Realme 8 Pro Unboxing And First Impressions: Worthy Upgrade?

After launching the Realme X7 and Narzo 30 series smartphones, Realme is back with yet another smartphone launch. As teased earlier, the company has officially launched the Realme 8 Pro and Realme 8 smartphones in the Indian market. In this article, we will give you the first impressions of the Realme 8 Pro. The Realme 8 Pro is the successor to the Realme 7 Pro, which was launched six months back. It comes in Infinite Blue, Infinite Black, and Illuminating Yellow color options. However, the “Dare To Leap” slogan across the rear panel makes the device look a bit cheap.

The base variant of the Realme 8 Pro comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage and is priced at Rs 17,999. There is also an 8GB RAM variant with the same 128GB of internal storage, which costs Rs 19,999. With the Realme 8 Pro, the company also moved back to using all-yellow packaging. The smaller compartment inside the box holds the SIM ejector tool, TPU protective case, safety guide, and quick guide. Underneath it is the Realme 8 Pro in the Infinite Blue color. The retail package also includes a 65W power adapter and USB Type-C cable.

Our Infinite Blue Realme 8 Pro comes with a glittery matte finish that definitely helps in avoiding fingerprints and smudges. However, instead of being smooth, the rear panel has a rough feel to it. Both the power button and volume rocker are placed on the right edge. The triple card slot for holding two nano SIMs and one MicroSD can be found on the left side. The bottom edge of the device houses the 3.5mm headphone jack, primary microphone, USB Type-C port, and loudspeaker. There is also a secondary microphone on the top edge.

On the front, the device sports a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with Full HD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) resolution. While the display settles for a 60Hz refresh rate, it comes with a 180Hz touch sampling rate. With the minimal bezels at the top and sides, the device offers a 90.8% screen-to-body ratio. Realme also enabled the Always-On Display (AOD) option on this device. Coming to the performance, the company decided to use the same-old 8nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G Mobile Platform offered with the Realme 7 Pro. It features an octa-core CPU and Adreno 618 GPU.

The chipset comes paired with LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.1 flash storage. There is also a dedicated MicroSD card slot for further expansion of storage. The Realme 8 Pro, along with the Realme 8, are the first smartphones to run on Realme UI 2.0 out of the box. For the uninitiated, the Realme UI 2.0 is based on the latest Android 11 OS. If you are a fan of dark mode, then the Realme 8 Pro offers three different styles — Enhanced, Medium, Gentle. The device measures 8.1mm in thickness and weighs 176 grams. While the device is undoubtedly lightweight, the battery life isn’t that exceptional.

It packs a 4,500mAh battery and is able to last until the end of the day on normal usage. Do note that you have to charge frequently if you are playing games. While the Realme 8 Pro comes with a 65W power adapter, it only supports 50W SuperDart Charge. Coming to the cameras, the Realme 8 Pro packs a quad-camera setup on the rear. For the primary camera, the company is using the 108MP Samsung HM2 sensor with f/1.88 aperture and PDAF. There is also an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.25 aperture, a 2MP macro lens with f/2.4 aperture, and a 2MP B&W lens with f/2.4 aperture.

While the photos from the primary camera look good with rich and vivid colors, it has focusing issues for the close-up shots. By default, the device captures photos on 12MP resolution using the 9-in-1 Pixel Binning technology. However, there is a dedicated “108M” mode for capturing photos in 108MP resolution. The camera app also includes several new features like 2nd-gen Starry Mode, Tilt-shift Time-lapse Video, and Dual-view Video. With the upcoming OTA update, the device will also support slow-motion video recording at 960fps in 720p & 480fps in 1080p resolutions.

For selfies, there is a 16MP in-display selfie camera with an f/2.45 aperture placed at the top left corner of the display. While there is a dedicated Portrait mode for the selfie camera, the edge detection isn’t perfect in most cases. The in-display fingerprint sensor embedded into the AMOLED display doesn’t respond quickly. Unlike the Realme 7 Pro, there is no stereo speaker setup on the Realme 8 Pro. Speaking of the connectivity, the device supports 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, and USB Type-C port.

For the asking price, the Realme 8 Pro seems slightly overpriced. More than a powerful chipset, the lack of 5G connectivity is a much bigger tradeoff. It is also slimmer and lighter than its predecessor. In this highly competitive price bracket, there are quite a few alternatives like the Realme Narzo 30 Pro and Redmi Note 10 Pro Max offering a better value for their price.