Realme 8s 5G Review: Just Another Budget 5G Smartphone!

Realme is releasing one phone after another, and besides that, they are also offering many of their IoT services and devices, and mostly they are all good. Their latest Realme 8s smartphone is a great device, especially in terms of display and performance. The company has launched this phone with a MediaTek chipset, and it is the fiery version of the Realme 8 5G that the company has already launched. I have been using the smartphone for a while now and here is my Realme 8s Review.

Realme 8s 5G comes with two RAM variants, these are 6GB and 8GB options. You get 128GB of storage standard across all variants, and it is possible to expand it with an external memory card. In terms of colour options, you get Universal Purple and Universal Blue to choose from. Realme 8s 5G is available to buy from Flipkart and is priced at Rs 17,999 for the 6GB variant and Rs 19,999 for the 8GB variant. 

Here’s what the inside the box of Realme 8s 5G:

• A protective case
• 33W fast charging adapter
• USB-A to USB-C cable
• Realme 8s 5G device
• Documentation

Let’s talk about the on-paper specifications of the Realme 8s 5G at first:

• Display: 16.51 cm (6.5 inch) Full HD+ Display with 1080 x 2400 pixel resolution 
• Camera: 64MP + 2MP + 2MP | 16MP Front Camera
• Battery: 5000 mAh Battery with 33W fast-charging
• Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 810 5G Processor
• RAM & ROM: 8 GB RAM | 128 GB ROM | Expandable Upto 1 TB
• Dimensions: 162.5 x 74.8 x 8.8 mm
• Weight: 191 grams

Realme has been using gradient design for most of its smartphones, including mid-range and budget series. The Realme 8s 5G falls under the same category and provides a better feel. The device has a glittery appeal that isn’t too shimmery and provides a matte texture. I was using the Universal Purple colour variant, which was nice to look at, and the back panel was not much of a fingerprint or smudge magnet. 

The back panel is made up of polycarbonate plastic and houses all the camera sensors in a rectangular box on the top left side. The device is not as bulky as the Realme 8i, which is a bit of relief as it makes it easy to use with one hand. You can easily handle all the basic tasks and switch between different apps with one hand easily. The rest of the phone is very much identical to its predecessor; it has a power button that also works as a fingerprint scanner on the right along with the volume button, it has a USB-C port at the bottom along with a speaker grill, headphone jack and a SIM card plus a MicroSD card tray on the left. The overall weight distribution of the device is evenly matched across its chassis, providing a balanced in-hand feel, and the slight curve around the edges makes the device easy to use. 

Also read: Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G Review: Feature-Packed Yet Not Worthy

Talking about the display, unlike the Realme 8i, which comes with a 120 Hz display, you get only a 90Hz display on the RealMe 8s 5G. The display is a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display and has a 1080 x 2400 resolution. The overall screen-to-body ratio is 90.5 %, and the phone can hit a peak brightness level of 600 nits. The higher refresh rate ensures that you have a smooth experience scrolling and swiping on the screen, but it also means that games such as Battlegrounds Mobile India will not support it for the time being.

Performance-wise you get brighter colours, but thankfully the display is not overly saturated. It also provides very good viewing angles, and you can easily use the display in direct sunlight. Overall you can enjoy watching movies or playing games on this big display. It is also easy to view the text as they look crisp, and you can watch HD video playback without any hurdles or complaints on the phone. 

One of the things that I found missing from the smartphone was the HDR certification. This means that if you decide to purchase this phone, you will be missing out on HD streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime Videos, and a few more OTT apps. You would be able to watch your favourite movie and TV shows, but they won’t be HD quality as they should be. 

The device comes equipped with the first MediaTek Dimensity 810 processor ever launched in India. This new octa-core MediaTek 5G chipset is based on a 6nm process, and the company claims to offer over 16% better performance than the Dimensity 720 SoC. I could not verify the exact number of how good the processor is, but I can definitely say that the performance is definitely improved over the previous generation chipsets. We did some benchmarks, and the results are exceptionally good.

Also read: Samsung Galaxy M21 2021 Review -Your Next Daily Driver

The smartphone has been swift with all the day-to-day tasks. I did not experience any lags hiccups with my day-to-day usage that included media consumption, social media and internet browsing. Along with the 6GB and 8GB RAM options, the multitasking has also been very good. I would suggest you go with the 8GB RAM variant in case you do a lot of multitasking and want a lag-free performance in the long run and not just when your device is new. 

