Realme 8 review

Quad-cam setup with 64MP snapper at the helm

The Realme 8 has a solid camera setup. At least on paper, that is. There are a total of four snappers on the back. The main attraction is likely the 64MP main Quad-Bayer camera. As per AIDA64, it uses the Sony IMX682 sensor (1/1.73", 0.8µm), behind an f/1.8 lens. Decent, even if not particularly special in any way - no OIS or special autofocus, other than PDAF. Though, the Realme 8 does have gyro-based EIS for videos.

As far as we can gather, this sensor is also used in the Realme 7 Pro and the Asian Realme 7. Also, quite a few Xiaomi pones, like the Redmi K30 Ultra, Mi 10T 5G, Mi 10T Lite 5G and the Poco X3, also some Samsungs, like the M31s and M51. A pretty popular sensor. The main camera on the Realme 8 is one of its main differences over the Realme 8 5G, with its 48MP snapper and the Realme 8 Pro's 108MP snapper.

Complementing the main camera, we have an 8MP ultrawide with an f/2.3 aperture. Beyond that - two 2MP small cams. One for macros and the other leveraged for depth info.

On the selfies side, the Realme 8 has a 16MP IMX471 sensor. It is also a pretty popular selfie cam, particularly favored by OnePlus and found in pretty-much every one of their phones for a few generations now, including the OnePlus 9, 9 Pro and 9R. Though, not necessarily with the same f/2.5 lens found on the Realme 8.

The camera app UI on the Realme 8 is a largely familiar affair. The overall layout is fairly simple, with few menus - most of the modes are now on the main rolodex, which is good. It offers AI Scene Enhancement (also known as Chroma Boost or Dazzle Color) - it's like an advanced HDR mode, which may stack several images to offers even further improvements in the dynamic range, but the most prominent "improvement" is the higher color saturation.

Main camera UI

The settings menu is straight-forward as well.

Camera settings

There are, however, a few notable oddities that need addressing. One is the way video resolution works in relation to the ultrawide. If you've selected 4K or 1080p@60fps, you won't see a 0.6x switch for the ultrawide camera as these resolutions aren't supported. The only way to enable it is to switch to 1080p@30fps from the advanced settings. And switch back to 4K when you are done. Other makers do this hassle-free by shooting at the maximum resolution available, when a camera can't do, say 4K, but Realme seems to have stumbled with this thing here.

Video capture UI

The other peculiarity is related to Expert mode. Switching between cameras in Expert mode is handled in a truly bizarre way. You get the familiar 1x-2x-5x selector, but that doesn't operate the actual cameras - it's a digital zoom from whichever camera you've picked from the tree selector on the opposite end of the viewfinder. Indeed, the trees switch cameras, and once you select a module from there, no focusing distance considerations will auto-switch it - that's good.

Expert mode

In the Expert mode, you get to tweak exposure (ISO in the 100-6400 range and shutter speed in the 1/8000s-32s range, 2s for the ultrawide), white balance (by light temperature, but no presets), manual focus (in arbitrary 0 to 1 units with 0 being close focus and 1 being infinity) and exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 1/6EV increments).

Photo quality - daylight

Kicking things off with the main 64MP camera, the 16MP binned shots it captures by default are good, especially for a budget phone. There is plenty of detail and lively colors. Perhaps even a bit too lively at times, bordering on over-saturated, but not too bad. Dynamic range is also decent, though not great. Noise is a bit of an issue.

Realme 8: 16MP main camera samples

While we can't complain about the overall quality too much, Realme's over-the-top processing is worth pointing out here. On the one hand, certain finer details tend to get a bit "smeared" due to the noise processing algorithm. Things like foliage and bricks and other similar textured surfaces.

Next, the sharpening algorithm comes in aggressively, often resulting in stark and strong lines, which are exaggerated.

Realme also offers an AI Scene Enhancement toggle (previously known as Chroma Boost and Dazzle Color) within the camera app. It usually makes an HDR photo with eye-popping colors, depending on the scenes, of course.

