I have to admit that I am a fan of cars and racing. Games, movies, TV shows, YouTube channels – despite the fact that I haven’t had my own car for a long time, I’ve been interested in the topic and everything related to it since I was a child. And it looks like Realme has created the perfect smartphone for a fan like me: Realme GT3 looks and feels like a real sports car. Powerful, with super-fast charging, a bright screen, and the neon underglow Pulse Interface System… So, I didn’t hesitate to take the smartphone for a test drive, and after a week of running it at full speed, I’m ready to share my impressions of the “supercharged” smartphone.
Realme GT3 specs
Continuing with the car theme, the new Realme feels like a Toyota GR86 in terms of specs. GR86 is not the most expensive or fastest car in the world, but it is capable of giving a lot of positive emotions both in the city and on the track. The same is true for GT3, it might not be the top-of-the-line flagship, but it has just enough to give you the joy.
- SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (4nm, 8 cores: 1×3.0GHz Cortex-X2, 3×2.75GHz Cortex-A710, 4×1.80GHz Cortex-A510); GPU: Adreno 730
- RAM and ROM: 8 + 128 GB/12 + 256 GB/16 + 512 GB/16 + 1 TB
- OS: Realme UI 4.0 (based on Android 13)
- Battery: 4600mAh
- 240W fast charging
- Screen: 6.74″, AMOLED, FHD+ (1240×2772), 144 Hz, HDR10+ support, Brightness: 500 nits (typ); 1400 nits (peak)
- SIM: 2×Nano-SIM
- Back cameras: 50MP wide-angle camera (Sony IMX 890) + 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera + 2MP microscope camera
- Front camera: 16MP
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax (Wi-Fi 6/6E, 2.4 and 5 GHz); Bluetooth, USB Type-C 2.0 + OTG, Dual-frequency GPS, NFC
- Dimensions: 163.9 x 75.8 x 8.9 mm
- Weight: 199 g
- Case Material: glass front and back panels, plastic frame
- Additional features: Optical fingerprint sensor on the screen, IR blaster, stereo speakers, LED indicator on the rear panel (Pulse Interface System)
On the global market, the smartphone has as many as 6 “trim levels”, which vary in terms of RAM (from 8 GB to 16 GB) and available storage (from 128 GB to 1 TB). There are also two colors to choose from: Booster Black and Pulse White.
It should be noted that the cheaper “trim” with a “modest” 150W charger and a larger 5000W battery, just like some cars, is exclusive to the Chinese domestic market. The purple color of the rear panel should also be added to the list of domestic exclusives.
I received a Realme GT3 for review in the “medium” config with 16 GB of RAM & 256 GB of storage in Pulse White color. This is a pre-release sample, which included only the smartphone itself, a pre-applied protective film, and a charger with a USB-C to USB-C cable. The retail sample, in addition to all of the above, will also have the SIM ejector pin and a case.
However, I think you’ll decide to leave the case in the box. And here’s why.
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Realme GT3 exterior
Perhaps for the first time in several years, I was glad that the smartphone came to me without a protective case. This way, you can fully enjoy the design of the smartphone. Thus, the back panel of the test sample is made of matte white glass, which not only has fingerprint protection but is also very pleasant to the touch. The smartphone is generally pleasant to hold in your hands despite the plastic frame and rather large size.
And don’t be surprised that the camera unit looks like the Realme designers were inspired by the giant camera bump in the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra – in practice, this is nothing more than an optical illusion. The back panel is made of a single piece of glass with a cutout for the camera unit and a small window.
This window, like the false radiator panel on modern electric cars, is purely aesthetic: it serves as a reminder that you have Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 under the hood and keeps you up to date with incoming notifications thanks to the LED indicator.
Let me touch on this indicator in detail. Although it received a lot of attention at the presentation, it is nothing like a Glyph from Nothing Phone (1). The choice of possible effects is limited to two: Breathe or Twinkle. There are also 5 speed options, from very slow to super-fast, and a choice of colors that is limited only by your imagination. There’s a timer and the possibility to select applications in which the indicator will work (or not), but that’s it. No scenarios or custom light patterns…
And will you look at it when you have a gorgeous screen with Always-On Display support?
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Realme GT3 screen
And AOD isn’t the only good thing about GT3’s display. It’s a large 6.74-inch AMOLED panel framed by ultra-thin bezels and with a small notch for the front camera. This means that nothing will distract you from your content consumption.
Moreover, the screen refresh rate is 144 Hz. Whatever you’re scrolling through: the interface, Twitter feed, or Telegram messages – maximum smoothness is guaranteed. Dynamic refresh rate is enabled by default, so smartphone automatically adjusts refresh rate to 144 Hz or less, depending on scenario. Constant 144 Hz and 60 Hz modes are also available, but it’s worth noting that this is a regular AMOLED screen, not LTPO, so the ultra-low refresh rate of 1 Hz is not available.
