that don’t.
Design and Build
The realme C75 carries over the flat sides from the C65 while ditching its glossy back for a more matte finish. It comes in two colors: Lightning Gold and Storm Black (the one I have). This phone keeps the microSD card slot and dual SIM support of its predecessor. (Shockingly there’s no headphone jack!) While there’s nothing to write home about with its design, realme has made a big deal with the durability of this phone.
The realme C75 is the first in its segment to have three ingress protection (IP, for short) ratings: IP66, IP68, and IP69. Those ratings mean that this phone can withstand more punishment in terms of water resistance. Having those three is impressive, even compared to more expensive flagship phones. IP69 particularly stands out, since that means the phone can withstand being subject to high-pressure and high-temperature water jets on top of protection against total dust ingress.
The best part about all that protection? realme didn’t skimp on the basics such as clicky buttons and a simple design. This phone also features ArmorShell Protection which enables all-around protection from corner to corner thanks to having an internal airbag design and an integrated metal inner frame.
Display and Speakers
The realme C75 rocks a 6.72-inch LCD with a resolution of 2400×1080 and a 90Hz refresh rate. While there isn’t anything special with this display, I commend realme for bringing almost uniform-looking bezels on this C Series device. (This wasn’t really the case in prior models.) It only has okay brightness at 690 nits on HBM (high brightness mode), so don’t expect much when using this phone outdoors.
An honest disappointment for me is just having a single speaker on the C75. More phones in the sub-P10,000 price range have dual or stereo speakers in 2025. Even with the C75’s better durability, there’s really little to no excuse in not having dual speakers. Yes, the single speaker itself is loud that you can get away with casual use. You can even use it to eject water using SonicWave Water Ejection! I just find the sound falling apart when you cover the speaker.
Performance and Software
Another curious change that realme made for the C75 is in its performance. This phone uses the MediaTek Helio G92 Max processor. Supporting the chip is 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128 or 256 GB of eMMC 5.1 storage. The C Series is about the essentials and I feel that realme didn’t need to do much in this department.
Here are some AnTuTu benchmark results, if you care about them:
The performance was noticeable for me even when playing Pokémon UNITE. I didn’t get the best possible graphics and frame rate settings on this phone. At least the game was playable for the whole session.
The realme C75 runs realme UI 5.0 based on Android 14. It keeps many of the software features introduced by the C65, including Dynamic Button and Mini Capsule. While those are nice additions, what impressed me was how much realme UI 5.0 manages to feel relatively smooth with the hardware the phone has. Yes, this phone feels slow to me, but that’s because I’m so used to midrange phones already. Those looking to the C75 as a reliable phone for users under intense environments or even a second phone for emergencies will feel right at home.
Battery Experience
An aspect of this realme C75 review that I was sure would be a positive is its battery and charging. This phone has a huge 6000 mAh battery paired with 45W SUPERVOOC fast charging. Note that you get the fast charging benefit right away with the included charger.
Charging from 20% to 60% only took around 20 minutes, so expect charging times from 0 to 100 to take around an hour. As for the battery life? It got a good score of around 16 hours in the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test.
In my real world usage, I can never kill the C75 in a day. This is with my typical mixed use of at least an hour or two of social media, 1-2 hours of watching YouTube, and some photo taking. Its endurance makes this phone really good for delivery app riders.
Cameras
Like with most C Series phones, I don’t expect much from the cameras of the realme C75. In fact, I only consider this phone to have two cameras: a 50MP main rear camera, and an 8MP front camera. Any other camera holes you see on the back are just filler sensors that don’t do much.
Are the photos any good? Let’s check them out!
Click or tap on the photos for full-resolution versions!
When you have enough light, the realme C75’s 50MP main camera can produce good photos. It manages to keep detail for the most part, and realme’s image processing helps here especially with color reproduction.
The main camera also does a decent job with handling indoor shots with enough light. There are some differences with how it handles overexposed parts of the photo depending on the zoom level, but I’m mostly fine with it.
The main camera does fall apart in low light. Unless you want to look at really soft photos, I recommend you go for a midrange phone with better cameras.
Portraits and Selfies
If you’re familiar with realme’s origins, then you know that faces and selfies look good when taken with cameras on realme phones. It’s no different on the C75. The 8MP selfie camera is good for the basic shots in good lighting, but can’t really handle overexposed parts.
If you expected the realme C75 to have great cameras, then you might want to look elsewhere. The quality is decent enough for the price though.
Should You Buy the realme C75?
The realme C75 still carries the torch when it comes to providing the essentials in a smartphone. While the overall package won’t amaze you at first glance, its great battery life and insane durability are features you can count on the most. Starting at P8,999, the C75 is good for those who need a phone that can handle harsh environments or for delivery app riders/drivers who need their phone to last longer.
Pros
- Slim design with a matte back
- microSD card s
- Insane durability with IP66, IP68, and IP69 ratings
- Decent 6.72-inch LCD display with almost symmetrical bezels
- realme UI keeps the C75 smooth for an entry-level phone
- Great battery experience thanks to its 6000 mAh battery + 45W SUPERVOOC fast charging
- Decent photos from 50MP main camera and 8MP front camera when given enough light
Cons
- A relatively boring design by realme standards
- No headphone jack on a sub-P10,000 phone
- Could use an AMOLED display and better brightness
- Only having a single speaker
- Performance is okay for basic users but not for gaming
- Don’t even bother using the C75 in taking low-light shots
The realme C75 retails for P8,999 for the 8GB+128GB variant and P10,999 for the 8GB+256GB variant. It is available at all realme Stores and authorized retailers, as well as online through TikTok and Shopee.