Realme launches first 5G smartphone in India; analysts say no value for users sans 5G connectivity

Chinese handset maker Realme on Monday launched first 5G smartphone models in India at a price starting Rs 37,999 onwards.

While the new smartphone models in the Realme X50 Pro 5G series are the most expensive handsets from Realme, industry analysts see it of no value for customers in India in the absence of the 5G network.

"We are proud to unveil India's first 5G, super-fast, and performance-driven smartphone -- the flagship Realme X50 Pro 5G today (Monday)," Realme India CEO Madhav Seth said.

The company has fixed the prices of its three variants at Rs 37,999, Rs 39,999 and Rs 44,999, depending upon the memory storage capacity.

"For users, I do not see any convincing reason to go for a 5G phone... For Indian users, it will make sense to go for 5G phones in the first half of 2022. Invariable good thing that OEMs (phone makers) will do is that over a period of time, the price will go down," Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst of market research firm TechARC, said.

He said that in the past, 4G handsets were launched at a price of around Rs 45,000 but gradually, the prices came down.

"I think that by 2022, India will have 5G network and that is when consumers will have a reason to buy 5G phones. The prices will come down substantially by then," Kawoosa said.

According to Realme, the new 5G smartphone models have dual SIM slots that will enable users to access both 4G and 5G services at the same time and either of the two SIM cards can be activated as the primary 5G SIM card.

"5G smartphone will only matter when India has 5G networks. For now, smartphone makers should not even market it as a feature as it's nothing but a gimmick. By the time Indians get 5G connectivity in the next 2-3 years, these 5G smartphones will be an obsolete technology," The Unbiased Blog founder Nikhil Chawla said.

Realme announced that it will sell the 5G smartphone models through e-commerce portal Flipkart, starting Monday.