The realme 8 5G is the company's initial attempt in making affordable 5G smartphones in the Philippines. For obvious reasons, this handset joins the popular realme 8 series released weeks ago. It brings 5G connectivity to the masses with its sparkling new MediaTek Dimensity 700 5G chipset.
We have the realme 8 5G in Supersonic Black. Join us as we unbox this device and give you our initial thoughts about its design and overall first impressions.
realme 8 5G Unboxing
As usual, we have the same yellow box with black accents which is living up to the brand's youthful appeal. Opening the box, we'll be greeted by a packet which contains the smoked transparent jelly case, SIM ejector tool, and documentations. Underneath the paper division are the essentials - USB-C cable and power adapter.
We have an 18-watt power adapter which means the realme 8 5G supports fast charging. How long does it take to charge the phone from zero to a hundred, we'll find out in our review coming soon. There's no earphones included in the box but realme offers affordable AioT audio products in their portfolio.
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Design
It is without doubt that realme is very capable of producing solidly built smartphones in this segment; and that is very evident with the realme 8 5G. The Supersonic Black variant exudes a glossy plastic backing that shimmers and reflects light in different directions. realme calls this the Dynamic Speed Light design.
The glossy back is a fingerprint magnet, but that should not keep us from thinking that this is a premium-looking smartphone. The railings are made of plastic with a different look. Its matte finish gives an easy grip on the sides of the phone.
Ports and buttons are in their no nonsense placements. The power button which doubles as a fingerprint sensor is on the right side. The left side houses the three-slotted SIM tray and the volume rocker. The bottom part is a home to the 3.5-mm audio jack, microphone, USB-C port, and speaker grill.
This 185-gram phone is light enough to carry around. It also has a slim profile with its 8.5-mm body, despite having a juicy 5000 mAh battery. I have to say I'm quite satisfied with the realme 8 5G's design.
Display
Flipping the device, you'll see the 6.5-inch LCD hole-punch display with 1080 x 2400p resolution. The top and side bezels are quite thin which make this handset very promising in content consumption. The panel also boasts a 90Hz high refresh rate which shows the moment you scroll on the device's interface.
Just like any other realme LCD panels, the screen registers with ample brightness, even when used outdoors. In fact, it's brighter than most of the LCD panels I've seen in this price range. On the upper left is the hole-punch provision for the 16MP selfie camera sensor.
5G connectivity, Other Features
Of course, we have 5G connectivity as the marquee feature of the realme 8 5G. In our initial speed test, we measured almost 200 Mbps of download speed while we were in the Mall of Asia complex. realme says that this smartphone automatically toggles from 5G to 4G depending on the scenario, just to save battery.
It's also worth noting that both SIM slots support 5G connectivity to give users flexibility to utilize 5G services from different telcos.
Apart from the fast connectivity, the smartphone features 5000 mAh battery which is said to last for two days and a triple camera setup top billed by a 48MP sensor.
You can also get the realme 8 5G in Supersonic Blue. Our unit has 8GB RAM and 128GB memory which is a pretty standard option with realme midrange phones.
Stay tuned as we will be digging deeper into the realme 8 5G's capabilities in our review soon.
realme 8 5G Specs
6.5-inch FHD+ IPS LCD
1080 x 2400 pixels, 405 ppi
20:9 Aspect ratio
MediaTek Dimensity 700 5G - 7nm
2x2.2GHz Cortex-A76 and 6x2GHz Cortex-A55
Mali-G57 MC2 GPU
8GB RAM
128GB ROM
Expandable with dedicated card slot
Triple Rear Camera:
1. 48MP f/1.8 main
2. 2MP f/2.4 macro
3. 2MP f/2.4 depth
16MP, f/2.1 Front camera
1080p@30fps Videos
Dual-SIM (nano)
5G, 4G, 3G, 2G
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth v5.1
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
NFC
USB Type-C 2.0, USB OTG
3.5-mm Audio Jack
Fingerprint Sensor, side-mounted
Accelerometer
Gyro
Proximity
Compass
realme UI 2.0, based on Android 11
5000 mAh Li-Po Battery
18W Fast Charging
Supersonic Blue, Supersonic Black
PHP11,990 (in Shopee)