Realme GT 8 Pro launching in India today with Ricoh cameras, swappable design: price, features, where to watch

Most flagships this year have played it safe with minimalistic designs, but Realme has experimented a bit. The GT 8 Pro will ship with swappable camera modules which you can actually remove and replace yourself. They’re held in place by Torx screws and magnets, which should make swapping fairly quick and intuitive.

Realme plans to offer multiple module styles, including square, round, and even fun robot-themed designs. For people who treat their phone as a personal style accessory, this could be a big win. It’s something that none of the flagships offer, so the design enthusiasts could keep an eye out for this. The Realme GT 8 Pro also sports a paper-like vegan leather back made of recycled materials much in line with the industry’s sustainability practices, further processed by what Realme calls Photonic Nano-Carving.

However, this year’s most interesting upgrade comes in the form of Realme’s new partnership with Ricoh, a Japanese brand highly known in photography circles for its GR series compact cameras. According to Realme, this collaboration was four years in the making, and the GT 8 Pro will be the first device to showcase the results. The phone features a 50MP anti-glare main sensor with a special Ricoh GR mode, offering five film-style presets: Positive, Negative, High-Contrast Black & White, Standard, and Monochrome. This is aimed at users who enjoy photography with character and moods, rather than just pixels. Alongside this is a huge 200MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and up to 12x lossless zoom, and a 50MP ultra-wide sensor. For videos, you get 4K 120fps with Dolby Vision.

Realme’s Ricoh tie-up helps the GT 8 Pro carve its own niche while keeping up with the collaborated cameras trend. Vivo’s X300 series will come with their own Zeiss cameras, while Xiaomi relies on Leica yet again for its 17 series. The OPPO Find X9 series features Hasselblad cameras, which were a staple with OnePlus too before the company moved in-house for the OnePlus 15 this year.

The GT 8 Pro adopts Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 under the hood, paired with a Hyper Vision AI chip and an in-house R1 graphics chip. This three-chip setup indicates Realme’s intention to emphasise AI features, camera processing, and gaming, the three most competitive areas for flagships. The company claims the phone has scored over 4 mmillion points on AnTuTu.

When it comes to display, while OnePlus tried to lead with refresh rate, Realme amps up on brightness. The GT 8 Pro’s 6.78-inch QHD+ AMOLED panel with a refresh rate of up to 144Hz and a peak brightness of 4,000 nits could make it one of the brightest screens we’ve seen lately.

Despite packing a huge 7,000mAh battery, the phone is just 8.2mm thick, much like the OnePlus 15 and OPPO Find X9 series who also have massive batteries but slim profiles. The battery supports 120W wired and 50W wireless.

Realme hasn’t hinted at the GT 8 Pro’s India pricing yet. In China, the phone starts at CNY 3,999 (approximately Rs 49,400) for the base 12GB+256GB model. However, we don’t expect the phone to be priced around that point in India if converted directly. This year, with brands like OnePlus and OPPO hiking their prices, Realme is also expected to follow this upward trend; maybe around the Rs 65,000-mark, especially if Realme plans to highlight its Ricoh cameras and unique design elements as premium value-adds.

For you’re on of those who like to flaunt their phone as a statement piece, the Realme GT 8 Pro could be considered for its swappable design. The 7,000mAh battery, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, and Ricoh-tuned cameras are other impressive features that help it stand out. The photography enthusiasts could also consider it for its 200MP telephoto and Ricoh tuning. If priced competitively, it could undercut the competition and carve its own niche in the Android flagship space.