Realme 8: AI Scene Detection 16MP main camera samples

The effects on certain elements like grass and the sky when the AI detects those and properly kicks in is obvious. Though, not really as overboard as on the Realme 8 Pro. Most photos shot with AI Scene Enhancement come out brighter, not necessarily via stacking, but rather just with a higher exposure, but without lifting the shadows, which are borderline crushed. Still, we enjoy the livelier look. However, with closer inspection, you can see these images are in fact softer.

It is worth noting that one of the "scenes" the AI can trigger is text detection. Once that happens, the camera app tries its best to find the "edges" of whatever you are trying to "scan", presuming by default that this is what you are trying to do. It is important to be mindful of this behavior since once a cropping rectangle appears in the frame, the resulting shot will only include only its contents, which can ruin shots by accident.

You can capture stills in the full 64MP resolution of the main camera, as well. This comes with all the usual caveats, like occasional fringing, especially in finer details and five to six times larger file sizes than 16MP stills.

Realme 8: 64MP main camera samples

You don't really get all that much in the way of extra resolved detail in these. The one potential advantage to shooting in this mode is that at high zoom levels over-sharpening artefacts are fewer and less-noticeable.

You can use AI Scene Detection in 64MP mode as well and the effects are quite similar - generally brighter shots and punchier colors. We would say that the effect is even stronger in 64MP mode than in the default 16MP one.

Realme 8: AI Scene Detection 64MP main camera samples

There is no dedicated telephoto on the Realme 8. However, the camera app does offer digital zoom up to 10x, with toggles for 2x and 5x in the UI. At 2x zoom, shots look surprisingly good. Expectedly, things are a bit softer overall, but other than that, we hardly noticed any extra noise. Processing and color look good and consistent with regular stills, which is expected, seeing how both come from the same camera.

Realme 8: 2x zoom 16MP main camera samples

Even at 5x zoom, daylight stills remain very competent. Understandably, softer still, but definitely usable.

Realme 8: 5x zoom 16MP main camera samples

AI Scene Detection can be used at any of the zoom levels, and we actually found it to be beneficial more often than not. It seems to introduce an extra bit of sharpening in the scene, somewhat mitigating the inherent extra softness. Not exactly a better look while pixel-peeping, but arguably better when looking at a photo at 1:1 magnification.

Realme 8: AI Scene Detection 2x zoom 16MP main camera samples

Realme 8: AI Scene Detection 5x zoom 16MP main camera samples

The 8MP ultrawide camera on the Realme 8 is arguably the weakest link in the chain. Shots from it come out underwhelming in a couple of ways. First off, they are dim, noticeably dimmer than shots from the main camera under the exact same lighting conditions. For some reason, the Realme 8 just underexposes most of the ultrawide shots.

Realme 8: 8MP ultrawide camera samples

Even when we tried to correct exposure with spot metering, we hardly managed to have any effect, which leads us to believe it's a software issue. Likely a fixable one. That might not be the case with the noticeable softness around the edges of the frame.

AI Scene Detection is all over the place in quite inconsistent on the ultrawide, as well. Sometimes it boosts brightness and sharpness, but just by a tiny bit. Other times it simply has no effect whatsoever. And there are even times where you still end up with a soft, underexposed shot with additionally crushed shadows. Overall, the ultrawide camera needs quite a bit of work.

Realme 8: AI Scene Detection 8MP ultrawide camera samples

Before we move on, here is a set of shots at the various Zoom level toggles on the Realme 8, starting with the 0.6x ultrawide, then the 1x main camera, and 2x and 5x zoom shots. All done in the default mode, without AI Scene Detection

Realme 8: ultrawide • 1x • 2x • 5x

The 2MP macro camera has its focus fixed at 4cm and shooting a sharp picture is nearly impossible task. Even if you manage to get the distance right and keep your hand steady, the 2MP images would be soft, noisy, and with unsatisfactory color saturation. It is still good for reading things like fine text on a PCB, which is something.

