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Realme GT 5G : test / review

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Published on: 02-07-2021 / Modified: 07-10-2022
After the fall of Huawei internationally (because of the conflict with the Trump administration in the United States), several Chinese manufacturers took advantage of the space left by Huawei to impose themselves outside their borders. Xiaomi is undoubtedly one of the big winners of this operation because with their aggressive policy of occupying the territory, they have succeeded in flooding the market with many models of phones available in all price ranges. This Chinese invasion is in itself not a bad thing as Xiaomi has allowed the consumer to get more for a lower price. This strategy has worked so well that finding a credible alternative to Xiaomi has become difficult but I think I have found one with this new Realme GT 5G.

I tested the Realme 6 last year and although this model was not yet at the level of what Xiaomi did in the same price range, Realme was definitely the most credible brand to compete with Xiaomi on the mid-range. Realme is back in the spotlight today with the Realme GT, this is a brand new weapon from Realme to take on Xiaomi and also OnePlus.

The Realme GT 5G is a monster of power and power is usually territory claimed by Xiaomi / Poco and OnePlus. The Realme GT has a strong identity with its very particular design and the exercise does not stop there because the Realme GT 5G also takes up some good ideas from the competition which should allow it to step on the feet of its competitors. So all I have to do is test it to see what's in it.

Manufacturer web site:
https://www.realme.com/eu/
Site where I have bought the Realme GT: https://www.realme.com/eu/

Structure of my tests

I test the phones according to a pre-established structure (see below) to provide you with as much information as possible. Unfortunately, this takes a long time. Some tests like network performance tests take several days and for photo tests I sometimes have to wait until the weather is suitable to take pictures in good conditions. I am therefore obliged to publish the tests step by step, so I invite you to come back if the test is not complete at the time of your visit.

Price Realme GT

The list below shows the prices for the Realme GT from more than 50 sites around the world. If you are not satisfied with any price, you can subscribe to a price alert to be the first to be notified when the price drops.

Timeline

07/02/2021: reception of the telephone, the test can begin

Why this phone?

My first choice for a phone is the price, but I sometimes make exceptions when I think it's worth it. The Realme GT 5G is between 300 and 400 € at the time of its launch, this already represents a nice budget but looking at the technical specifications, we realize that this Realme GT 5G is one of the cheapest phones equipped with the Snapdragon 888. on the market. So if you want a high-performance phone at the best price, you've got the Realme GT 5G.

I'm not a mobile gamer, so power doesn't really interest me too much, so I "sacrifice" myself for those who are looking for this type of phone. Fortunately, performance is not the only strong point of this phone. I think the screen will also be of very good quality, it should also be very responsive. Realme chose the Sony IMX 682 as their primary sensor, it is not a brand new sensor but it is a very good sensor that has proven itself in other phones.

I also see UFS 3.1, a reasonable weight for this type of phone, 8GB of base RAM, high definition stereo sound, 5G, dual frequency GPS and Android 11 right off the bat. The Realme GT 5G is therefore a very complete phone.

Unpacking

Realme really wanted to create a new identity with this Realme GT and it starts with the box. The box is very large and very elongated, it is a completely unusual shape. The lettering of the box puts a strong emphasis on the brand and the product features are printed in extra large size on the back of the box to further reinforce the message.

The contents of the box are arranged a little different from what I'm used to testing, everything is more spaced and the phone is completely isolated from the other elements in the box . The box contains the phone, a USB charger, a USB cable, a soft silicone shell, a manual and a needle to open the sim drawer. The content is therefore no different from what we find at Xiaomi but the packaging is more neat.

First configuration

The configuration of the Realme GT broadly follows the standard Android configuration but I noticed a few differences at the beginning and the end. For example, I was surprised to be confronted with a commercial message as soon as the phone was started. The phone had detected my presence in Belgium without my connecting to wifi or to any mobile network and on the basis of this information, the phone suggested that I buy data packages to be consumed in Belgium and abroad. I'm not sure Realme is going to make a lot of phone operators friends with this kind of practice, I found that to be quite limiting as well.

