Realme 8i review

Display

The Realme 8i features a 6.6-inch IPS LCD screen of 1,080 x 2,412 pixels. It supports a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate and can switch between 30Hz, 48Hz, 50Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz on the go. The touch sensors work with a 180Hz sampling rate. There is no HDR support.

The screen panel has a tiny punch-hole at the top left corner and is protected by flat tempered glass.

Realme promises 600 nits of peak brightness for the screen. We did our usual measurements, and the display maxed out at 433 nits when we adjusted the brightness manually. When faced with bright light and set on Auto Brightness, the panel can go as high 540 nits.

The Realme 8i display offers deep enough black levels, and the contrast ratio is pretty good at about 1250:1.

The minimum brightness is exceptional - we measured the incredible 0.6nits at point white!

The Realme 8i screen supports DCI-P3 colors, and it is fairly accurate to that color space. There is a noticeable blue tinge over the white and grays colors. Choosing the warmest position from the color temperature bar yields better color accuracy and fixes the blue tinge.

You can enable SDR to HDR video color enhancer from settings, which will try to widen the color of your videos.

Now, let's talk refresh rate. There are three settings available to you - Standard (60Hz), Auto, and High (120Hz). Auto and High are adaptive, and the Realme supports 30Hz, 48Hz, 50Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz steps.

When using the 120Hz adaptive mode, you would be getting a 120Hz refresh rate whenever you're touching the phone and across the UI. It will drop to 30Hz a couple of seconds after your last interaction with the screen, although not every time.

There are exceptions, though, with most of them being video apps. In YouTube and Netflix, for example, the screen runs at 120Hz and then at 60Hz. But when watching videos, it often switches to 48Hz or 50Hz depending on the video. It can even drop to 30Hz when it decides to.

The Realme 8i unlocks its high refresh rate modes for compatible games, but they need to be optimized as the hardware isn't that powerful to achieve 60fps, let alone higher frame rates. Realme is working with developers to get selected titles running at about 90fps, though.

If you choose Auto mode, the only difference is that the phone prefers to use 90Hz for the UI and app interfaces instead of 120Hz. The rest of the behaviors is the same as on High mode.

Finally, using Standard (60Hz) uses 60Hz no matter what and is not adaptive.

To wrap up, the Realme 8i display is indeed incredibly adaptive. It switches to the promised refresh rates when the occasion arises, and we applaud Realme for the effort.

Lastly, the Realme 8i supports Widevine L1 DRM, and the streaming services use Full HD resolution; no updates needed.

Battery life

The Realme 8i, just like the Realme 8 5G, is powered by a large 5,000 mAh battery that supports 18W charging.

The 8i model scored a brilliant 131-hour Endurance rating in our battery. It did a magnificent job across all test scenarios - video playback, calls, web browsing, and demonstrated long-lasting standby performance.

Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.

Video test carried out in 60Hz refresh rate mode. Web browsing test done at the display's highest refresh rate whenever possible. Refer to the respective reviews for specifics. To adjust the endurance rating formula to match your own usage patterns check out our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.

Charging speed

The Realme 8i ships with the same basic 18W power adapter as the Realme 8 5G. It's a 5V/2A, 9V/2A charger, and while it's not sluggish, it's not as impressive as the typical 30W power adapter Realme uses for many of its other phones. Then again, the Realme 8i is even cheaper than the Realme 8 5G, so we can't really complain about the charging speed being the same.

We've completed our charging test, and the bundled 18W adapter takes the Realme 8i's 5,000mAh battery from 0% to 30% in 30 minutes.

30min charging test (from 0%)

Higher is better

• Realme 7 Pro
  94%
• Realme 8 Pro
  88%
• Realme 7 5G
  57%
• Realme 8
  56%
• Poco M3 Pro 5G
  33%
• Realme 8i
  30%
• Realme 8 5G
  29%
• Xiaomi Redmi 10
  26%
• Motorola Moto G50
  23%
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  20%

A full charge takes 2 hours and 21 minutes, just like on the Realme 8 5G.

Time to full charge (from 0%)

Lower is better

• Realme 7 Pro
  0:37h
• Realme 8 Pro
  0:38h
• Realme 7 5G
  1:06h
• Realme 8
  1:09h
• Poco M3 Pro 5G
  2:00h
• Xiaomi Redmi 10
  2:13h
• Realme 8 5G
  2:20h
• Realme 8i
  2:21h
• Motorola Moto G50
  2:35h
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  3:03h

The Realme 8i has no support for reverse wired charging and cannot be used as a power bank for other devices.

Speaker test

The Realme 8i has one bottom-firing speaker, just like on other budget Realme phones. It scored an Average mark on our loudness test.

The speaker's sound quality is about average, too. The high notes are well presented, but there is no bass, and the mid-tones aren't ideal.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.