I have arrived home to find a Black box on my desk emblazoned with Realme branding!!
Inside something is exciting lurking and it is the Realme GT 5G. I have been eagerly waiting for this device since I tested the Realme 8 Pro and had a brief hand-on with the rest of the Realme 8 lineup (reviews coming soon). I was suitably impressed with the 8 Pro which was running a much older chip in the form of the Snapdragon 720G. The newest launch from Realme, the GT 5G is rocking the top-end Snapdragon 888 but at an affordable price.
I know when people see “affordable” in tech blogs they normally expect to see a figure starting with a 6 or a 7. Well, the great news here is that the GT 5G starts with an entry-level price of under £450 for 12Gb of RAM and 256 GB of Storage. This is what Oneplus were doing a few years ago with the “Flagship Killer”. In case you are not already aware Realme is also part of the same family as OnePlus and Oppo under the BBK Electronics parent company. It is not exactly that much of a surprise that the entry-level brand is now pushing the understanding of a flagship killer.
Anyway, enough jibber-jabber from me let’s open this box up for a peek inside.
As you can see from the video above this phone is really packing some serious punch. It is comparable in terms of price with the Pixel 4a 5G (which I have now bought incidentally), However, with this phone offering a true flagship-level processor and also a 120hz refresh rate, it is something a bit special for the price.
In terms of the design, I do like what they have done here on initial 1st impression’s it looks like a more prestigious version of the Realme 8 Pro which is not a bad thing by any means as i really liked this phone. The other thing you notice while handling the phone is the lightness of it. This is especially true having come from a Note 10 + which in comparison weighs a tonne! You can really feel the lack of weight in the hand and also in the pocket.
I have taken a few shots with the camera but nothing to really feel its performance yet. The quality is good but not the best and i think from my initial tests that the 8 Pro is actually going to give a better camera performance in this instance. I have included these images below for you to have a look at.
I am really looking forward to getting into the testing of this phone and will be using it as my daily driver for the next week to give it a true run for its money and to see if it one that i can recommend for you. In the meantime, if you are wanting to get one for yourself then you can check it out on Ali Express. It should also be coming soon to the UK market and I will share a link when it has arrived here.
Realme announced that their latest Flagship Killer is being announced to the UK market on the 15th of June.
There has been a lot of excitement about this phone as it is looking to be very heavy in terms of spec and punch but low in terms of cost. If the evidence we have seen from Realme so far is anything to go by then this should ring true. I am also very intrigued by this phone as it may well be one of the cheapest ways to run the new Android Public beta which makes it even more exciting for geeks like me.
I am going to do my very best to get one of these in for review as soon as I can, as I think this may be something a bit special but only a review will tell me if I am right.
We have the full Realme 8 family in the house here at Coolsmartphone towers. We have had the Realme 8 Pro for a while and it was a great mid-ranger as you see from its review. It is now time to have a look at the Realme 8 and the Realme 8 5G.
Here is a joint unboxing video of both phones. Enjoy!
So we are going to start with the Realme 8 as it is the most similar to the Realme 8 Pro that I have already reviewed.
Time for the around the device tour
On the right-hand side, you will find the volume rocker and the power key
On the left, you have the triple slot for two sims and an SD card which is a bonus as you dont have to choose between an extra sim and extra memory.
Here is the sim tray
On the base of the phone, we find another nice surprise in the form of a 3,5mm headphone jack next to the USB type C port which will pull charging duties. Next to this is a speaker grill for a very loud-sounding speaker which I was pretty surprised at!
The top has a tiny pinhole mic but other than that is barren of anything else.
The front of the phone has a stunning display again very nice to see here. We have got a 6.4″ AMOLED display with a 90.4% Screen to body ratio and a maximum brightness of 1000 nits. The resolution is Full Hd + with 2400×1080 as the resolution.
Set into this screen si the front facing camera which is a 16MP camera with an Aperture of F2.45 and it uses a Sony IMX471 Sensor
And lastly, the rear of the phone which contains the camera module with its 4 lenses. The primary camera has been downgraded to a 64Mp unit this time around The back panel is made of plastic and given a multilayer fabrication to make it look like it is glass.
