Realme 8

Realme has had quite the meteoric rise in India over a relatively short time span. The highly competitive company currently has a vast portfolio of smartphones, but the rate at which it's going, I think it needs to pump the brakes a bit and take a more focused approach to its launches. I'm referring to the recently launched Realme 8, which launched alongside the Realme 8 Pro. The company has managed to cover pretty much every single price point under Rs. 20,000, but the sheer number of phones it now sells, including the 7 series, X-series and Narzo models, means that there's a lot of overlapping, with just minute differences between many of them.

The Realme 8 starts at Rs. 14,999 and going purely by specifications, is essentially a slimmer Realme 7 with an AMOLED display. The Realme 7 itself is essentially a Realme 6 Pro with a MediaTek SoC instead of Qualcomm, and both these models are also still on sale at similar prices. The top-end variant of the Realme 8, which I'll be reviewing, costs Rs. 16,999. This means it competes directly with the Realme Narzo 30 Pro, which happens to have a 5G SoC and a 120Hz display. Do you see what I mean? Choosing a Realme smartphone today can be quite challenging. It's time to see how the Realme 8 actually performs, and whether you should bother with it or pick something else.

NETWORK

Technology GSM / HSPA / LTE

2G bands GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2

3G bands HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100

4G bands 1, 3, 5, 8, 38, 40, 41

Speed HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE-A

LAUNCH

Announced 2021, March 24

Status Available. Released 2021, March 25

BODY

Dimensions 160.6 x 73.9 x 8 mm (6.32 x 2.91 x 0.31 in)

Weight 177 g (6.24 oz)

Build Glass front, plastic frame, plastic back

SIM Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

DISPLAY

Type Super AMOLED, HDR10, 1000 nits (peak)

Size 6.4 inches, 98.9 cm2 (~83.3% screen-to-body ratio)

Resolution 1080 x 2400 pixels, 20:9 ratio (~411 ppi density)

  Always-on display

PLATFORM

OS Android 11, Realme UI 2.0

Chipset Mediatek Helio G95 (12 nm)

CPU Octa-core (2x2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55)

GPU Mali-G76 MC4

MEMORY

Card slot microSDXC (dedicated slot)

Internal 64GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM

  UFS 2.1

MAIN CAMERA

Quad 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/1.73", 0.8µm, PDAF

8 MP, f/2.3, 119˚, 16mm (ultrawide), 1/4.0", 1.12µm

2 MP, f/2.4, (macro)

2 MP, f/2.4, (depth)

Features LED flash, HDR, panorama

Video 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, gyro-EIS

SELFIE CAMERA

Single 16 MP, f/2.5, (wide), 1/3.0", 1.0µm

Features HDR, panorama

Video 1080p@30/120fps, gyro-EIS

SOUND

Loudspeaker Yes

3.5mm jack Yes

  24-bit/192kHz audio

COMMS

WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot

Bluetooth 5.1, A2DP, LE

GPS Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS

NFC Yes (market/region dependent)

Radio No

USB USB Type-C 2.0, USB On-The-Go

FEATURES

Sensors Fingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM

Browser HTML5

BATTERY

Type Li-Po 5000 mAh, non-removable

Charging Fast charging 30W, 50% in 26 min, 100% in 65 min (advertised)

MISC

Colors Cyber Silver, Cyber Black

Models RMX3085

Price $ 201.58 / £ 156.16 / € 169.00 / ₹ 15,800

TESTS

Performance AnTuTu: 298328 (v8)

GeekBench: 6779 (v4.4), 1690 (v5.1)

GFXBench: 18fps (ES 3.1 onscreen)

Display Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal)

Camera Photo / Video

Loudspeaker -28.6 LUFS (Average)

Made by - Tejas And Shivam