realme GT8 Pro The realme GT8 Pro is a competitively priced flagship phone that stands out thanks to a 200MP telephoto camera, a gigantic battery, a great screen, and a few premium extras. However, downgraded biometrics, inconsistent photos, and poor sustained performance mean there's still some room for improvement.
The GT7 Pro was a rather confusing release for realme. The brand was clearly trying to walk a fine line between a premium and affordable flagship experience. Yes, there was the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a 3x 50MP camera, and a great screen. But the phone got extremely hot under heavy load, the 8MP ultrawide shooter was disappointing, and the lack of wireless charging was notable for the €1,000 recommended price.
If anything, the OnePlus 13 shone a harsh light on the GT7 Pro. Between its versatile cameras, impressive performance, great screen, and premium extras, it was clear that OnePlus had the more well-rounded package. Now, realme is back with the realme GT8 Pro. And it turns out the new phone has a lot in common with the OnePlus 15. In fact, this seems like the OnePlus 15 from a parallel universe.
A better camera phone than OnePlus 15?
3x 3x Selfie 1x Ultrawide 1x 3x 6x Ultrawide 3x macro 1x 3x
If there’s one area where the GT8 Pro is actually better than the OnePlus 15, I’d argue that it’s the camera hardware. The 50MP main camera (1/1.56-inch) and 50MP ultrawide lens are effectively identical to the OnePlus 15’s shooters. However, realme has upped the ante with a 200MP 3x telephoto camera compared to the OnePlus handset’s 50MP 3.5x (1/2.76-inch) camera. This 200MP sensor isn’t as large as the 200MP tele cameras seen on recent flagships from the likes of HONOR, OPPO, and vivo, but it’s still a noteworthy move.
I wasn’t overly enthused by the main and ultrawide cameras. Neither camera is particularly amazing, and they follow the realme trend of delivering absolutely saturated colors. The ultrawide shooter, in particular, takes some noisy snaps even in broad daylight. The primary camera is a solid performer, but I did occasionally encounter blown highlights and color fringing. Images taken with this camera also seem to lack definition compared to rival camera phones. Meanwhile, the telephoto camera generally performs well, although it continues the saturated trend. When comparing shots between it and the vivo X300 Pro’s 200MP telephoto camera, vivo’s handset would frequently deliver better fine detail and tamed highlights.
The GT8 Pro follows in the OPPO Find X9 Pro’s footsteps by shooting at a higher resolution by default. The phone defaults to 50MP or 26MP snaps in ideal lighting before switching to 12MP snaps in mixed conditions. I love the idea of this, and there’s an impressive amount of detail in most of the 1x and 3x snaps I took. In fact, I thought that the high-resolution 1x and 3x shots of myself at the market had significantly more detail than the vivo X300 Pro’s somewhat muddier renditions. In saying so, the realme phone gave me an orange hue, as well as more saturated colors in general.
This isn’t a one-off, either, as I noticed high-resolution shots occasionally suffered from aggressive HDR, neon colors, and blown highlights. The ultrawide also seems to shoot at a binned resolution most of the time, and it’s easy to see why. Full-resolution ultrawide snaps are a smeared, flat mess upon closer examination.
If 50MP isn’t enough, you can crank things up to 200MP full-resolution snaps via the 3x camera. It takes roughly seven or eight seconds to capture a 200MP photo, which is just an absolute age compared to the X300 Pro’s three or four-second shot time for its 200MP snaps. It’s also here that the GT8 Pro’s smaller tele sensor makes itself known, as there’s less detail, plenty of color fringing, and more blown highlights.
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