The similarity of the phone to the 8 or is uncanny and if it weren’t for the difference in materials used on the rear panel it would be very difficult to distinguish the two from a casual glance. It is not until you look a little bit closer that you can see the differences. if I am honest I would have preferred the plastic back panel that is being used on the 8 Pro as I found that added grip and strangely actually made the phone feel a bit more special.
As with 8p Pro in the box, you will also get a clear TPU case which you will want to use pretty much instantly, if you choose not them be prepared for a smudgy mess of a back panel. You also have the USB Type A to USB Type C charging cable and a 30W fast charger power supply.
What I do really like is the slightly different implementation of the logo. As it has a rainbow effect when lit up in a certain way whereas the rest of the back doesn’t. It makes for a pretty looking phone which is nice to see as long as you can keep it clean for more than 30 seconds!
Next up is the Realme 8 5G
Starting on the right-hand side we have got a power key plus fingerprint reader. I really do like to see that the under screens are sometimes not as effective as the direct contact ones found on the more premium smartphones or tablets. The side-mounted ones just seem to be a bit better at picking fingerprints.
On the left-hand side, we have got the sim tray and memory card slot and like the rest of the family, this is capable of housing two nano sims and a micro SD card slot. Below that, you have now also got the volume rocker. which some people will prefer as it gives some operation between the volume and power buttons.
Next up is the base which houses the main speaker and the 3.5 mm headphone jack making it 3 for 3 in the Realme 8 Range for including this often missed feature. Nestled in between these you will find a pinhole microphone and the USB Type C port that is capable of 18W fast charging as opposed to the Realme 8 which can handle 30w fast charging.
Up the top of the phone, you have a blank panel with the notable absence of the pinhole mic found on the other two phones suggesting that there is no noise cancellation on this phone which is understandable given the respective prices of the phone.
Coming around to the front of the phone is the 6.5″ FHD+ display with a resolution of 2400×1080. This time it is not an AMOLED as the phone sports an LCD display again this is an indication of the price shaving that has been done on this phone. The phone will give out a brightness level of 600 nits which is not too bad for this display type. again the screen to body ratio is high at 90.5%.
Set into this screen is the front-facing camera which is a 16MP camera with a FOV of 79.3° and an Aperture of F2.1
Around the back, we have got another plastic back panel but this time around there is no “Dare to Leap” branding emblazoned across the back it also looks like there may not be any NFC on this device and the outer plastic packaging did not indicate it unlike the Realme 8 and the Realme 8 Pro where it was to be found next to the camera module.
The camera module itself houses 3 cameras this time with the primary sensor being capable of 48MP. This is the lowest MP count for the group and again is another indication of this being the lesser phone of the family.
That sums up the tour of the two devices exteriors. there are some distinct difference on the inside which I briefly wish to cover off as this is really what will separate the two phones.
Both the phones use a Mediatek processor with the Realme 8 opting for the Helio G95 and the Realme 8 5G opting for the Dimensity 700 5G Processor. This is a key difference in the phones as it means that the Realme 8 and 8 Pro are only 4G devices and as the name suggests the Realme 8 5G is the only 5g device in the group.
It can also lay claim to being the current cheapest 5g device on the market as it is available for £199 for the 4GB RAM and 64GB Storage version. (£179 for early bird pricing). if you want more memory and storage then you can get the 6GB RAM with 128GBstorage version for £249(£229 for early bird pricing.
The phones are being released at different times as below
Realme 8 4GB RAM with 64GB storage is priced at £199, and Realme 8 6GBRAM and 128GB storage is priced at £219, on-sale in the UK now
Realme 8 5G is on sale in the UK from May 20th, with the early-bird special offer running from May 20th to May 23rd.
The phones are available from either the Realme store or Amazon with the Realme 8 available now and the Realme 8 5G coming on the 23rd of May although you can preorder at the Early bird price from the 20th of May.
A mid-ranger phone with a flagship camera sensor does it work as an alternative to a high-end alternative? This is the question I am going to attempt to answer during the review of the Realme 8 Pro.
So for those of you who have not heard of Realme before then not to worry they are quite new to the market here in the UK. They started out life as a sub-brand of OPPO and were originally called OPPO Real. They then became Realme as a spinoff from OPPO in 2018. Like OPPO and also Oneplus the Brand is still owned by BBK and this is important as we will see some of this heritage in the review as we go through it. So without further ado onto the review.
