Realme 9 could be a rebranded Realme 8 5G with minor changes, suggests FCC filing

Last week, in an exclusive interview with Madhav Sheth, CEO of Realme India, we learned that the company is gearing up to bring the Realme 9 Pro and Realme 9 Pro+ to the country soon. He didn’t spill many beans on the upcoming smartphones, but did reveal that both the upcoming smartphones would be priced above Rs 15,000 and would offer a great value for their price. However, he didn’t say much about the Realme 9, which will also launch in the Indian market. Now, a recent listing on the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) portal suggests that the Realme 9 would be quite similar to last year’s Realme 8 5G.

The Realme 9 will be the company’s budget smartphone in the upcoming number series. But, it might not be much different from its predecessor, the Realme 8 5G. As per a recent filing, an upcoming Realme smartphone bearing model number RMX3388 will be identical to a previously launched smartphone with model number RMX3241. The smartphone with model number RMX3388 is rumoured to be the Realme 9, while the model number RMX3241 belongs to the Realme 8 5G.

The FCC document reads, “Except model name, and FCC ID number change, the EUT [equipment under testing] are electronically/ electrically identical to the original equipment and that the original test results continue to be representative of and applicable to it.” 

The document doesn’t provide many details about the upcoming smartphone, but we expect it to be slightly different from the Realme 8. The Realme 9 has appeared on the EEC and BIS certification portal, suggesting an imminent launch in India.

Realme 8 5G specifications

The Realme 8 features a 6.5-inch FHD+ LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz sampling rate. The smartphone is powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 710 chipset paired with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB onboard storage, further expandable via a microSD card. It boasts a 5,000mAh battery with 18W charging support. The smartphone runs Android 11-based Realme UI 2.0. 

The smartphone comes with a triple camera setup on the rear consisting of a 48MP primary sensor with PDAF, a 2MP monochrome, and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, it has a 16MP Sony IMX471 snapper housed inside the punch hole cutout. Connectivity options include 5G, 4G LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, and USB Type-C port.