The realme 8 Pro has finally arrived on our local shores, to the delight of realme fans. It packs notable features from its display down to its battery quality but are these enough to consider the realme 8 Pro the current mid-range smartphone to beat? Let’s discuss!
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| realme 8 Pro Review; Familiar, But Better |
Get yours now at https://bit.ly/realme8proph.
PHYSICAL:
Eye-catching seems to be an understatement when describing the design of the realme 8 Pro. Its rear part comes etched with bold letters saying “Dare to Leap,” the brand’s tagline, in a glossy finish that stands out. This part of the realme 8 Pro’s overall design might not be for everyone, but it’s something that can be compromised in exchange for the performance the realme 8 Pro can bring.
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| "Dare To Leap" Back Design |
The realme 8 Pro comes in colors of Infinite Black, Infinite Blue, and Illuminating Yellow. The black one looks the most minimalistic, while the blue variant appears fancy with its galaxy-like design. The yellow version is an interesting one as it has a very unique design. The “Dare to Leap” label on its back part and the frame of its camera module is made with a special fluorescent material that absorbs light and illuminates in the dark. Unfortunately, the realme 8 Pro in Illuminating Yellow isn’t locally available at the moment.
The realme 8 Pro, although with a polycarbonate build, exudes a premium look and feel. It’s light and comfortable in the hands, and we like that its back part with a fine-textured finish isn’t that prone to fingerprints and smudges.
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| 6.4-inch Super AMOLED Display |
Upfront, the device flaunts a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display in FHD+ resolution with a hole punch for the front camera located in the top left corner. It doesn't sport a frameless design, but the borders on its sides aren't that distracting. It has thicker bezels on the chin, though, but it doesn't hurt the smartphone's overall look. Its in-display fingerprint sensor works fast, and it never misses doing its function even if you have sweaty fingers.
There's no mention of whether the realme 8 Pro has a Gorilla Glass coating for protection, so better be careful not to drop this smartphone to avoid screen cracks. The display quality of the realme 8 Pro is impressive enough in delivering vivid colors and sharp images. Under direct sunlight, its display remains visible because of its ample brightness. The realme 8 Pro’s screen also has a touch sampling rate of up to 180Hz, which helps improve the overall gaming experience with the device.
realme 8 Pro Unboxing and Hands-on
The power button of the realme 8 Pro is located on the right alongside its volume buttons, while on the left side is its dual nano-SIM card tray with a microSD slot. At the bottom is where you'll find its USB Type-C port, speaker grille, primary microphone, and a 3.5mm headphone jack which is becoming a rare sight among smartphones in the mid-range and flagship segments.
Also Read: 8 Top Features of the realme 8 Pro
SOFTWARE and PERFORMANCE:
The realme 8 Pro has powerful internals consisting of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G octa-core 8nm processor with an Adreno 618 GPU and a 5th Generation Qualcomm AI Engine. It comes with 6GB or 8GB RAM with a 128GB onboard storage expandable up to 1TB. Bloatware is present in the realme 8 Pro out of the box, and from its 128GB onboard storage, only 110GB is available unless, of course, you remove the apps that are pre-installed in the device.
With this set of specifications, it’s no surprise that the realme 8 Pro can handle everyday apps very well. Switching among apps for social media, productivity, and gaming is a seamless experience, too. For a few weeks, we never once met any hiccups regarding overall usage with the device as our daily driver.
This latest smartphone from realme is the first to carry realme UI 2.0 on an Android 11 OS. Compared to the previous version of realme UI, it's noticeably neater, faster, and easier to use. It comes with new functions, including the OSIE visual effect feature, which allows adjustments on-screen through artificial intelligence. It’s also even more customizable to give users the freedom to choose the style according to their preferences. The theme colors, icons, and even how the dark mode looks can be adjusted.
Bloatware is present in the realme 8 Pro out of the box, and from its 128GB onboard storage, only 110GB is available unless, of course, you remove the apps that are pre-installed in the device.
Gaming is likewise a specialty of the realme 8 Pro. Playing popular mobile games like Call of Duty Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Genshin Impact, even on the highest graphics and audio settings, is a breeze, and there are no frame stutters and lags.
The speakers of the realme 8 Pro aren’t exactly the best in the segment. It’s better not to expect any depth in audio since its single speaker grille is noticeably lacking in the bass department. However, one good thing about it is that it’s loud, and there are no audible sound cracks even when the audio is played in loud volumes.
Here are the benchmark results of the realme 8 Pro to give you a more in-depth view of its performance:
CAMERA:
There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to the rear cameras of the realme 8 Pro. Let’s start with how this device carries a 108-megapixel ultra quad-camera, which is a unique offering looking at the current options in the market. Apart from its 108MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 2MP macro lens, and another 2MP black and white lens complete its four-camera setup beautifully placed in a square form at the rear part of the realme 8 Pro.
