The Realme 8 Pro is a good, inexpensive Android phone that you probably shouldnât buy right now â at least if youâre in the US. But itâs also a preview of positive things to come to the midrange class, especially in terms of camera hardware. I have seen the future of smartphone imaging around the $400 price point, and it is good.
If youâre not familiar, Realme is a Chinese company that started off as a sub-brand of Oppo; like OnePlus, it was founded by a former Oppo vice president. Its phones are sold in China, India, and Europe. Although, you can technically buy a global version of the phone and use it in the US, but we wouldnât recommend it. Itâs not compatible with many of the 4G bands we use in the states, so coverage wonât be great.
Our review of
Realme 8 Pro
Verge Score
7 out of 10
Good Stuff
- High-quality main camera
- Surprisingly good 3x digital zoom
- Fast all-around performance thanks to 6GB RAM / Snapdragon 720G combo
Bad Stuff
- Noticeable white balance shift with ultrawide
- Finicky optical fingerprint sensor
- No 5G support
The 8 Pro uses a relatively new 108-megapixel Samsung sensor. Itâs the same pixel count as the main camera in the Galaxy S21 Ultra, but a different, smaller chip designed for budget-friendlier phones. As in the S21 Ultra, the point of this technology isnât to take 108-megapixel images (though you can do that if you want). Itâs to combine information from groups of pixels to create a better optimized 12-megapixel final image.
There are other reasons to like the Realme 8 Pro. Considering its ÂŁ279 (about $380) price, performance is very good, owing to a strong combination in its Snapdragon 720G processor and 6GB of RAM. Battery life is healthy and the phone supports 50W fast wired charging. Depending on how you feel about inspirational corporate branding, I guess the âDARE TO LEAPâ printed on the back of the phone could be a plus (not my thing, personally).
But the camera impressed me the most, and itâs a component that will likely make its way into many more midrange phones sold around the globe. Letâs take a closer look.
Realme 8 Pro camera
In case you need a reminder at any point of how many pixels the main camera offers, you can simply look at the back of the phone where youâll find â108 MP QUAD CAMERAâ etched on the camera bump. Specifically, itâs Samsungâs 1/1.52-inch Isocell HM2 sensor coupled with an f/1.9 lens.
Unfortunately, thereâs no optical image stabilization here, but maybe owing to the image processing tricks this high-res sensor can pull off, I didnât notice a significant number of blurry shots that OIS might have corrected. Other rear cameras include an 8-megapixel ultrawide, 2-megapixel macro, and a 2-megapixel depth-sensing camera. Thereâs a 16-megapixel selfie camera on the front.
In low light, the camera uses binning to combine pixels into groups of nine
The main camera is able to do a couple of interesting things. In bright daylight, it can use all 108 million pixels individually, using different pixels to capture your scene at multiple exposure levels at once, and combining the information into a 12-megapixel final image. In low light, the camera switches things up and uses binning to combine pixels into groups of nine, effectively turning relatively small individual pixels â 0.7ÎŒm to be precise â into much larger 2.1ÎŒm sized pixels, which helps produce less noisy images.
Photos in bright light look good as expected. Thereâs an impressive amount of detail captured, though some overzealous sharpening is evident if you zoom in to 100 percent. Colors are a bit too saturated for my liking; thereâs no amount of lawn fertilizer in the world that would make my yard look as green as the 8 Pro thinks it is. It seems more prone to this oversaturation with landscapes and is thankfully less aggressive with portrait mode photos. Portrait mode photos look good, and I appreciate that the camera doesnât crop in when switching to this mode.
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Taken with ultrawide
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Taken with ultrawide
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Taken with night mode
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Taken with ultrawide
Dim indoor lighting and low light are where phone cameras typically struggle, but the 8 Pro turns in an impressive performance in these conditions. In moderate lighting, images are surprisingly detailed and show little noise. The cameraâs night mode will bring out even more detail, though it does apply a distracting amount of sharpening and contrast.
I had, frankly, low expectations for the 8 Proâs digital 3x zoom, but Iâm pleased to report that itâs much better than I feared. In good light and even moderate indoor lighting, images show a lot of detail and Iâm hard-pressed to find the unpleasant artifacts that usually appear in digitally zoomed images.
