Alongside the Realme 8s 5G, the company announced the Realme 8i for the Indian market, the first smartphone powered by a MediaTek Helio G96 chipset. The handset carries a more palatable price tag, but also features a bigger and faster screen.

(Update, November 16: The Realme 8i has been launched in the Philippines!)

In India, the phone is officially priced at ₹13,999 (roughly $190 or P9,499 converted) for 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM. The 6GB/128GB storage variant costs ₹15,999 ($217 or P10,856). It will be available in Space Black and Space Purple colors beginning September 14. You can purchase it through Flipkart as well as other major retailers around the country.

We haven’t heard from Realme yet regarding the phone’s availability in the Philippines, but there’s a good chance that the Realme 8i will end up at local retail at some point in the near future.

SEE ALSO: Realme 8 5G review: A budget 5G phone that takes good photos

Like the Realme 8s 5G, the Realme 8i will support Realme’s Dynamic RAM Expansion technology, which can bring 5GB of additional memory using the built-in storage for faster and smoother multitasking. The 8i runs Android 11-based Realme UI 2.0 on a Helio G96 SoC, which launched earlier this year. The Helio G95 successor includes two Cortex-A76 CPU cores clocked to 2.05GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores for less intensive tasks.

Interestingly, it’s also a clear downgrade from the Helio G95 on the graphics front. The Helio G96 boasts Mali-G57 MC2 graphics compared to the Helio G95’s Mali-G76 MC4 GPU. The chip supports 120Hz displays as well, which is exactly what we have here.

As a technology democratizer, #realme aims to empower more young people with trendsetting features, therefore, we have introduced a 120Hz Refresh rate in the #realme8i, a first in its price range. #InfinitelyPowerful

Watch launch livestream here: https://t.co/44Eu92tqR2 pic.twitter.com/itaTVpu735

— realme (@realmeIndia) September 9, 2021

The Realme 8i sports a 6.6-inch punch-hole LCD screen with FHD+ resolution, a 20:9 aspect ratio, and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. It likewise offers 600 nits of peak brightness, as well as face unlock on top of a side-mounted fingerprint reader.

Elsewhere, the phone is fitted with a triple-camera module with a 50-megapixel main camera alongside a pair of 2-megapixel sensors for portrait and macro photography. For selfies, it has a 16-megapixel front camera. Other notable specs and features include a 5,000mAh battery that supports 18-watt fast charging over USB-C; a microSD card slot; and a 3.5mm headphone jack if you prefer listening to audio using a wired headset.

Realme 8i specs

• 6.6-inch LCD display, FHD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling
• 12nm octa-core MediaTek Helio G96
• Mali-G57 MC2 GPU
• 4GB/6GB LPDDR4x RAM
• 64GB/128GB UFS 2.1 storage
• Triple 50-megapixel (main), 2-megapixel (monochrome portrait), 2-megapixel (macro) rear cameras
• 16-megapixel front camera
• Side fingerprint reader
• 5,000mAh battery with 18-watt USB-C charging
• Realme UI 2.0 based on Android 11
• Colors: Space Black and Space Purple

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