realme GT 8 Pro Review – Street Smart

Unboxing

realme’s new flagship, the realme GT 8 Pro, has several new tricks up its sleeve. Labeled on this black packaging is the new ‘RICOH GR’ branding from the Japanese imaging company best known for its street photography prowess. That’s another new camera brand joining the smartphone industry following the likes of Leica (Huawei, then Xiaomi), Hasselblad (Oppo), and ZEISS (vivo and Sony).

The accessories provided are plentiful, because there’s more than just the smartphone, charging hardware, and the case (if the brand is being generous). Here’s a full list of items:
– 120W SuperVOOC 2.0 charging adapter (Type G, UK/MY/SG)
– USB-C charging cable
– SIM ejector pin
– Silicone phone case
– Regulatory information
– Quick guide
– Torx screwdriver
– 2x Torx screws
– Detachable camera decoration module installation guide
– realme GT 8 Pro main unit

Inside the provided silicone case, realme has conveniently drawn a diagram of the interchangeable camera housing, indicating that a pair of Torx T5 screws are used for installation, and should the user wish, they can swap it to a square-shaped module, or remove it altogether to reveal the ‘robot face’.

Note that the square module is an optional add-on, and in it you’re provided with the square-shaped housing, another silicone case with a square shape cutout, and an additional pair of Torx T5 screws (meaning you have up to six Torx T5 screws in total – 2 on the smartphone itself, 2 included in the box, and 2 in this optional accessory). If you’re feeling adventurous, you can 3D print anything so long as it fits the Torx T5 screws on the designated spots.

Walkaround

By default, the realme GT 8 Pro features a rounded camera module, which can be removed to reveal the ‘robot face’ design with the included Torx screwdriver. Our unit here is the “Diary White” variant that resembles a paper-like white color, and do note that other color variants will get their corresponding modules with matching colors. On the display side, it’s a 6.79-inch AMOLED display with QHD+ resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, 1000 nits standard max brightness, 2000 nits HBM brightness, and up to 7000 nits HDR peak brightness. Bright enough under direct sunlight, in other words.

Now, let’s address the cameras themselves: the primary wide lens is a 50MP Sony IMX906 sensor with a 1/1.56-inch sensor – not the biggest out there, but still plenty capable; tagging alongside is the 50MP ultrawide sensor in the form of Omnivision OV50D, a common occurrence in some of the smartphones we reviewed thus far. The main star of the show is the 200MP Samsung ISOCELL HP5 sensor with 3x optical zoom periscope lens, which the camera software allows for up to 12x zoom preset (effectively 3x optical + 4x digital), and all the way up to 120x digital zoom if that is needed, somehow.

In terms of the chassis layout, nothing too special here. On top you get the microphones and an unspecified grille, while at the bottom is where the bottom speaker, USB-C port, and the Nano SIM slot are located. Nothing on the left side short for two antenna bands, while the volume rocker and power button constitutes all the physical buttons available on this smartphone.

Specifications

realme GT 8 Pro (RMX5120, 16GB + 512GB)

Full specifications available on product page.