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| 108MP Quad-Camera |
There are a LOT of photography and videography modes on the realme 8 Pro. We have the Starry Mode, Tilt-shift, Dynamic Bokeh, Neon Portrait, AI Colour Portrait, Ultra 108MP Mode, Super Nightscape, Panoramic View, Expert, Portrait Mode, HDR, Ultra Wide, Ultra Macro, AI Scene Recognition, AI Beauty Filter, Chroma Boost, Bokeh Effect Control, and Text Scanner.
These modes are pretty suggestive of their functions, so we’ll just focus on what realme touts as among the selling points of the realme 8 Pro.
First, we have the Starry Mode. Although some smartphones already have a dedicated camera mode to capture the night sky, what the realme 8 Pro has different is that it has significantly improved the brightening effect and noise reduction of this mode to capture the glittering beauty of stars in a pitch-black sky.
Meanwhile, the Tilt-shift mode is a clever (at least from how we view it) and an interesting camera mode. It makes the camera’s subjects look miniature. One might think that such a camera mode isn’t essential, but believe us when we say that we can't stop when we started using it. Under this mode, users can also manually adjust the shape, angle, position, and size of the blur effect of photos for better depth and dramatization.
The realme 8 Pro is also a handy tool for videography hobbyists and enthusiasts. It has many video recording features like starry time-lapse video, starry tilt-shift time-lapse video, dual-view video, ultra nightscape video, and video stabilization. It supports up to 4k/30fps video recording.
The realme 8 Pro's videography capabilities highlight its special time-lapse modes in the form of Tilt-Shift time-lapse and Starry Night time-lapse. Obviously, these are just the video translation of their photo modes, and we had fun playing with them. realme says that the realme 8 Pro is the first in the Philippines and the first in the world to have these videography features.
This smartphone also has the Dual View video mode, which can be useful, especially nowadays. Users are looking for more variation in recording content for social media, particularly for Tiktok. The Dual View allows simultaneous recording from both the front and the rear cameras of the realme 8 Pro.
Quality-wise, you can expect nothing less than superb in terms of the images and videos produced by the realme 8 Pro; may they be taken under well-lit areas or in dim environments. Color accuracy and detail sharpness are very impressive, and the photos don’t need any touch-ups before posting on social media. Here are some of the samples we took using the realme 8 Pro. You be the judge.
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| Main |
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| Ultrawide |
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| Close-up, Main |
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| Close-up, Macro |
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| Night, Driveway |
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| Night, Playground |
On the flip side of the device sits a 16MP selfie camera that stays true to the claim of realme of providing natural-looking shots. Its modes include AI Beauty, Portrait, and Super Nightscape. Here are some samples were taken using the front camera of the realme 8 Pro.
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| Selfie |
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| Portrait Selfie |
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| Night Selfie |
See Also: Five Top Features of the realme 8 5G
BATTERY:
The battery of the realme 8 Pro comes as 4,500mAh -- something that’s relatively smaller than other options at the same price point. Perhaps realme had to tone it down a notch to maintain a slim and lightweight profile for the realme 8 Pro, which is 8.1 mm thick and 176 grams heavy. The realme 8 Pro lasted us almost two days on moderate usage, which is, needless to say, very impressive. It equates a 30-minute charge to 80% and almost an hour to reach 100% battery, thanks to its 50W fast charging support.
FINAL WORDS:
The realme 8 Pro is a promising option, especially for those looking to try the brand for the first time. While some specifications of this smartphone are the same as its predecessor, the realme 7 Pro, there are important aspects that realme has significantly improved for better usage. For Php16,990, you can get a lot of useful and interesting features.
How much is the realme 8 Pro price in the Philippines?
- The realme 8 Pro price in the Philippines is Php16,990.
- Get yours now at https://bit.ly/realme8proph.
When will be the realme 8 Pro available in the Philippines?
- The realme 8 Pro is now available in the Philippines since May 12, 2021.
Realme 8 Pro Specs Philippines:
- Dual SIM, dual standby, supports 4G/LTE connectivity.
- 6.4-inch Super AMOLED FHD+ (2400 x 1080) Display
- Dimensions: 160.6mm x 73.9mm x 8.1mm
- Weight: 176 grams
- Realme UI 2.0 based on Android 11
- 2.3GHz 64-bit octa-core CPU, Adreno 618 GPU, Qualcomm SM7125 Snapdragon 720G chipset
- 8GB RAM
- 128GB UFS 2.1 internal storage, expandable up to 256GB via MicroSD card, uses dedicated slot
- 108MP Samsung HM2 PDAF f/1.9 main + 8MP f/2.3 119-degree ultrawide + 2MP f/2.4 macro + 2MP f/2.4 depth quad rear cameras with LED flash, 2160p video recording at 30fps
- 16MP f/2.5 front camera, 1080p video recording at 30fps
- Multimedia player
- 3.5mm audio jack
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band
- Bluetooth v5.0
- GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, NaviC
- USB 2.0 Type-C with OTG function
- Sensors: fingerprint (under-display, optical), accelerometer, light, proximity, gyroscope
- Battery: 4,500mAh lithium-ion polymer, non-removable, 50W SuperDart fast charging
- Colors: Infinite Blue, Infinite Black
- Price: Php16,990