Realme 8: 2MP macro camera samples

The 16MP portraits shot on the main camera with the help of the 2MP depth sensor are impressive - the subjects are sharp and detailed, with accurate colors and their separation from the background is done proficiently. The simulated blur looks pretty good, too, and overall, we are pleased with these portraits.

Realme 8: 16MP main camera portrait samples

Like we already mentioned, the Realme 8 uses a fairly-popular 16MP selfie camera. As far as we can gather, the Sony IMX471 is a Quad-Bayer one, yet it still produces selfies in 16MP on the Realme 8. Overall, their quality is great. Contrast, colors and dynamic range are all solid, and despite lacking autofocus, the focus plane on the camera is forgiving and quite wide. Resolved detail could benefit from a bit of a boost, but that's about the only complaint we have.

Realme 8: 16MP selfie camera samples

Selfie portraits are also surprisingly competent, despite the lack of any specialized depth hardware. The blur looks natural and well-executed. Subject detection and separation are good, though not perfect, with stray hairs and especially glasses easily tripping the software up.

Realme 8: 16MP portrait selfie camera samples

Photo quality - low-light

The main camera on the Realme 8 holds up well in low-light conditions. Processing is mostly laid-back, which leaves behind a bit of noise all around the frame and salvages plenty of detail that would otherwise likely be lost through the noise suppression algorithm. Frankly, the better of the two choices.

Realme 8: 16MP low-light main camera samples

Colors are quite true to life, and contrast is good. Dynamic range is quite limited, and there are few details left in the shadows. Highlights often get clipped as well, and light sources are particularly troublesome for the camera to handle.

Realme 8: 64MP low-light main camera samples

Toggling on AI Scene Detection mitigates some of these issues with practically no effect on the capture speed, which is great to see. Just like in the daytime, the AI mode tends to brighten up the scene a bit. Often times the HDR stacking manages to restore a bit of extra detail in the shadows and also keeps the light-source blowout at bay a bit better.

Realme 8: AI Scene Detection 16MP low-light main camera samples

This mode doesn't really do wonders to salvage clipped highlights, though. In fact, you can often end up with slightly more clipped arear. Another thing to notice is that the AI tends to apply a bit more noise suppression than regular photo mode. This smooths out many of the surfaces, removing the grain, but does also take away some of the detail in the process. You gain some, and you lose some.

Night Mode is available, of course, but it takes from 5 to 10 seconds to process and save the photo. This is one of the tasks that reminds of the budget nature of the MediaTek G95 chipset.

Realme 8: Night mode 16MP low-light main camera samples

Whether or not the wait is worth it though is a loaded question. Night mode tends to brighten up shots even further than AI Scene Detection and photos do come out a bit sharper, or at least as sharp, depending on conditions. Highlights are still clipped, but light source blowout is kept at bay even better.

Looking at the results, we would suggest you leave AI Scene Detection permanently enabled in low-light and consider night mode only if you are not in a hurry, since it can bring tangible improvements, but is quite slow and often inconsistent. At least it never ruined a shot, which is great.

Quality deteriorates rather rapidly with zoom shots, which is hardly a surprise. Noise and noise-suppression artefacts increase incrementally and shots look increasingly soft overall.

Realme 8: 2x zoom 16MP low-light main camera samples

Realme 8: 5x zoom 16MP low-light main camera samples

Even with these apparent deficiencies, we would say that zoom shots remain usable, even in the default photo mode, with no extra help. You can enable both AI Scene Detection and Night mode beyond that. The former has a subtle effect on the shots, but never actually ruined a photo. And since it doesn't affect capture speeds, we still recommend just having it on all of the time.

Realme 8: AI Scene Detection 2x zoom 16MP low-light main camera samples

Realme 8: AI Scene Detection 5x zoom 16MP low-light main camera samples

Night mode has a more noticeable effect on low-light zoom shots, but it's not necessarily positive in every aspect. Certain aspects like highlights and, particularly, light sources tend to benefit with less blowout and better overall handling. However, noise reduction algorithms are more heavy-handed with Night mode on and often smooth out surfaces, destroying fine detail in the process.