The screens following this commercial part are the same as on other Android phones until Realme UI takes over. I hadn't tested Realme UI for over a year and things have changed. Realme will encourage you to create a Realme account much like Samsung or Xiaomi do on their phones. This part of the setup is optional and can be skipped, but builders compete creatively to trick you into asking innocent questions and bringing you back to a registration screen. If you've had other Realme phones in the past, you'll be able to pick up your old phone's content from the Realme cloud instead of the Google cloud.

Finish

Today's Chinese phones really have nothing to do with what was done 2 or 3 years ago, the level of finish is quite comparable to the big traditional brands. What on the other hand does not change much is the exterior appearance, everyone tends to copy everyone and if you don't look at the logo, you could easily make a mistake between two models from the same range. Poco had already managed to change that a bit with a more massive but not necessarily elegant design. Realme will set the record straight, the Realme GT is truly superb and unique in its kind. The name GT was chosen in reference to the automotive world to give a sporty character to the phone. It's very successful because this black band that crosses the yellow back of the phone reminds me of a Chevrolet Camaro like the one we can find in the movie Transformers. The yellow part has a leather-like texture and the black part has a structure that reminds me of lacquered glass.

The back plays a big role in a phone's visual identity, but it doesn't stop there. The outline of the phone is metallic and acts as a junction between the yellow part on the back and the black part with the screen. The buttons also have a metallic appearance. On the other hand, the volume buttons are on the left, it is a completely unusual position which will require some adaptation time, especially if you do not have large hands.

The photo block is perfectly integrated into the back of the phone, it hardly protrudes from the back of the phone, it is very rare and it gives a very elegant appearance on the phone. The black strip on the back of the phone perfectly follows the line of the photo block, so we don't have the impression here that the photo block is an external module that has been forcibly grafted into the phone.

Below is a classic configuration with a speaker, the USB type C port and an audio output jack. The other speaker is integrated into the listening area.

The Realme GT 5G plays the card of excess for performance, but this does not translate into the presence of a huge screen. Realme has chosen a 6.43 inch screen and this allows the phone to have a smaller size and weight than the equivalent models from Poco / Xiaomi. The selfie camera is present in the form of a punch, it is positioned at the top left of the screen and I find it quite large for a phone in this range. The borders are not very thick but the Realme does not really offer a "borderless" experience. The screen occupies 84% of the available surface.

This Realme GT smells a bit like testosterone from an American muscle car, I love the result but it's very subjective and Realme made a rather divisive choice ... love it or hate it.

Specifications

The information below comes from the Device Info HW application. The application provides detailed technical information about the tested phone. I tested the 8Gb / 128 Gb version of Realme GT 5G, there is also a 12Gb / 256 Gb version. The following screenshots show most of the technical characteristics of the phone.

I haven't tested many Realme brand phones, so I don't see any common components that I could possibly compare with other phones. What is certain is that the Realme GT 5G is equipped with a lot of elements that I have never tested before. The modem is a Snapdragon X60 that can only be found on top of the range (ex: OneNote 9 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S21, Xiaomi Mi 11, ...) and as I have not tested any of these other phones, I am curious to see if this modem will provide good network sensitivity. The sound chipset is also a chipset that I have never tested.

Looking around, I noticed that the Realme GT 5G re-uses a maximum of components from the One Plus 9 Pro and the Vivo X60 Pro. The Realme brand is part of the same group as OnePlus, Oppo and Vivo. This therefore explains why these phones share so many similarities.

CPU / GPU Performance

The Realme GT is one of the best performing phones at the time of this writing. It is equipped with a Snapdragon 888 CPU and an Adreno 660 GPU, this combination should result in an Antutu score above 800,000 points. It is the most powerful phone that I have had the opportunity to test.

With this kind of material, nothing can resist Realme GT, so you can play Fortnite (or similar game) with maximum detail. Its cooling system should also prevent overheating as it does on some phones.

Benchmark Antutu/3DMark

Is the Realme GT the most powerful? I'm not going to prolong the suspense, yes, this is arguably one of the most powerful phones available today. I got a score of over 800,000 points on Antutu, this is the highest score I got on a phone. Beyond the score, if I look in detail I see that it is especially the Adreno GPU that stands out the most, it outclasses the Poco F3 by 30% while the Poco was already very powerful. The use of UFS 3.1 as on the Poco drives the point home even more, the Realme is ultra fluid and responsive for any task. If you buy this Realme and then switch to a less powerful model, you might see a big difference.