Form Factor & Build	Smartphone (candybar) Corning Gorilla Glass 7i front Fiberglass rear Aluminum alloy frame Swappable camera module housing
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3nm, TSMC N3P)
CPU	8-core (2X+6P) Prime: 2x Qualcomm Oryon V3 Phoenix L @ 4.6GHz Performance: 6x Qualcomm Oryon V3 Phoenix M @ 3.62GHz
GPU	Qualcomm Adreno 840 (1536 ALUs) @ 1.2GHz
NPU	Qualcomm Hexagon NPU + Qualcomm Sensing Hub
RAM	16GB LPDDR5X
Storage	512GB UFS 4.1 *No microSD expansion support
Display	6.79″ AMOLED 94.2% screen-to-body ratio 3136×1440 (~19.5:9) 144Hz refresh rate Sampling rates: 120Hz standard, 3200Hz instantaneous Brightness: 7000 nits HDR peak, 2000 nits HBM, 1000 nits full panel DC dimming support 100% DCI-P3 color gamut 10-bit (1.07B) color depth 508 ppi pixel density Hardware Low Blue Light
Audio	Dual 1115E stereo speakers No headphone jack (USB-C only)
Cameras	Rear: Triple-camera – 50MP Sony IMX906 (22mm wide, 1/1.56″, f/1.8, 90° FOV, PDAF, OIS, 7P lens) – 200MP Samsung ISOCELL HP5 (65mm telephoto, 1/1.56″, f/2.6, 36° FOV, PDAF, OIS, 5P lens, 3x zoom) – 50MP Omnivision OV50D (16mm ultrawide, 1/2.88″, f/2.0, 116° FOV, 6P lens) Front: Single cut-out camera – 32MP (24mm wide, 1/3.1″, f/2.4, 82° FOV, fixed focus, 5P lens)
Biometric sensors	Fingerprint scanner (under-display ultrasonic)
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 7 160MHz (dual-band 2.4GHz+5GHz, 2×2 MIMO) Bluetooth 6.0 360° NFC IR blaster USB 2.0 Type-C
Cellular Networks	Dual-standby 2x Nano-SIM 2G: 850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G*: B1/2/4/5/6/8/19 4G: B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/26/28/38/39/40/41/42/48/66/71 5G Sub6: n1/2/3/5/7/8/20/28/38/40/41/48/66/71/77/78/79 5G mmWave: Not supported *3G network has been phased out in Malaysia.
Operating System	Android 16 (realme UI 7.0) 4 years OS updates, 5 years security updates
Battery	7,000mAh (2x 3,500mAh) silicon-carbon battery 120W (11V/11A) SuperVOOC 2.0 USB-C wired charging 50W wireless charging
Ingress Protection	IP69/IP68/IP66
Colors	Diary White [As tested] Urban Blue
Dimensions	161.8 x 76.87 x 8.2 mm
Weight	218g

Performance

System

Regarding performance, AnTuTu benchmark is one that many smartphone manufacturers love to quote, presumably because it’s a huge number to start. We can confirm that realme GT 8 Pro pretty much matches the manufacturer’s claim of 4,000,000 points on AnTuTu, but it should be noted that this score is on the recently-released V11 benchmark, not comparable to the existing V10 version. While we can run the benchmarks on the V10 version as shown above, we found there seems to be some sort of technical limitation which caused the newest Snapdragon’s score to fall behind considerably in the overall score.

Looking into the full metrics, the AnTuTu V10 does have significant discrepancy over the V11 scores in the CPU metric, likely due to the fact that V10 simply do not support the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset to perform the benchmarks as intended. As this is the first smartphone to feature this new chipset, and the first model we tested on the V11 version, do note that this score currently have limited reference point at this time. We do have more benchmarks below to look at each component’s individual performance, but before that – PCMark scores first.

In PCMark Work 3.0 test, the realme GT 8 Pro matches our expectations as the fastest chipset on the market, surpassing all of the models shown in this list that included the Elite Gen 5’s predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, along with MediaTek’s flagship offerings and Google’s in-house chip for its most recent flagship, the Pixel 10 Pro XL.

CPU

Moving on to CPU test, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5’s new 3rd-generation Oryon processor leads overall, though the lead is particularly small against Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s overclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. Single-core performance has gotten a significant bump, meanwhile, nearly matching that of the iPhone 17 Pro Max (at 3748 points).

GPU

GPU is where things get a bit more interesting to analyze. While the Wild Life Unlimited hands the realme flagship an outright win, both Wild Life Extreme Unlimited and Solar Bay are somewhat neck-and-neck against the likes of vivo X200 Pro with the Arm Immortalis-G925 GPU, along with Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s Qualcomm Adreno 830 GPU. GPUScore shows a more outright lead for the realme smartphone, however.

When we were testing the realme GT 8 Pro’s performance stability over time, the results baffled us at first. 28.2% sounds like an usually low figure even for flagship devices, so we investigated further and found out there seems to be a bug that capped the 3DMark Wild Life benchmark down to 15FPS occasionally, which is what caused the big dip in performance in the graph on the right. Eventually though, the benchmark simply gets capped at a stable 60FPS, regardless of whether the performance-boosting GT Mode is enabled or not. (We should stress that we did not see performance dips like this during our real-life gaming tests.)