Realme 8: Night Mode 2x zoom 16MP low-light main camera samples

Realme 8: Night Mode 5x zoom 16MP low-light main camera samples

And, of course, there is still the matter of having to wait around for the slow Night mode capture rate. You might be better off sticking to just AI Scene Detection for zoom shots.

The 8MP ultrawide camera expectedly struggles quite a bit in low-light conditions. Shots are soft. Color rendition is often vastly different than the main camera. Highlights are handled poorly and light sources blow out pretty much every time.

Realme 8: 8MP ultrawide low-light camera samples

To be fair, though, many ultrawide snappers, especially budget ones struggle a lot in low-light. And while far from great, many of the shots from the Realme 8 are at least what we would consider usable. You just have to be patient and combat the inconsistency by taking a lot of shots.

AI Scene Detection has little effect on the ultrawide night shots. Again, it never ruined a shot, so you might as well have it on.

Realme 8: AI Scene Detection 8MP ultrawide low-light main camera samples

On the other hand, Night mode arguably has the strongest and most noticeable effect on ultrawide shots. Of course, it can't do any miracles, but you do end up with noticeably better shots on average. Brighter, with more detail and better highlights.

Realme 8: Night mode 8MP ultrawide low-light main camera samples

If you are going to use the ultrawide camera in low-light conditions, we would definitely advise putting in the extra effort and time and use Night mode.

Speaking of the necessity of Night mode, the same is true for the 16MP selfie camera. In default photo mode, it almost always spits out very soft shots.

Realme 8: 16MP selfie low-light camera samples

Turn Night mode on and the difference is night and day. Sharpness is massively improved, so is contrast and overall handling of both shadows and highlights. Colors look better too. Just like with the ultrawide camera, if you are going to use the selfie in low-light, you kind of need to wait for Night mode to do its thing.

Realme 8: Night mode 16MP selfie low-light camera samples

Closing off the photo quality section, we have our extensive Photo compare database. Naturally, we included samples from the Realme 8 in both its default 16MP binned mode and full-res 64MP mode. Pixel-peep away.

Realme 8 against the Realme 7 Pro and the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC in our Photo compare tool

64MP: Realme 8 against the Realme 7 Pro and the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC in our Photo compare tool

Realme 8 vs Realme 8 5G - camera comparison

Since we had both the Realme 8 and its Realme 8 5G sibling at hand, we couldn't pass up on the opportunity to take the latter along and shoot some comparable samples with it, as well. All of these were taken under the same lighting conditions.

On a pure hardware level, the camera setup on the Realme 8 5G is clearly downgraded. More than likely a necessary step to facilitate 5G connectivity at an affordable price point. The ultrawide camera is absent, and the main camera is swapped for a lower-res 48MP Quad-Bayer unit. Some extra features are missing from the Realme 8 5G as well. Notably, 4K video capture and EIS.

Comparison, main cam (1x): Realme 8 • Realme 8 5G

Looking at the main 12MP camera samples from Realme 8 5G kind of offers an unflattering point of reference for the vanilla Realme 8. Arguably, the Realme 8 5G captures cleaner shots all around. There is a lot less noise and the sharpening algorithm is not nearly as aggressive.

Here are some 2x and 5x zoom shots to compare, as well. Just like the 1x ones, these are taken without AI Scene Detection.

Comparison, main cam (2x): Realme 8 • Realme 8 5G

Comparison, main cam (5x): Realme 8 • Realme 8 5G

Colors also look a lot more natural on the Realme 8 5G. Granted, you could very well prefer the punchier and exaggerated colors of the Realme 8 more, but we would definitely go as far as to call the Realme 8 5G's processing more mature and natural-looking.

Comparison, low-light, main cam (1x): Realme 8 • Realme 8 5G

Comparison, low-light, main cam (2x): Realme 8 • Realme 8 5G

Comparison, low-light, main cam (5x): Realme 8 • Realme 8 5G

Low-light shots from the Realme 8 5G tend to come out looking a bit better too. Sharpness is noticeably better, and because of that, there is often more actual detail left in the shots than on the Realme 8, which does have the resolution advantage. The latter can shine through, on occasion, but the frame just remains way too soft overall for the extra resolution to make a difference.