The Realme GT is equipped with a sophisticated cooling system which helps to dissipate heat better and testing a phone with Antutu helps to see if the heat dissipation is effective. The temperature of the phone rose 13 ° C during the test, in itself it is nothing extraordinary but I clearly felt the heat in the bottom of the device but not to the point of feeling an unpleasant sensation. I feel that it is heating up but it is reasonable where with a Samsung Galaxy S20, I have a feeling close to the burn. I find that at this level the Poco X3 Pro does better, we also feel the heat but the dissipation seems more efficient (but the processor is less powerful and will therefore produce less heat).



Gaming

To test the performance in game, I download the mobile PUBG game and evaluate the in-game experience, graphics level and depth of vision. This game is quite demanding and should help you evaluating the performance of a phone. The Realme GT is a gaming war machine, nothing can resist it. I ran PUBG Mobile at full level of detail and didn't experience any slowdown. I even let a few other apps run while the game was running but didn't see a difference. If you're a gamer, you've found the phone for you. The temperature on the back of the phone rises a bit but I never had a problem with that. I find that the cooling is less efficient than on a Poco but with such a CPU the comparison is not very fair.

Network performance

The Realme GT 5G offers very wide frequency coverage in 5G and while you don't know what frequencies will be used in your country yet, this Realme GT will seriously increase the chances of having a compatible device. The generosity in terms of frequencies is not limited to 5G, the coverage of frequencies in 4G is also very wide.

Signal 4G (before december 2020)

The ability to pick up the network correctly is an essential element for a phone but it is only very rarely measured. To measure a phone's ability to pick up the network, I perform a large number of measurements on the same cells to be able to compare phones under similar conditions. The signal is measured in dBm, a value of -90dBm indicates a worse signal than -70dBm. These measurements are therefore taken under real conditions and not in a laboratory, they are not scientific but give a good indication of performance.



Signal 4G (from December 2020)

I decided to change the methodology for measuring the network because I noticed that the configuration of the mobile network changes over time. This makes it more difficult to compare phones because the conditions are no longer exactly the same.

To overcome this problem, I set up a device that captures 24 hours a day about ten parameters from the mobile network (ex: cell id, rssi, rsrq, snr, frequency,...). I then place the phone next to the device for 24 to 48 hours taking the same measurements so that I can compare them.

Overview of the phones tested with this methodology



I had had good results with the Realme 6 when I tested it and had not had the opportunity to test other phones of this brand, so I was not sure if this was an isolated case or a sign that this brand had good network sensitivity. With the Realme GT, the trend seems to be confirmed, I have obtained very good results in terms of network sensitivity, the Realme GT has managed to do better than my measuring device, this is only the second time that this has happened since I did this test.

The network signal was weaker and more unstable than usual because my meter generally obtains a signal around -92 dBm but this time the average is is set around -97 dBm. I think the weather was particularly bad the day I took the measurements. The measurements taken by the Realme GT give it a good lead over the entire duration of the measurement.

The Realme GT is equipped with a Snapdragon X60 modem which in theory allows it to reach a speed of 2000 Mbps in download and 150 Mbps in upload (in 5G). This modem is also used by other phones like OnePlus 9 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S21 (US / China version), Xiaomi Mi 11 and Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra. So expect these phones to deliver the same kind of performance.

Download/Upload speed

To test the download speed, I have identified some 4G cells offering good performance where I test all my devices several times to see what download and upload speed they can achieve.

Wifi performance

To test a phone's ability to receive the network properly, I take measurements near my router and then remotely (and always at the same place). This gives me an average in dBm where a value of -90 dBm indicates poorer performance than a value at -30 dBm.


Wifi signal

I measured a -12dBm signal near the router, this is the best signal level I have been able to measure so far. I also got a very good distance score with -55 dBm, I also think this is the best score I got here too. The Realme GT 5G therefore offers very good sensitivity to wifi.