Before I get started on the review I just want to add this quick disclaimer. I am basing this review on a sample unit that I have been supplied with by Realme. I have not had any form of payment for this review and Realme have not had any preview of this review either. The thoughts and opinions in this article are my own and this will always be the case with any reviews for Coolsmartphone.com
If you don’t want to read the review then you can also check out my video review here.
Design
The phone is like all phones these days a rectangular slab of glass, plastic and some metal. However, it is nice to look at and I have found some nice little detailed bits around the phone that I do quite like. Normally I would give you a full 360 of the phone and cover what all the edges look like, in this instance, I am not going to do it here as I have already covered this in my Unboxing post that went out the other day. What I do want to focus on are the little quirks that Realme have built into the phone that for me make it stand out above the crowded marketplace.
First up is the panels on either end of the phone as these have got a very slight inset curve to them which I really do like as it makes the phone much more comfortable to hold. They are very hard to see in a picture but they are there and you do notice when you hold the phone in your hand. I have been trying to remember where I have seen this design detail before but I have had it on a previous phone and it made me want to use it over much more expensive and higher-spec devices at the time.
Secondly and this may be one for a bit of contention amongst readers. I love that phones are now coming with all-glass back panels as makes the phone look all sleek and sexy especially when you have multicoloured back panels that shift with the light. That being said I also hate glass back panels as they are fragile and require nursing to make sure they don’t break or get scratched up when you put your phone into your pocket and god forbid there is some hard material in there as well. it is bad enough that our screens get all scratched up but we now have the back to contend with as well!! This is the reason why I am such a big fan of skins from places like Dbrand and Xtremeskins. So I was very pleased and happy to see that the Realme 8 Pro comes with a plastic back panel that is not glossy and also has texture to it. The feeling reminds me of the wrist rests on my work laptop and these have stood up to a lot of typing over time so it should be a similar case here. I am also not averse to the new branding approach that Realme has decided to use on the phones back as this is something a bit different. As you can see in the image below it isn’t exactly subtle but again it makes the phone stand out from the normal slab that we are all so familiar with now.
The last thing I want to specifically mention here is the depth or thickness of the device. This phone is svelte and I like it! It fits very nicely into my hand and the edges don’t dig into my palm at all. It is barely noticeable in my pocket at all (to the point where I have to do a double-take sometimes). The feel of the phone is just well, nice I enjoy holding it, I enjoy playing games on it and the proportions work well. Dont get me wrong I have got a like for big phones and the screen on it is a little small for my taste but even with all that being said if this were to be my only phone, based upon the way it feels I would be happy to use it long term.
So the above for me three areas where the phone stands out a bit more from the crowd and the Realme 8 Pro differentiates itself from the crowd. There is a lot more to a good quality smartphone that just designs though, which leads me very nicely onto the hardware used on the phone. So it is time for a Specs sheet!
Specifications
Processor
Qualcomm® Snapdragon 720G CPU：8nm, Octa-core, Up to 2.3GHz GPU：Adreno 618 AIE：5th Generation Qualcomm AI Engine
realme 8 Pro USB Type-C Cable 65W Charge Adapter SIM Card Needle Screen Protect Film Protect Case Quick Guide Important Product Information (including the Warranty Card)
Not a bad spec sheet to be fair although it does have to be said that there are a lot of similarities to that of the Realme 7 Pro with the biggest changes happening where the cameras are concerned. This is hardly surprising given that all the build-up to the launch of this phone has been based entirely around what the camera is capable of. We will get into the camera, later on, I just want to spend a bit of time focusing on the hardware aspects for a moment.
Hardware
So this is a phone that packs a mighty camera module into a slim and compact body and is powered by a Snapdragon 720G CPU, To some that might cause some concern but I can honestly say that I have been impressed by what this phone can do. I have been using this for a few days now as my daily driver and I have come from a Samsung Note 10+ which is a flagship-grade phone but I can’t say that barring one thing I have not found it to be lacking the power department. This is hardly surprising to anyone who has used a recent phone featuring the Snapdragon 700 series CPU as they are very capable chipsets. Yes, it can be said that they dont have the raw power given out by the latest and greatest Snapdragon 888 series but it is not trying to pitch itself at that level. I have not seen any significant slowness in the chip and it handles all the processes of the phone well. I have been able to have multiple email accounts including a work based Outlook account all work seamlessly. When switching between apps it has been for the most part smooth. I have also used it for a bit of light gaming with no problem, It handles one of my go-to games World of Warships well and i was able to play the game for far too long without any excessive heat build-up or noticeable slowdown.
