Realme GT Review: the Most Affordable Smartphone with Flagship Snapdragon 888 Processor

At the moment realme GT is almost the most affordable smartphone with the flagship Snapdragon 888 processor on the market. And this is a very good advantage for those who are looking for the most powerful smartphone with good effectiveness. But that's not the only virtue of the Realme GT.

It has a high-quality and bright screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, supports 65W fast charging and charges in just over half an hour. The main camera is quite capable of taking very decent pictures and videos. And the filmware delights with convenience and speed. We should separately note the original and very interesting design of the yellow version with a faux-leather back. The low cost forced the company to make some compromises and there are still some criticisms to the smartphone. The realme GT is deprived of any protection against dust and moisture, although there are competitors in this price range with moisture protection. The smartphone's battery life is acceptable, but not more: if you use the smartphone with nothing to deny yourself, then you need to recharge it in the evening. And if you do not care so much about performance, but are more interested in the camera, then there are such options, too. In fact, the only direct competitor is the Xiaomi Mi 11i on the same chipset. It has a slightly more interesting camera and has IP53 dust and splash protection. But not so fast charging, more boring design and MIUI filmware, which has is drawbacks.

5 reasons to buy Realme GT:

• Good quality AMOLED screen with 120 Hz refresh rate
• High performance
• Unique design
• Convenient filmware realme UI 2.0.
• Fast charging - within half an hour

3 reasons not to buy Realme GT:

• Not the best battery life
• No water protection
• Not advanced camera

What's in the Package?

realme GT is packed in a not quite usual elongated black box with the name of the model on it. The package contains the smartphone itself, a 65W charger, USB Type-C cable, a simple wired headset, a transparent silicone bumper, a tool for removing the tray, a protective film (right on the screen), and documentation.

Realme GT Design

Almost all modern smartphones have a standard form factor. And it is rather difficult to make an interesting design under such conditions. The only thing left is to play with colors, materials and curved screens. Which does not appeal to everyone. And the realme GT managed to surprise. The most interesting option came to us with a bright yellow faux leather backrest, which is visually associated with racing cars. In fact, the name of the smartphone directly hints at the "racing" theme. A decorative strip of glass goes down from the rectangular block of the main camera. For those who are not ready for such color experiments, there are more familiar options with a full glass back in black, blue and silver.

On the front the smartphone looks absolutely habitual. A flat screen with relatively thin frames around the perimeter and a small hole for the front camera in the upper left corner. Above the screen there is a thin slot of the speaker, which is also intended stereo sound.

The frame is plastic and has a glossy silver color. The placement of the buttons is usual for smartphones realme. On the left side there are separate volume control buttons and the tray. On the right side there is the power button with the same bright yellow decorative insert.

Only two SIM-cards can be installed in the tray. There is no space for MicroSD.

On the top side there is an additional microphone. At the bottom, there is room for a main external speaker, a microphone, a USB Type-C connector, and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, something rarely seen in current flagships.

The main camera unit is made quite standard - a black rectangle in which there are three cameras and an LED flash.

The company managed to surprise and realme GT in yellow looks really unusual and interesting. As for the assembly, there are no problems: everything fits well.

Screen

The realme GT has a 6.43-inch AMOLED display with FullHD+ resolution, 2400x1080 (20:9 aspect ratio) with a pixel density of around 409 ppi. The screen is flat, without any curves. The picture refresh rate is 120Hz and frequency of touch registration by the sensor layer is 360Hz. The manufacturer promises a peak brightness of 1000 cd/m², 100% DCI-P3 color space coverage and support for HDR content. During the time of use, the screen made a good impression. Very rich colors, excellent brightness margin, which is enough for comfortable use in the sun. And of course, 120Hz is always a good thing.

The settings have a very impressive number of features. Including the standard ones: dark interface theme, refresh rate selection, color temperature setting, Always on Display, font size, various enhancers for video content and three color rendering modes. Bright, Gentle (actually sRGB), and Gorgeous. DC Dimming flicker elimination is also there, but in a separate realme Labs settings menu.

In "Bright" mode the maximum brightness was 441.568 cd/m². The color gamut is much wider than sRGB. There is an overabundance of blue and the screen goes slightly into cooler shades. The color temperature is 8500K versus the reference 6500K, which is not critical.

In "Gentle" mode, the color gamut is close to sRGB and the color reproduction is more accurate and closer to the reference values. The maximum brightness is slightly lower at this point: 419.027 cd/m².

The "Magnificent" mode has the widest color gamut. At the same time, the other values are close to "Bright" and the maximum brightness is 430.685 cd/m².

Comparison with other models:

The Ways to Unlock

The realme GT has a standard modern set to identify the owner of the smartphone:

• Optical fingerprint scanner in the screen
• Front camera facial recognition

The fingerprint scanner is very fast and accurate. The recognition speed is just slightly inferior to conventional capacitive scanners. But the location is not the most convenient: the scanner is very close to the bottom edge of the smartphone and periodically you have to help yourself with the second hand so that the smartphone does not fly out of your hand.

Face recognition works absolutely habitual. When there is enough light, there are no problems. At night, of course, it is more difficult and sometimes does not work. In the settings there is an opportunity to automatically increase the brightness of the display for recognition in the dark, as well as a ban on the unlocking of the face when the eyes are closed.

