realme 8 Pro review, the 108MP camera is just the beginning

realme 8 Pro review

After countless leaks and previews regarding its latest product, realme has finally announced to the world the arrival of its new smartphone from the "Number" series: realme 8 Pro.

The smartphone is very different from the previous offer and from the realme 7 Pro that we had the opportunity to try in the last part of 2020 and focuses everything on a photographic sector that (literally) promises the stars.

In an extremely competitive market such as that of mid-range smartphones. low where there are a lot of competitors trying to get your attention, will realme 8 Pro be able to stand out? Has the company found the right balance between offer and price?

Odio et amo

The design of realme 8 Pro has aroused in me a series of very strong and diametrically opposed reactions.

To begin with, I find the rounded lines of the body, the shape and positioning of the photographic module very elegant and tidy. Everything is in its place and every decision seems to have been well thought out. The photographic module that houses the four cameras is very reminiscent of what we have already seen on the Motorola moto g100, however it has a squarer shape and a dual tone that highlight it without the need for sparkling rings around the lenses.

The slightly coarser-grained matte finish than that of other solutions previously seen allows realme 8 Pro not to slip when held and not to retain any type of dirt. The visual impact is excellent in my opinion and the brand motto written in large letters on one side gives it character and personality. Obviously this detail can like it or not, it is very subjective.

On the opposite side of these positive impressions of mine, however, there is the feeling of the smartphone when used. The shell is made of plastic and feels, it is not remotely comparable to the "glastic" of Samsung Galaxy S21.

The bezels are also plastic, opaque and their thinness combined with the flat shape make them a little uncomfortable compared to the rounded finishes that the market has accustomed us to.

The upside to all of this is that realme 8 Pro is really very light and easy to handle. Moreover, you will be more likely to use it without a protective cover, which realme includes in the package, as it is less prone to breakage in the event of a fall.

Excluding the fact that the plastic on the back is immediately recognizable to the touch, I don't think that this is a solution to be condemned. The smartphone gives a very good feeling to the touch even if it does not in any way hide the materials from which it is made. In this price range I find it a solution that many users will appreciate even if it is a different direction from the one that realme itself had taken with realme 7 Pro.

AMOLED or high refresh rate? A choice has been made

In the creation of a device in this price range, obviously the company must compromise and decide what to include and what to give up in order to achieve its goal.

For this reason realme 8 Pro the brand has decided to rely on a 6.4 ″ AMOLED flat panel and FullHD + resolution (1080 × 2400 pixels) which however has a fixed refresh rate of 60Hz. However, not being a device particularly devoted to gaming and preferring the absolute contrasts and bright colors of an AMOLED panel to those of an LCD, I think this is a sensible decision.

It's true, there are smartphones from competition that have better and faster panels, but I sincerely doubt that the average user will miss this if they have never used a smartphone with a display of more than 60Hz. Given the target market of this product, I highly doubt that it will happen, most likely those who decide to buy realme 8 Pro will come from a smartphone of the same price range (or lower) or from an older product that precedes the advent of 90Hz / 120Hz in the mid-range.

Having made this clarification it must be said that the realme 8 Pro display is very pleasant. Both in the shapes, even if the lower frame is obviously thicker than the others, and in the colors and brightness. You will have very little to complain about even the small hole for the front camera in the upper left corner as thanks to the aspect ratio of 20: 9 it almost never interferes with multimedia content and even when it does not has halos in its vicinity.

One of the advantages of using an AMOLED type panel is that of being able to integrate an optical fingerprint reader under the display. In this case we do not have one of the fastest readers on the market, however it does its job well, hardly makes mistakes even if you take a few more moments to think and is located in an easily accessible area.

A chip that shows some ailments

For realme 8 Pro the company has not used one of the newest or most powerful SoCs out there. In fact, this realme 8 Pro mounts a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC under the body which is beginning to show some small signs of the time.

I would not be misunderstood, I absolutely do not want to say that realme 8 Pro behaves badly, has losses of frames or is too slow, I just want to point out that even in the Qualcomm 7XX series there are many higher performance chips available, with additional features such as better AI and image processing performance, and that all in all I don't think they would have made such a huge difference. on the overall price of this product.

Overall, never having to exceed 60Hz of output on the display and having more than enough RAM available (our model has 8GB), there are absolutely no problems in the use of realme 8 Pro for all daily functions even if obviously it is not a gaming smartphone.

A newer chip, however, would perhaps have potu to allow realme to improve the already very good photographic sector of this 8 Pro.

The audio sector is quite standard, with a single speaker positioned in the lower part of the terminal with sufficient volume and sound that will not leave you certainly surprised. Especially the voices when watching movies or videos seem like they have a strange rumble with the bass appearing to be exaggerated on purpose. This does not allow for a good separation between medium and low frequencies which often overlap.