The screen is a joy to behold and it is plenty bright enough for me to use outdoors without having to ramp the brightness up too high. Viewing video on it is pleasing to the eye and colours are well represented once you have chosen your favoured setting through the settings menu. It is a Samsung Super AMOLED panel which is very nice to see and while the refresh rate is not amazing it has not been an issue for me at all at 60hz. The touch is responsive as you would expect from an 18ohz sample rate and I never felt that I was having to press hard to get a response. The Phone just feels smooth to use which is a nice way for a phone to feel.
Connectivity is also good and reliable I have been able to pair it with my car with very few problems from the phone end. The only thing I did experience was with Android Auto being a bit hit and miss. It would sometimes struggle to get started correctly and the route displayed on Google Maps would stutter whenever I made a turn which was a bit weird. I am not sure if this is isolated to my review unit or if it is a more widespread issue. I have informed Realme about the issue and they have stated that it is a bug and they are working on the fix for it. As for phone calls, they were fine as I could hear the other party clearly and crisply. This was the case over both normal calls and when rerouted over VOIP as well.
The Wifi seemed to receive a good signal wherever I was in my house so no real concerns there either. The Phone will work for data on GPRS, EDGE 3G and 4G but it is not a 5G phone which has not been an issue for me as where I live there is no 5G service anyway!! The lack of 5G must have been a decision that has been made to get the price down to a palatable one for the brand as they could have used the SD735G which would have given 5G support. However, this is likely to have tipped the phone over the £300 price point. it does of course have the added benefit of causing less battery drain as a plus side though so for me it is a compromise I am happy with.
That leads us to the battery. This is an area where the phone has really impressed me is how long I could use it without having to hunt out a power supply. Not that it would have been a cause for concern as the phone ships with a 65 Superdart charger in the box which will boost the battery back to full in next to no time. Now dont get me wrong I would have loved to have had QI charging on board but this would have added bulk and weight to the phone not to mention an increase in the cost of it as well. The phone has a 4500mAh battery onboard which is able to be recharged at 50W using high-voltage charge pump technology.
This means that in as little a 47 mins you can charge the battery back up ready for your next trip out. I was able to get through a day of use without any major issues at all. If I ever needed to push the battery that little bit further then I know the phone has me covered as there are various battery saving protocols that I can enact until I get back ti a power supply.
That about covers everything on the hardware side of the phone barring the camera which i will cover off separately. next up is Software.
Software
The Software on the phone is Android 11 with the brand new Realme UI 2.0. I think the best way to go over it is to do a quick video of it so I will not bore you with reams of text and jump into video.
As you can see from the video above it is a largely standard sort of UI with some very subtle tweaks here and here. I mostly liked it barring the issue of not being able to add multiple widgets for my many email accounts. This however is not a deal-breaker as the phone is not really intended for a user like me. it is more aligned to someone who wants a good all-rounder which just so happens to have a high MP camera. I can see this as something that a more normal user like my wife would be absolutely fine with. In fact, after I have finished testing the phone this will be going to my wife for more long-term testing. It will be a distinct upgrade from her Motorola macro as i have already done some side by side testing of the phones and the Realme 8 Pro is much much faster than the Motorola macro when it comes to loading websites, performing Google searches and clicking through links via Facebook etc. I will no longer have to hear the sound of frustration as she cannot load a website or read an article linked from Facebook!! I am also pretty sure she will appreciate the discernable increase in quality from the camera.
Having said that let’s have a look at that camera
Camera
This phone has had so much hype about particularly with regard to a high-performance camera. Given that the main sensor has effectively been lifted straight out the Samsung lineup it is reasonable to expect big things here and for the most part for standard no zoom pictures, you will not be disappointed. More on that later let’s just recap on all the various different options that you have from the Quad camera setup.
First off I am going to start with the smallest cameras and get them out of the way. The Black and White 2MP unit is largely redundant for most uses cases as the sensor is so small it doesn’t really add much, it may help with some of the low light shots as it can detect a larger array of light but it is not a big enough sensor to make that much of a difference really.
