JOIN USRealme GT 5G review: Power-packed premium phone
Realme GT 5G is the company's top-end premium phone offering of the year 2021. On paper, it has everything a flagship mobile should have, but the pricing is very lucrative compared to devices of its class in India.
Realme GT 5G comes in two configurations-- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage --for Rs 37,999 and Rs 41,999, respectively. Is it worth buying? Let's find out.
Design, build quality and display
Our review unit is the Racing Yellow model. It is the best of three variants available in the market. The other two are Dashing Blue and Dashing Silver.
This model boasts a visually appealing bright and contrasting yellow-black dual colourway. It is an instant eye-turner and very unique. Even the material-- vegan leather-- on the rear-side looks premium. When you touch the back, the texture exudes a genuine leather-like feel.
Another aspect I love about the Realme GT's shell is that it repels finger smudges. Also, I'd like to add that the company offers transparent silicone cases and also pre-fits screen guards on the display. This is a really good gesture, given how other brands are reducing the accessories from the retail package.
Also, I'd like to add that Realme GT is one of the very few premium phones in the market to boast a 3.5mm audio jack. Compared to Bluetooth earphones, wired variants are better in delivering better music as there is less chance of loss of audio quality.
On the front, it features a 6.43-inch full HD+ (2400×1080p) AMOLED screen with support for HDR10+ content, pixel density of 409 ppi (pixels per inch) and 120Hz refresh rate. The display is bright and reproduces the near-natural colour of the subjects while playing a motion picture. The colour black look darker too. And, I did not face any pressing issues while viewing content under direct sunlight.
Overall, the viewing experience on the Realme GT is decent for the asking price.
The in-display fingerprint sensor on the device works fine in terms of identifying and unlocking screen locks with a low false rejection rate.
Performance
Realme GT 5G is powered by 5nm class Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 octa-core (2.84 GHz Kryo 680 x 1 + 2.42 GHz Kryo 680 x 3 + 1.80 GHz Kryo 680 x 4) chipset. It should be noted that it can clock CPU speed up to 2.8Ghz. Also, it comes paired with Adreno 660 GPU for faster and efficient graphics rendering.
Furthermore, the device features a dual Steel+Copper cooling system with a water vapour chamber to keep the device under normal temperature while performing power-intense tasks such as 4K video recording or playing graphics-rich games.
During the review period, Realme GT 5G lived up to the hype and was able to work smoothly, had no overheating concerns and also showed no sign of lag-ness at any point of usage.
Also, the device boasts a virtual RAM extension feature, which enables users to increase their physical memory. For instance, if your Realme GT has fixed 8GB RAM and users can enhance it further to 15GB. It is the same for 12GB RAM and it can be increased to 19GB. This way, the device becomes quicker in terms of app loading, or launching the camera or doing any other work on the phone.
Recently, Realme pushed the beta version of Android 12-based Realme UI 3.0. The user interface looks lovely. I really liked the new wallpaper auto customisation, wherein the phone intuitively changes the colours of the layers and icons, fonts, matching the wallpaper on the home screen. It also brings new privacy features too, offering more control to users to prevent apps from seeking unnecessary permissions for mic, camera and other facilities of the device.
Besides the support for 5G, Realme GT also comes with Wi-Fi 6.0 and this will help users enjoy faster wireless internet speed on the latest Wi-Fi routers. It can support up to 3.6Gbps and with this, users can download a 1080p HD movie in a second.
As far as the battery life is concerned, Realme GT comes with a 4,500mAh battery and the company is offering a 65W charger.
Under normal usage, which includes several hours of browsing on the web, social media platforms, consuming content on OTT or playing games for an hour and other day-to-day activities, the device can easily last a full day. I never felt any anxiety about the phone's battery dying out before reaching home.
Also, another interesting aspect of the device is that can fully charge from zero to 100 per cent under 40 minutes. This is a really good value-added feature and users can just charge the phone every morning when they get up and by the time, they are ready to leave the office, the phone will be fully charged.
Photography
Realme GT 5G comes with triple-camera module--main 64 MP (f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/1.73-inch lens size, 0.8µm pixel size, PDAF: Phase Detection Auto Focus) + Ultra-wide 119-degree 8 MP (f/2.3, 16mm, 1/4.0-inch lens size, 1.12µm pixel size) + 2 MP macro ( f/2.4) with dual-LED dul-tone flash on the back.
As you can see from the sample shots, the device does a pretty good job, particularly in sunny light conditions and even in foggy mornings too.
It succeeds in capturing a lot of details in the close-up shots and most importantly, the colour looks natural.
In the night mode, the pictures look fine and are on par with rival brands in the sub-Rs 40,000 price band.
Realme GT also supports gyro-EIS (Electronic Image Stabilisation) and can also record 4K videos at 30/60 fps (frames per second), 1080p full HD ( at 30/60 fps) and slo-mo 1080p at 240 fps.
It takes good quality videos and is even stable too. It wasn't as great as ultra-premium iPhones or Samsung Galaxy S series, but good enough compared to phones of its class.
On the front, it features a wide-angle 16MP(f/2.5) snapper. It too takes good selfies. And if you are active on social platforms and share a lot of pictures, the device's native camera offers enhanced tools to adjust skin texture, cheeks, eye size, nose, chin and head.
Final thoughts
Realme GT 5G is a powerful smartphone; be it playing graphics-rich games or recording power intense 4K video recording, it was able to perform smoothly without any fuss.
Also, the camera hardware is impressive too and the device was able to last more than a day under normal usage.
Furthermore, the design language in terms of dual contrasting yellow-black colourway with leather-like finish makes it unique and visually appealing.
Considering the overall aspects, Realme GT 5G is a very compelling premium phone and it costs much less than rival brands with Qualcomm's top-of-the-line Snapdragon 888 chipset.
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