Realme 8s 5G review: Decent mid-range phone

Realme is steadily growing its presence in the mid-range segment for the last three-two years. It has released numerous models with different configurations in all possible price points in the Indian market,

. With a good specification sheet, Realme 8s 5G is well placed in the Rs 15,000 and Rs 22,000 range. But, does it deliver the goods? Let's see.

. Design, build quality and display Our Realme 8s review unit is a universal blue colour variant. The company has used good quality materials for the device. It has a frosted dual-tone colourway and does a fine job repelling fingerprint smudges. The sturdy rails with a matte finish around the edges blend beautifully with the smooth shell and also the front panel.

. On the front, it features a punch-hole camera in the top left corner and the rest is a fully functional display with a uniform bezel around and there is no other obstruction.

. On the right side, it features a lone power button, which also happens to house a biometric sensor. It works super fast and I did not face any false rejection during my time with the device.

. On the left side, you will find the volume rockers and the three card-slot for two nano-SIMs and the microSD card.

. At the top, it features a mic and the base, there is a Type-C port with speakers and a 3.5mm jack.

. It features a 6.5-inch full HD+(2400 ×1080p) LCD screen with a 90Hz refresh rate. Also, it supports peak brightness of up to 600 nits. This is good enough to make the content visible even under direct sunlight and yes, it did fare well in our testing.

. It should be noted that the company offers silicone case with the retail package. This is a good initiative as it will enhance the durability of the device and protect it from accidental falls and getting cracked open.

. Performance Realme 8s 5G is powered by a 6nm class 2.5GHz MediaTek Dimensity 810 octa-core (2.4 GHz Cortex-A76 cores x 2 + 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 cores x 6) CPU with Mali-G57 MC2 GPU, Android 11-based Realme UI 2.0. 6GB / 8GB LPDDR4x RAM, and 128GB (UFS 2.1) storage (expandable up to 1TB).

. Add to that, the device boasts Dynamic RAM Expansion tech that enables the device to expand the 8GB RAM up to 13GB. This will help in making the phone responds faster to loading apps and switching between apps a pleasant experience.

. The device was able to work smoothly while performing like operating the camera, browsing the web and other day-to-day chores. Even while playing games (Asphalt 9: Legends), it fared well too.

. It houses a massive 5,000mAh cell with a 33W charger. Under normal usage, it was able to deliver one and a half-day of battery life. It should be noted that when streaming videos or playing games with cellular (SIM) data, the battery will drain a bit faster compared to when connected with the Wi-Fi router.

. As far as charging speed, it was able to fully charge from zero to 100 per cent in around 90 minutes.

. Photography It houses a triple-camera module-- a main wide-angle 64 MP (f/1.8, 26mm, PDAF) backed by a 2 MP ( f/2.4) macro sensor and a 2MP(f/2.4) depth sensor with LED flash. It takes pretty decent pictures in the daylight and to my luck, Bengaluru, after weeks of depressing rains, we are seeing Sun in full glory for almost a week now.

. Realme 8s 5G takes pretty good pictures with details. As you can see in the sample pictures, the camera does a decent job and does not over-saturate the colours of the flowers.

. In the night mode, the photo comes off a bit dull. In the sample images, the street lights are bright, but the sky and clouds in the background are dark. Even the coconut tree looks like a shadow, not like a real object in the frame.

. The primary camera comes with gyro-EIS (Electronic Image Stabilisation) and can record full HD (1080p) at 30fps. The video quality is good and stable to an extent. No stressing issue to complain.

. On the front, it features a wide-angle 16MP ( with f/2.1, 26mm lens, 1/3.0-inch sensor, 1.0µm pixel size). It takes very nice selfies outdoors and even indoors too.

. The native camera app comes with superficial tools to alter the face structure such as jaw bone thinning, adjust eye size, nose and skin smoothening too. This will help people beautify their face worthy for DP on social media platforms.

. These tools are available on rival branded phones too. Though I never use them, the availability of such features in most of the phones in the market, just shows there is a demand from a bigger section of consumers and these companies are just catering to them.

. Final thoughts The device works smoothly in terms of day-to-day activities, delivers more than a day of battery life under normal usage and the camera is pretty good in the natural sunlight.