The Realme GT is a smartphone that tries to strike a balance between premium features and competitive pricing. While it doesn’t boast top-of-the-line features like wireless charging or an IP rating, it punches above its weight with its powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC and a vibrant Super AMOLED display. Its pricing, especially for the base model, makes it a compelling option for those looking for a powerful smartphone without breaking the bank. However, the higher-end variant, with its vegan leather finish, might leave some wanting more considering the competition. Let’s dive deeper into what makes the Realme GT a compelling option and explore its pros and cons.
Realme GT Price in India
The Realme GT’s biggest selling point is its aggressive pricing. It’s the most affordable smartphone in India to feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC, making it an attractive proposition for budget-conscious tech enthusiasts. The base variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage is priced at Rs. 37,999, while the top-of-the-line 12GB RAM and 256GB storage variant (the one I tested) comes in at Rs. 41,999. This competitive pricing places it favorably against other contenders such as the iQoo 7 Legend and the OnePlus 9R.
However, the Realme GT’s pricing story has a twist. The high-end variant is only available in the Racing Yellow finish, featuring a vegan leather back panel, while the base variant is limited to Dashing Silver and Dashing Blue options with glass back panels. This means that if you prefer the vegan leather design, you have to opt for the higher-priced variant, which could be a deal breaker for budget-minded buyers.
Realme GT Design: A Blend of Sporty and Premium
The Realme GT boasts a slightly smaller display than many of its competitors, making it more comfortable to hold. The overall design feels compact and manageable, a welcome change in the era of oversized smartphones. The back panel, while made of polycarbonate, is further enhanced with either a glass finish or a vegan leather coating.
I personally found the vegan leather finish on the Racing Yellow variant a bit underwhelming. It’s not as soft as genuine leather and feels more like a rubberized texture. While it does add a unique aesthetic and a sense of ruggedness, it’s not quite the luxury experience one might expect. The black plastic racing line, running off-center across the back panel, is a clever design element that helps to mask much of the camera module, creating a sleek and cohesive look. It also gives the back a sporty and dynamic feel.
On the front, the Realme GT features a 6.43-inch Super AMOLED display with thin bezels on all sides, except for a slightly thicker bottom bezel. The display itself is vibrant and sharp, showcasing punchy colors and excellent sunlight legibility. The in-display fingerprint reader is responsive and reliable, adding to the user-friendly experience.
The Realme GT’s design successfully blends sporty and premium elements. The Racing Yellow variant with its vegan leather back and racing line design caters to a younger audience looking for a distinct and dynamic look, while the glass back versions in Dashing Silver and Dashing Blue offer a more traditional and subtle aesthetic.
Realme GT Specifications and Software: Performance Meets Customization
Under the hood, the Realme GT is powered by Qualcomm’s high-performance Snapdragon 888 SoC, which is also found in the Mi 11X Pro and iQoo 7 Legend. This powerful chipset, coupled with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, ensures smooth and seamless performance.
While there’s no expandable storage option, the GT more than makes up for it with its connectivity features, including dual-band Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and NFC. Additionally, it supports multiple 5G bands and dual 5G standby, future-proofing it for the upcoming era of 5G adoption.
The Realme GT also packs a 4,500mAh battery with support for 65W fast charging via the included charger. This combination allows for rapid charging speeds, taking the device from fully drained to completely charged in roughly 35 minutes.
The software experience is powered by Realme UI 2.0, which is based on Android 11. Realme has meticulously crafted Realme UI for personalization, allowing users to customize several UI elements, such as the always-on display, font weight, and even the haptic feedback strength. The result is a vibrant and user-friendly interface that feels fluid and responsive.
However, the software experience is not without its flaws. The Realme GT comes preloaded with a significant amount of bloatware, including third-party apps like Booking.com, Josh, Moj, and several Realme-branded apps. While most of these apps can be uninstalled, FinShell Pay remains stubbornly persistent. Furthermore, the consistent notifications from the Themes app, prompting users to download new themes, fonts, and wallpapers, can become quite annoying.
Realme GT Performance and Battery Life: A Smooth and Long-lasting Experience
The Realme GT’s 6.43-inch full-HD+ Super AMOLED display is a visual treat. It boasts a sharp resolution, vibrant colors, and excellent sunlight visibility. Its 120Hz peak refresh rate, coupled with a 360Hz touch sampling rate, ensures buttery-smooth scrolling and a highly responsive touch experience.
Realme has also included a pair of stereo speakers, which is becoming increasingly common in this price segment. While the speakers are loud and clear, they lack balance, with the bottom speaker being considerably louder than the top one. Interestingly, and unlike many other smartphones in this segment, the GT retains a 3.5mm headphone jack, located at the bottom next to the Type-C USB port.
