36 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 71
stock OS, albeit with a few notable tweaks. These
include the ‘Smart Assistant’ page when you swipe
left on the screen. This is Realme’s answer to the
Google Now cards, with customizable widgets
displaying the likes of weather, time and upcoming
calendar events. In reality, it didn’t offer the same
level of functionality as Google’s offering, so it’s not
something we could see ourselves regularly using.
The Realme 5 also has a pretty significant problem
with bloatware. If you decide against installing a
number of apps from the ‘App Market’ on setup,
they will still be shown in your app drawer in a ‘Hot
Apps’ folder. This can be refreshed to display new
suggestions but never deleted, acting as a shopfront
for Oppo’s version of the Google Play Store.
It’s a similar story with the adjacent ‘Hot Games’
folder, although this takes you directly to the games
The software is relatively
similar to Google’s stock OS
