realme has announced a new partnership with Ricoh Imaging Company Ltd., the brand behind the popular Ricoh GR cameras. The collaboration will be officially launched on October 14, 2025, in Beijing, China, and is a major step for realme’s mobile imaging efforts.
Why It Matters: The partnership with Ricoh Imaging gives realme access to decades of optical and imaging expertise, potentially improving the brand’s future smartphone cameras and making mobile photography more appealing to younger users who value authenticity and creative freedom.
According to realme, the collaboration has been in development for four years. A video titled “4 Years in One Snap” was released to showcase the journey of both teams and to tease their first co-developed product, designed for the upcoming realme GT 8 Pro.
In the video, realme Vice President and CMO Chase Xu and Ricoh Imaging’s Camera Business Division General Manager Kazunobu Saiki discussed how both companies share the same goal of addressing user frustrations in mobile photography. Xu noted that many smartphone users today face repetitive photo styles and over-processed images that lack authenticity. Saiki added that the partnership is also cultural, aiming to bring the spontaneity and creativity of street photography into smartphones.
The Ricoh GR series, known for its sharpness, portability, and quick response, serves as inspiration for the new GT 8 Pro’s imaging system. realme and Ricoh’s joint R&D teams worked on integrating GR’s signature traits into the phone’s software and hardware, including five classic image tones, a film-like aesthetic, and a camera interface inspired by the GR lineup.
realme says the GT 8 Pro combines Ricoh’s 30-year heritage in imaging with its own strengths in mobile hardware and AI processing. The goal is to create photos that feel natural and emotionally expressive rather than overly enhanced, in line with the campaign’s theme, “Snap By No Rules.”
The two brands aim to make street photography more accessible by encouraging users to capture everyday moments as they happen. “Through this collaboration, we hope that even those who don’t usually use dedicated cameras will experience snapshot photography with the GT 8 Pro,” Saiki said.
The realme and Ricoh Imaging partnership will make its official debut on October 14 in Beijing, with the launch of the realme GT 8 Pro leading the collaboration.
Will this new partnership reshape how young users capture street photography on their phones?