Download/Upload speed

To test the speed in Wifi, I connect to my router in 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz (if available) and use the Ookla application to measure the speed.

GPS performance

To test the quality of the GPS signal I use the Offline Maps application and I make the same train trip in pedestrian mode. Why? In pedestrian mode, the GPS does not artificially correct the signal to stick to the road, it has no markings, so you can see the actual position. I then use an application to measure the accuracy of the signal. The Realme GT 5G is equipped with a GPS chipset from Qualcomm and with this type of chipset I have never been able to obtain an accuracy below 3m, this is verified once again with this phone. An accuracy level of 3m can easily be corrected by a good GPS application (Google Maps can do this). The Realme GT is a dual band GPS phone, so it can pick up two GPS frequencies to improve responsiveness. On this video we also see that the phone manages to capture a large number of satellites (more than 40) and this regardless of the type of network used (GPS, Galileo, Beidou, ...)

Battery range

The Realme GT 5G has a fast charge of 65W, it is an extraordinary speed that I have not been able to test on another phone yet. The charge goes from 0 to 100% in 87 minutes and after 20 minutes the battery goes to 25%. The load is linear, the speed does not decrease for the last percent.

The Realme GT 5G has a lower capacity battery than competing phones like the Poco X3 Pro, so its autonomy is less but its energy efficiency is quite comparable to the Poco X3 Pro. The Realme GT 5G ranks in the middle, Realme seems to have played the card of the speed of loading rather than the autonomy. With normal use you should be able to last 2 to 3 days with a full charge, if you play intensely you will probably need to recharge the battery before the end of the day.

Photo camera test

To test the quality of photos produced by a phone, I do a technical test (resolution, sharpness, chromatic aberration,...) in studio (identical conditions) to evaluate the technical part objectively. From the second half of 2020, I built my own laboratory to take completely objective technical measurements. I then take pictures in real conditions to see how the camera performs. I then evaluate these photos according to my criteria but I publish the photos so that you can evaluate the result according to your criteria.

Hardware

Realme chose the Sony IMX 682 as the primary sensor. This sensor has been around for more or less 2 years but is still among the best sensors today. I had the opportunity to test this sensor in other phones like the Poco X3, the Samsung Galaxy A52 or the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite. Beyond the natural qualities of the sensor, we must add the optimization layer that each manufacturer will add. This layer of optimization can sometimes make a pretty big difference between two phones that use the same sensor. Among the phones I have tested is the Samsung Galaxy A52 which makes the best use of the Sony IMX 682, so I'm curious to see if Realme can do better.

Default app

The default Realme photo application broadly follows what is done on other phones, the GUI is slightly different and a bit better tidy but overall I find my bearings without any problem. Curiously, it has the same defect as with Xiaomi, the choice for the zoom is displayed in superposition of the image and when the image is very clear, these buttons are unreadable.

Photo quality

Photo test / studio

I have already tested the Sony IMX 682 several times and I find the same characteristics for the photos in the studio. This sensor does not like artificial light too much, it tends to underexpose photos taken under these conditions. In pro mode, this lack of brightness can easily be compensated for by increasing the exposure time.

I recently introduced a test with tickets to analyze the level of detail from edge to edge. The Sony IMX 682 is an excellent sensor which manages to reproduce a significant amount of detail. The center (Canadian banknote) is very sharp but this sharpness is still of good quality for external banknotes like the English banknote and the Hungarian banknote. The designs on the banknote are still perfectly legible.

The ultra wide angle lens unfortunately does not do as well but it is always the case for this kind of sensor. The Canadian banknote in the center is much less sharp than its equivalent with the main sensor and obviously the sharpness drops even faster at the edges, the watermarks to the left of the Hungarian banknote are for example no longer visible at all. The smoothing of the images is very important and therefore a significant amount of detail is lost when moving away from the center. Again, this is not surprising, I have never tested an ultra wide angle sensor capable of delivering a level of detail greater than the main sensor.

