Realme is trying hard to differentiate itself from their origin company, OPPO. The first step was obvious: they had to stop rebranding (Realme 1 and OPPO F7 Youth share common codename). The next task is not as easy as it sounds – the smartphone maker should ditch OPPO’s ColorOS.

realme_x_specs_coloros_realme_edition
Newer Realme phones come with slightly modified ColorOS – first step towards Realme OS perhaps

Besides Realme X, the newly released Realme 5 and 5 Pro also feature something called ‘ColorOS 6 Realme Edition’, which is nothing but a series of tweaked visual changes that are not available on OPPO phones.

Matter of fact, the company is incorporating a handful of other changes in their skin. For example, the latest OTA for Indian Realme X brought OSIE Vision Tracking for popular social video apps alongside August security patches.

realme_x_a.07_osie
OSIE can be used with TikTok, Likee, Vmate, Vigo and similar apps

The Chinese OEM also launched Realme 3i – a budget device with waterdrop notch and MediaTek Helio P60 SoC – accompanying Realme X. This nifty handset already got July security patches as the day-one OTA (A.19) after release.

Realme rolled out another incremental OTA (A.20) for Realme 3i owners shortly after the first one, albeit the changelog did not highlight anything other than the generic “Fixed some known issues and improved system stability” phrase. Now the phone is reportedly getting another small update.

realme_3i_a.21_ota

Don’t get too much excited, as the August patch is still not there. Realme pushed this 177 MB OTA (software version RMX1827EX_11_A.21) with the sole intention to introduce their own store (which might be considered as bloatware) in this phone.

realme_3i_a.21_ota_changelog

System

– Fixed some known issues and improved system stability. 

Application

– Added realme Store (India only)

Bundling such an app inside system is a poor decision, as it is available on Google Play Store for a while. Manufacturers should use stub installers if they are willing to bring more preinstalled apps, so that power users should have the ability of ignoring them.

Well, end of the day it’s Realme. We hope the upcoming Realme OS will give end users a clean, bloat-free experience.

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Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

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