Realme 8 series phones that launched a while back relied on last-gen chips and lacked 5G connectivity. Realme today adds a 5G option for the base Realme 8. The idea here is to provide more choice to the consumers without increasing the price. Display Performance Camera Battery The Realme 8 5G includes a new MediaTek Dimensity 700 5G chipset and 90Hz refresh rate display – things that were missing on the recently launched Realme 8 and Realme 8 Pro. However, a few other compromises have been made to accommodate these trends at the same price. So, does the Realme 8 5G succeeds as a future-ready alternative to the Realme 8? We have been putting the phone through the wringer for a while and are now equipped to answer all related questions that’ll help you make a purchase decision. Let’s talk specifications before we proceed to the interesting stuff.
Realme 8 5G Price and Specifications
Contents:
Realme 8 5G review: UnboxingRealme 8 5G review: Design and Build Realme 8 5G review: DisplayRealme 8 5G review: Performance and softwareRealme 8 5G review: Camera quality Realme 8 5G review: Battery and audio Realme 8 5G review: Verdict, Pros & cons
Realme 8 5G Unboxing
All of the usual box accessories are included. Here’s what you do get:
Handset with pre-applied screen protectorTPU case cover 18W charging adaptor USB cable for data transferSIM ejector tool and documentation
Holding the 8 5G in hand, it’s quite clear that Realme is reissuing an existing phone in new garb. or a new phone in an existing garb. Anyways, we probably won’t have to dig very deep to find out, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the Realme 8 5G is reasonably slim and comfortable to hold. We also appreciate that there is no flashy gradient this time, which means that the 8 5G should appeal to a wider audience. Yes, the 4G variant is yet slimmer and lighter, but compared to what we usually see in the under 20K segment these days, the Realme 8 5G passes with flying colors. The back panel and the side frame are both polycarbonates. Since the display is an IPS LCD panel, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor was a rational choice. Under-display fingerprint readers warrant an AMOLED panel and the rear-mounted capacitive sensors are no longer in trend. The sensor is fast and reliable; no issues. Realme 8 5G further retains a dedicated card slot and the audio jack and has stereo speakers. So, overall, we are quite content with the Realme 8 design, even when it doesn’t transcend beyond the conventional. Price constraints make it difficult for OEMs to include both AMOLED display and High Refresh Rate for affordable phones, and thus a choice between the two is almost always involved. The Realme 8 4G includes a 60Hz AMOLED panel, and the 5G variant gets 90Hz HRR on an IPS LCD panel. Realme has optimized the UI for 90Hz and the experience is pretty smooth. In practice, we didn’t realize much of a difference as compared to 120Hz HRR screens, say the one on Poco X3 Pro. The panel is a tad reflective and visibility under direct sunlight is about average. The contrast is pretty decent and this is among the better IPS LCD panels in the affordable segment for watching multimedia content. There is no support for HDR or wide color gamut, but that doesn’t really take away much at this price point. There are two color profiles under display settings – Vivid (DCI-P3) and Gentle (sRGB). Switching between the two doesn’t make much of a difference. The white point and color temperature appear similar in both settings, but the default Vivid profile has mildly oversaturated colors. HD streaming is supported on popular apps like Netflix and Prime Videos out of the box. Realme 8 5G is the first phone powered by MediaTek Dimensity 700 to come our way. Our review unit further benefits generous helpings of LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.1 storage (8 + 128GB). As usual, we relied on COD mobile and benchmarks to ferret out maximum performance under heavy loads. Call of Duty Mobile defaulted to medium graphics and medium frame rate, but at these settings, the game ran fine without any random performance stutters. The day-to-day usage is also very smooth as is also reflected in the PCMark Work 2.0 writing score. Here’s how the Realme 8 5G performed at other benchmarks:
Geekbench 5.1 single core – 567Geekbench 5.1 multi-core – 1731PC Mark Work 2.0 – 10964PC Mark Work 2.0 writing – 114373DMark wild life – 1106Androbench Random Read – 170.51 MB/sAndrobench Random write – 160.78 MB/s
We didn’t face any issues with connectivity or call quality. Options like carrier aggregation, VoLTE, and VoWi-Fi are all supported. Like most phones today, auto-call recording is not supported. The Android 11-based Realme UI 2.0 software is among the better ones available as of today. The interface has ample customization options and is pleasant to interact with. There are a few pain points too – like the multitasking is still aggressive, auto-fill doesn’t work as flawlessly as on stock Android phones, and there are pre-installed apps to deal with. Users can avoid the annoying bits by uninstalling unwanted third-party options and by disabling notifications for the rest. Overall, the Realme 8 5G proved reliable on the performance front and the trait is becoming increasingly rare for affordable phones priced under INR 15,000. Realme 8 5G cuts back on the camera hardware compared to the regular 8. On the rear, there is a 48MP rear camera (Samsung GM1), a 2MP portrait camera, and a 2MP macro camera. On the front, there is a 16MP camera for selfies. In proper daylight, the camera captures natural colors with ample details. The performance is comparable to best available options in and around the 15K mark. Indoors and in low light, the quality understandably takes a slight hit. Realme 8 5G still metered tricky scenes better than our expectations. The night mode helps keep the ISO lower and yields images with slight better exposure and better details. The portrait mode does a fine job. Edge detection and background blur appear decent enough. In indoor situations a lot of noise is visible in portrait shots. The macro camera is very basic and the same can be said for the selfie camera. Balance your expectations here. You can record up to 1080p@30fps videos and the quality is about average. Overall, the camera doesn’t out peform the 64MP and 108MP quad-cameras now available in the under 20K segment, but at a price of 15K, it’s not bad enough to be a deal breaker either. Battery mileage is not a problem as the 5000mAh battery can comfortably last for more than a day. The fast charging, or the lack thereof, is. The 18W Charger takes around 2 hours for a full charge and that’s pretty slow by Realme standards. As someone who often finds himself scrambling for charging points last minute, the fast charging on Realme phones has always been a godsend. This time however the experience is undermined by the paltry 18W charging – and I am not sure if I am willing to give up the convenience for 5G just yet. There was a lot of distortion in the audio from the audio jack on Realme 8 5G. We didn’t face any issues with wireless audio streaming.
Should you buy Realme 8 5G?
Realme accommodates 5G connectivity without inflating the price and that has led to some compromises like the lack of proper fast charging and some cutback in camera hardware. The Realme 8 5G has an appealing design an additional 90Hz high refresh rate display that works rather well. As for the performance, the Dimensity 700 did really well in practical day-to-day usage and proved fairly good for gaming. Not even counting options like Redmi Note 10 Pro and Moto G60 (review), there are a lot of choices involved here between the Realme 8 5G, Realme 8, and Realme 8 Pro. With Realme 8 5G it pretty much boils down to how much you prioritize 5G. The current state of affairs points out that 5G won’t be relevant to consumers for at least another year, but many of us hold on to our phones for much longer. Reason to buy
Appealing design Dependable performance and 5G connectivity90Hz display Decent softwareRetains audio jack and SD card slot
Reason to not buy
Charging isn’t exactly fastMediocre camera performance
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