Performance, Memory, Sound and Battery Life

realme GT got the standard hardware for current flagship smartphones. Namely, the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor (includes cores 1xKryo 680 2.84GHz, 3xKryo 680 2.42GHz and 4xKryo 680 1.8GHz and graphics accelerator Adreno 660), 8 or 12GB of fast LPDDR5 RAM and 128 or 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. realme GT is one of the most affordable smartphones with 888 Dragon. It is perhaps worth mentioning only the possibility of expanding RAM through built-in storage. The feature has already appeared in a number of modern smartphones. It is possible to expand by 2, 3 or 5 GB. The default setting is 3 GB. The results in performance tests are usual for this stuffing, no performance problems arise.

There are no issues with the interface and the work of any heavy applications. Games also work without problems. Call of Duty Mobile, Genshin Impact and Shadowgun Legends show almost stable 60 frames per second. The only oddity is Shadowgun Legends: it supports 120Hz screens, but for some reason it doesn't deliver more than 60 on the realme GT. In the proprietary gaming app you can select the performance level, disable notifications, adjust screen sensitivity, lock brightness level and so on.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 turned out to be quite a hot processor and it is prone to overheating in most smartphones that we came across. realme claims that the GT uses a special steel cooling system. A stress test showed that the performance can drop up to 80%. Not critical, but the fact is there. On the other hand, the smartphone itself remains warm and does not get unpleasantly hot.

Interfaces: dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, Bluetooth 5.2 LE with aptX HD and LDAC codec support, and NFC module for contactless payment. Global positioning systems GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo are supported. The smartphone has a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is very unusual for today's flagships. It also supports stereo sound (main speaker). Its presence delights, but the sound quality can not be called outstanding. Acceptable, but no more. A more compact ASUS ZenFone 8 sounds louder and in better quality.

The realme GT has a 4500 mAh battery. Not much, considering the powerful processor and 120Hz screen. Although if you don't play games for hours, it's enough for a day of active use. You can count on more unless you limit yourself to social networks, mail, messengers and calls. The smartphone really charges very quickly. The supplied charger SuperDart Charge 65W allows to fully charge the smartphone in just over half an hour.

Interface

realme GT runs on Android 11 version with a proprietary shell realme UI 2.0, which is largely similar to Color OS from OPPO. The shell does not make dramatic changes in the operating system itself, so you can get the hang of it very quickly. But it gives a sufficient number of additional small features. The workspace can be organized as a simple desktop, and a separate menu of applications. Plus there is a simplified mode. It is possible to customize the grid of applications. The shell will definitely appeal to those who like to change icons and customize the whole appearance for themselves: such opportunities in realme UI 2.0 abound.

Navigation is available as both gesture-based and classic with three buttons. Plus there are additionally a number of gestures on the active and off screen to create a quick screenshot, quick transition to a two-window mode, control music, quick launch camera and so on. The fingerprint scanner can be set to quickly launch three applications: you need to hold your finger on the scanner, then move it to the desired icon. There is also a so-called smart bar with the most used applications. It opens by swiping from the edge of the screen at a specific location.

The Application Manager allows you to close all or lock certain applications. Some applications support a smaller window. Of course a two window mode is also available.

Realme GT Cameras

The smartphone did not get the most advanced camera system, but the emphasis in realnme GT is still made on performance. The main camera for 64 megapixel, 1/1.73" sensor size, 0.8µm pixel, f/1.8 aperture, there is phase autofocus, no optical stabilization. The ultra-wide-angle camera is 8 MP, 119˚ angle of view, f/2.3 aperture, no autofocus. They are complemented by a low-performance macro camera. Front camera: 16 MP f/2.5. Application of the camera is made simple and clear: carousel of the main modes of shooting, menu with additional, flash settings, HDR, 2x zoom and filters on the main screen. The only not so familiar thing is the advanced settings in the drop down menu at the top.

The main camera, albeit without optical stabilization, but it does very well. In sufficient light, image detail is very good, white balance for the most part adequate, and the colors are quite natural. Night mode is also very good, but you can see the effects of algorithms polishing and pictures are obtained with an emphasis on the yellow and red shades.

The wide-angle camera, unfortunately, without autofocus. Yes, and the optics are significantly weaker than the main camera. In sufficient light, it does quite well. Evening photos are a bit noisy. But as in case with main camera you can also see slight overuse of yellow and red shades in the night photos:

2-megapixel macro camera without autofocus.

The smartphone can shoot video up to 4K 60 frames per second. At the same time, it does it very well, as for a non-flagship camera phone.

FullHD video with stabilization:

Realme GT Master Edition

There is also a slightly simplified version of the smartphone called realme GT Master Edition. Externally, the front of the smartphones is almost the same: the screen is the same diagonal with a hole for the front camera. The back is noticeably different. The version we saw was made by Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa. The back cover is also made of artificial leather in a beautiful gray color with embossed horizontal stripes. This looks very impressive.

The main difference from the realme GT is a more modest Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor. Although its performance is quite enough for comfortable work and games. At the same time, it is more energy efficient, and less warm. So, for someone, this variant may be more acceptable, especially since the price will be lower. The other differences are minor: the battery 4300 mAh instead of 4500. But the same 65W fast charging is supported. The main camera got a slightly smaller sensor, and the front camera in realme GT Master Edition i 32 MP. There are no other significant differences.

3 Things to Know about the realme GT

• realme GT is one of the most affordable Android smartphones powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor
• It supports very fast charging at 65W, and can be fully charged in just half an hour
• It is quipped with all modern wireless interfaces, as well as stereo speakers

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