Realme GT evaluation: Main design, specs to match

After staving off Xiaomi’s stranglehold on the mid-range smartphone section, Realme has been constantly aiming upwards. The Realme GT is the corporate’s try on the worth flagship market, a market erstwhile dominated by OnePlus that has been seeing growing competitors from Xiaomi, Iqoo, and Vivo.

Within the Android Authority Realme GT 5G evaluation, we see if a deep concentrate on design and a stable characteristic set is sweet sufficient to set the telephone aside from the myriad choices in the marketplace.

• Realme GT 5G (8GB RAM/128GB Storage): €499 / £399 / Rs. 37,999
• Realme GT 5G (12GB RAM/256GB Storage): €599 / Rs. 41,999

The Realme GT is the Shenzhen-based firm’s flagship system for 2021. It’s the top-end system within the GT collection that features the Realme GT Grasp Version in addition to a GT Explorer Grasp Version. Complicated and comparable names apart, the three telephones are distinct not simply by way of capabilities, but in addition design. In contrast to the opposite telephones within the collection, the Realme GT has its sights set on the reasonably priced flagship section with its top-of-the-line Snapdragon 888 chipset.

The Realme GT 5G is offered in a spread of colours, specifically Dashing Blue, Dashing Silver, and Racing Yellow. The Racing Yellow variant features a distinctive leather-based and glass design and is barely out there in top-spec, so that you’ll need to splurge out a bit extra for it.

In India, the telephone may be bought on Realme.com and Flipkart. In Europe, the telephone may be bought instantly from Realme.com in addition to Amazon, although solely the 8/128GB model is offered within the UK through Amazon on the time of writing.

Lean again far sufficient, and also you may spot some indicators of the Grand Touring vehicles that the Realme GT seems to be based mostly on. The telephone makes copious use of racing strains and clear stripes to craft a particular visible identification that stands out amidst a plethora of glass and metallic sandwiches, all whereas hinting on the pace below the hood.

The steadiness of pace and luxurious extends to the vegan leather-based again that’s juxtaposed with a black strip of glass to nice impact. It appears to be like quite good, particularly within the Racing Yellow coloration we’ve got available. What’s even higher is the general hand-feel of the system. The fabric provides distinctive grip and retains fingerprints at bay.

Realme is continuous its use of polycarbonate mid-frames with the GT, and I can’t actually fault the corporate for doing so. The fabric feels solidly constructed, albeit not as premium as aluminum. Extra importantly, it helps hold the load down. At 186g, the Realme GT is gentle sufficient to be comfy all day lengthy. In comparison with different high-powered beasts just like the Mi 11 Ultra (234g), the Realme GT feels positively feather-light.

The 6.43-inch FHD+ Tremendous AMOLED show on the Realme GT is a delight to make use of. It’s a superbly comfy dimension for typing and informal use, in addition to gaming and watching films. Realme is utilizing Asahi’s Dragontrail protecting glass answer on the Realme GT quite than the extra frequent Gorilla Glass from Corning, although it’s nonetheless robust by trade requirements.

As for the precise picture high quality, the panel has all the usual traits of Realme gadgets. Colours are usually a bit oversaturated out of the field, however this may be simply tuned within the settings. Peak brightness ranges are greater than passable and the 120Hz dynamic refresh fee is enabled by default. Equally vital, the automated brightness calibration works markedly higher than on competing gadgets by Xiaomi and OnePlus, giving the Realme GT a small however vital win.

The in-display fingerprint reader is fast to unlock the system and I didn’t come throughout any points with accuracy. Elsewhere, the telephone consists of twin audio system that may be turned up significantly loud. As is the case with many extra reasonably priced gadgets, the audio system are a bit imbalanced, with a skew in the direction of the bottom-firing speaker. Nevertheless, they sound actually good even when cranked up excessive.

Realme’s concentrate on refinement and polish is obvious when you spend a while with the telephone. Fundamentals like ergonomics, tactile suggestions, and typing expertise are simply as vital as specs. The mix of soft-touch supplies and a light-weight body makes the telephone a pleasure to make use of and cozy to grip for hours on finish.

This being Realme’s 2021 flagship, there’s ample energy on supply. The telephone is supplied with a Snapdragon 888 chipset that packs sufficient grunt to energy via practically any activity you throw at it. Rounding off the specs is an Adreno 660 GPU, as much as 12GB of RAM, and between 128GB and 256GB of non-expandable storage. Clearly, the telephone is not any slouch.

