realme and RICOH Imaging Team Up to Reimagine Street Photography on the GT 8 Pro

realme’s next flagship is shaping up to be an interesting one — not because of faster charging or another megapixel race, but because of a new collaboration that goes back to photography’s roots.

The company has teamed up with RICOH Imaging, the brand behind the iconic GR compact cameras, to co-develop the camera system for the upcoming realme GT 8 Pro.

A Collaboration That’s Been in the Works for Years

The partnership isn’t a last-minute tie-up. According to both companies, this collaboration has been in preparation for almost four years, bringing together RICOH’s long experience in optics with realme’s focus on mobile design and software.

At the launch event in Beijing, Chase Xu, Vice President and CMO of realme, said the goal was to give users “freedom and authenticity” when capturing moments. Kazunobu Saiki, General Manager of RICOH’s camera division, added that the idea was to translate GR’s legacy into something modern — a kind of street photography for the smartphone generation.

What’s New in the GT 8 Pro Camera

realme says the GT 8 Pro will include an entirely new lens group designed to RICOH GR optical standards, with higher clarity, reduced glare, and minimal distortion. That’s the technical part.

On the experience side, the phone introduces a dedicated RICOH GR Mode, complete with the familiar fast startup and even the GR IV’s signature shutter sound. There’s a Snap Mode that lets users preset focus distance for quick shots — useful when you want to catch something spontaneous — and a Viewfinder Mode that hides all the usual on-screen clutter, turning the camera into a clean frame-only view.

The phone also includes two GR-style focal lengths, 28mm and 40mm, matching the ones used in RICOH’s popular street cameras. The first is for wide street scenes; the second is better for close-ups and emotional portraits.

GR Color Science Comes to Smartphones

Color is a big part of what makes RICOH GR photos stand out, and that carries over here, too. The GT 8 Pro will feature five GR Tones — Standard, Positive Film, Negative Film, Monotone, and High-Contrast Black & White.

You can also fine-tune colors and share your own “tone recipes” with others, which makes sense for a phone that’s trying to create a small creative community around street photography.