Realme 8 series will officially come to the Philippines. I recently posted about my initial thoughts on realme 8 Pro; and now, let’s focus our attention on realme 8. As usual, I’ll give my first impressions and thoughts about whom this product is positioned to. If you’re looking for our unboxing video, you can head on to our TikTok account. Our feature video on YouTube will be up before May 11.
What’s inside the box?
If you missed watching our video over TikTok, here’s a quick rundown of the stuff inside the retail box of realme 8:
- Realme 8 (Cyber Silver): There are two colors of realme 8 – Cyber Silver and Cyber Black
- Silicon Case
- Manual and Warranty Documents
- Type A to Type C cable
- 30W Dart Charger
Two Major Upgrades vs realme 7
If there’s anything that changed or upgraded from realme 8, it would be the overall design and SUPER AMOLED display. Some people would find these “slim upgrades” because there are certain features that are essentially downgraded on realme 8. Note, however, realme seems to have a different definition of “upgrade”, which I discussed in my article and video. For realme, each iteration focuses of specific features that do not technically “compete” with each other. I understand and get why some people are upset with this, and that’s probably because of certain expectations that were unmet in the new iteration.
The new design of realme 8 is lighter and sports a “Dare to Leap” laser-printed statement at the back. Its new light build may be perceived as an upgrade for some, while others may find this a downgrade since it loses the impression of robustness and integrity. In my experience, I find the design more striking and the slight change in weight isn’t significant at all.
The biggest upgrade, however, is its Super AMOLED display. You get deeper blacks and more defined and detail colors. If you love playing mobile games or watching videos, using a smartphone with Super AMOLED display is the best way to go. You can even further tweak its display settings by playing around with color modes: vivid, gentle and power saving.
Did you know that having a Super AMOLED display drastically reduces battery consumption especially when using a smartphone in dark mode or black interface? In a study conducted by Greenbot, power consumption was 41% lower overall when using a dark interface. Using a specific application that uses AMOLED mode, they measured the consumption with the following variable sets:
- Disabled background processes
- No Synching
- Airplane Mode
- Locked to 50%
- Screen Timeout: 30 minutes
Here’s the result of their test:
If you’re coming from realme 7 or any phone that matches its specs, realme 8 can be an upgrade path if you are after a better display sans the 90Hz refresh rate. However, if there are other smartphones that can rival the price (that will later be revealed) of realme 8 but with better specs, then you may either wait for realme 9 or check out realme X50 Pro 5G.
Realme 8 might be a better upgrade path for those who own realme 6
This, basically, sums up the entirety of my first impressions. Judging from specs of realme 8 in contrast with realme 6, the former is definitely a better smartphone. Therefore, if you’re a fan of this series, upgrade to realme 8. Here are the reasons:
- It is lighter
- It has better display, sans the 90Hz panel
- It’s more compact
- It has relatively faster set of processors
- It has more battery capacity
Perhaps, the only thing that might give realme 6 users some second thoughts would be realme 8’s lower refresh rate and its similar set of camera specs.
On Camera Specs
One of the features that carried on from the realme 6 is camera specs. You still get 64MP wide main camera, 8MP ultrawide, 2MP macro and 2MP depth sensor. Its front camera is the same 16MP from two previous generations. Focusing speed is good and portrait shots look very impressive.
What realme added on realme 8 are Neon Portrait Mode using rear camera, Bokeh Effect and Starry Mode.
Availability
Realme 8 series is expected to become available this month in the Philippines. We still have yet to know the exact prices of realme 8 and realme 8 Pro on May 11 at 6PM. Judging from the usual pricing of the realme 7 series at launch, we’re looking around PhP12,990 to PhP13,990. Realme 7’s price may be reduced a bit.
What are your thoughts on this? Let’s discuss in our Facebook comments.
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