Battery

In terms of its battery, the 7,000mAh silicon-carbon battery offers solid endurance for the realme GT 8 Pro, with16 hours 13 minutes of runtime on a single run; charging can be done with its UCFS-based SuperVOOC 2.0 charger with 120W (11V/11A) input, though if you use standard USB-PD chargers with PPS standard, that figure gets limited to 55W (11V/5A). If wires are a hassle for you, wireless charging is once again the secondary option with up to 50W of input available.

User Experience

Software

There’s not a whole lot of steps in terms of setting up the realme GT 8 Pro, although the “Recommended services” section have a long list of switches that I personally recommend you to double check. Some of the features like “92 Lock Screen for realme” is worth turning off if you don’t want things get served to you, as turning off these features later on can be a major hassle through the Settings app.

The new realme UI 7.0 interface features new elements on the home screen: new iconography (with a lot more glass-like elements – guess where’s the inspiration from?), and a new tab in the app drawer that includes ‘Categories’ section for easy sorting. There’s also the new ‘Shelf’ section that mimics that of iOS’s implementation, along with the Smart Sidebar that activates via a inward swipe from the right edge along the volume rocker.

Whatever Apple does in software design, the Android world seems to just follow – it was only very recently that realme rolled out a software update to enable the glass-like frame for the control panel buttons, which is not enabled by default; though it does automatically apply the ‘multicolor’ preset that visually matches what you see on iPhones. While all of these are purely aesthetics and has no effect on usability in this case, allow me to rant a little bit: I’m not exactly a fan of Liquid Glass aesthetic on iPhones due to readability issues among other things, so dear Android smartphone makers, can we kindly not just take Apple’s ideas and attempting to stick it everywhere?

Camera

Entering the camera UI and you’ll see some new additions like the RICOH GR mode (which we’ll get into later) and, if the software senses incorrect photo compositions, it’ll suggest you activate AI Landscape mode. Composition assist is one of the few features this mode offers, and there’s the haze removal function that are going to be mostly unused as far as Malaysia’s weather is concerned.

Starting with the zoom test – we do notice there is significant color deviations once you move past 2x zoom, with the trees becoming warmer-toned; in 3x and further, the exposure is then boosted to enhance the relatively dim lighting on the lion’s head (which is a normal behavior when you leave all things in Auto). Given that realme employs a 200MP sensor for the telephoto lens, that means it can theoretically zoom 4x while still retaining an effective 12.5MP resolution, though in our testing we found that details become fuzzy when you go past 6x zoom (3x optical + 2x digital).

Above are the night-time tests, starting off, the realme GT 8 Pro managed to handle the first TERRACE sign correctly as far as lighting is concerned. No overly suppressed highlights or dim lighting in general, and the same applies to the second example (which uses the telephoto lens). That being said, in finer details like the shop signs and the Sunway Square sign, one can spot the edges around the lighting sources look fuzzy in general.

The star of the show is of course the RICOH GR mode, where the shutter button turns into a pill shape resembling those of the actual RICOH GR cameras. In this mode, you’re also given the Auto and Pro mode, along with five color profiles (Standard, Positive, Negative, Black & White, High-Contrast Black & White) to begin; if you’re willing to get more hands on, there’s also a custom mode that lets you set your very own color profile to suit your photographic taste.

Note that RICOH GR mode restricts the camera to 28mm (1.1x) and 40mm (1.5x) zoom ranges only, and if you want minimal UI during photo-taking, there’s a button on the top-left to simplify everything down, leaving only the 28mm and 40mm composition frame (grid is optional) in the viewfinder. Like a real RICOH camera, you can shoot in RAW formats, and there’s the “Snap Focus” mode that behaves exactly like the real cameras – simply set a distance and you don’t have to spend extra time adjusting focus when dealing with complex scenes (i.e. large amounts of vehicles or pedestrians).

Above you can view a quick comparison between all five film presets – including the default Standard mode – in both daylight and nighttime environments; below you can find everything else we shot using both the standard camera mode and the RICOH GR mode.

