Realme has announced the upcoming launch of the Realme C55: a new entry-level smartphone, but one that has a peculiarity, to say the least, surprising. Like the iPhone 14 Pro, this model incorporates its own Dynamic Island. A mode called “Mini Capsule” that takes up the concept of Apple … less well.
Last September, Apple launched its iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The best iPhones ever designed have a particularity: a pill in the middle of the screen making the notch disappear. We still have Face ID and its sensors as well as the selfie photosensor, but to better pass the pill (do you have it?), Apple has dressed all this with interface functions. Dynamic Island is used to display information about the pill, such as details of a live sports match, etc.
This Realme smartphone copies Apple’s Dynamic Island
like the media IT house As reported, the CEO of Realme Europe, Francis Wong, confirmed on Twitter this Wednesday, March 8, the upcoming arrival of the Realme C55 in Europe. The problem of this smartphone that wants to integrate its “ minicapsuleit is first and foremost your screen. It is an FHD + panel with a refresh rate of 90 Hz, but above all it is an LCD screen. The problem is that the black pixels are on, unlike the Oled found on the iPhone 14 Pro. These offer a tablet that can be mistaken for a black screen thanks to almost infinite contrast. Enough to confuse a material element with an interface element. This will not be the case on the Realme C55, as the magnification impression of this tablet will probably be less.
#realmeC55 Launching soon in Europe. pic.twitter.com/pDtUrMk9S6
—Francis Wong (@FrancisRealme) March 7, 2023
However, the biggest challenge for Realme, if the brand wants to impose its brand with the Mini Capsule, is the software. It is more the usefulness of its function than its integration that is important. And for the moment, the first images may leave a lot to be desired. For example, we can display the battery percentage on the side: that’s fine, but we’ve already been able to do it for years in the status bar of our Android smartphones, through a simple setting in settings. Furthermore, we can see the name of Realme’s charging technology being displayed, namely SuperVOOC. There, too, is not of much interest.
Introducing our most interactive #realmeC55 user interface, #MiniCapsule! 💡 We can’t wait for you to try it! On a scale of 1-10, tell us how excited you are! 😍 pic.twitter.com/VLX557KS4C
— realme (@realmeglobal) March 2, 2023
In the above image shared by Realme on Twitter, we also notice that the display of “SuperVOOCit apparently leaves less room for notifications. In addition, the visualization of the load is a priori one of the only functions offered by the so-called Mini Capsule, as indicated by the Technology Edge medium, always on Twitter:
realme c55 dynamic island
Mini Capsule is for charging notification only#realmeC55NFC #isladynamic #realmeC55 pic.twitter.com/eUp5pvyUXQ
— State-of-the-art technology ✪ (@Tech_EdgeTE) March 8, 2023
Other information displayed is advertised on the Realme C55 Indian sales page, “such as phone charging status, low battery warning, data usage, daily steps and distance traveled.Also, data usage and step display will only be available via a later OTA update on this Realme smartphone.
Why a Dynamic Island in Android is a bad idea
The first hurdle to implement this way of better integrating swipes on our Android smartphones is that no one uses a Dynamic Island except Realme with its C55. At the moment, Android does not provide such a feature with Android 14. Therefore, it is (for the moment) up to manufacturers to integrate it into their interfaces, which adds development work to them. There are already some tests, such as an extension for MIUI unsheathed a few days after the Apple conference.
This also means that there is no standard for a Dynamic Island in Android: if we want to have compatibility with the applications, it will be the developers of the latter who take care of it, and this, in each interface. The chances of this arising are therefore very low. Apple’s strength is to offer, throughlive activitiesan API for developers to run their applications.
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