If we talk about gaming, the Dimensity 810 processor and the 90 Hz display provide a smooth gaming experience. I tried a few games like Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) and Shadow Fight IV; both were playable with average temperatures even during extensive gameplay sessions. In terms of benchmark scores, the RealMe 8s 5G is ahead of its competition, but when you compare it to devices similar in this price range, like Poco X3 Pro and iQOO Z3, it lacks in overall performance. The device achieved 11823 points in the work performance 3.0 test on the PCMark Android Benchmark test. I also ran the 3DMark gaming benchmark, where the smartphone performs a decent with 1226 points. 

Overall the device performs well, and I did not face any problems in my day-to-day usage, but one department that lacks a little bit of processing power is the graphics department. It is smooth to use the phone, but during gaming performance, when there is a graphically demanding game, you don’t get much frame rates, and I also experienced some lag during my prolonged gaming sessions.

The Realme 8s 5G uses the same skin that all the recent Realme smartphones come pre-installed with. You get Android 11 OS out of the box, and on top of it, you have a custom RealMe UI 2.0 interface. While it is not stock Android but the UI does come with multiple features and options for customization. It does come with a lot of bloatware, but you may be able to remove some of it from the phone.

Also read: Samsung Galaxy A22 5G Review – Future ready 5G came with few downgrades

The RealMe UI 2.0 offers some pretty nifty features that can make your day-to-day activities much easier than before. The floating window feature is something you might be familiar with if you have used Xiaomi phones with MIUI previously. You can simply tap on hold for a few seconds and swipe down the app from the recent apps overview. There’s also a lot of options for customization like changing the accent colour, remove or add rows and columns on your home screen, you can even change the shape of icons and their size. 

The company has worked on the software skin as it has been stripped of all the laggy UI elements and is optimized for a faster and smoother experience. Similarly, app switching, browsing to social media apps, opening your camera, operating two apps in split-screen, and many of the regular tasks can be accomplished very smoothly.

Realme 8s 5G comes equipped with a 64MP main camera at the back, which provides an aperture of f/1.8. The primary camera is paired with a 2MP monochrome portrait sensor with f/2.4 aperture and a 2MP macro sensor with an f/2.4 aperture. The primary sensor is bigger compared to the Realme 8i, which comes with 50MP. 

The camera performance captured by the main sensor is good and something which we have seen from previous mid-range smartphones from Realme. I was able to capture pictures with some good dynamic range in natural daylight conditions. I was surprised to see that the camera doesn’t oversaturate the colours, which is the general case for many of the mid-range smartphones, and managed to provide balanced output that you would appreciate. 

I had some problems with edge detection when the light conditions were not good and favourable for clicking pictures. While the camera comes equipped with a dedicated night mode feature, it is not super useful in enhancing the output of low-light shots. The images eventually come out grainy when the sensor does not capture enough light. But I was happy to see that you get a lot of shooting modes that you can experiment in the camera app.

At the front, the Realme 8s 5G features a 16-megapixel selfie camera positioned in a hole punch setup. It performs well in all scenarios, and you get decent pictures for your social media posts. It is also very good for capturing self-portraits with background blur for platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. 

Besides this, the different cameras can record videos in 1080p resolution at 30fps, similar to the primary camera. There is no optical image stabilizer, but the camera is good enough that you don’t have to compromise on stabilization and clarity during your video recording sessions. Overall the cameras work as you’d expect them at this price range. I was happy to see that Realme ships the smartphone with a bunch of software enhancements in the camera app.

Realme 8s 5G is backed by a 5000mAh battery which can easily last two days if you are an average user. The smartphone does not come across as power-hungry, and this is because of an optimised performance for the processor and better memory management. On average, I received a regular screen on time of around 5.5 to 6.5 hours which can be considered great. I was easily able to do all the tasks, including calling, web browsing, video playback, and even gaming.

The device comes packed with a 33W fast charging adapter, which means that you can charge the device fully in one and a half hours from 0 to 100%. The fast charging experience is great, and the device becomes a little warm while charging, which is pretty normal.

In terms of 5G, the phone does support a decent number of bands, but currently, as there is no 5G in India, you can’t experience any benefits. The phone comes with a physical fingerprint scanner located in the power button, but I did experience the necessity to tap several times to authenticate my fingerprint; overall, it was fast enough but it misses a few times. The face unlocks works in your favour; it is quick, and you can unlock your phone even in low light conditions. The phone has bottom-firing speakers, but I would be appreciated if the company chose to go for stereo speakers instead.