The camera isnât just cropping in on a 108-megapixel image, either. Comparing them side by side at 100 percent, a photo taken with 3x digital zoom shows more detail and looks less noisy than a crop of a 108-megapixel image. The Samsung HM2âs pixel binning powers are being put to work here, too, and the result is digital zoom that is actually worth your time.
Thereâs not as much exciting news to report about the 8 Proâs other cameras; they do just fine. The ultrawide is prone to some subtle but unpleasant color shifts: white balance can skew too warm and blue skies sometimes look a little gray. The macro camera is a low-resolution sensor that is little more than a gimmick, and the selfie camera thankfully avoids over-smoothing faces at its default setting. All fair for a phone at this price.
Realme 8 Pro performance and screen
Outside of cameras, the Realme 8 Pro is a thoroughly capable midrange phone. Battery life is sufficient to get through a day of moderate to heavy use and the aforementioned processor / RAM combo handles day-to-day app scrolling and tasks with ease. The 6.4-inch 1080p OLED with standard 60Hz refresh rate is fine but nothing special, and I had to fight with auto brightness insisting on making the screen too dim on a couple of occasions.
this processor / RAM combo handles day-to-day app scrolling and tasks with ease
Thereâs the flashy branding on the rear of the device, which is either your kind of thing or not. The Realme 8 Pro doesnât support 5G at all, which is something to consider if youâre in the UK and thinking of buying the phone.
My biggest gripe, though, is with the optical in-display fingerprint sensor. Iâd say at least a third of the time when I unlocked the phone it required more than one try to read my finger. A couple of times â both outside in bright daylight â it gave up and had me enter my PIN instead. If this was going to be my forever phone, Iâd probably skip the fingerprint sensor and just stick with a PIN, personally.
The Realme 8 Pro is the kind of midrange phone that we donât see very often in the US: great performance and decent all-around specs combined with an excellent camera, all for what would equate to a sub-$400 price.
the 8 Pro is (hopefully) a sign of good camera hardware coming our way soon
Phones that meet this description are surprisingly scarce stateside; in fact, its closest equivalent is probably the Pixel 4A, which weâve recommended as the best low-cost Android phone essentially since it became available last summer. The 8 Pro goes a step beyond the 4A in some respects by offering an ultrawide rear camera and fast charging. If it came down to it, though, weâd probably still favor the Pixel for its very good device support and excellent lone rear camera.
If you live in the UK and you donât care much about class-leading display specs and the lack of 5G doesnât bother you, the 8 Pro has a camera and a processor that will keep up for many years to come. For the rest of us, the 8 Pro is (hopefully) a sign of good camera hardware coming our way soon.
Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge
Agree to Continue: Realme 8 Pro
Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it â contracts that no one actually reads. Itâs impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit âagreeâ to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people donât read and definitely canât negotiate.
To use the Realme 8 Pro, youâll have to agree to:
- Realmeâs Smartphone User AgreementÂ
- Realmeâs Privacy Policy
- Google Terms of Service
- Install updates and apps: âYou agree this device may also automatically download and install updates and apps from Google, your carrier, and your deviceâs manufacturer, possibly using cellular data. Some of these apps may offer in-app purchases.â
To add a Google account, youâll also need to agree to two more things:
- Google Play Terms of Service
- Google Privacy Policy
The following agreements are optional:
- Back up to Google Drive: âYour backup includes apps, app data, all history, contacts, device settings (including Wi-Fi passwords and permissions), and SMS.â
- Use location: âGoogle may collect location data periodically and use this data in any anonymous way to improve location accuracy and location-based services.â
- Allow scanning: âAllow apps and services to scan for Wi-Fi networks and nearby devices at any time, even when Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is off.â
- Send usage and diagnostic data: âHelp improve your Android device experience by automatically sending diagnostic, device and app usage data to Google.â
- Google Assistant Voice Match: âAllows your Assistant to identify you and tell you apart from others. The Assistant takes clips of your voice to form a unique voice model, which is only stored on your device(s). Your voice model may be sent temporarily to Google to better identify your voice.â
- Realme User Experience Program Privacy Statement
- Carrier Location Services
- Realme Photos app Privacy Policy
Final tally: four mandatory agreements to use the phone at all, another two for Google account services, and eight additional optional agreements.