While the display and sound quality are impressive, the Realme GT lacks support for HDR10, which would have enhanced the overall multimedia experience. Nevertheless, the combination of the vibrant display and the stereo speakers makes watching movies and videos enjoyable.
The Realme GT effortlessly handles demanding tasks and games thanks to its powerful hardware. I tested the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage variant, and Realme UI 2.0 felt remarkably fluid during regular use, exhibiting no lag or stuttering.
The GT scores incredibly well in benchmark tests, achieving a score of 8,02,974 in AnTuTu and 1,138 and 3,408 in Geekbench’s single- and multi-core tests, respectively. This performance is on par with other top contenders in this price range.
Gaming performance is equally impressive. Games like Call of Duty: Mobile ran smoothly at the highest possible settings, showing no signs of stuttering. Asphalt 9: Legends also performed flawlessly at High Quality graphics with 60fps enabled. While the phone does get mildly warm during extended gaming sessions, the heat is noticeable only on the display, with the back panel remaining relatively cool.
The Realme GT features a GT Mode, which is designed to enhance gaming performance. However, switching on GT Mode from the notification shade didn’t make any noticeable difference in the games I tested. Although it did slightly increase the overall device temperature.
The 4,500mAh battery is a standout feature. I easily managed to get two days of battery life with casual use and around a day and a half with more intensive gaming. The Realme GT also performed well in our HD video loop battery test, lasting an impressive 18 hours and 42 minutes on a single charge. The inclusion of the 65W fast charger ensures rapid charging times, topping up the battery from zero to full in approximately 35 minutes.
Realme GT Cameras: A Solid Overall Performance with Room for Improvement
The Realme GT boasts a rear camera setup consisting of a 64-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 2-megapixel macro camera. Selfie duties are handled by a 16-megapixel front camera.
The camera app UI is familiar to users of recent Realme devices, with essential controls positioned at the top and sub-menus for adjusting frame settings and video resolution. However, I found the UI layout slightly obtrusive, as I frequently ended up accidentally activating the AI button while trying to access other less easily accessible settings.
Daylight photos captured with the main camera turned out sharp and well-defined, although there was a noticeable oversaturation even with the AI mode switched off. While some might appreciate this punchy color palette, I found it to be a bit too exaggerated. This oversaturation issue was also evident in the Realme GT Master Edition. Dynamic range was satisfactory, capturing enough detail in both bright and dark areas of the image. The camera was quick to focus, but I did encounter some instances where it lagged for a few seconds after switching camera modes.
The main camera held its own in low light conditions, producing decent photos with minimal noise under street lighting. Details were well-preserved in low-light shots, although the dynamic range was slightly lacking in shadowed areas. The Night mode, however, effectively brought out additional details in darker areas and further reduced noise, making it the go-to option for very dimly lit environments.
The ultra-wide-angle camera delivered clear photos in daylight, but the level of detail was sharper in the center of the image with a noticeable blur towards the edges. I also observed purple fringing around the edges of some photos. Unfortunately, the ultra-wide camera was not particularly useful in low-light conditions, requiring the Night mode to capture decent photos. The 2-megapixel macro camera proved to be of little use, as I achieved better results simply by cropping photos taken with the main camera.
The Realme GT excels in video recording. Videos shot at 1080p and 4K resolutions at 30fps were visually impressive, showcasing excellent dynamic range, detail, and stabilization. Videos captured at 60fps also showed good detail, but they were cropped to a noticeable degree, appearing as if zoomed in. While this cropping likely contributes to enhanced stabilization (which it does remarkably well), it significantly hindered framing. Furthermore, a noticeable purple fringing appeared during 60fps video recording.
The main camera surprisingly performed well in low-light video recording, exhibiting good detail and a balanced dynamic range. However, there was some noticeable noise and shimmering when recording while walking. Engaging the AI-enabled Night Video mode made a remarkable improvement, bringing out details and reducing noise in darker areas to a degree that video quality resembled photos taken with Night mode. While this feature is impressive, the colours were overly saturated, depending on the surrounding lighting. Further refinement might be needed to make this feature more practical.
Verdict: A Powerful Performer with Competitive Pricing, But Some Trade-offs
The Realme GT presents a compelling value proposition, especially when considering the base configuration priced at Rs. 37,999. It offers a powerful performance and a vibrant display at an attractive price. However, the base variant lacks the premium vegan leather finish and leaves you with the glass back options.
The 12GB RAM variant, priced at Rs. 41,999, falls short in terms of features when compared to its rivals. Features like 8K video recording, which is available on the Mi 11X Pro, and an IP rating are absent.
The iQoo 7 Legend is another strong competitor, offering a premium build, a better camera system, and a compelling performance, although it features a smaller battery capacity.
Overall, the Realme GT is a capable performer with a very fast charging feature. It offers a solid overall user experience. However, the higher-end variant, despite being a solid all-rounder, might not be as convincing considering its price point and the lack of features compared to competitors.