Whereas a few of the benchmark scores fall under the very fastest we’ve seen from different Snapdragon 888 telephones, the day-to-day efficiency is completely clean, and Realme UI makes the {hardware} shine with its clean transitions and nifty animations. That’s, nevertheless, to be anticipated with top-tier {hardware}. The true take a look at then is gaming. I put the Realme GT via a number of rounds of Name of Responsibility: Cellular and it completely aced it, with spherical after spherical locked at a clean 60Hz.

Associated: The best Snapdragon 888 phones you can buy

A built-in utility means that you can swap efficiency profiles. Nevertheless, even with the efficiency set to balanced, I had no bother maxing out all of the graphics settings within the recreation. Furthermore, I simply didn’t really feel the necessity to swap to high-performance mode in any respect. Realme’s glorious thermal optimization additionally stood out to me. Positive, the telephone will get heat to the contact but it surely was by no means scorching sufficient to be a deterrent. In reality, I noticed that the Realme GT was markedly cooler than competing telephones in its class.

The Realme GT doesn’t actually push the envelope so far as battery capability is worried. It has a 4,500mAh cell which is about par for the course for this worth.

The corporate’s glorious battery optimization shines, and the Realme GT simply will get via a full day of use with battery life to spare. I used the telephone set to the balanced efficiency profile and usually managed over six hours of screen-on time. Simply as vital, the telephone sips battery whereas gaming, and I noticed a superbly acceptable drop of about 5% over half an hour of gaming.

Associated: The best phone charging accessories

Charging speeds utilizing the included 65W charger are suitably fast. I clocked a 0% to 100% cost time of a speedy 45 minutes. Take note that is proprietary charging tech, so if you happen to use a distinct adapter then charging speeds can be a lot slower. Sadly, there is no such thing as a wi-fi charging on board, however this can be a rarity for extra reasonably priced telephones.

Making a high-performance, value-focused smartphone is all about discovering the proper steadiness. The Realme GT follows that very same formulation with its 64MP major digital camera, matched up with an 8MP ultra-wide shooter and a ho-hum 2MP macro sensor. You gained’t discover any telephoto lenses right here.

The first 64MP shooter on the Realme GT is quite good. There’s a slight skew in the direction of oversaturated colours, however photographs nonetheless look pleasing to the attention. In reality, the boosted reds and a touch of sharpening actually make the pictures pop. I didn’t discover a lot noise so long as there was ample ambient gentle. This, nevertheless, adjustments drastically in low gentle — however we’ll discuss that in a second.

Take a look at: The best camera phones

Elsewhere, HDR efficiency is passable. The telephone can wrestle with balancing direct daylight and particulars in darker areas, however generally, there may be ample element to be discovered and spotlight clipping is minimal.

The ultra-wide-angle digital camera has a 119-degree discipline of view that captures well-exposed photographs with correct white steadiness. Distortion is generally stored in test although you’ll discover some across the edges. The low-resolution 8MP sensor, nevertheless, implies that there isn’t a complete lot of element within the photographs, in case you have been planning to crop in.

The telephone additionally sports activities a quite horrible 2MP macro lens. The low decision and iffy focusing make it a ache to stand up shut with the topic. In precise use, you’ll have higher luck utilizing the digital zoom to concentrate on small topics.

Indoors, with extra excessive swings in dynamic vary, the telephone can wrestle a bit with spotlight clipping. That ties into the Realme approach of manufacturing brilliant, contrasty photographs. That mentioned, the Realme GT is able to getting the shot most of the time, and that ought to please most consumers.

The Realme GT’s major digital camera ramps up noise ranges drastically in low-light, giving photographs an nearly film-like look. Most often, I’d level this out as a unfavourable, however the telephone manages to retain a superb quantity of element right here and I didn’t thoughts the natural-looking pictures a lot.

For individuals who wish to illuminate the night time, the devoted Night time Mode is fast to seize a low-light shot and is a drastic change from the usual low-light picture. Photographs are considerably brighter and reveal much more of the scene. Sadly, the ultimate pictures have a softness to them and there’s a noticeable loss intimately, particularly if you happen to crop in.

The 16MP front-facing digital camera on the Realme GT performs splendidly. Pores and skin-softening is stored to a minimal, although you may bump it up if you happen to choose. There’s a superb quantity of element however, extra importantly, white steadiness and publicity ranges are on level.

