Over the last couple of years, the Brand Realme has becoming more and more known and we have reviewed a number of products from them such as the Realme Watch S, Realme Buds Air Pro and most recently the Realme 7 5G.
In this review, we have been reviewing the latest mobile device the Realme 8 which comes in 3 colours – Cyber Silver, Cyber Black and a special offering Punk Black. The Cyber Silver & Cyber Black cost £199 whereas the Punk Black costs slightly more at £215.40.
This phone falls into the budget market something Realme really had that part of the market home and is a real focus for this brand. The Realme 8 provides you with everything you expect such:
- 6.4 inch AMOLED Screen
- MediaTek Helio G95 Chipset
- 64MP AI Quad Camera
- Super Slim Design
- 30W Dart Charge
- 5000mAh battery life
Realme 8 – Design
The Realme 8 although a budget phone actually quite stylish the cyber black edition is not completely back it has a silver frame around the edges which does stick out a bit it looks a little odd if you ask me. On the back of the phone, you have the realme logo and also down the side the message Dare to Leap.
I feel the silver ridged edges are subjective realme feel this adds to the style but I feel it makes it look a little cheap. On the screen side of the phone, you have a front-facing 16MP Selfie camera that will also let you record footage in 4K at 30fps which is located in the top left corner of the screen you will barely notice it’s there. Also on the front screen but built-in to the screen you have that fingerprint sensor.
Coming back to the rear of the device you also have the raised camera set up which has 4 lenses which include a 64MP camera, 8MP Ultra-wide lens, 2MP Macro and 2MP depth sensor which we will speak about later in this review.
Other things to consider in regards to design the realme 8 is lightweight in your hands at only 177g and the curved design gives you something to grip.
At the base of the phone, you have the USB-C port next to the in-built speakers and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the right side of the phone, they have kept it simple with just the power button and volume controls you will have on most phones.
Realme 8 – Display
The Display of the Realme 8 comes with a 6.4 inch super AMOLED display with a 1080 x 2400 resolution and it looks pretty decent. I have watched the Euro 2020 matches via BBC iPlayer and it provided excellent quality and also if gaming is your thing this phone when considering the display. You get vibrant colours in the display which is surprising considering the cost.
Realme 8 – Spec
So let’s take a look at what makes this device tick. Considering it’s a budget device it’s actually quite responsive and unlocking the phone via fingerprint or face recognition worked really fast. It was also the same when scrolling online or opening apps it all worked without any trouble. It also worked well when gaming on the phone we had no delay and the display also makes it an enjoyable experience.
The phone is powered using a MediaTek G95 chipset and comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage but you can get a 64GB variant of the device if you feel 128GB is too much (said no user ever!!) If your like a normal person and might need more storage you have the options of adding a MicroSD card.
When running this phone through the benchmark tests the Realme 8 got a decent score on the Geekbench 5 tests it came up with a single-core score of 530 and a multi-core score of 1,676 which for a device under the £200 mark that a good result.
The only slight negative is you don’t get 5G with this phone so if your buying a phone with the future in mind you might want to consider other options but if you’re like me who switches his main phone after a year to 18 months this one be an issue and the fact 5G, not commonplace just yet.
Realme 8 – Camera Review By James Robertson-Milligan
Having reviewed a couple of Realme phones in the past I have found the camera capabilities to be quite adequate for a smartphone of today and with competition within the cameras on phones getting hot and competitive I was happy to review the latest offering from Realme to see where they stand with the series 8.
So, what have Realme been up to with the “8” within terms of camera capabilities and what have they packed into the handset? Well, it has a nice quad-cam nestled in the upper left of the phone emulating that of one of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra’s so what is behind the glass?
They have packed a punch offering up to 64MP camera but that will only be in the mode of 64MP other than that it’s a lowly 8mp camera in other settings but I do say this, it actually performs really well, with well-defined images taking full advantage of the AMOLED screen with the front-facing camera coming in at 16MP. I would have thought with this handset it would have been the other way round, but hey it works and works pretty well from the results that I had using this handset that you will see when we discuss in more detail.
The front-facing camera is situated in the upper left of the screen. The specs of the camera on this device are as follows:
| 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) |
| Features | LED flash, HDR, panorama |
| Video | 4K@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, gyro-EIS |
| Single | 16 MP, f/2.5, (wide), 1/3.0″, 1.0µm |
| Features | HDR, panorama |
| Video | 1080p@30/120fps, gyro-EIS |
On paper the specs don’t look that appealing or that capturing for a budget handset but as I said the results from this device wasn’t too bad at all. You can launch the camera one of two ways, directly from the lock screen or from inside the operating system its self, there is no real lag at all launching the camera and from the main operating screen it’s just a little black icon on the home screen situated in the bottom right-hand corner. Again, you can review your photos by being on the main camera itself or by going into the gallery app on the Google apps on the operating page of the handset itself.
So what camera features come with this Handset, you will get the following:
- Night
- Video
- Photo
- Portrait
- 64mp
- More: extra features such as Pro, slomo Video, dual view, Movie, Text scanner, Starry Mode, time lapse and Ultra Macro
So that’s enough of the jargon and let’s get down to what the pictures are like….
