Realme gt8 pro vs mirrorless: Ricoh GR mode showdown

For many photographers with limited budgets, the realme gt8 pro now forces a serious rethink of whether a separate camera is still essential.

How does a smartphone stack up against a “real” camera?

In its launch campaign, Realme issued a bold challenge: compare the new GT8 Pro with a mirrorless camera under the same €1,000 budget. However, the goal was not to crown a single winner, but to test how close a modern phone can come to a dedicated camera in everyday use.

The test was structured around a simple dilemma: is it better to buy a flagship cameraphone or a used camera plus an inexpensive smartphone, for example a Realme 14? Today a phone is a necessity, while a camera is optional, so many users consider concentrating all their money on one powerful all‑rounder.

Smartphones offer obvious advantages in portability, ease of use and instant processing, thanks to powerful processors and imaging co‑processors. Cameras, on the other hand, respond with much larger sensors and lenses and with a unique tactile shooting experience that still appeals to many enthusiasts.

What gear was used in the €1,000 comparison?

The comparison originally involved three cameras, but a courier mishap removed the planned Canon R100 kit from the test. That said, two very different systems remained on the table. The first was an Olympus E‑M1 Mark II paired with two basic lenses: a 12–40mm f/3.5–5.6 zoom and a 42.5mm f/1.8 prime with macro capability.

The Olympus body can be found used in very good condition for around €400, while each lens costs about €40–50. Moreover, the complete Micro Four Thirds kit comes in at roughly €500–600, leaving around half the budget available for a smartphone. Since entry‑level kit lenses are often the first step for users migrating from phones, any advantage the camera shows here would only grow with higher‑end optics.

The second setup was a Nikon Z6 with its 24–70mm f/4 kit zoom. The focal range is similar to the Olympus configuration, but the Full Frame system delivers substantially higher quality. The Z6 is no longer new and its autofocus is behind recent bodies, yet used prices are very low, although choosing it leaves only about €200 for a phone.

How was the realme gt8 pro positioned in this test?

The GT8 Pro was designed to offer a shooting experience that comes as close as possible to that of a dedicated camera, so that many users can replace the latter without major regret. Importantly, Realme worked with Ricoh to create a specific shooting and processing mode available only on the main 1x camera, clearly focusing on wide and ultra‑wide angles where phones can realistically match cameras.

At short focal lengths, natural background blur is limited even on cameras, so differences are less obvious. Many photographers therefore select Full Frame bodies with long lenses precisely to avoid images that look too similar to those coming from a smartphone. In this context, the collaboration around Ricoh GR‑style processing becomes central to the GT8 Pro’s ambitions.

Realme GT8 Pro vs Full Frame at f/4.0: what did we see?

The GT8 Pro’s 3x telephoto sensor is relatively large for a phone at 1/1.56″, the same size as its main sensor. Moreover, this means secondary modules can no longer be considered simple add‑ons. In the test, the phone was directly compared with the Nikon Z6, whose Full Frame sensor remains vastly larger and is paired with optics that are physically much bigger than any phone lens.

At 28mm, results were more favorable to the phone than expected when using Ricoh GR mode. This mode disables much of the usual heavy computational processing and instead delivers an output similar to a RAW file developed with Ricoh film‑simulation color recipes, yielding soft, natural images with characteristic tones. Full Frame shots were color‑matched in post to provide a fair comparison.

The Nikon Z6 still showed a clear advantage in background blur, visible even at 28mm with subjects at moderate distances. On the GT8 Pro, subject separation remained modest, also because the 28mm framing is obtained by digitally cropping a native 24mm capture. However, color and overall rendering were close enough that only demanding users would insist on the camera in this focal range.

At 40mm, the gap widened. The phone relies on further digital cropping to simulate longer focal lengths, which inevitably degrades image quality. By contrast, the Nikon uses true optical zoom across the entire Full Frame sensor, preserving detail and tonal nuances. In a portrait with a plain background that did not require shallow depth of field, results appeared broadly similar, but pixel‑level scrutiny still favored the camera.

In low‑light scenes, the GT8 Pro performed impressively. Its software and computational imaging produced credible blacks and controlled highlights that matched the camera’s output surprisingly well. The Nikon’s in‑camera JPGs from the same scenes were far less balanced; achieving a comparable look required careful processing of the RAW files. That said, professionals rarely shoot handheld in such conditions, whereas smartphone users do this routinely, which often shifts the advantage to the phone.

One practical factor cannot be ignored: a Full Frame kit, even when relatively cheap, is bulky and heavy and often charges slowly. The Z6 used here, for instance, needed about 2.5 hours for a full recharge. The phone offers far more convenience. The GT8 Pro charges fully in under an hour and includes a large 7,000 mAh battery, enabling hours of 4K LOG video without topping up. Newer camera bodies can charge faster and add more features, but body prices alone easily reach €2,000–3,000, and quality lenses add further cost.

