Realme Android One: Should the company jump into the game?

From the perspective of iOS users, the world of Android is overly bizarre as well as funny. There is no standard user interface, and of course it is not possible to get software updates at the same time. Oh yes, built-in functionalities of the OS often differ from model to model.

When it comes to the choice of skins, the whole Android community is divided into various groups. The purists adore the vanilla Android and its swiftness, thus the Google’s version of Android, i.e. the one you can find on Pixel phones, is the ultimate benchmark for them.

Samsung’s One UI or EMUI from Huawei/Honor comes with their own set of feature set and theming solution, and they do have a cult following as well. However, the bias towards clutter free Android is rising exponentially, which is the reason behind the popularity of Android One devices.

While Android OEMs nowadays like to included one or two Android One phones in their portfolio, Nokia took a rebellious stance and enrolled all of their mainstream phones to the Google-led program. However, none of the OPPO family (OPPO, Vivo, Realme, OnePlus) is part of the initiative.

OxygenOS from OnePlus can be thought as the close-to-stock variant of OPPO’s ColorOS or Vivo’s Funtouch OS. Realme, the youngest member in this group, ships their phones with ColorOS, but they are planning for an alternative OS (dubbed as Realme OS) for some time.

The urge for an Android One phone from Realme is skyrocketing since the inception of the company. Social media platforms, even the company’s own support forum are being saturated with the queries from Realme fans regarding a new phone/series with stock Android.

Adding more fuel to the game of speculation, an alleged leaked picture of the Realme A1 retail box surfaced on the interweb. Keeping aside the authenticity of the leak, don’t you think the naming scheme is quite similar with older Android One phones (Micromax Canvas A1/QMobile A1/Xiaomi Mi A1)?

Do you guys think that the Realme A1 will be the first phone from the Chinese OEM to sport stock Android instead of ColorOS? Should your average Joe (or Jane) prefer the slimmer Android with faster updates or ColorOS specific functionalities, like Theme Store and lock screen magazine?

We would love to hear your opinions. Let us know by commenting below.

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