I want to give the best of technology in a language the layman can understand. I always believe that technology shouldn’t be for a certain segment of the population. It’s for everyone. I think it is the birthright for people to use technology to simplify their lives,” Madhav Sheth, vice-president of Realme and chief executive officer of Realme India, told The Telegraph a few months ago. And he is staying the course with the new Realme Narzo series. We caught up with him on the phone earlier this week to get the low-down on the new devices, which you can buy on May 18.

Madhav Sheth, vice-president of Realme and chief executive officer of Realme India Sourced by the Telegraph

What makes the Narzo series special?

Narzo is a performance-oriented series that we have built for all young players in India. Realme started its journey with the (motto) ‘power meets style’ and has grown into a tech trendsetter, bringing latest technologies for Indian consumers, such as India’s first 64MP camera, India’s fastest charging technology, India’s first 5G phone and so on. Narzo is a performance phone for young players, with the best processor in its segment.

During the course of the epidemic, the demand for budget and mid-range products have become vigorous and diversified. We need to meet these different needs. Some people like to take pictures but never play games, and some people like games but never take selfies. Our release of the Narzo series is an attempt to meet the needs of gaming enthusiasts and performance seekers.

The launch of the series was delayed for the lockdown but do you think fewer launches would help a brand to think more clearly about what people want?

Fewer launches don’t necessarily bring you better products. If you check 20 smartphone brands, top five brands launch far more products than the rest and still manage to give better quality and better specs. And if you check customer reviews of all brands on shopping platforms, say Flipkart or Amazon, you will notice that Realme has been getting the best customer reviews among all brands. So customers who are using our phones understand the excellent quality and specs we are providing.

And by launching many phones in a year, we have still managed to give one of the most frequent monthly software updates to users.

Having already achieved a lot on the photography front, what can we expect on the video front?

Vlogging has become a popular trend; people enjoy shooting videos and upload on UGC platforms, like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. Yes, the Narzo series is focusing more on gaming performance. However, we have added a wide-angle video feature in Narzo as our product team has noticed a strong demand from our user community.

Our latest exploration on the camera front reflects on the Realme 6 series, with features including UIS max stabilisation, ultra-wide support, bokeh effect, 120fps selfie slow-mo, 4K video, EIS and our popular customised app Soloop for shooting vlogs. Some of those features are still just available on the 20K+ segment but Realme has brought them to the mid-range segment.

What plans on the smartwatch front?

We are about to launch our first smartwatch very soon. I have been wearing it myself recently, giving my feedback to the product team for improvement. IoT is an essential part of Realme’s triangle strategy, so we won’t be just planning one smartwatch. We will have a full portfolio, covering from budget to premium segment. The first one we are launching will have many practical features, including health monitoring, fitness trackers and smooth connections with smartphones. Some of them were never seen in its price segment. And still it won’t be lacking in premium-ness, design is what we are good at and it will reflect on our smartwatches.

Will the lockdown slowdown the overall growth of Realme in India?

Yes, it has slowed our growth as of now but it wouldn’t when you will look at 2020 as a whole. Realme grew 119 per cent year-on-year in Q1 2020 due to our aggressive product strategies and focusing on “performance, design, and quality”.

However, the situation has gone down badly since the beginning of Q2. There has been a complete suspension of sales and manufacturing since the lockdown began. So basically we have lost two months already.

Post-lockdown, we will focus on building our online and offline sales. We will be engaging with customers through our online and digital channels along with the e-commerce partners, like Flipkart. Our target for offline sales is to contribute over 40 per cent of overall sales.

Due to the impact on the economic growth, more than ever, customers will tend to buy budget to mid-range smartphones, while again this is the advantage of Realme’s product portfolio. So I believe the growth of Realme post-lockdown will be faster than any smartphone brand in India.