Next up is the 2MP macro unit. if you like shooting things really close up then this will be of use to you but it would have been better to build this into the Ultawide lens than to add a completely different camera for this purpose. Dont get me wrong the result of shots from it are not that bad but it isn’t a make or break feature for me here.
Next, we move to the Ultrawide 8MP unit. This is getting a bit more interesting and the photos we can get from the Ultrawide are good and I was more than happy to have the option of the Ultrawide here on the phone. it is once to have the option of switching to this mode if I need it. The shots are not as crisp as you would expect from the main camera but they are serviceable given that you are more likely to be using this for pictures that are taking in a larger area and not isolating on things that are closer to the lens.
If you are to look at the colour difference then we can see that the Ultrawide leans to a brighter image than that of the Main camera this can be easily seen in the images above with the blue car. These photos were taken with full auto and Ai controls in place as a point and shoot picture would normally be taken. Neither is a bad shot to be fair but the Ultrawide does seem to be a bit truer to life.
Now onto the main event the 108MP Main camera!!
There are various different ways of using this camera but I am only going to cover the main ones that I would use here.
Ultra 108 MP shot. This is one that I personally won’t use that much unless I was wanting to get a photo that I could then zoom into digitally. However that being aid the quality of the picture is pretty pleasing as you can see from the picture of this RC truck belowRealme 8 Pro full 108MP Image
If you click on the link above you will be able to see the full-size image. Thanks to the 3 x In sensor Zoom, you can really get close into the image even from a far off shot like the one above and you don’t lose too much detail. It can also work for closer up shots as seen below again click on the link below the image for the full-size shot.
The next mode I want to mention is Starry Mode which I was really quite pleased with as this produced some quite cool photos. Here is one of my first attempts below. it essentially uses the Images Sensing processor from the SD 720G to optimise the imaging process and it now deals with adding the brightness layer separately giving the shot seen below. This is taken as a multitude of shots and then all mixed together to produce one image with the best lighting levels and optical clarity etc. it takes a few minutes and does require the phone to be stable during that tie for the best result tripod is required. Not too bad in my opinion and certainly good enough to please most users. Just as an aside here is the same shot from my Samsung Note 10+ which does not have Starry Mode.
Next up is Super Nightscape
No for this one the camera uses all three of its technologies, ISOCELL Plus, Smart-ISO and 9 in 1 Pixel Binning. When all these are added together you do get a very reasonable quality picture. Below are two photos’s taken within minutes of each other from the same vantage point.
I don’t know how I feel about these two images. On the one hand, the image on the Samsung is much clearer in terms of what you can see but in the Realme it is a better representation of nighttime. I will let you make up your mind as to which one you prefer on this one.
The last up is Tilt-shift mode. This one is new to me and I have been trying to get a good shot with it but I am struggling to get one. Essentially it will use blurring to trick the eye into thinking that the subject in the photo is a miniature as opposed to real size. It can prove to please when it is done right but I can quite get it to work for me correctly. Here are some of my best attempts below.
Of course last but not least is all-important to some (not me), the Selfie camera which is a 16Mp camera and is actually the same camera as in the recently announced OnePlus 9 Pro and OnePlus 9, (reviews of those phone’s coming soon). It does the job and like all Chinese origin phones it tries to beautify me even with all the setting turned off but I don’t use it enough to worry about it.
Those are the main features as far as the stills camera is concerned. However, there are a lot of things that can be done with the video features of this phone as well. So it can record in Normal 1080 resolution and also 4K resolution. In addition, you have slow motion which can be a slow as 960fps at 720p.
Another new addition is Dualview video this is a very useful one for if you are wishing to live stream something and will be quite useful for video bloggers etc.
I think the most interesting one that I have played around with is the Starry Mode timelapse feature which allows you to get a not time based timelapse of the view into the stars. This builds upon the standard Timelapse feature which is pretty good and works well. here are examples of each below.
Daytime Timelpase
StarryNight Timelapse
That wraps up the camera section at least the main features of it anyway.
Here are a few more shots from the cutting room floor.