Comparison, Night mode, main cam (1x): Realme 8 • Realme 8 5G

With Night mode on, most shots from the Realme 8 5G tend to look better still, compared to the Realme 8. Granted, the results were a bit inconsistent and required multiple retakes. But that's true for both phones. And when Night Mode did kick in properly on the Realme 8 5G, it produced cleaner shots, with less noise, more detail and much better HDR stacking in both the highlights and the shadows. Light sources look much better, too.

Video quality

The Realme 8 can capture video with both its main camera and the ultrawide. The former can go up to 4K@30fps and do 60fps at 1080p, while the ultrawide caps out at FullHD@30fps. The way Realme has its camera app currently set up, it is important to note that you can, indeed, capture video with the ultrawide. However, the option only shows up if you set the maximum resolution in settings to FullHD@30fps. We really wish Realme would change this and just have the ultrawide toggle always on the camera UI.

You get the option to choose between the h.264 and h.265 codecs.

Electronic stabilization is available only at 1080p@30fps mode on both cameras.

The Realme 8 is super generous with the bit rates - the. 4K footage gets 50Mbps while 1080p/30fps is allocated a similarly above-average 20Mbps when using the h.264 codec. The audio bitrate is always 320kbps, and the sound is stereo.

4K footage from the main camera looks great. There is plenty of detail and practically no noise to speak of. Colors are very punchy, perhaps even too much so, depending on your taste. Dynamic range is probably the most noticeable deficiency in this clip. And even it isn't all that bad.

Zoomed video capture is a thing on the Realme 8, with toggles for 2x and 5x in the camera app. These clips remain consistent in terms of colors, processing, contrast and dynamic range with 1x videos, which is expected seeing how they all come from the main camera.

Noise is the main thing that creeps up as you go up in zoom levels. We would say that 2x videos still look decent, but 5x ones - not so much. They are usable, but not really impressive.

The Realme 8 has EIS, but at a maximum of FullHD resolution. There are two different types or "levels" of stabilization, depending on how you interpret them. There is the "basic" stabilization that uses the footage from the main camera.

Beyond that, you can also use "Max" stabilization. It crops away from the ultrawide instead and stabilizes that.

Honestly, we weren't particularly impressed by either of the two EIS levels. They took care of the major bumps and shakes well enough, but still left plenty of smaller ones behind. Still OK for a budget device.

Speaking of the ultrawide camera, it's FullHD video leave a lot to be desired. Detail isn't great and there is a lot of noise, even in bright daylight conditions. Lens distortion is also a significant issue.

On a more positive note, Realme did a pretty decent job delivering similar "punchy" color reproduction from the ultrawide, closely matching the main camera.

Things really deteriorate quicky with low-light video. The footage from the ultrawide camera, in particular, is extremely noisy and soft and very disappointing.

At least the main camera captures very competent low-light videos. Detail is plenty, and we particularly enjoyed how good light reflections on the wet street look. Not too shabby at all. Zoom videos came out quite a bit dimmer and with increasing levels of noise, but were still usable. You can check all of the samples in the playlist.

Finally, the Realme camera app also features an interesting DUAL-VIEW-VIDEO mode, which shoots with the main rear camera and the selfie camera concurrently. The mode offers a nifty set of options, as well, including three different camera arrangements - a vertical split and two "face cam" ones. You can also adjust the zoom level of the main camera.

DUAL-VIEW-VIDEO clips are recorded in FullHD resolution, which is expected, given we are likely pushing towards DSP and other limitations of the chipset pretty hard. The videos themselves look decent enough in terms of detail and colors, but tend to have odd issues with exposure. Namely, that it tends to jump up and down constantly, for no apparent reason. Either way, it is a little extra, thrown-in by Realme that works decently-well. The practicality and utility part of it is entirely up to you to decide on.

We also added 4K samples from the main camera of the Realme 8 to our extensive Video compare database. Browse and compare away.

Realme 8 against the Realme 7 Pro and the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC in our Video compare tool