Gaming

realme is pretty well-known among the smartphone gaming community, and the feature set provided in the realme GT 8 Pro is a testament to that. At a glance, you can view the in-game framerate, battery level, network latency, and a number of quickly-accessible controls; this is where you can enable GT Mode, along with some of the frame-boosting technologies like Super Resolution and Frame Generation (as ‘Hyper frame rate’). As a side note, at its native performance, the smartphone has no issues hitting stable 60FPS framerate even with all graphics settings maxed out.

We observed that this smartphone utilizes 3x frame generation multiplier based on the home screen framerate (CODM locks lobby screens to 30FPS), so if the game can reliably achieve 60FPS, enabling this feature should provide a consistent 144FPS experience to your eyes. Note that realme also employs touch sampling boost, which you can enable separately, to cut down on input latency as well. You’re also given plenty of switches to flip on the ‘Tools’ tab, which allows you to suppress notifications, enable telemetry, capture content, and many more.

You can dig even deeper into the gaming performance settings to adjust each individual setting to your liking: there’s even a clock speed regulator, which is a surprise to me – this is something you only see on gaming PCs before. Granted, you can’t actually overclock this chip despite the options it offers, although this can be a neat tool if you want to reduce thermals or provide more headroom to the bottlenecked component (i.e. downclocking CPUs to give GPU more power headroom).

The Good

realme isn’t wrong about the fact that smartphone has gotten quite boring these days. Same shape, same design, same-y software, and generally the tendency to stick to a ‘safe’ design has made them rather bland, much less anything resembling to a visual statement. So, has realme succeeded in breaking away from the trend? Somewhat, at least. While the company is certainly proud of its interchangeable camera housing design, that is – in my opinion as someone very familiar in the DIY PC scene – only a start. realme is going to do a whole lot more than swappable housings to truly declare the end of boring smartphones as they intend to claim.

Visual identities aside, what realme GT 8 Pro truly possesses is the performance. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is outright the fastest chipset we’ve tested on the Android world so far, and realme certainly has the first-mover advantage being the first to introduce this chipset to the local market. That naturally translates to great gaming performance, further bolstered by its robust feature set as well. Battery life is plenty solid, too, with the return of wireless charging to complement the blazing-fast 120W wired charging for when the juice runs dry.

The new RICOH GR collaboration also brings a unique advantage to realme’s flagship line – for street photographers looking for a smartphone that they can carry as an alternative to a full imaging gear, the realme GT 8 Pro is certainly a no-brainer; for everyone else, the camera still does plenty solid with the range of flexibility it offers, including some genuinely useful AI-based features, including ones that offer composition and framing assistance for novice shooters.

The Bad

Hardware-wise, the realme GT 8 Pro ticks all the boxes, short for one in our assessments: the speakers aren’t tuned well enough to provide sufficient levels of bass, made no better by the fact there is no native feature to make EQ adjustments. That aside, we also think realme missed the opportunity to include a hardware camera shutter button now that they got RICOH GR onboard to develop the imaging side of things. Hopefully we can see that in the next-generation hardware, at least.

There’s also the software aspect, where some apps like realme’s own App Market sending unnecessary notifications (I even saw LinkedIn notifications too), along with the features that needed to be combed during setup to reduce bloat. While some may appreciate it, I personally prefer having the options laid out first before installing things like Netflix, LinkedIn, TikTok, Shopee and the likes in this smartphone; besides, there’s also apps with duplicating functions, such as realme’s own Photos app and Google Photos, along with My Files (vs Google Files).

Verdict

You’ll be paying RM4,299 for the privilege of the realme GT 8 Pro infused with RICOH GR’s imaging know-how, and if you’re someone who likes taking photos as you go, this is going to be a pretty enticing option. That aside, if you like the performance and gaming side of things, the new realme flagship can certainly handle that with ease, all while keeping you on the go for many hours of roaming in the urban jungle. I will say, though, while this is branded as a “flagship killer”, it’s definitely got a flagship-level pricing, which will likely influence your purchase decisions.

Special thanks to realme Malaysia for providing the realme GT 8 Pro smartphone for this review.