It’s hard to believe that Realme was first established as recently as 2018. The company has quickly made a name for itself in the ultra-competitive smartphone market, especially following its expansion into Western markets a year later.
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. Realme’s founder, Sky Li, previously worked at Oppo, with both operating under Chinese corporation BBK. That’s the same company which owns fellow smartphone manufacturers OnePlus, Vivo and iQOO.
Realme has released an incredible number of phones during the last three years, but arguably the most well known to date are the Realme 7 and 7 Pro. These phones only launched last October, but we’re already expecting their successors today. Here’s all you need to know about the launch event.
When is the Realme 8 launch?
The Realme 8 series will officially launch in India today (24 March 2021). More specifically, this will be 7.30pm local time, or 2pm in the UK.
Realme’s promotion of the event in the UK has focused on the 8 Pro, so that may be the only one coming to Western markets initially.
How to watch the Realme 8 launch live
Realme will be live streaming the launch event on its official YouTube channel. We’ve embedded the stream at the top of this page.
If you’d prefer, the event will also be broadcast on Facebook and Twitter.
As mentioned above, this will likely focus on the 8 Pro, so head to the Realme India YouTube channel if you’d like to hear more about the regular model too.
What to expect from the Realme 8 and 8 Pro
Realme has already extensively teased the new phones, so we have a pretty good idea what to expect. The first big clue is the tagline of the event: ‘108Mp. Capture Infinity’. This suggests cameras will be a primary focus, although the 108Mp main lens will only apply to the Pro model. See more in our separate article on the Realme 8 Pro cameras.
As such, rumours suggest that the regular model will come with at a 64Mp main snapper. It’s also likely to be powered by the MediaTek Helio G95 chipset, with a 5000mAh battery and 30W wired charging – these are identical specs to the Realme 7. The Pro model is expected to be equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, although neither are thought to be making the move to 5G.
The 6.4in display is expected to make the move from LCD to OLED, but the refresh rate will be back down to 60Hz – it’s not clear whether the Pro model will now move to 90Hz or more.
Other key rumoured differences on the 8 Pro is a smaller 4500mAh battery, but this will be compensated with faster 65W wired charging. The Realme UK site has also confirmed the 8 Pro will weigh 176g and be 8.1mm thick, making it both lighter and thinner than previous Pro models. See more details in our full guide to the Realme 8 series.
