Realme 8: A new standard with value for money

The Asian firm Realme continues to bet on offering products that have a good value for money, dangerously close to Xiaomi's formula for success, even in some cases surpassing its proposals depending on the range and the specific product, however, Realme it continues to be very focused on mobile telephony as its main attraction.

We have in our hands the new Realme 8 and we analyze it in depth to tell you what our complete user experience has been. Discover with us this new mid-range device that comes to compete in an increasingly tight market with fewer interesting alternatives.

Design and materials

Realme has always known, at least so far, to bet on designs that "are not what they seem", so to speak. Despite the fact that their manufacturing banners are based on plastic, the truth is that you have to have them in hand to realize it. The same thing has happened again now with the Realme 8, a terminal that invites you to think about a premium construction but that finally advocates plastic. This is how they have found the correct stability between a moderate weight and size.

• Size: 160,6 x 73,9 x 7,99 mm
• Weight: 177 grams

For its part, the terminal has a port Bottom-centered USB-C, next to which we will find an almost extinct port 3,5mm jack which is often appreciated despite the fact that wired headphones are almost a cult object and the device does not have aptX. The completely transparent upper part and on the right side is where the volume and power buttons will be. The terminal fits well in the hands, although in its black version (we have glossy white and glossy black) it has a serious problem with fingerprint retention. However, the cover is included in the package.

Technical characteristics

As for the heart of the device, this time Realme has decided to bet on MediaTek, the well-known G95 mid-range accompanied by three memory versions RAM of 4, 6 and up to 8GB, This maximum capacity is precisely what we have analyzed for two weeks. For his part the only storage of the Realme 8 is 128GB, something that has seemed more than enough, although it is true that it does not have any type of file system or specific hardware that improves the performance of the reading and writing rate.

We find few more striking details, bet on WiFi 6 and 4G LTE at the level of wireless connectivity, which has offered us good performance in 5GHz networks as you have seen in the video. Bluetooth 5.0 for the rest of the functionalities. All of this will run under Real UI 2.0, the layer that comes above Android 11 and which we will talk about later. On paper, as we have seen, this Realme does not lack much, although obviously taking into account its AMOLED panel, the firm has decided to bet on a system of In-screen fingerprint reader that works quite well considering the price range.

Autonomy and Realme UI 2.0

We start with the biggest, his battery, we have 5.000 mAh with a "fast" charge of just over an hour. The package includes a 30W charger and a USB-C cable, but we will not have headphones despite having the 3,5mm Jack. It lacks, for obvious reasons, wireless charging, although it is something that many users still do not miss in many of these terminals, as well as the NFC chip. The battery gives us more than a day of standard use, although it can get slightly warm with video games.

Realme UI 2.0 has left a bittersweet taste in my mouth, At the time, Realme came to Spain with the cleaning of its Operating System by flag and that's how it was. While at the design level Realme UI 2.0 feels agile and beautiful with its pastel tones and flat designs, the experience is completely tarnished with a series of "bloatware" in the form of hidden shortcuts in the form of applications, many others that we do not know. why are they installed like Facebook or Tiktok.

Multimedia experience and camera test

We like to analyze this section with dedication. We start with a 6,4-inch panel with Super AMOLED technology presumably made by Samsung. In it we will find a maximum brightness of 1000nits, enough for outdoor battle. The screen is quite prominent with a flat design, however, we have the freckle on the upper left and a lower frame that I do not quite understand if we take into account the camera embedded in the upper area. As for the sound, We have a single speaker at the bottom that is well placed and offers a fairly powerful and clear sound, bridging the differences with the high-end for obvious reasons.

The camera is where we clearly start to find the first pitfalls, we have four sensors, one of the main 64 MP that even digitally offers us a pleasant video stabilization. It suffers in contrasts and abuses HDR when we set it automatically. We continue with an 8 MP camera dedicated to the Ultra Wide Angle, and two sensors, one of 2MP macro and the other of 2MP configured in black and white to improve, in theory, the photographs in portrait mode. In our video you can observe the performance of the cameras in direct, in the meantime we leave you the photographic samples at the bottom.

Editor's Opinion

That said, let's go with the strengths of this Realme 8, the first is obviously its price, 199 euros is the official one, although it can be improved by specific launch offers. Next up is a fairly prominent 6,4-inch Super AMOLED panel, well fitted and with more than decent brightness. The autonomy per flag will also make the use of the device pleasant despite the fact that its fast charge may not seem excessively fast.

For its part, the way in which they have integrated Realme UI 2.0 has left us a bittersweet taste, as well as the excessive plastic sensation of the terminal. Obviously we lack wireless charging or NFC, something understandable in its price range.