Meet the Realme 8 Pro: a budget smartphone with a 108MP camera

Realme 8 Pro
(Image credit: Laptop Mag)

The budget smartphone market is all about balance and compromise — bringing some upmarket features to the table while compromising in some areas to keep the cost down. 

Sometimes, they don’t always get that right, but Realme have been on a bit of a hot streak for decent cheap phones, as the Realme 7 Pro review by our sister site Techradar will allude to. 

And they hope to continue this with the Realme 8 Pro, which out of all the specs, the big headline here is the inclusion of a 108MP camera in a budget smartphone.

Look at that body

(Image credit: Laptop Mag)

First impressions count, and while we can’t tell you what ours are until the review, we can at least show you the hardware.

The back’s two-tone blue colour is made possible with an AG-Crystal process, where the plastic back is showered with microscopic granules, to give the colour some real depth from any perspective. It’s something that a camera can’t necessarily capture.

Plus, the 3.5mm headphone jack lives on. Rejoice!

Snap happy

Of course, as is very much the “in” thing with smartphones, there is a quad camera setup here, but the star of the show is the 108MP main shooter.

(Image credit: Laptop Mag)

The 8 Pro generation of Samsung 108MP Sensor HM2 as its primary camera, measuring in at 1 x 1.52 inches for plenty of light capture.

We can’t give specific opinions on pictures just yet (that will have to wait for the review), but we can put it through its paces with some difficult shots to take and show you the results.

We’ll have much more to share when the launch event live stream kicks off on the 24th March at 2pm UK time.

Jason England
Content Editor

Jason brought a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a writer at Laptop Mag, and he is now the Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He takes a particular interest in writing articles and creating videos about laptops, headphones and games. He has previously written for Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.