All Realme phones launching above Rs 20,000 in 2021 to feature 5G: Madhav Sheth

Realme CEO Madhav Sheth shares the brand’s plans to bring 5G to the masses, including more 5G phones to the Indian market.

“Realme aims to be the 5G populariser in India, in Europe and other global markets,” shared Madhav Sheth. (Image Source: Realme)

Written by: Chetan Nayak

3 min readMumbaiFeb 8, 2021 10:25 AM IST First published on: Feb 8, 2021 at 10:00 AM IST

“Realme aims to be the 5G populariser in India, in Europe and other global markets,” Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth told indianexpress.com in an interaction. Sheth went on to add that half the products that Realme will launch in India in 2021 will be 5G-enabled and that all smartphones launched above Rs 20,000 from the brand will be 5G capable.

“To achieve this, we will introduce 5G-enabled smartphones at democratised prices to enable users to experience the latest processor with much-enhanced capability in terms of power management, display optimisation, camera support, gaming performance, etc, and get consumers future-ready for 5G,” he added.

It is not surprising to see Realme being bullish on 5G smartphones. After all, the brand was one of the first to bring 5G smartphones in India with its Realme X50 Pro in early 2020.

While actual 5G connectivity was a long way in India back in February 2020, the reality for 5G has changed drastically in India in 2021. Major telecom providers such as Airtel and Reliance Jio are racing to launch India’s first large-scale, stable 5G network.

5G is the next big step in India’s digital growth

“While the primary benefits of 5G are enhanced connectivity and speed, I believe it has the power to revolutionise industries such as education and healthcare and turn every household into a smart home,” Sheth said.

“With everything moving online – work, education, payments – the dependency of consumers on technology has increased,” he added. “Consumers nowadays are more inclined towards adopting a connected and tech-empowered lifestyle and 5G is bound to play a pivotal role in building this lifestyle for them.”

Realme’s efforts to launch more 5G phones in India and other markets will also be boosted by the fact that more chipsets are now supporting the next-gen network. Unlike 2020 and before, when 5G connectivity was limited to high-end chipsets, both Qualcomm and MediaTek have started making mid-range chipsets that feature in-built 5G modems.

Qualcomm recently announced its Snapdragon 480 chipset, which is also 5G ready and the 400-series is typically meant for budget/affordable phones which are in the $150 (Rs 10,000) price range. MediaTek has its Dimensity 800U and Dimensity 1000+ chipset, which are also 5G ready. Realme’s latest phones the Realme X7 5G and X7 Pro 5G are powered by these MediaTek chipsets, with prices starting at Rs 19,999 and Rs 29,999 respectively.