Photo test / sunny

Main sensor: Sony IMX 682
I had to wait a long time before I could take these pictures, I had not had a sunny day for weeks and because of this bad weather, I 've got a lot of delay in my photo tests. I went out with 5 phones at the same time and after so much rain the vegetation was lush, you will see below that this sensor did a good job of capturing this jungle of vegetation.

The Sony IMX 682 is not a new sensor and I have already tested it in other phones like the Poco X3 or the Samsung Galaxy A52. This sensor has performed very well in these other phones, so it should be able to produce good photos with the Realme GT unless Realme missed the software part that optimizes the photos.

I chose to use this first photo to illustrate one of the strengths of this phone, it's dynamic range. What does that mean? When a camera is faced with dark areas and bright areas in the same photo, it cannot always render these differences and either the sky turns white or the ground is too dark. No camera can compete with the human eye, but some do better than others. We can see here that more than half of the photo is occupied by dark areas (vegetation, water, soil) and a small part is occupied by the sky and some white clouds. The dark area is correctly exposed and the sky is still visible, we can also clearly see the clouds.

If I give a little more importance to the sky (here it occupies almost 50% of the image), we see that the blue of the sky is deeper and the vegetation is a little darker when it is exposed to the sun. The camera has chosen to give more importance to the sky but the end result is still really good because I have hardly any underexposure or overexposure.

Based on the two previous photos, I can also identify two other points that are obvious. The first point is about color saturation, the colors are very vivid and richly saturated while I didn't use AI mode or HDR. The vegetation was really lush and the sky was really blue like that, the rendering is good. The second point concerns sharpness. The Realme GT applies a treatment of sharpness a little too pronounced. The detail of the leaves is very extensive to the point that the photo loses a little naturalness. This sharpening of the sharpness is visible when you zoom to 100% on the photo, white dots begin to appear on the outlines. This problem is not really seen on a phone screen, but if you view your photos on a large screen, the sharpening effect will be clearly visible.

I have taken many pictures with this sensor to give you an idea of what it is capable of doing. I have sometimes taken several photos of the same place by activating the HDR and the AI, you will see in particular that the AI still reinforces the colors while frankly the phone is doing very well without this effect. The Realme GT is therefore capable of producing very good photos but it fails to match the photo processing of the Samsung Galaxy A52 and mainly because the sharpness processing is too extensive and maybe also because the capture angle is too low. less important. Apart from the sharpness, I find the intrinsic qualities of this sensor which remains a reference sensor on the market.



Secondary sensor: unknown model
I do not know which sensor Realme used to fulfill the role of ultra wide angle sensor, the characteristics of the photos I have taken lead me to believe that it is 'is a Sony sensor like the Sony IMX 355 for example. The ultra wide angle sensors produce photos of poorer quality than the main sensor but I find that with sensors like the Sony IMX 355, the situation is much improved. The main drawbacks of this type of sensor are the lack of sharpness, distortions and areas of blur. This photo alone pretty much sums up what this photo sensor is capable of. The central zone is quite clear (in the foreground), I even find that it is particularly clear for an ultra wide angle sensor. This sharpness decreases quite quickly, the leaves on the sides are not sharp at all. The colors are fairly well saturated, this is what makes me think it is a Sony IMX 355. The dynamic range is not bad for a sensor of this type. Deformations are visible on the periphery, it is quite normal for this kind of camera. I also see chromatic aberrations on the periphery but nothing really dramatic.

On this second photo the blur and distortion effects are even more visible and I also see a smoothing effect appear on the trunk of the tree that crosses the photo diagonally. This smoothing is not an optical phenomenon because it is irregular, I have the impression that Realme used a bit too aggressive an algorithm for the image compression. Chromatic aberrations are much more visible here.

I took many other photos to illustrate this analysis. If you take the analysis literally, you are probably thinking that this ultra wide angle sensor is not very good and if I only take the criteria listed, it is probably true. Now we must also say that no ultra wide angle sensor is able to compete with a normal sensor, so we must evaluate this kind of sensor with another evaluation grid. The Realme GT's ultra-wide-angle sensor produces better photos than a majority of such sensors in other phones.



