Usually, you have to pick a lane: Do you want a gaming beast with a huge battery, or a sleek daily driver with a versatile camera? With the launch of the realme Neo8 in China, realme decided to stop choosing and just build both.

The new smartphone is effectively a checklist of what a power user could ask for, highlighted by four headline features that the brand is putting front and center: a bleeding-edge Qualcomm chipset, a granular Geek Performance Panel, a custom 165Hz screen, and, surprisingly for a performance-focused phone, a periscope telephoto camera.

Let’s talk about the engine first. The realme Neo8 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, Qualcomm’s latest 3nm platform that debuted in the OnePlus 15R. But putting a fast chip in a handset is the easy part. The interesting bit is how realme lets you drive it.

It introduced a “Geek Performance Panel,” a piece of software that sounds like it was ripped from a PC BIOS. It allows users to manually adjust temperature control levels from -2 to +2. It’s the kind of granular control usually reserved for rooted Android enthusiasts. If you want to push the silicon to its absolute limit and don’t mind the phone getting toasty, you can. If you want to throttle it for a marathon session, you can do that too. You can even customize CPU and GPU frequencies based on the specific game you’re playing.

This ties into realme’s new “PC handheld” mode. We aren’t just talking about cloud streaming here; the OPPO sub-brand claims the Neo8 supports local operation of PC games and cross-platform compatibility with PC accounts. It has reportedly verified more than 50 popular PC titles to run even under poor network conditions.

To display all that horsepower, realme partnered with Samsung Display for what it calls the “Sky Screen.” It’s an LTPO OLED panel that hits a blistering 165Hz refresh rate. While 120Hz has become the standard, that extra headroom is a nod to competitive shooter fans — specifically titles like Call of Duty: Mobile, where the realme Neo8 can natively hit 165fps.

The brightness figures are equally aggressive. The panel uses Samsung’s flagship M14 material, capable of a manual peak brightness of 1,000 nits and a local peak for HDR content that hits a blinding 6,500 nits. More practically for us in the Philippines, it offers a “sunlight display” mode that pushes 3,800 nits, ensuring you can enjoy smooth Mobile Legends gameplay with crystal-clear visibility even under the noon sun.

Now, usually, when a company screams “gaming phone,” the camera system is the first casualty. realme dodged that bullet. The Neo8 packs a legitimate flagship camera setup. You get a 50-megapixel Sony IMX896 main sensor with optical image stabilization (OIS), but the standout is the 50-megapixel periscope telephoto lens that uses a Samsung JN5 sensor.

Periscope zooms are rare in this segment because they take up precious internal space — space usually reserved for cooling or battery. Yet, the realme Neo8 manages to fit one in, offering 3.5x optical zoom and up to 120x digital zoom. It’s a welcome addition that makes the smartphone a versatile daily driver rather than just a gaming toy.

Another “how did they do that?” feature is the battery. The Neo8 carries an 8,000mAh cell. For context, most 2025 flagships were patting themselves on the back for hitting 6,000mAh. realme achieved this using a high-content silicon-carbon anode, which boosts energy density by 16%. This allows the brand to cram significantly more power into a chassis that remains just 8.3mm thick. When you do eventually drain it, 80-watt SuperVOOC charging is there to top it up.

Pricing and availability

The realme Neo8 comes in three colors: Cyber Purple, Origin White, and a transparent-backed Mecha Gray that shows off the RGB “Awakening Halo” lighting effects.

It launches in China with a starting price of ¥2,599 for the 12GB/256GB model. That converts to roughly P21,974 ($373), though local taxes and duties will almost certainly push the Philippine suggested retail price higher — likely closer to the P25,000 to P28,000 bracket if and when it arrives here as a rebranded global model.

realme Neo8 specs

• 6.78-inch 1Samsung AMOLED “Sky Screen” display, 1.5K resolution, 165Hz refresh rate, 450 ppi, 6,500 nits peak brightness
• 3nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor
• Adreno 840 GPU
• 12GB/16GB LPDDR5X RAM
• 256GB/512GB/1TB UFS 4.1 storage
• Triple rear cameras: 50-megapixel main (Sony IMX896, OIS), 50-megapixel periscope telephoto (Samsung JN5, 3.5x optical zoom, OIS), 8-megapixel ultrawide
• 16-megapixel front camera
• Under-display 3D ultrasonic fingerprint reader
• 8,000mAh battery with 80-watt fast charging
• IP66/IP68/IP69 dust and water resistance
• realme UI 7.0 based on Android 16
• Colors: Mecha Gray, Origin White, Cyber Purple

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