Smartphone Durability test!
I've been asked to do durability tests on some budget smartphones. And at around $300, I think this Realme 8 Pro falls into that category. While at the same time having some pretty impressive specs all of its own. The Realme 8 Pro comes with a flexible rubber case which is nice. Free protection is always a good thing. And it also comes with an excessively loud design. While some matte finish smartphones are subtle, the brightly etched surface of this Realme 8 Pro is super rough. Nearing like 800 grit sandpaper, if you know what I mean. It's the most etched back panel I've ever seen. And with that “Dare to Leap” logo, it'll be recognizable for miles. Another thing that will go for miles is the 108 megapixel camera. Realme sent over three of these phones for me to test, which is pretty brave of them since I only need just one. Each color is equally loud and has an almost 3D depth to it with the etching that's freaking my camera out. But I think we're getting ahead of ourselves here, so I'll set these off to the side. If this Realme 8 Pro survives my durability test, I'll give away his two friends to some of you guys. Let's get started. The back panel of this phone is anything but subtle or normal. With a budget phone you are never really sure what you're going to get...metal, glass, or plastic. Plastic, of course, would be the cheapest material to work with overall, like this screen protector. But plastic on a display wouldn't last for very long. Displays always get touched and are rubbing up against fabric or keys in pockets or purses. And luckily we can tell this Realme 8 Pro is made of glass because we start seeing scratches at a level 6, with deeper grooves at a level 7. We're off to a good start. This means that the 16 megapixel hole punch front facing selfie camera is also protected under that front glass. There is a small plastic grill up top, and relatively small bezels all around the edges, except at the bottom where it gets a little thicker. The sides of the phone...this is the Infinite Blue version by the way...are made from plastic. You can see the darker material showing through after the paint has been scraped off. The top of the phone is pretty empty except for the small microphone hole. Then down the left side we have a lot more empty space, along with the SIM card tray. I'll pop that out, and I gotta say that this is probably the largest SIM card tray of all time, with enough room for dual SIM card slots and expandable memory. It's impressively long. And I do promise that my camera is in focus. This back panel thing is just pretty trippy. It's like a holographic pile of glitter. And, would you look at that, a headphone jack. Just another example of a budget phone where you pay less and get more features than a flagship. When I first pulled this phone out of the box, I thought it was made of glass. But it turns out that's not the case. I wasn't allowed to play a whole lot of video games growing up. Apparently going outside and reading a book are more constructive and conducive to having healthy hobbies as an adult. That turned out real good. [Scratching sounds] One game I was allowed to play though was Frogger, which I think matches perfectly with Realme's Dare to Leap logo on the back. We'll call him Craig, and he's from Chernobyl. While his is a budget phone, one of it's most impressive attributes is a 108 megapixel sensor up here in the stove top looking camera setup. The square camera bump is made from plastic, but the circular surface covering the 108 megapixel Samsung built sensor is made of glass. This camera can shoot pictures that are 12000x9000 pixels. It's not the same sensor that was used in the S21 Ultra though. It's got a slightly smaller footprint. Then we have the 8 megapixel ultra wide camera. And the 2 megapixel macro camera in the bottom corner, along with the 2 megapixel depth camera. Putting the clear case on the back, it looks like it sits flush with the surface of the camera lenses. So it's good that at least one part of this phone isn't made from plastic. The 108 megapixel camera isn't the only highlight either. There's also a huge 4,500 milliamp hour battery inside. And the whole packaging is all less than $300. And if you live in a really hot place, you'll be happy to know that the 6.4 inch 1080p AMOLED display lasts for 24 seconds under the heat from my lighter, and does recover. Although, if your outside temperature reaches 2000 degrees, you might have other things to worry about. Surprisingly, the Realme 8 Pro also has an underscreen fingerprint scanner positioned low, just like the OnePlus 9 Pro. I'll add some level 7 deeper groove scratches over the top of the optical sensor, and surprisingly again, it's still working. This $300 budget smartphone's fingerprint scanner beat out the $1,000 ROG Phone 5's fingerprint scanner. Thumbs up for that. Finally, the bend test. An entirely plastic phone does make me nervous, but structural integrity depends on how it's made just as much as what it's made from. Bending from the back we do get some normal flex, but the 8 Pro locks out and does not crack or snap. And bending from the front we get the same thing. A little curvature but no catastrophic damage. The Realme 8 Pro is a solid budget phone. I did hear one crack, but I don't see any physical damage from the outside, so we'll have to open her up and check on the insides. And of course, we gotta see how big that 108 megapixel Samsung sensor is as well. I'll be giving away Craig's two friends over on Twitter – the Illuminating Yellow, and the Infinite Black. So if you want one of these phones just come follow me over there. And I'll try not to draw frogs on them before I send them out...but no promises. Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. Come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.