Photo test / cloudy


Main sensor: Sony IMX 682

For my first photo trip, I was not lucky enough to have a beautiful clear sky, the sun was present intermittently and the brightness very changeable. These are good conditions for testing a camera's ability to capture bright areas and dark areas. The Sony IMX 682 is an excellent photo sensor and it does very well in this exercise. I had other phones with me when I took these photos and none could compete with the Realme GT and its Sony IMX 682. Most other phones produced underexposed photos with big differences between the sky and the ground.

The Sony IMX 682 has a good dynamic range, it manages to capture the sky and vegetation without falling into overexposure as is often the case. The sharpness is good but sometimes a little too pronounced (especially in 64 M mode), I see that at the level of the foliage, the clipping is sometimes too pronounced and this gives a less natural side to the photo when we linger on the details.

The colors are well saturated even without the use of AI mode, they are more saturated than in reality but without going overboard. As the conditions weren't ideal, I found the Sony IMX 682 to be able to pick up the colors faded by cloud cover. I took several photos of the same place with AI mode and HDR mode (see photos below). The HDR allows you to recover a little detail in the sky and allows you to light up the foliage a little, but I find that the Sony sensor does very well without this artifice. The AI mode tends to increase the color saturation in an exaggerated way, this can give a more vivid side to the photos but we are moving quite far from reality here

Ultra wide angle secondary sensor
> I don't know which sensor was used for the ultra wide angle module of this Realme, I might be able to become one after having did a purely technical test but at this point I don't know which sensor it is. Ultra wide-angle sensors produce poorer photos than the main sensor and this is again true here. I am positively surprised by the dynamic range of this sensor because I expected to have either a white sky or too dark vegetation but in the end, the sensor is doing quite well. The level of detail is much worse than that of the main sensor, if you zoom in you will find that the details are smoothed out and this is often the case for this kind of sensor. I also see traces of chromatic aberrations sometimes very visible at the level of the leaves and the color temperature is not optimal. In short, I do not want to give the impression that this sensor has only flaws because it is not correct. If I compare it to other sensors of this type, I find it capable of producing photos of acceptable quality.

Test photo / night

The Realme GT is able to produce good night photos as long as you use the main sensor because the ultra wide angle sensor produces very noisy photos with too warm colors. The main sensor automatically detects a night scene and takes multiple photos to result in a brighter photo. The exaggerated sharpening applied to the daytime photos is also visible here but I find the effect less noticeable and as long as you look at the photos on a small screen (smartphone, tablet) you will probably have the impression that the sharpness is excellent without being exaggerated.

Video quality

Stabilisation

With such a level of performance, the Realme GT 5G shouldn't have any stabilization issues, that's true but only partially. The phone manages to perfectly compensate for the movements and the jolts caused by the steps are correctly absorbed. On the other hand, the recalculation of the sharpness is quite visible and it can be seen on the videos where there are a lot of details like this video with the foliage. I got better results in more open environments.

Video normale conditions
I took this video at 4k 30 fps (same for the following ones) on a fairly cloudy day. My usual place to take pictures got overgrown after a few weeks of rain so I don't have the clear view like in my previous videos. I took this first video unassisted from AI mode and find that despite the non-ideal conditions, the Sony sensor is doing fine. The video is smooth, crisp, and produces well-saturated colors. The development is ultra fast, the passage of sharpness between the foliage in the foreground and the foliage in the background is very fast. The zoom on the other hand is not progressive, it literally jumps from one level to another.

For this video I activated the AI mode which is not often available for video. The effect is especially visible on the colors where the saturation is more important than the reality. For this last video I simply circled around to confront the phone at all levels of light, going from very bright areas to darker areas. The Realme GT adapts instantly to changes, I don't see any exposure jump and the phone manages to capture much more light than other phones I tested at the same time like the Redmi Note 10s.

The Sony IMX 682 sensor once again demonstrates its ability to produce good videos even when the conditions are not ideal!

Video low light

The Realme GT is very powerful and it can be felt in the video because the image processing is immediate. The movement in the video is very smooth and the digital noise work is very efficient because the digital noise is almost invisible. The sensor, however, has difficulty in catching an area when it is very dark, we see that the image jumps on part of the video. The video could have been a little better exposed but the result is still quite correct.

