Realme 8s 5G review

Display

The Realme 8s 5G is equipped with a 6.5-inch IPS display. On paper, it looks very similar to the one in the Realme 8 5G, including its 1080 x 2400-pixel resolution (20:9), which works out to about 405 ppi of density. Also, the 90Hz refresh rate and advertised 600 nits of peak brightness. Initially, we thought that the two shared the same panel, though, upon closer inspection, that might not be the case.

In terms of brightness, the Realme 8s 5G managed a respectable 411 nits on the slider in our tests. Good, but also the lowest out of every other Realme 8 model we have tested thus far. With a bright light source present and max auto mode kicking in, we measured 530 nits. Again, quite respectable, but a bit lagging compared to its siblings.

Even so, we found the Realme 8s 5G was usable, even if far from perfect outdoors on a sunny day.

The discrepancies in display performance continue on to color accuracy as well. The Realme 8s 5G has two color profiles available - the standard vivid one, which targets the DCI-P3 color space and a gentle one, which aims for sRGB. Neither managed particularly impressive color accuracy, though. Scoring worse than the Realme 8 5G, which further backs up the theory that the two phones use different panels. With the new Realme 8s 5G getting a slightly inferior one.

Both phones, however, did have the same overall "blue" hue out of the box, with oversaturated blues and a bluish tint in whites. You can use the provided color temperature slider and crank it all the way to "warm" to counteract a lot of that blue tint in vivid mode. This results in much better DCI-P3 accuracy, but still far from what would be considered "color-accurate". Just refrain from trying the same tactic on the gentle color mode since that simply oversaturates the reds immensely.

Widevine • HDR support • Netflix playback capabilities

Speaking of colors, the Realme 8s 5G still lacks any HDR support, just like its Realm 8 5G sibling. At least any previous issues we had with Widevine and content streaming seem to be officially fixed (an update on the older Realme 8 5G took care of that, as well), and the Realme 8s 5G reports the highest Widevine L1 support, which allows apps like Netflix to stream in 1080p, saturating its display resolution.

High refresh rate handling

The Realme 8s 5G has a 90Hz refresh rate and a trio of settings to control the display mode under Display settings: auto, 90Hz and 60Hz. One would, hence, instantly assume that the auto mode tries to do some clever switching to conserve battery, whereas the 90Hz and 60Hz modes are just straight-up fixed toggles.

High refresh rate modes and smooth scrolling

Unfortunately, that is not entirely true, and while we can't quite pinpoint what the differences are, auto and 90Hz are similar in their behavior. Both tend to run the UI of the phone and most apps, like browsers in 90Hz mode, and both run others, like YouTube in 60Hz mode, which is great to see for conserving battery. Auto mode, however, seems to run more apps in 60Hz mode overall, like the Phone or Messages apps, both of which the 90Hz mode ran in 90Hz. So, if you really want to get the most use out of the 90Hz refresh rate, the 90Hz mode seems to be the way to go, with no immediately apparent battery downsides. Realme needs to make this menu and its options a bit clearer.

Another rather interesting feature on the Realme 8s 5G, under the Realme Labs experimental menu, claims to improve scrolling smoothness. It's a rather vague claim, if we've ever seen one, and after playing a bit with it, we can't say that it makes a discernable difference over the improvement that 90Hz brings over 60Hz anyhow.

For all the available refresh rates and smooth scrolling options, however, we have to note that we were pretty underwhelmed by the pixel response time of the display on the Realme 8s 5G overall. It is pretty sluggish and exhibits plenty of smearing when scrolling, more so than its siblings, which again leads us to believe that some panel downgrading has taken place here.

Battery life

The Realme 8s 5G is rocking a 5,000 mAh battery, just like its siblings, including the Realme 8 5G. Also, like it, it has a very similar, specs-wise, 6.50inch, FullHD+, 90Hz IPS display. Two reasons to expect pretty similar battery endurance between the two. And indeed, looking at our video and web on-screen tests, we see similarly impressive numbers, with the Realme 8s 5G lagging behind just a bit.

However, one notable difference between the Realme 8 5G and the newer Realme 8s 5G is the new Dimensity 810 5G chipset in the latter. It is made on a theoretically more efficient 6nm process, which seems to shine through with excellent 3G call test numbers. Though, it is worth noting that the older Realme 8 5G and its Dimensity 700 chipset still managed better standby times.

Tabulating all of the numbers, however, works out in favor of the new Realme 8s 5G, which has nothing short of excellent, all-around battery endurance.

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 8s 5G advertises charging at up to 33W - a nice little upgrade over the 18W on the Realme 8 5G and theoretically even faster than the 30W Dart Charge on the vanilla Realme 8.

30min charging test (from 0%)

Higher is better

• Realme 8 Pro
  88%
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  65%
• Realme 8
  56%
• Realme 8s 5G
  50%
• Poco X3 Pro
  50%
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G
  33%
• Poco M3 Pro 5G
  33%
• Realme 8i
  30%
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  30%
• Realme 8 5G
  29%
• Xiaomi Redmi 10
  26%
• Poco M3
  25%
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  23%
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  23%
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  20%

Time to full charge (from 0%)

Lower is better

• Realme 8 Pro
  0:38h
• Poco X3 Pro
  1:08h
• Realme 8
  1:09h
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1:13h
• Realme 8s 5G
  1:14h
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G
  2:00h
• Poco M3 Pro 5G
  2:00h
• Xiaomi Redmi 10
  2:13h
• Realme 8 5G
  2:20h
• Realme 8i
  2:21h
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  2:24h
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  2:29h
• Poco M3
  2:30h
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  2:36h
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  3:03h

In practice, however, the Realme 8s falls just short of its performance while still clocking in an admirable 50% charge in 30 minutes, with a full top-up taking right around an hour and 15 minutes.

Exactly what charging tech Realme is using on the Realme 8s 5G seems to be a bit of a mystery, though. Thankfully, the 33W charger is included in the box, but you might just have to hold on to it and not lose it. It is rated for either 5V@2A - a USB standard or the ambiguous 5V-11V@3A. The latter suggests both variable voltage and a fixed amperage.

3A is also a rather odd number. While it does appear in the v1 USB Power Delivery spec - the one that still allows for the USB Type-A to Type-C cable that the Realme 8s 5G is using, the voltage for the 3A profile does not match (12V). The newer PD standards are much more flexible but require a Type-C to Type-C cable, which is not the case here.

In any case, the system works well enough. Though not as good as Xiaomi's competing 33W charging tech, as seen on the Redmi Note 10. Plus, the USB-A to USB-C cable appears to be standard and not proprietary, which is great to see.

Speaker

The Realme 8s 5G has a single, bottom-firing speaker at its disposal. The entire Realme 8 family generally has the same setup.

Performance is pretty comparable across the lineup as well. The Realme 8s 5s managed to earn a "good" loudness rating in our tests. The quality is decent but not overly impressive. It has well-presented mid-tones, but it lacks in the low and high notes.

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.