The only area that was a bit of a let down in the camera in terms of features was the zoom capabilities as once you go past the 3x In Senor Zoom capability it starts to become a bit of a pixelated blurry mess which was a bit disappointing. So if you keep it under the 3X for zoom it will serve you well but if you want more Zoom functionality then you need to get something with a dedicated telephoto lens to help take care of that. Here are soon gradually zoomed-in images to compare.
Conclusion
This is a good phone but is it enhanced by having the 108MP Camera sensor on it? Could Realme have just used the 48MP that is more abundant and gotten away with it? Two interesting related questions there and I believe by answering both I will also answer my question from the head of this review. The camera is really quite a bit of kit and it does add some genuinely interesting features into the mix for this phone by having such a massive sensor but I don’t think that its full potential has been realised and I do think that this phone would be just as good with a 48MP camera instead.
I get what Realme has tried to do here and they have done so with some degree of success but they have also made things a bit to complex especially for the intended market. This phone will sit well with those for who a phone is just something that they feel they need to have not something that they really care about. It is not a phone for geeks or for the power user. To coin a term from our good friend Steve of Phone Show chat this is a phone for “normobs” and as such it didn’t need all the bells and whistles added in the terms of the mahusive camera.
With all that being said if you know someone who is needing a phone but wants to have a fancy camera then point them in the way of the Realme 8 Pro as I am sure they won’t be that disappointed with it as it ticks all the boxes fro a modern mid-tier phone with some added glitz of a big MP count.
You can buy th phone from the Realme Website and also from Amazon for £279 on the 31st of March.
If you are quick enough and you want to get a great bargain then this is a great offer and one not to be missed. As part of their Valentines special, they are offering you a Moto g 5G Plus and there is a Moto e7 Plus thrown in for free?
My basket from the Moto Store
Sounds good, the Moto g 5G Plus is a good price for a mid range device and it comes with either 64gb or 128gb of storage and 4 or 6gb of RAM. It also has not on or two camera’s but 4 on the back and another 2 on the front pulling selfies duty.
Moto g 5G Plus
The phone also packs a Snapdragon 765 chip which is where the integrated 5G comes into play. A 5000mah battery helps to keep it powered up to give up to 2 days of battery life. Screen wise we have got a 6.7″ Full HD+ CinemaVision display which has a 1080 × 2520 resolution and PPI of 409. What really impressed me is that it has a 90Hz refresh rate which is a really nice touch at this price point. Throw in HDR10 and we have got a really competent display which presents great value especially for just under £300!
Moto g 5G Plus
So that is the Moto g5G Plus but remember you can get the Moto e7 Plus for free as long as you buy between 12 February 18:00H until 14 February 18:00H. So what is the Moto e7 Plus all about well here are the headlines.
The Moto e7 Plus is a bit lower in terms of the spec that the Moto g 5G Plus but it is still a good package for the price. You still get a large screen albeit at a lower resolution this time around coming in at 6.5” HD + Max Vision with a resolution of 1600×720 and a PPI of 269. As for the Processer you will find a Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 onboard being backed up by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage which is not too shabby for a phone that s being given away for free! The battery size in also 500mah which should give you plenty of juice to see out al but the busiest of days with plenty leftover in the tank for the next day.
Moto e7 Plus
Camera-wise we only have the 2 lenses on the rear and one selfies shooter but again you cannot really complain about this too much when you are not paying for it!
This is a great second phone or phone for kids as it will do all the basics well and comes with the solid build quality that Moto is synonymous with. These two phones are well worth a look but if you want to take advantage of this awesome offer you will need to act fast as the offer is due to expire tomorrow night at 18:00 14th February. You can take advantage of this offer by heading over to the Moto website now
As we stumble towards a very different Christmas Day, the crazed online-shopping might be slowing – but it won’t be for long. Already there’s emails flooding into our inbox about the January and Boxing Day sales, with EE among the first. They’ve unveiled some early-bird January sales offers, including savings of on iPhone, Samsung, and OPPO devices.
Best of all? It starts today!
All of these deals end on February 1st and you can save £174 on the iPhone SE (no upfront cost, £31 per month on a 10GB Essential Plan) or save £192 on the Samsung FE 5G. That’s on a 100GB monthly plan for a £30 upfront cost at £51 per month.
