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As of today, a new Chinese company joins the smartphone market in Spain. This is Realme, a manufacturer that despite its youth (born in May 2018) has a lot of experience in the sector and seems to know what the perfect strategy is to face Xiaomi: premium benefits at affordable prices.

This experience is no accident. Realme is part of the BBK Electronics group, an Asian giant to which old people known as Oppo, OnePlus or Vivo belong and now welcomes a new member, although not unknown.

In 2010, Oppo put the first Oppo Real on sale, a sub-brand that, like Huawei with Honor or Xiaomi with Redmi or Pocophone, operated as a dependent firm to Oppo, until 2018. That year, Oppo's vice president, Sky Li , decided to leave the company to turn Realme into an independent brand.

Li did something similar to what Pete Lau had already done with OnePlus, and his first goal was to focus on the Indian market. Sky Li had been head of Oppo in India and knew this market well. So well, that with Realme it has managed to position the brand as one of the best sellers in the country, with milestones such as the sale of one million mobiles in three days or 200,000 units in one minute.

It is rare for a Chinese company to start selling in India rather than in its country of origin, but according to Realme's head in Europe, Levi Lee, "the focus on India was set to offer millions of young people the possibility of accessing a mobile of last generation, with benefits of a top of range, but with accessible prices ".

So far, Realme has put eight mobile phones on sale and they all meet this goal, with prices not exceeding 400 euros.

Arrival in Europe

After landing in China (in April 2019, one year after its launch in India), Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan or Egypt, among other markets, today Realme has officially made its landing in Europe with an event in Madrid, a city that has been chosen to locate its headquarters for European cities where it begins its journey: France, England, Italy and Spain.

At the moment, the Realme team in Spain will be formed by 10 people, although from the company they point out that it will grow. "We have looked for very prepared young people who understand what the youngest want, which is who we want to address."

This segment of young people is, according to Lee, the most open public to meet new brands and seek the highest quality at the best price, which is just what they proclaim.

In India, this strategy has worked perfectly for them and now they intend to repeat it in Europe, specifically in Spain. The problem? The giant Xiaomi, whose strategy is the same and shares exactly the same price range.

When Xiaomi landed in Spain, now two years ago, the Chinese company already had a large army of fans who bought the terminals online. In addition, it was practically the only one to offer a good ratio of benefits at adjusted prices, so the growth was meteoric.

In the case of Realme, the thing is more complicated. The smartphone market does not grow as it did two years ago and nevertheless Xiaomi remains strong. In addition, other companies such as Samsung have chosen to boost their mid-range and low-middle range and are getting a good position in this price range.

Realme will have to compete with these two giants and the rest of the manufacturers to maintain the good figures it has obtained so far in the Indian market and even in the global market.

In this year and a half, Realme has sneaked into the ranking of the most relevant telephony brands. According to Counterpoint, in just 12 months, it appears as the tenth company that sold the most terminals in the second quarter of 2019, with 4.7 million phones sold and a market share of 1.3%.

Mobile phones with four cameras for 200 euros

Realme arrives in Spain with three devices, the Realme 5 Pro, the Realme 2X and 2X Pro. All of them have four rear cameras and some specifications of a terminal of more than 500 euros.

For example, the Realme 2X boasts a 64 Mpx lens, an ultra wide angle lens, a macro and one for portrait mode. Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor and 6 or 8 GB of RAM with 64 or 128 storage.

In the case of the crown jewel, the Realme X2 Pro, officially presented today in Madrid, the Chinese raises the bet with the processor and the screen but does not increase the cost too much.

Your prices? Realme has promised to always offer affordable terminals, and for now it complies to the letter. The Realme 5 Pro does not exceed 200 euros and in the absence of knowing the prices of the new X2 and X2 Pro, it is not expected to exceed 400.

In addition, the Chinese offers on its website two lower-end terminals, the Realme 3 and 3 Pro for 199 euros.

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