But what it can do is HDR10+ and 10-bit colour. HDR photos and videos look stunning. Even on a bright sunny day (which are more and more common), in direct sunlight. All thanks to the display’s high brightness: from 500 nits indoors to 1400 nits outdoors.
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Realme GT3 camera
Speaking of photos and videos, with Realme GT3 you can not only view content from third-party creators in the best possible quality, but also create content yourself. Realme has some serious grounds to praise GT3 cameras – it captures pretty good photos and videos.
As always, you can view the photos and videos in their original quality by following the link on our Google Drive. And I will briefly share my subjective impressions.
ORIGINAL PHOTOS ON GOOGLE DRIVE
In the daytime, in bright sunlight, the smartphone delights with bright and vivid colours. AI scene recognition works well, not distorting reality but emphasising the subject. What’s nice is that Relme GT3 allows you to combine full-resolution photos with additional AI processing, so you won’t lose details in the photo and enjoy a richer image at the same time.
I also liked the natural bokeh effect when shooting small objects up close – you don’t even need to turn on portrait mode.
The portrait mode itself is also excellent at what it does. For example, GT3 reacts to the face in the photo in an interesting way: whether it’s a person, a dog or even a horse, the AI will automatically highlight it. Even in complex shots, such as a horse shot below, you can count on the portrait to look natural.
You can bet that any smartphone is capable of taking crisp, bright pictures in bright light. But how does the GT3 perform indoors or on a cloudy day? Spoiler alert: it’s just as good. So that your memories, whether they are of your friends’ culinary delights, a vintage car on a parking lot, or your own car, are always a pleasure to look back on.
But what impressed me the most were the night photos. During the test, it was at night that I enjoyed taking photos of my Volkswagen the most – the Neptune color looks incredible at night and the photos from the GT3 demonstrate this perfectly. Even the photos from the cabin are impressive in their detail – I can make out the text on the multimedia system and the dashboard.
The smartphone also has a wide-angle camera and a digital double zoom. And these are perhaps the least impressive features of the smartphone’s camera. You can capture some good photos with them, but the final photos are not as attractive as those taken with the main camera with a 1× zoom. That’s why, with the exception of a couple of test shots, I hardly ever used either the ultra-wide-angle camera or the digital zoom.
The microscope also falls into the “gimmick” category. Realme borrowed this feature from its older brother OPPO and it makes a magical first impression. Unlike macro lenses, which are “just for show” – here you can really see the microcosm. However, for the best results, you will need a tripod or patience: even when it seems that the smartphone is securely fixed and your hands are not shaking, the photos still turn out blurry. Photos below took me more than one attempt.
Fortunately, you’ll be using the GT3’s front-facing camera more often: indoors with a brightly lit face and in the car in the evening, when the only light source is your smartphone – your face will always be in focus and the smallest details will be preserved.
I’m sure you’ll find the video recording function useful as well. Both in the default 1080p, 30fps format and in the maximum 4K, 60fps format, the video will be stable, the object in the frame will be clear, and the colours will be vivid. And most importantly, there are no frame rate drops – the frame rate stays stable at the level specified in the settings.
All thanks to the powerful engine SoC and the system that powers GT3. Read more about them below.
Realme GT3 performance and software
Finally, I got a smartphone with up-to-date specs for review. No Helio G99 and Android 11 from yesteryear… The GT3 is powered by Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is not even a year old yet, and the RealmeUI 4.0 interface is based on Android 13. So we are dealing not only with a powerful but also a modern smartphone.
According to Geekbench, it is among the 30 most powerful Android smartphones in the single-core test and in the top 20 in the multi-core and graphics test. And this is despite the fact that we are dealing with the underclocked version of the chipset, which has lower frequencies.
In Antutu, the GT3 is right behind the top ten with a score of more than 1,050,000 points. So I’m holding one of the most powerful Android smartphones on the market. And one that is also capable of maintaining this power for a long time. During the 15 minutes of the throttling test, the processor frequency dropped to 80% for only a second, mostly staying at 90-100%. The smartphone also hardly heated up during the test, which indicates the effectiveness of the cooling system.
In practice, this should mean graphics close to the maximum settings in games, smooth gameplay, and sometimes a frame rate above 60 FPS. I decided to test this in popular mobile racing games: Grid Autosport Custom Edition, Asphalt 9, and Drift Racing 2.