Other deals include the OPPO A72 for £21 on a 4GB Essential Plan – £21 per month (no upfront), £96 off the Samsung A41 (£25 per month on the same plan with a £30 upfront cost), the Samsung A51 for £33 per month on a 10GB Essential Plan (£30 upfront cost) and the OPPO Find X2 Lite for £31 per month on the same plan with the same upfront cost.
I do have to kick myself at times. Sitting in this hospital, I’ve got a gloriously fast 5G connection on Vodafone and unlimited data to enjoy. The speeds massively outclass the WiFi in here and it’s all just so straightforward and worry-free.
Back in the late ’90s, phones looked very different. The internet, my friend, was just a dream.
WAP technology, remember that? I think we can all agree that it was royally terrible on so many levels. Imagine a stripped-down version of a website which has then been stripped down even more, perhaps to a page with 4 links on it, and you’re almost there. Dial-up for your mobile phone.
Honestly, don’t listen to people who talk about how much of a revelation it was, because the GPRS (anyone remember that) connection was hilariously slow and the overall experience was duller than you could possibly imagine.
This YouTube video gives a little taster of what 1999 was like if you used a monochrome WAP phone (around 20 seconds in)…
..and that guy was drunk when he filmed that. No way was he that happy clicking through 14 pages to get his cricket scores. No way.
Back then, these were the phones being offered, but already we were also starting to see lower-priced handsets getting more functionality. This Currys ad shows some of the non-contract phones of the time…
Look at that – you could talk to your phone and it would make the call for you. That, let me tell you, was a revelation in 1999!
There’s EE 4G now available on more than 322,000 miles of roads in Great Britain. It’s thanks to 160 new EE 4G sites built this year and a general expansion in the coverage.
EE have also extended coverage of UK national parks, with more than two thirds of total area covered now.
The new EE sites will cater for 40% year on year increase in 4G data usage, and provide the infrastructure for future 5G rollout. It just proves that there’s a lot of life left in 4G yet. EE has the largest geographical 4G coverage at 85%.
EE has also partnered with the Scottish Government, the Home Office, the Scottish Futures Trust and WHP Telecoms Ltd. to bring 4G to some of Scotland’s most rural locations for the first time.
Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s Consumer business, told us…
Having access to a resilient and reliable mobile network has never been more important. Our 4G network covers more of the UK’s geography than any other, and we’re continuing to invest in it right across the UK to keep our customers connected and bring coverage to rural areas for the very first time. 4G forms the basis of our award-winning 5G network, and with this investment we’ll be able to roll out the latest mobile technology to even more parts of the UK.
EE provide an Emergency Service Network for the emergency services, so getting 4G coverage in the traditionally hard-to-reach areas is important.
Christmas Day tends to be a time when we all make lots of calls, and we’ll no doubt be making even more this year as the coronavirus restrictions keep us apart more than ever. Data and text usage will also be on the rise, so it’s good to see Tesco Mobile delivering free UK data, minutes and texts on the big day.
It’s all part of Tesco Mobile’s “Reconnects” mission, which sees them partner with homelessness charity Crisis to bring connection to those experiencing homelessness this Christmas.
The free bundle will be automatically applied to customers’ accounts at no extra cost and will be available on Christmas Day from midnight to midnight.
Tom Denyard, CEO of Tesco Mobile, told us..
We know many families can’t be together this Christmas, so we hope this ‘little help’ gives our customers the chance to connect with all their loved ones outside their bubble this Christmas.
If you’re looking for lots of data on a SIM-only deal, these SMARTY offers will deliver just that. You can, for example, get unlimited and unrestricted data for £20 per month and they’ll give you £15 account credit with our special link. It’s a 1 month rolling plan, so even if you just test it out, you can effectively get unlimited data for a month for just £5. That’s excellent as a second SIM card if you’ve got the extra slot in your phone.
SMARTY is owned by Three, and they’ve seen their customers’ average data usage (per customer, per month) rising above 15GB barrier for the first time ever.
The figure was reached in October 2020, as data usage grew 50% since the beginning of 2020. This despite more people working from home and generally using their WiFi to get on the web.
Three have recently invested £2 billion into network and IT transformation, enhancing their 4G network and rolling out the UK’s fastest 5G network with average speeds in excess of 200Mbps. The network has signed backhaul agreements with a number of partners including SSE Enterprise Telecoms and Colt (laying almost 30,000km of fibre!) and are expecting to have around 1,000 5G sites by the end of this month. They’re also adding 20 new state of the art data centres for reduced latency when using data.