For listening to a YouTube video or on social media from time to time or to music while in the shower it is however more than enough. If you do not like the type of sound produced by the speaker, via Bluetooth 5.0 or via the 3.5mm jack, the sound is certainly flatter and more pleasant.

A photo and video mode for every occasion

The marketing that revolves around realme 8 Pro, however, is all about using the 108MP Samsung HM2 sensor as the main camera.

Although it is located behind a lens with a focal aperture much lower than many modern products, the value stops at f / 1.9, the quality of the images that realme 8 Pro manages to capture is really very good! Obviously we are not talking about a cameraphone capable of competing with the big names in the sector, but the amount of detail and above all the beautiful colors that this 108MP sensor achieves are remarkable.

There is a little too much saturation for photography purists but for the average user and for social media, the images are ready to be shared. There is no real telephoto lens, realme 8 Pro uses a digital zoom that is possible thanks to the crop of the capture area on the large sensor. This is not an increasingly valid alternative to a dedicated telephoto lens but it is better than some cameras with telescopic lenses than other low-end smartphones.

Left: Zoom 1x - Right: Zoom 3x For the rest there is no 'is almost no sign of exaggerated graphics processing. The large sensor size and the ability to group pixels in blocks of 9 to capture more light in low light guarantees realme 8 Pro good results even when the sun goes down.

I can't say the same for the 8MP wide-angle camera which, despite being of good quality and having almost the same shades as the main one, quickly loses clarity and detail in the case of low brightness. There is some distortion at the edges of the images but it is quite normal in this price range.

There is a 2MP macro camera which, like on other models I have tried recently, could easily be avoided exactly as the depth sensor is also 2MP.

Where realme 8 Pro really shines is on the versatility of the shooting and video recording modes. In addition to having an advanced night mode and including a new Starry mode that can also be applied to time-lapses, realme has also focused heavily on tilt-shift photos and videos as well as various original methods of personalizing portraits. If you want to find out more about the most interesting features we have a dedicated article.

Tilt-shift mode in action In the examples below you can see how realme 8 Pro is able to capture a much better amount of detail with the 108MP camera compared to the wide-angle in night mode, while you can see an indoor example captured in automatic mode and the net improvements in the same situation using the Night Mode.

Almost a "Google Edition"

The realme 8 Pro software is simple, pleasant, and gets straight to the point. The realm UI 2.0 derives from Oppo's ColorOS but in practice only keeps the graphics of the notification area and Settings, as well as various additional features.

For example, it is possible to customize the smartphone in a very thorough way, changing the colors of the UI, icons, style of the graphics that dominate the fingerprint reader, animation when reading the fingerprint and much more. It is possible to clone social apps to use multiple accounts at the same time and set comfortable gestures to be used for various actions.

In practice, the amount of bloatware present is nil and realme has done a good job up to now supporting its own smartphone.

A not indifferent ace up your sleeve

realme 8 Pro has a truly remarkable ace up your sleeve, a feature that could convince many of you to seriously consider buying this terminal.

In addition to a 4500mAh battery which, in combination with a high efficiency chip and a 60Hz display is more than enough to complete any day of use, realme 8 Pro is able to recharge at 50W thanks to the SuperDart power supply included in the package.

The terminal is therefore able to recover 50% charge in just 17 minutes and reach 100% in 47 minutes. In case you need to recover a few extra hours of autonomy, just connect your smartphone to your charger for a few moments, this will also allow you to lose the bad habit of leaving the phone charging on the bedside table at night.

Conclusions

Taking into consideration the good quality of the photos obtainable with the main camera and the very high charging speed, it is easy to understand how there are some very good points in favor of this realme 8 Pro.

The performance is good even though a newer generation chip could have been expected, which would certainly have helped reduce image processing times in night mode as well. The AMOLED display is of excellent workmanship but the decision to limit itself to 60Hz will make those who want a more fluid experience now available in this price range turn up their noses.

All in all this is an excellent smartphone that certainly will not disappoint those who want to buy a new smartphone and do not want to empty their bank account.

However, the competition is fierce in this price range and in light of competitors of the caliber of Poco X3 Pro and Redmi Note 10 Pro, just to name a few, it is not as easy a recommendation as its predecessor realme 7 Pro was.

The possibility to buy realme 8 Pro at a discount through the early bird promotion at the price of 259.00 euros for the 6GB / 128GB version instead of the € 279.00 list price can be a good incentive, however, to give a chance to the brand that all in all has done a great job with this device.

Just a pity that the attention of the house has concentrated too much or on the photographic sector and on the charging technology, which are able to overcome the competition at the cost of less inviting technical characteristics overall.