Grid Autosport Custom Edition offers several graphics settings. If you prefer the image quality, you will get a cinematic picture close to the previous generation of consoles and a stable 30 FPS.
In performance mode, the frame rate doubles to 60 FPS, but the image quality becomes noticeably worse.
This is not the case with Asphalt 9 and Drift Racing 2. In both cases, I used the highest graphics preset, and the frame rate was kept at 60 FPS.
If mobile games aren’t enough for you, the Realme GT3 can easily become a portable emulator for consoles of the past. With the help of Aethersx2, I played PS2 version of NFS Carbon with a maximum frame rate of 50 FPS (most likely due to the limitations of the game itself) and almost no graphical artefacts. So if you have a library of games for previous generations of consoles, you’ll be able to play them on the go.
If you want to see a frame rate higher than 60 FPS, I managed to reach 90 FPS in multiplayer in Call of Duty Mobile with the minimum graphics settings and the Ultra Frame Rate option. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of the screen recording function, I can’t demonstrate this clearly (the function limits the recording frequency to 60 frames per second), but the gameplay seemed surprisingly smooth.
Smoothness is also a merit of the smartphone’s operating system. Although RealmeUI belongs to the category of interfaces in which it is difficult to guess the “vanilla” Android, the changes are mostly cosmetic or perfectly complement the user experience.
Thus, the smartphone offers many possibilities for customising the interface, including Always-On Display customisation, convenient multitasking options such as pop-ups and split-screen, and even several experimental features.
The smartphone has a very convenient game mode that allows you to record gameplay, take a screenshot, or display the necessary stats in 2 clicks. From here you can also enable GT Mode, which allows the chipset and graphics accelerator to work at maximum capacity.
And outside of the game, the smartphone has a quick access panel for frequently used applications and functions, which will also come in handy.
In addition, unlike other Chinese smartphone manufacturers, Realme GT3 is not overloaded with bloatware, there are only a few apps which can be easily deleted.
Overall experience, battery and charging
But it’s not just games that make the Realme GT3 enjoyable. It has, for example, very loud stereo speakers that produce surprisingly clear sound. So you can charge your favourite Drift Phonk playlist and enjoy the sound with or without headphones.
The Realme GT3’s haptics also deserve extremely positive reviews – they are more powerful than the Taptic Engine in my old iPhone 11 Pro and provide clear feedback both in and out of games.
All in all, the Realme GT 3 is a pleasure to use, but I wish it could last longer. On a day of intensive use, when I was constantly playing games and running various benchmarks, the smartphone lasted from 10 am to 10 pm, when it notified me that the charge level was below 20%.
Despite the fact that most smartphones now have a 5000 mAh battery, the Realme GT3 has a slightly smaller one – 4600 mAh. Because of this, it sometimes feels like the charge is melting in front of your eyes, especially in GT mode. The GT3 also does not have wireless charging, which is becoming increasingly popular even in smartphones under $700.
However, the manufacturer got rid of 400 mAh and wireless charging for a reason. Their place was taken by three chips that can withstand a power of 100W each. All for the sake of supporting the world leading 240W charging (among serial smartphones). Realme was even kind enough to put a super-powerful charger in the box.
And it is truly incredible. GaN technology has made it possible to put 240W of power into a 65W charger brick from 3 years ago. The 90W Macbook Pro 2019 power brick looks like a giant against it.
But the main thing is that it really provides incredible charging speed. From 7% to 57%, the smartphone charged in 5 minutes, and after another 7 minutes I was already holding a fully charged smartphone in my hands.
Yes, it’s a little slower than the manufacturer’s claimed 4 and 10 minutes to 50% and 100%, respectively. But you have to admit, a full charge in 12 minutes is an impressive result for any smartphone. Forgot to charge your phone overnight – no problem. The phone will be fully charged while you drink your morning coffee. The only thing missing is an equally powerful car charger and power bank to have a fully charged smartphone in any circumstances.
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Conclusions
The Realme GT3, like my Volkswagen CC, is not without its flaws: it could use a bigger battery, a better ultra-wide-angle camera and a regular telephoto lens instead of a microscope, and the “hyped-up” LED indicator is a prime example of a “gimmick”.
However, the excellent screen, incredible performance and high-quality wide-angle camera completely compensate for any shortcomings. As much as I enjoy driving the CC, I enjoyed using the GT3 for a week.
At the moment, Realme has no information on the release date and price of the GT3 in Ukraine. However, according to my colleagues from GSMArena, the global version of this model will cost approximately $650/€610 in the basic configuration. This makes it a very attractive option for those who are looking for a new and powerful smartphone without spending all the money in the world.
I hope that Realme will make GT3 available as soon as possible so that users can buy it and see for themselves how attractive it is.
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