Realme 8 Pro, hands on: Good features at an affordable price, but no 5G Review

The Realme 8 Pro is a mid-vary £279 handset that gives quite a whole lot of punch for your funds, though 5G assistance is significantly lacking from the mix. It can be run by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 720G SoC with 8GB of RAM, and you can find 128GB of inside storage, of which 16GB is utilized out of the box, leaving 112GB free of charge. If you want additional storage, there is a MicroSD card slot in the SIM caddy. The handset supports two SIMs, and you never have to sacrifice 1 for extra storage: you can have two SIMs moreover a MicroSD card.

The Realme 8 Pro’s 6.four-inch AMOLED monitor (1080×2400, 409ppi) sits in fairly narrow bezels along 3 edges, though you can find a sizeable border at the base. This results in a screen-to-human body ratio of eighty three.three% (though Realme statements ninety.8%). The exhibit is sharp and punchy, and the punch-hole digicam in the screen’s leading still left corner isn’t really especially distracting. Impressively for a sub-£300 handset, you can find an in-monitor fingerprint scanner if you desire it, encounter unlock is also obtainable.  

The backplate is plastic, and feels like it, so you’ll need to have a protective case. But that is not essentially a offer-breaker, and the plastic case may well provide a beneficial goal moreover providing protection. There are 3 colour variants — Infinite Blue, Infinite Black and Punk Black. Mine was Infinite Black and the stippled, vaguely 3D result on the backplate was somewhat satisfying to the eye. Regretably you can find also a substantial ‘DARE TO LEAP’ slogan on the back again — sure, it can be in substantial capital letters. This might attraction to some folks, but it can be not to my style. Cue the other goal for a case: to hide that slogan. 

The Realme consumer interface adds a several bits and pieces on leading of Android 11, with its own songs participant, photo supervisor and climate app amid the pre-set up extras. Avid gamers may well like the Game Area app, which can be utilized to make configurations that are only operative when a activity is remaining performed — blocking notifications, rejecting phone calls and disabling vehicle brightness, for instance.  

The offered Fb app can be eradicated if you never want it. People that are unable to be eradicated are simply bundled absent into a folder that you can title ‘Ignore’. There is a dim monitor manner that can be set to swap on mechanically at sunset, and off at sunrise, or activated manually, and an Eye Consolation manner that can be toggled as desired. Both of those can be turned on and off in the Rapid Configurations pull-down menu. 

The 4500mAh battery proved efficient, trying to keep the handset jogging for sixteen hrs and 11 minutes underneath the PCMark for Android Work three. battery rundown exam. Fast charging (50W) is supported, and Realme states it delivers 50% battery daily life in seventeen minutes. When I examined this with the battery setting up at 19%, it received to sixty six% in fifteen minutes and to 85% in 30 minutes.  

The entrance digicam is a 16MP f/two.45 device, which supports 1080p online video at 30fps or 120fps slow movement, and pictures capabilities like panoramic check out, encounter recognition and bokeh result manage.  

SEE: 5G smartphones: A cheat sheet (free of charge PDF) (TechRepublic)

There are four cameras at the back again: 108MP f/one.9 huge angle 8MP f/two.25 extremely-huge angle (119°) 2MP f/two.four macro and 2MP f/two.four black and white. The latter two failed to genuinely do a lot for me, with the macro lens especially disappointing. You need to have to be 4cm from the matter for concentrating to work, which is restrictive. Stage-and-shoot snaps with the two primary cameras, and with the selfie digicam, are good for a handset at this price position, but if you want additional sophistication you’ll need to have to seem in other places.  

The Realme 8 Professional isn’t really a handset for pictures fans, though the primary 108MP digicam is first rate. But if you want superior battery daily life, rapidly charging pace, a nice AMOLED monitor and twin SIM assistance, all on a sub-£300 spending plan, it can be truly worth taking into consideration. Just be conscious of that DARE TO LEAP slogan.

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