How does the GT8 Pro compare with Micro Four Thirds kits?

A separate session focused on street photography using the Olympus E‑M1 Mark II fitted with inexpensive third‑party XIAOYI lenses. This created a realistic budget camera alternatives scenario for buyers weighing a midrange used kit against a modern phone. Results were nuanced and did not always deliver a clear winner.

In some 28mm portraits, the Micro Four Thirds system offered more background separation than the phone. However, the difference in detail and noise often only emerged in close inspection. Images from the camera with cheap lenses generally showed more fine detail, lower noise and slightly better highlight and shadow balance, but these improvements were subtle at normal viewing sizes.

When resized for social media, many of these distinctions almost disappeared for non‑specialist viewers, except perhaps in color. Ricoh GR mode on the GT8 Pro is highly convenient and offers five customizable presets, but it still cannot fully replicate the richer color gradations and three‑dimensional facial rendering provided by larger sensors and higher‑quality optics. Experienced photographers are much more likely to notice and care about these subtleties.

In landscapes or shots without a close foreground subject, the difference between phone and camera became minimal. In some situations the phone’s color and immediacy were even preferred: a single tap produced a fully processed, share‑ready image. Indoors, the GT8 Pro also handled scenes with bright windows well in automatic mode. Matching that balance with the camera usually required selective masking in post to recover dynamic range.

White balance on the GT8 Pro proved generally accurate, keeping warm interior tones while rendering skin tones natural and distinct. Furthermore, the phone showed a distinct advantage in freezing movement in the street. Moving subjects often appeared sharp without motion blur. The camera, set to Aperture Priority at its widest openings (f/3.5–5.6), sometimes allowed shutter speeds that were too slow for certain movements.

Switching the camera to Shutter Priority would reduce blur and give it more control in these cases. However, that mode is more advanced and is less likely to be the default setting for a casual user comparing a simple point‑and‑shoot experience with a multi‑control camera body.

What happens at 3x and longer focal lengths?

With the Olympus 42.5mm f/1.8, which in macro mode closes down to around f/3.5, the camera pulled clearly ahead. Above roughly 35mm, the phone begins to struggle, even though the GT8 Pro features one of the best telephoto modules on a handset, the same widely praised sensor used in the OPPO Find X9 Pro. The Micro Four Thirds system still offers naturally pleasing bokeh that is hard to match on a phone without synthetic portrait processing.

Software tools like Adobe Lightroom’s AI blur can create convincing background separation, often outperforming native portrait modes on phones. However, they introduce extra workflow steps and move away from the instant capture‑to‑share paradigm that defines smartphone photography. For many casual users, that added complexity undermines one of the phone’s biggest attractions.

Interestingly, smartphones excel in macro thanks to telemacro capabilities that focus at very close distances, often around 10 cm. This allows high levels of detail and a subject that stands out with gentle but not exaggerated blur. Micro Four Thirds is also popular in macro and insect work because its deeper depth of field keeps more of the subject sharp.

On Full Frame, achieving similar depth of field often requires stopping down to f/11–f/16, which in turn pushes ISO higher or forces longer exposures, increasing noise or motion blur. For these reasons, some nature photographers already rely on phone‑based telephoto solutions to replace heavier gear in certain field situations, particularly when absolute image quality is less important than mobility.

How strong is the video offering on the GT8 Pro?

On the video front, the GT8 Pro stands out. It offers a Cinema mode in 4K and supports LOG recording, capabilities that only a limited number of phones include today. In the test, these features were compared with an iPhone, underlining how ambitious Realme has become in an area where it was not historically considered a reference brand.

The dedicated cinema profile and LOG support allow higher dynamic range and greater grading flexibility in post‑production. Moreover, combined with the 7,000 mAh battery and fast charging, this makes the phone an appealing choice for vloggers and content creators who need long recording times without frequent recharging breaks.

Is the realme gt8 pro review enough to replace a dedicated camera?

Overall, the realme gt8 pro review shows a device that delivers a surprisingly camera‑like shooting experience, especially when Ricoh GR mode is enabled. It does not aim to replace professional systems, but it covers wide, ultrawide and many low‑light scenarios with a consistency that should satisfy most casual and enthusiast photographers.

For users seeking a single convenient device with strong stills and video performance, excellent battery endurance and refined color processing, the GT8 Pro is a compelling alternative to an inexpensive dedicated camera kit. For professional work and for those who want maximum control and the full image‑quality benefits of larger sensors and premium lenses, dedicated camera systems remain clearly superior, particularly at longer focal lengths and for advanced workflows.

Learning to master the Ricoh presets on the GT8 Pro can provide a rewarding shooting experience that many users may find preferable to some rival phones that prioritize aggressive saturation. Finally, pricing is competitive: Realme GT8 Pro is currently listed online on Amazon at €999, placing it squarely in the discussion whenever buyers weigh smartphone vs mirrorless options under a fixed budget.

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