Selfie Mode, we all love a selfie don’t we, I took this selfie in portrait mode, I look a bit tired in this picture, I am sorry it been a long day, but the picture came out rather nice and crisp, with well-defined colour and true tones.
Super Macro, well I love a bit of Macro on my DSLR and let’s be honest Macro on a phone can be just as good these days as a standard Lens on a DSLR, and on the Realme 8 it really didn’t disappoint well for a phone anyway, you get great close-up clarity and colour detail from the camera on this handset, not a bad effort at all..
Wide-angle, I love wide angle I love the depth and all the eye view that you get from an image using wide-angle on this device, wide-angle came out perfect, great colour, great clarity and no lens flair (those pesky green orbs that you get on a sunny day) and just all-round great feature and picture comes out nice, clear and no little gremlins!
Full Zoom. The full 10x zoom on this handset is not great you get no clarity no detail just fuzz and camera shake, I have seen far better full zoom pictures that fall into the brackets of this handset with much better sharpness, clarity and quality, for me this just did not hold up for me!
Photo Mode, this held up quite nice with great sharpness, clarity and detail from the shot, I like the quality of the outcome on this camera and great true colours and end result! for what on paper seems to be 8MP!
Pro Mode, Pro is the same as using a DSLR camera with all the same features and settings, and this feature is now becoming more and more common on Android phones, so you can fettle around with settings and light filters etc to get the perfect picture. You still get the 10x zoom with the same fuzz and background shake when on full zoom, but never the less a good feature to have if you use a DSLR and don’t want to take too many gadgets out on a day out. I think this feature will be fairly redundant due to a fairly capable camera on the auto setting. The outcome of the picture is good with great true to life colours and good clarity with the picture.
Portrait, Now for those that have read my reviews before will know I am a lover of portrait and the depth and tone you can add to your pictures, I have managed to take some great pics on handsets in the past with a great crisp foreground and a nice subtle blur to the background. which really makes your foreground subject stand out however the Realme 8 just didn’t live up to other handsets with this function, there was no subtle blur or depth to the image as you get with other handsets but this isn’t a deal-breaker as the picture still comes out great with great lines and clarity I just wish you had a bit more background blur.
64mp Mode. You would think you would be wowed with this taking a picture using 64mp but once again you lose zoom so it’s just point and click, I’m not sure why you can’t zoom when in this function, it’s not just the Realme its all handsets so please don’t let this put you off. So, what does this mean, it’s just a point and click and to be honest to the naked eye there is not much difference between this function and auto. Again, they could make this redundant and put something else in like light trails or something that will make your photography on your phone come alive. (see pic 1)
Night mode, This is a nifty little function on all pretty much most common day camera phones now, where basically you take a picture in a dark setting and it readjusts the light to give you an almost daylight setting, great for dark indoor or outdoor spaces if you’re taking a group photo or something like that. This handset held up ok in this test, the picture was taken when it was dusk and to be honest, the picture came out okay, I can’t fault this but once again due to covid restrictions in place, I am unable to test this to its full advantage for what it’s intended for but I’m sure you can play around and see what the end results are.
Realme 8 – Battery Life
The Realme 8 comes with an impressive 5,000mAh battery and this battery life almost takes you back to the glory days of the Nokia 3310 of the early ’90s. The Realme 8 will last you to the end of the day if you’re using the phone for everyday activity but if you are a gamer it will drain a bit quicker.
When you need to charge the device you have a fast charge with 30W of power and if you’re at half battery it will give you a full boost in under 30 mins. You might have guests (Simple Maths) a full charge comes in just over an hour. The only slight negative is this phone is not compatible with wireless charging but with the fast charge, this is not a massive issue.
Realme 8 – Verdict
The Realme 8 is a decent phone am not keen on the metal frame that comes around the cyber black version of the device. I feel it makes the phone look cheap. If you can look past that for the price it not a bad option for gamers or those who want a phone with a solid display. The benchmarks test results also showed some decent results considering it’s a budget handset. I also like the fast charger as it will give you that boost without having to wait a long time.
The camera also stands out with its quad-cam and up to 64mp the pictures came out well defined and I was happy with the end result on all pictures, again you can really make your pictures come alive using editing apps such as free to download on Android Snapseed. Using editing will really make your pictures stand out for social media sites and really wow your friends and with the Realme 8, you will be able to do just that.
I like this phone and the outcome of all pictures that come from this nifty little device, I just think some things can be made redundant and others things put in but I will let you the end-user decide.
So who is this phone aimed at, id happily say anyone who is into or developing their photography. I like Realme and have liked their phones in the past and this is another I would add to my collection.
Moving on to some negatives of the Realme 8 well if you want a phone for the future the lack of 5G is an issue but let’s be honest 4G hardly going to be switched off any time soon. Apart from that the phone not compatible with wireless charging but for a budget device this is not unusual some of the TCL’s we reviewed recently also did not allow for wireless charging. However, with the fast charging, it’s not a concern and with the 5,000mAh battery, you should not struggle for battery life.
So if your looking for an all-around decent budget phone and can look past the questionable design of the phone for under £200 it’s well worth considering.
Product Rating:
Design: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Speed: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Battery: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Camera: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Value for Money : 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Overall Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0– 4.8 Stars
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