The realme 8 Pro has finally arrived in the Philippines. It is the first smartphone from the brand to carry a 108MP rear camera while still carrying over features we loved about its predecessor like a SuperAMOLED screen, fast charging, and large battery. But does this refresh offer a new smartphone experience or something more iterative?
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G |
| Screen | 6.4-inch SuperAMOLED, 2400 x 1080, Corning Gorilla Glass |
| RAM | 8GB LPDDR4X |
| OS | Android 11, realme UI 2.0 |
| Rear Camera | 108MP f/1.9 Main, 8MP f/2.25 Ultrawide, 2MP f/2.4 Macro, 2MP f/2.4 Mono |
| Front Camera | 16MP f/2.45, IMX 471 Sensor |
| Storage | 128GB UFS 2.1 expandable via MicroSD Slot |
| Network | Dual-SIM, 4G LTE |
| Connectivity | Dual-band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.1, USB Type-C |
| Battery | 4,500mAh, 50W SuperDart |
| Others | In-display Fingerprint Scanner |
| Colors | Infinite Blue, Infinite Black, Illuminating Yellow |
Like other entries from realme, the 8 Pro comes in an eye-catching bright yellow box with its name and branding embossed at the front. Inside are the usual suspects aside from the smartphone itself: a silicone case, SIM pin ejector, USB Type-C cable, a 50W SuperDart wall adapter, and documentation.
Not much in the way of extras here, just the necessities for a smartphone. Pretty much expected from realme and smartphones.
The realme 8 Pro comes with the same 6.4-inch 2400 x 1080 punch-hole SuperAMOLED display from the realme 7 Pro. The shared display is not necessarily a bad thing since the 8 Pro can still deliver a great viewing experience with good contrast and saturation, as well as deep blacks which is one of the strong suits of SuperAMOLED screens.
Its refresh rate still stays at 60Hz instead of 90Hz that we saw from the 6 Pro. While a faster refresh rate is missed, we believe that realme has made a reasonable trade off for the color reproduction of a SuperAMOLED display. Brightness is not too shabby either with the device allowing for full use even under direct sunlight or bright lights behind you.
The 8 Pro has a single bottom-firing speaker that provides a decent enough listening experience. Soundstage is not particularly wide but volume and detail are good. Its bass, however, can be slightly weak than we wanted. Overall, not a bad audio experience from the device.
The realme 8 Pro, well, takes a daring leap for its design. It abandons that minimalist looks that previous entries in the range came with an replaces it with something a bit bolder with the addition of their motto: Dare to Leap.
Their motto is now embossed in large fonts with a shiny finish that separates it from the monochrome color of the chassis. The realme logo sits significantly smaller in the corner. Some might say that putting words on the rear is a bit too much but this gives the realme 8 Pro a bit more personality compared to the usually monotonous design of other devices.
The new design is also a bit thinner and lighter compared to its predecessors. It feels great in the hand with a matte, slightly sand-blasted finish and curved sides. It might be made out of plastic but the chassis and the smartphone itself feels solid enough when handled.
At the right-hand side of the realme 8 Pro are its volume rocker and power button, all of which offer a reasonable amount of tactility. Meanwhile, at the left-hand side is its triple-cut SIM tray that allows for two SIM cards and MicroSD card.
The bottom houses the previously-mentioned single bottom-firing speaker, USB Type-C port for charging and data transfers, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Nothing much of the standard ports here for the 8 Pro.
The realme 8 Pro automatically comes with Android 11 and the brand’s latest realme UI 2.0. Beloved mainstays on the Android platform and on realme devices come back like split-screen, multi-window support, and icon and animation customization do come back on the realme 8 Pro.
Game Space also makes a return on the 8 Pro, which enables custom profiles for each game. You can also adjust which notifications go through or completely turn them all off to avoid any unexpected interruptions in games.
realme UI 2.0 brings a cleaner and smoother UI experience as well as an improved Dark Mode. Instead of having it black all the time, you can now adjust the black levels of dark mode in three steps bringing in more customization and comfort to your eyes. As a device with a SuperAMOLED screen, the 8 Pro does come with support for always-on display.
The realme 8 Pro is adding a couple of new features on top of the usual stuff we see on other realme devices. It still comes with the customary set of photo modes and options like Photo, Video, Panorama, AI-assisted modes, Starry Mode, Expert, and AI Scene Enhancement. New to the fore are Dual-View Video which uses both the rear and front cameras
The real headliner on the 8 Pro is its 108MP f/1.8 main camera. It takes 12MP photos by default and needs to be switched to 108MP mode via the camera app. In our opinion this is probably one of the better cameras on a midrange realme smartphone thus far. Photos are detailed, blacks are deep, and have great contrast overall. Colors are somewhat overbearing at times but can be toned down by turning off AI Scene Enhancement.
The sheer megapixel count of the main camera also allows it to take photos of up to 3x lossless zoom. They are not flagship quality but good enough to pass as a native shooter. Details and colors are still greatly present on its photos.
Its 8MP f/2.25 ultrawide shooter delivers similarly decent photos with good colors and contrast. Details are a bit lacking but distortion at the edges are minimal, making it best reserved for taking landscape shots
Topping off its quad camera system are two 2MP f/2.4 mono and macro lenses. The mono lens add depth and saturation to photos but isn’t exactly able to be used on its own. The macro lens, on the other hand, does deliver an okay close up experience but is lackluster in everyway compared to the main lens.
At the front is a 16MP f/2.45 selfie shooter powered by an IMX 471 sensor. It does lose a bit compared to the 7 Pro which had a higher 32MP pixel count, but overall selfie quality is similarly good. Skin look natural and the auto beautification is not as aggressive as its predecessors. There is also decent edge detection on portrait mode that effectively separates your face from the background.
The realme 8 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G with 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.1 storage. Everything feels snappy but we do miss the 90Hz smoothness of the 6 Pro. There’s minimal lag and thanks to the lower resource demands of the realme UI 2.0, running apps simultaneously is easy and seamless.
Benchmarks produced by the device are decent but not mind-blowing. It does reach the 340,000 mark in AnTuTu, gets an 8,420 score in PCMark Work 2.0, and has decent 1,684 multi-core mark in GeekBench.
The 8 Pro also gets a good showing on gaming. Popular titles like League of Legends: Wild Rift and Call of Duty: Mobile runs around a steady 60fps only dipping to 50fps in the most intense scenes. The device will be able to run triple A titles like Genshin Impact but will have a more playable framerate at lowest or medium settings.
Powering the realme 8 Pro is a 4,500mAh battery, which can run the smartphone throughout the day without any issues under medium usage. Doing work, replying to emails, watching videos with its speakers, and playing the occasional bout of Call of Duty: Mobile throughout the day is no problem on the 8 Pro. PCMark Work 2.0 puts the smartphone at 16 hours 34 minutes of usage at medium volume and brightness.
The smartphone is compatible with the brand’s 50W SuperDart charging technology. While it is slightly slower than the 7 Pro’s 65W charging speeds, it seems that realme has reduced charging capacity to reduce temperature and lengthen the overall longevity of the device. Regardless, it is still able to charge rather quickly in just over an hour.
The realme 8 Pro does take a great leap on its camera department thanks to its 108MP f/1.9 main lens that can take spectacular and detailed photos. That’s not to say that other parts of the 8 Pro are not impressive it’s just that the rest of its feature set has been done by previous iterations.
At PhP 16,990, the realme 8 Pro presents a perfectly capable midrange handset complete with decent computing performance and the ability to take great shots thanks to its improved main camera. We believe that it is deserving of our seal of approval but those who just recently bought a 7 Pro should not feel too bad.