Portrait mode does an okay job at edge detection and creates an even-looking depth of discipline impact. That mentioned, there may be an added softness to the pictures that I wasn’t an enormous fan of.

Associated: The best budget camera phones

Video seize goes as much as 4K at 60fps, and the built-in digital stabilization does a superb job of maintaining handheld video steady. White steadiness isn’t good, and photographs generally is a bit brighter than the precise setting however the finish result’s greater than serviceable.

You’ll be able to check out the total decision Realme GT digital camera samples at our Google Drive hyperlink.

• Software program: The Realme GT runs on Android 11 with Realme UI on high. I just like the adjustments right here, for probably the most half. The interface could be very nicely optimized, with slick transitions throughout. Additionally, you will discover ample alternatives to customise the telephone to your liking. Realme’s long-standing points with bloatware, nevertheless, proceed to plague the telephone. These pre-loaded apps additionally are likely to spam the notification shade. Lastly, I reached out to Realme about promised software program help, nevertheless, the corporate is but to difficulty any formal touch upon the identical.
• IP ranking: An IP ranking is now not thought-about only a nice-to-have add-on even at this worth level. The shortage of any water resistance is an enormous miss for the Realme GT.
• 5G help: The Realme GT 5G consists of intensive 5G band help, however that doesn’t embody mmWave 5G. I wasn’t in a position to take a look at out this characteristic as a result of lack of community help in India. It additionally helps Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity.
• Headphone jack: The headphone jack may need gone the way in which of the dodo on many mainstream flagships, however Chinese language smartphone producers are maintaining the characteristic alive and the Realme GT doesn’t stray away from it both. I examined out the telephone with a pair of 1More Triple Driver earphones, and the audio output was crisp and clear. No complaints.
• Pre-launch gripes: It’s value maintaining in thoughts that we seen a number of software program points with our evaluation {hardware} which have been rapidly fastened with an replace. In the meantime, my colleague in Germany ended up with a unit that merely refused to cost when its battery turned absolutely depleted. It’s extremely seemingly that the problems have been as a result of early evaluation samples, however consumers may wish to rapidly Google for any broader points earlier than finalizing their buy. We’ll replace this house in case Realme shares additional info following their investigation into the telephone(s).

There’s little doubt that the Realme GT affords important worth. The specs sheet is as aggressive as the rest within the section, however the true differentiator is the design and basic refinement. That mentioned, the distinctive trim is restricted to simply the highest variant with the bottom mannequin sporting a glass and aluminum design.

The Xiaomi Mi 11X Professional 5G (€499/Rs. 39,999), or the Mi 11i as it’s recognized in Europe, is one more various. The telephone one-ups the Realme GT 5G with its 108MP digital camera, and provides options like an IP53 ranking in addition to 8K recording capabilities.

For these in Europe, the OnePlus Nord 2 (£399/€419) is a placing various that will get you a lot of the goodies from the OnePlus 9 at a funds worth level. The MediaTek Dimensity 1200 AI brings loads of energy, and the digital camera isn’t too dangerous regardless of the inconsistent efficiency.

There’s additionally the Poco F3 (£329/€349), one other Snapdragon 870 toting telephone that undercuts the Realme GT in pricing. There are some concessions to be made by way of charging pace, however the high quality digital camera and glorious worth make up for it.

Extending your funds may also get you the OnePlus 9 ($729/£629/€699/Rs. 49,999) which packs comparable internals however improves on the ultra-wide shooter with its 50MP digital camera, in addition to a a lot cleaner software program expertise.

The Realme GT doesn’t redefine the worth flagship, but it surely doesn’t pull any punches both. The telephone represents a extra mature Realme that doesn’t really feel the necessity to win via cutthroat pricing. The aggressive {hardware} package deal speaks volumes, and I like that Realme has targeted extra on the design than gimmicks.

All of the necessities are in place. The Realme GT delivers efficiency in spades and doesn’t warmth up whereas doing so. It’s obtained an important display and a major digital camera that captures well-exposed and detailed photographs. It’s not with out its flaws, nevertheless. The secondary cameras aren’t that nice and Realme’s software program remains to be too bloated (to not point out the shortage of an official replace promise). The absence of an IP ranking is especially disappointing as it will have really elevated the telephone as a standout competitor.

General, the Realme GT nails the fundamentals and is a powerful various to the competitors. Nevertheless, the top-end variant with its vegan leather-based design is the one that actually embodies the spirit of quick, luxurious Grand Touring vehicles and comes throughout because the clear winner.