realme 8 and realme 8 Pro - our test

Smartphone class C ("Mercedes" scale A, B, C, E, S)

Rating scale 1-6 (6-targeting)

We begin

realme 7 Pro turned out to be a real hit last year. The smartphone probably offered the best price / performance ratio on the market. The AMOLED screen, stereo speakers, an efficient processor, a very good set of cameras and operating time on a single charge could be obtained for as little as PLN 1299. Realme 7, valued at PLN 1099, was a bit worse compared to this. The smartphone is also successful, but with an IPS screen. This year the situation has changed a bit. The realme 8 Pro differs from its predecessor only in the richer set of cameras, but it lost, for example, stereo speakers. The rest is the same or very similar, which we'll talk about in a moment. But the changes to realme 8 can be seen at first glance. The smartphone got an excellent quality Super AMOLED screen instead of IPS, and the main camera matrix is ​​64 MP, not 48 MP. In addition, the battery is larger than in the 8 Pro.

Both phones work on identical processors as the previous generations. The 8 Pro is Snapdragon 720, the 8 - Mediatek Helio G95. The lack of progress was due to the pandemic and the situation of Qualcomm, which had to limit production despite the growing demand for its components. realme had two options - to risk possible delays and wait for new chips, or to bet on already manufactured, proven units. It chose the lesser evil and the second option, while striving for progress in other areas. Let's check how it turned out.

Polish prices of the realme 8 series:

The main pros and cons of realme 8 Pro

Advantages of realme 8 Pro:

Cons of realme 8 Pro:

The main advantages and disadvantages of realme 8

The advantages of realme 8:

Cons of realme 8:

How do we rate design? - rating 4

realme has decided to change the design compared to previous models. The camera island looks different, as it is now square and not rectangular. The king of the backs, however, is a large inscription: "Dare to leap", which runs the entire length of the phone and covers about a quarter of its width. A quite controversial solution. And the case in the box is transparent, so it will not solve the problem. The back in both cases is made of plastic, which collects fingerprints on the realme 8 - our test specimen was silver in color. We had 8 Pro in a gray mat and there were no fingerprints there. The island with the cameras protrudes above the surface.

The bottom edge is the mini-jack input for headphones, USB-C and speaker. Realme 7 Pro had two of them, here we unfortunately have one in both variants. Compensation for the average external sound is the sound on headphones with Real Sound technology and an extensive equalizer, also working on Bluetooth headphones. The right side is the power and volume control buttons. On the left side there is a tray in the same 2 + 1 variant in both smartphones, i.e. 2x SIM and a memory card.

The dimensions and weight of the devices are:

What do we think about the display? - 5

The screens on both smartphones are identical. These are Super AMOLED units with a diagonal of 6.4 inches, FHD + resolution, 1080x2400 pixels, 411 PPI and a 20: 9 aspect ratio. The maximum brightness can be boosted up to 1000 nits, both are refreshed at the traditional 60 Hz. Compared to the previous generation, there are no changes in realme 8 Pro, but the usual 8 replaced IPS with AMOLED. And although the refresh has been reduced from 90 to 60 Hz by the way, in my opinion it is a change definitely a plus. Of course, these are not top panels and it can be seen especially in strong sunlight, where a slightly higher maximum brightness would be useful, but they still provide excellent viewing angles and colors.

The settings are similar - we have the screen color mode: vivid, delicate, energy saving in realme 8 and dazzling, vivid and delicate in the 8 Pro. There is also the screen color temperature, dark mode, eye comfort.

We do not have a notification LED. It is replaced by AoD showing the time, date, battery percentage and showing notifications from all applications.

A fingerprint reader is hidden under the screen, which works reliably and quickly. An alternative is to unlock the phone by face using the front camera. I also have no objections to this method.

We have a protective foil stuck on the screens.

Specification, operating system - rating 4

In realme 8 Pro we have a Snapdragon 720G (2x2.3 GHz Kryo 465 Gold; 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 465 Silver) with the Adreno 618 graphics chip, UFS 2.1, 6 or 8 GB RAM (8 in the test model) and 128 GB of built-in memory. The realme 8 is Mediatek Helio G95 (2x2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) with Mali-G76 MC4 graphics, UFS 2.1, 6 GB RAM and 128 GB of built-in memory. In AnTuTu Benchmark, the processor from a cheaper phone is more efficient - 358 917 points. 8 Pro pulls out 317871 points. None of them have increased screen refresh rate, but interface crashes are much more common in the 8 Pro model. Both, despite the different amount of RAM (8 vs.6), coped with multitasking similarly, keeping tabs in memory well. Assuming that the price of these devices will be at the level of last year (we did not know it at the time of writing the test), I have no objections to operation. It's just that it's hard not to notice, even taking into account the difficult situation on the component markets, that there is no difference compared to last year's devices. In the world of technology, however, there is a rule that whoever stands still moves backwards ...

