The entry level Android smartphone market in India is a place with fierce competitions. Once dominated by Xiaomi, new candidates like Asus, Nokia and Realme are now securing the lion’s share of the huge user base in this segment.

redmi_5a_front_back
Redmi 5A: With a $70 price tag, it’s one of the top selling Android smartphones of 2018

Realme is the youngest member in this crowd. Yet another distant cousin of OnePlus and Vivo, the Chinese OEM quickly built a huge fan following in India since their arrival in 2018.

The budget conscious C series of the Realme portfolio initiated with the release of Realme C1 (rebranded OPPO A3s). The successor, i.e. Realme C2, was launched after merely 7 months and brought plenty of improvements.

RealmeC2
Realme C2

The OEM reduced the size of the notch and made it like a waterdrop. Apart from the regular 2 GB RAM/16 GB storage, a 3/32 variant was introduced as well.

Realme also bundled Android 9.0 Pie based ColorOS 6.0 out of the box in this phone. The battery capacity was slightly lowered down – from 4,230 mAh (in Realme C1) to 4,000 mAh. However, the phone came with a basic 5V-1A (5W) charger.

qualcomm_quickcharge_compariosn
A rough comparison of different USB fast charging outputs (from Qualcomm)

Although the SoC of Realme C2 (MediaTek Helio P22) supports various fast charging techs (including MediaTek’s own Pump Express), the Chinese OEM cut the corners by opting for typical (and slow as hell) USB charging.

Well, not any more! The recent most software update for Realme C2 silently enabled 5V-2A (10W) charging support. The version number of the update is RMX1941EX_11.A.11 which also brought May 2019 security patches.

realme_c2_may_update

  • Device: Realme C2
  • Codename: rmx1941
  • Channel: Global (India) Stable
  • Version: RMX1941EX_11.A.11
  • Android: 9.0 (ColorOS 6.0)
    • Type: Recovery
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: 8a793ec0a3de47cc36fbf47f9f0100ab

The update went live at the end of May, but wide rollout started a few days ago. The changelog does not contain a single word regarding fast charging support, which creates some confusions among end users.

System

– Android Security Patch Level: May 5th, 2019

– Fixed some bugs and improved stability

Madhav Sheth, Realme India CEO, stepped in and decided to clarify the situation. Yes, your beloved Realme C2 does support 10W fast charging after the latest OTA update.

realme_c2_fast_charging_madhav_tweet

It’s worth mentioning that you still need to buy a compatible 5v-2A microUSB charger to get the full potential of the feature. The included charger in the box needs to be ditched as it falls back to slow (5W) charging anyway.

PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.

Tags

Realme C2
user-profile user-profile

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.

Next article View Article
Accessories

Mi Band 4 (Smart Band 4) touch screen issues come to light

When it comes to smart wearables devices, this exponentially booming market is already occupied by plenty of players. Xiaomi is no stranger in this segment, especially their global sub-brand...
Jun 26, 2019 0 Min Read