Realme bets on 108MP camera tech for upcoming Realme 8 Pro

Realme has pretty much nailed every hardware department there is on a phone. It brings the top-of-the-line processor every year in its flagship phone. There is industry-leading fast-charging technology on most of its phones. All of that is essential but there is one prominent reason why people buy phones. It is the camera. Over its journey that spans over two years, Realme has gone for the camera hardware from the top-shelf. Back in 2019, Realme showcased the 64MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 sensor and now it is time for the latest one. Realme has announced it will use the 108MP Samsung ISOCELL HM2 flagship sensor on the upcoming Realme 8 Pro.

Realme 8 Pro will be drastically improved over the predecessor Realme 7 Pro. And while those improvements will seep into different hardware components, the biggest one would be cameras. The Samsung ISOCELL HM2 sensor is the third sensor in the 108MP HM range, launched back in November. It is only slightly less powerful than the latest HM3 sensor that the latest Samsung Galaxy S21 series phones use. But, it is dramatically better than the 64MP sensor that Realme stuck to for several generations of smartphones across series. The new sensor comes with 9-to-1 pixel-binning technology that allows the 108MP sensor to mimic a 12MP image sensor with large 2.4m-pixels, heightening light sensitivity when taking photographs in low-light environments.

Samsung's ISOCELL HM2 is a 1/1.52" sensor with 0.7m-sized pixels, making it among the smallest ones in the category. It supports Super-PD focus and can shoot a photo of the resolution maxing out at 12000x9000 pixels. The sensor is also capable of shooting 4K videos at 120fps. There is 3X in-sensor lossless zoom supported by the 108MP HM2 sensor, where it only uses the 12MP mapped with the zoomed part to generate an image. This prevents the image from getting oversharpened and loss of details. The imaging process is faster because of the smaller size of the 12MP photo, enabling the Realme 8 Pro to take eight 12MP photos in a row and then input them into the clarity enhancement algorithm to further increase the image clarity.

Realme is, of course, making optimisations here to make the Realme 8 Pro a true camera phone. It is upgrading the features such as Starry Mode to now record timelapse videos. Realme's new Starry Mode technology takes 480 seconds to shoot 30 photos and then to generate a 1-second time-lapse video. This means the time-lapse mode can show the perpetual changing universes at 480 times faster speed. The mobile company is adding new photo filters to the mix. The Realme 8 Pro will come with three new filters, Neon Portrait, Dynamic Bokeh Portrait, and AI Color Portrait to make "every portrait trendier."

One of my favourites has to be the new tilt-shift photography on the Realme 8 Pro that the company showed off. This is essentially a restricted manner of controlling the focus in the scene, causing it to look like its miniature version. The technology uses the tilt-shift algorithm that allows the 108MP sensor to capture such photos as well as timelapse videos. Realme has also provided some adjustment options in the tilt-shift mode, such as the shape, angle, position, and size of the bokeh effect, and even the transition effect between the bokeh area and the clear area.
Realme 8 Pro is going to be one of the important phones camera-wise in its price segment. Realme is known for undercutting some of the priciest phones through its aggressively-priced phones and 8 Pro might join them soon.

The launch date is not clear as of now but Realme is expected to launch the Realme 8 Pro in March.