In games, the space of games helps. Both phones tested on PUBG worked fine, but I had a slightly better experience playing on the cheaper realme 8.

In phones we have NFC, in realme 8 there is Bluetooth 5.1, in 8 Pro 5.0.

GPS works perfectly in both cases, the supported systems are A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS.

At the start, the devices feature Android 11 with the realme UI 2.0 overlay. Of course, we have gesture navigation in it, there is also wake up and blanking the screen with a double hit. It is possible to change the appearance of: wallpapers, icon styles, application layout, fingerprint unlock animation styles, lead color, font type and size, and the appearance of the notification panel. We can block access to applications, hide them, hide files and photos in a private safe, clone the system, i.e. create a second interface available only to us, there is also a control mode over what children use and do. We have a lot of gestures on a blank screen, an intelligent sidebar, a split screen, an application manager or logging into an account other than the owner.

Screenshots - realme 8:

Screenshots - realme 8 Pro:

What kind of photos does he take and what films does he record? - rating - 5

Let's start with realme 8 Pro. We have in it:

On realme 8, the camera set looks like this:

This means that the main lenses have grown in relation to the previous models - from 64 to 108 MP and 48 to 64 MP.

In realme 8 Pro we have: Ultra Night night mode with the possibility of manual settings; video with: ultra stabilization, AI Video, background blur and filters; photos with a wide angle and 3x UltraZoom, the quality of which is to be equal to the digital zoom; portrait; photo in 108 MP. In the more tab we can find: starry sky mode; simultaneous front and rear camera recording, slow motion, time-lapse video, AI combined portrait, video with manual settings for both lenses, expert photo mode, panorama, text scanner and ultra macro. There is of course AI for photos and an HDR mode.

In realme 8 compared to the 8 Pro we do not have: AI and background blur when recording video, UltraZoom 3x, star mode, AI combined portrait. The rest of the settings are identical.

Starting with the quality of the photos. First of all, the colors of the photos from both cameras are very different, the one with the realme 8 pro is warmer. Secondly - the field of view of the main lens in the 8 Pro is wider, in a wide angle it is identical. Third, in difficult situations with contrasting light, the ordinary 8 is better at bringing out more details from dark places. Fourth - the portrait mode is definitely in favor of the 8 Pro - the background blur is nicer and the contrast is better. Fifthly - while in city lighting at night, both smartphones perform similarly, when there is little light - the 8 Pro is much better. Sixth - macro photos from both smartphones are weak. Seventh - the 3x zoom in the realme 8 Pro is ok, you can see the differences in favor of the 8. Eighth - the selfie on both phones is good.

We will record videos in 4K 30 FPS and FHD 60 and 30FPS resolutions on the back and FHD and HD on the front. First of all, in the 8 Pro the voice is picked up well, in the 7 Pro there were a lot of problems with it. Electronic image stabilization in FHD is doing well (in 8 Pro it is better), but in 4K and here and here not at all - the image has a lot of details, but it shakes a lot.

Sample photos of realme 8:

Sample realme 8 video:

Sample photos of realme 8 Pro:

Realme 8 Pro sample video:

How long does the battery last? - 5

The cell in realme 8 Pro has 4500 mAh capacity, in realme 8 it is 5000 mAh. The charger in realme 8 Pro has 65W, but the phone can be fully charged with 50W. So it's fast - but not as fast as last year, where it took just over 30 minutes to charge. Now it takes less than 50 minutes. The charger in realme 8 has 30W and can charge the phone from 0 to 100 percent. takes just over an hour. There is no inductive charging in the phones.

Discharging normally takes a day of intense work or two of normal use. Realme 8 with a larger battery produces slightly better results, but these are not drastic differences.

Our final assessment

Let's start with realme 8 Pro. The phone had a very difficult task, because it is not easy to replace its predecessor, which in its price range was unbeatable. It is also hard to expect that realme will shoot such successful devices every season. This year, in my opinion, realme 8 took over the leaderboard - there are more positive changes compared to the older version. AMOLED screen, better photos, slightly smaller size. The 8 Pro slowed down the charging pace a bit, lost one speaker, but gained a better main lens. It is a pity that the manufacturer has not decided to increase the screen refresh rate from 60 to 90 Hz. However, assuming that both devices will keep the prices from last year, or will be even cheaper, they will still be one of the best offers in their category. It's just that without last year's "wow" effect.

We love: photo quality and fast charging on both phones

We don't like: the loss of stereo speakers on the realme 8 Pro

Who is realme 8 and realme 8 Pro for:

Who is realme 8 and realme 8 Pro not for:

Alternatives to realme 8:

Alternatives to realme 8 Pro:

Further information on the realme 8 and realme 8 Pro smartphones: