The Realme GT 8 Pro comes out of nowhere in a smartphone market full of small improvements. It’s like a breath of fresh air—or maybe a Ricoh GR picture in a sea of generic filters. This flagship phone came out in China in October 2025 and will be available in India on November 20. It doesn’t just check boxes; it changes a few. The base 12GB/256GB model costs about $600 in global markets, and the 16GB/512GB model costs about $650. It is cheaper than competitors like the OnePlus 15 and Oppo Find X9 Pro. It has a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, a huge 7,000mAh battery, and a camera system tuned by Ricoh for street-smart photographers. After weeks of testing, it’s clear: the GT 8 Pro is a crazy success in terms of new ideas, with lightning-fast performance and strange design choices that either make people happy or angry.
The GT 8 Pro’s bones are what make it feel like a real flagship for 2025. It is 161.8 x 76.9 x 8.2 mm and weighs 214 g, making it slimmer and lighter than the GT 7 Pro, even though it has a bigger battery. The aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass 7i front and back, and IP69 rating make it look and feel high-end. It can handle dust, water jets, and even high-pressure steam cleaning, which is great for people who are clumsy. The back comes in either Urban Blue (a matte, leather-like texture that doesn’t show fingerprints and is easy to hold) or Dairy White, and both have a camera island that can be customized. That’s right: Realme’s craziest gimmick is a camera bezel that can be changed. You can change the default square module to a round one or even 3D-print your own designs using Realme’s blueprints. All you have to do is unscrew two tiny Torx screws (a mini screwdriver is included). It’s a mix of fun and useless, like making your phone into a modular toy, but it adds a level of personalization that is truly unique in a world of cookie-cutter slabs.
The GT 8 Pro’s display is its best feature. This 6.79-inch LTPO AMOLED panel has a QHD+ resolution (3,136 x 1,440 pixels, 510ppi) and a refresh rate of 144Hz, so everything from Netflix binges to Genshin Impact marathons runs smoothly. Peak brightness reaches an eye-searing 7,000 nits (tests show it to be over 4,000 nits), making it easy to see even in direct sunlight. The minimum brightness goes down to 1.6 nits for late-night scrolling without squinting. Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and 4608Hz PWM dimming make colors pop and keep eyes comfortable. The ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner is much faster and more reliable than optical scanners. The stereo speakers tuned for Dolby Atmos provide rich, balanced sound, but the bass could use a boost.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3nm process, up to 4.6GHz) is a monster, with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage. AnTuTu scores around 2.5 million and Geekbench 6 multi-core scores over 9,000, so benchmarks show that it’s one of the fastest Androids. Do you like to play games? Thanks to Realme’s R1 graphics chip and a vapor chamber cooling system that keeps throttling to a minimum (surface temps peaked at 54°C during stress tests), it works perfectly at max settings. The custom Realme UI 7 on Android 16 makes everyday tasks feel quick, and the OS updates and security patches promised for four years and five years, respectively, are a strong promise for a Chinese brand.
The GT 8 Pro’s battery life is its best feature. The dual-cell 7,000mAh silicon-carbon pack (20% more than the GT 7 Pro) gets an Active Use Score of over 20 hours in mixed testing, with 18 hours of web browsing, 22 hours of video playback, and standby that hardly affects it. Wired charging at 120W gets it to 100% in 43 minutes (50% in 15), and wireless charging at 50W gets it to 100% in less than 80 minutes. It’s a long-lasting champion that makes “all-day battery” seem old-fashioned.
The cameras, which were made in partnership with Ricoh GR to give that hard-to-get street photography look, are the stars of the show. The three cameras on the back are a 50MP main camera (Sony IMX906, f/1.8, 1/1.56-inch sensor, OIS) that works well with Ricoh’s high-resolution, low-distortion optics; a 200MP periscope telephoto (3x optical, up to 12x lossless zoom, dual-axis OIS); and a 50MP ultrawide (f/2.0, 116° FOV). A 32MP front-facing camera makes video calls easy. The Ricoh GR Mode is what makes it stand out. It copies the compact camera’s UI with snap focus (preset distances for quick shots), shutter sounds, and five film presets—standard, positive/negative film, high-contrast B&W, and monochrome—that add artistic grit without overprocessing.
In real life, the main sensor takes sharp pictures in daylight with a wide dynamic range and natural colors (though it is a little more saturated than the OnePlus 15, which is more neutral). Multi-frame fusion makes low-light performance stand out by bringing in detail where other cameras lose it. The telephoto lens is a heart-stealer. At 3x zoom, pictures are as clear and detailed as those taken with a dedicated camera. At 6x zoom, it’s great for portraits or pictures of things that are far away. Ultrawide does well with little distortion and good exposure, but it doesn’t have autofocus, which is a problem for macro work. The same reason makes selfies clear but soft up close. Video? With gyro-EIS keeping things steady, you can record up to 8K at 30 frames per second or 4K at 120 frames per second in Dolby Vision or 10-bit Log. However, stabilization isn’t perfect when you’re moving.
Things aren’t perfect all the time. At higher zoom levels, video can jitter, and there is no ultrawide/selfie autofocus, which seems like a big deal at this price. Pre-installed apps can make the software bigger, and Realme UI is smooth, but it’s not as polished as stock Android. The bezel that can be changed is cool, but it’s hard to use, and it might not be available in all countries yet.
The Realme GT 8 Pro isn’t for the faint of heart; it’s a bold, brilliant mess of features that values style over perfection. This is the camera for you if you love photography and want a camera with great zoom and creative modes, or if you just need a battery that lasts longer than your social calendar. In terms of cameras and battery life, it beats the OnePlus 15, but it doesn’t have the same level of imaging quality as the Oppo Find X9 Pro. At less than $700, it’s a great deal that shows Realme is no longer trying to catch up; it’s leading the way. Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars. Take it if you want to change your chaos.