I have been eagerly waiting for this device since I tested the Realme 8 Pro and had a brief hand-on with the rest of the Realme 8 lineup (reviews coming soon). I was suitably impressed with the 8 Pro which was running a much older chip in the form of the Snapdragon 720G. The newest launch from Realme, the GT 5G is rocking the top-end Snapdragon 888 but at an affordable price.
A mid-ranger phone with a flagship camera sensor does it work as an alternative to a high-end alternative?
First up is the panels on either end of the phone as these have got a very slight inset curve to them which I really do like as it makes the phone much more comfortable to hold. They are very hard to see in a picture but they are there and you do notice when you hold the phone in your hand. I have been trying to remember where I have seen this design detail before but I have had it on a previous phone and it made me want to use it over much more expensive and higher-spec devices at the time. 
Secondly and this may be one for a bit of contention amongst readers. I love that phones are now coming with all-glass back panels as makes the phone look all sleek and sexy especially when you have multicoloured back panels that shift with the light. That being said I also hate glass back panels as they are fragile and require nursing to make sure they don’t break or get scratched up when you put your phone into your pocket and god forbid there is some hard material in there as well. it is bad enough that our screens get all scratched up but we now have the back to contend with as well!! This is the reason why I am such a big fan of skins from places like Dbrand and Xtremeskins. So I was very pleased and happy to see that the Realme 8 Pro comes with a plastic back panel that is not glossy and also has texture to it. The feeling reminds me of the wrist rests on my work laptop and these have stood up to a lot of typing over time so it should be a similar case here. I am also not averse to the new branding approach that Realme has decided to use on the phones back as this is something a bit different. As you can see in the image below it isn’t exactly subtle but again it makes the phone stand out from the normal slab that we are all so familiar with now.
The last thing I want to specifically mention here is the depth or thickness of the device. This phone is svelte and I like it! It fits very nicely into my hand and the edges don’t dig into my palm at all. It is barely noticeable in my pocket at all (to the point where I have to do a double-take sometimes). The feel of the phone is just well, nice I enjoy holding it, I enjoy playing games on it and the proportions work well. Dont get me wrong I have got a like for big phones and the screen on it is a little small for my taste but even with all that being said if this were to be my only phone, based upon the way it feels I would be happy to use it long term.
720G
So this is a phone that packs a mighty camera module into a slim and compact body and is powered by a Snapdragon 720G CPU, To some that might cause some concern but I can honestly say that I have been impressed by what this phone can do. I have been using this for a few days now as my daily driver and I have come from a Samsung Note 10+ which is a flagship-grade phone but I can’t say that barring one thing I have not found it to be lacking the power department. This is hardly surprising to anyone who has used a recent phone featuring the Snapdragon 700 series CPU as they are very capable chipsets. Yes, it can be said that they dont have the raw power given out by the latest and greatest Snapdragon 888 series but it is not trying to pitch itself at that level. I have not seen any significant slowness in the chip and it handles all the processes of the phone well. I have been able to have multiple email accounts including a work based Outlook account all work seamlessly. When switching between apps it has been for the most part smooth. I have also used it for a bit of light gaming with no problem, It handles one of my go-to games World of Warships well and i was able to play the game for far too long without any excessive heat build-up or noticeable slowdown. 
The screen is a joy to behold and it is plenty bright enough for me to use outdoors without having to ramp the brightness up too high. Viewing video on it is pleasing to the eye and colours are well represented once you have chosen your favoured setting through the settings menu. It is a Samsung Super AMOLED panel which is very nice to see and while the refresh rate is not amazing it has not been an issue for me at all at 60hz. The touch is responsive as you would expect from an 18ohz sample rate and I never felt that I was having to press hard to get a response. The Phone just feels smooth to use which is a nice way for a phone to feel.
This phone has had so much hype about particularly with regard to a high-performance camera. Given that the main sensor has effectively been lifted straight out the Samsung lineup it is reasonable to expect big things here and for the most part for standard no zoom pictures, you will not be disappointed. More on that later let’s just recap on all the various different options that you have from the Quad camera setup.
