WHEN realme contacted me about reviewing another phone, I thought it was going to be the realme 8i. Afterall, their number series always comes in threes and since the 8 and 8 Pro are out, all that’s left was the 8i. So, I was quite surprised when I opened the package and saw the realme 8 5g instead.
realme has had long line of solid, inexpensive phones that made them the No. 1 smartphone brand in the country, and the realme 8 5G is their first device to help you make the leap to 5G as cheaply as possible. It offers an appealing design, and some impressive specs, with next-gen connectivity being one of the highlights, but should you take the leap now?
DESIGN AND BUILD
THE first thing you’ll notice is the missing “Dare To Leap” branding on the back unlike its siblings. The design has been quite divisive, but if you are really part of the squad, there’s no better way to show off your love than with that emblazoned tagline on your phone.
Then there’s the textured back of the 8 Pro, instead of that sandblasted finish (which I love) we get with the realme 8 5G, what the company calls a Dynamic Speed Light design. Its shiny, shimmering but not that splendid as we’ve seen it in a lot of other phones.
The sides and back of the phone are made of plastic, but the color scheme does give it a little personality. We have the Supersonic Blue, which is more fun to look at, but you could also get it in Supersonic Black for a more mature vibe.
I do like the fact that its superslim at just 8.5mm and feels light to hold at only 185g despite having a 5000mAh battery. Located on the left side are the volume buttons together with the triple-card tray which can house two nano-sized SIM cards and a microSD card for up to 1TB. On the right is the power button, which also doubles as a fingerprint scanner. There’s nothing up top but located at the bottom are its 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone, USB-C port and loudspeaker.
DISPLAY AND SOUND
UP front you get a 6.5-inch LCD screen with relatively slim bezels and a slightly thicker chin. It’s got a punch hole on the upper left for the selfie camera and above it in the bezel is the earpiece. The 2400 x 1080 HD resolution was better than I expected and when you ramp up the brightness, it’s more than enough for games and movies. You won’t have any problems even outdoors.
But the highlight of its display is its 90Hz refresh rate. If you’re going to use it on the fastest Internet connection, enjoy buttery-smooth scrolling and browsing. If you want to save battery, though, head over to the display setting and turn on “auto select” and it will dynamically switch between 90Hz and 60Hz refresh rates depending on the task.
As for sound quality, its decent at best since you only get a single loudspeaker. It’s good enough if you are alone in a small room, otherwise there always the headphone jack available if you want better sound output.
CAMERAS
THE realme 8 5G is equipped with a humble triple rear camera array, although you might have noticed four circles within the bump. One of them doesn’t actually contain a lens, but just an “AI” badge. It’s a bit deceiving, but it serves the purpose of keeping the layout balanced and make the phone look fancier.
The phone’s 48MP main sensor is no slouch and for everyday quick snaps, it’s perfectly fine. The depth sensor and the 2MP macro are there to give it a bit more versatility as the camera modes are a bit limited. Macro shots can be a bit tricky to pull off and the 2MP can only do so much.
You can still get photos at night, with a reasonable amount of detail by activating night mode and keeping your subject close. It boosts the brightness up a bit, just make sure to keep your phone steady for longer.
For selfies, the 16MP front camera works best under natural lighting and again the quality is just okay with fair enough details and a bit of depth in portrait mode.
PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY
THE realme 8 5G is equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 700 chip paired with a Mali-G57 GPU, and a generous 8GB of RAM +128GB storage. This 5G processor mixes two highly capable Arm Cortex-A76 cores in its octa-core CPU operating up to a speedy 2.2GHz.
That said, using the realme 8 5G for the past few weeks was an overall pleasant experience. There was no noticeable lag when switching between apps and menus, and opening multiple websites and media files were snappy. I also loaded several casual games and it was able to handle all of them quite well with the help of Gamespace. Now, it doesn’t mean you could play those resource-heavy games, but you have to be content with the default settings.
The realme 8 5G is equipped with a 5000mAh battery which again is enough for moderate day-to-day use. You also get an 18W type-c charger which gets you 48 percent in 30 minutes.
It’s also worth noting that the phone supports Smart 5G Power Saving. As 5G brings more power consumption to the phone, this feature helps to lessen the strain on its battery life. Smart 5G technology can intelligently sense the surrounding signal environment and “senselessly” switch between 4G and 5G without switching time, which achieves 30 percent lower power consumption than phones without the Smart 5G feature.
As we were finishing this review, realme launched several new TechLife products; the realme Watch 2 Series, the realme Buds Wireless 2 Neo, the realme Night Light, and the realme Pocket Bluetooth Speaker.
The realme Watch 2 Pro seeks to be the professional sports and fitness companion, featuring a massive 1.75” Ultra Large Display with a high resolution of 320 x 385 pixels and 30FPS refresh rate for increased smoothness and reactiveness. It has Dual Satellite GPS and an incredible battery life of up to 14 days. The realme Watch 2, on the other hand, features realme’s industry-leading blood oxygen and 24/7 heart rate monitor to help you keep track of your health, and supports up to 90 kinds of sports modes to monitor your physical activities like cycling, strength training, running, among many others. The realme Watch 2’s battery can last up to 12 days.
FINAL WORD: So should you get this budget 5G device? Everybody is talking about 5G and the telcos are going all out to make it available in more locations nationwide. If you do live in an area that has 5G coverage, and you are thinking about getting a 5G phone, the realme 8 5G is one of the most affordable options at P11,990.