Audio quality

To test the quality of the phone's audio output, I connect the device's audio output to a measuring tool, then play sounds on all frequencies and measure the differences between the original sound and the sound produced by the phone. In this way I measure the phone's ability to correctly reproduce all sounds.

Frequency Response

This test is intended to test the device's ability to correctly reproduce all frequencies. The white line in the middle of the graph is the ideal situation and the other colors come from tests on different phones. A deviation from the reference line indicates a deviation from the ideal situation. To see good sound at all frequencies, it is therefore necessary to get as close as possible to the reference line. I did not manage to measure the reproduction of the frequencies, I made several tests but each time I obtained an erratic result where one notes abnormal and irregular deviations on certain frequencies. This is not to say that the sound is bad, I have encountered this problem on a few other phones, it is quite rare.

Dynamic Range

This test is designed to test a phone's ability to play sounds at different volume levels. Here too, the phones must be as close as possible to the reference. As I wrote above, the sound produced by the Realme GT is very powerful, it even exceeds the Samsung Galaxy S10 + which was one of the most powerful phones at this level. This power is quite linear on all frequencies, only the very low frequencies are a little behind, it is also what I had noticed with the subjective listening before starting the technical test.

Noise Level

This test aims to identify if the device under test is able to reproduce sounds without too much noise. A high score indicates a low parasite rate, a lower score indicates a higher presence of parasites. I didn't notice any interference but here too the Realme GT does better than the Samsung Galaxy S10 +. The Realme is able to produce good sound with headphones, it does not yet exceed the S10 + in quality but it comes very close to it.

Screen quality

To test the screen, I use a colorimetric probe that measures the color accuracy of a screen, as well as other parameters to see if a screen is able to correctly reproduce an image. I also test the brightness level to determine if the screen will be able to display an image in full sunlight.

Colorimetry

On paper, the Realme GT 5G is equipped with a very good amoled screen but I was surprised by my first measurements because I had obtained a dE above 5 and for a phone in this range c 'unacceptable. Like Xiaomi, Realme has chosen a flashy setting to artificially increase the vividness of the colors, but this kind of choice has the effect of deteriorating the colors. To get a better color rendering, you must go to the screen settings and choose a "soft" rendering. With this setup, I got an excellent dE of 1.17, it's one of the best screens I've tested so far.

I got a dE of 0.3 for white, I don't think I got such a good score on white. The color temperature is almost perfect.



Brightness / Contrast

In manual mode I obtained a brightness of 325 cd / m² which is insufficient to make the screen readable in direct sunlight. It is therefore necessary to activate the automatic mode so that the brightness of the screen adapts according to the ambient brightness. I measured over 600 cd / m² with automatic mode, this is an excellent score that will allow you to use this phone in the sun.

The Realme GT 5G uses an amoled screen, so it offers a very good contrast, I also measured a black with a brightness of 0.011 cd / m², it is a the blackest blacks that I have measured.

Biometry

The Realme GT uses an in-display fingerprint sensor, which is a choice that goes a bit against the grain of most phones released this year. This is a choice that I do not understand because after trying everything, the sensors on the side are often much more efficient. The Realme's fingerprint sensor works fine but recognition is not as fast and efficient as a side sensor.

Operating system

Not yet available / tested

Encoutered bugs

Not yet available / tested

Accessories Realme GT

Compare Realme GT with the others

Test / Review conclusion

I always test the phones in sequences and after each sequence I add my observations in my article. So I don't have a global view until I have completed all the tests and since the tests are sometimes spaced out over time, I don't always realize the score until the test is completely finished. That's how the Realme GT climbed higher and higher without me noticing it and in the end, it upsets the established order to overtake the good old Poco F2 Pro who had been in the lead since almost a year. Looking back, I tell myself that I should have realized it earlier because from the first tests, the Realme GT was hitting very hard.

The Realme GT was designed as a performance machine and this performance is there and not just for playing. If you like to gamble, you get some power with this phone that is probably unmatched at the time of this writing. This power is not only beneficial for the use of games but it is also felt in the fluidity of the phone on a daily basis, the phone is ultra responsive and the use of UFS 3.1 type memory will also contribute to this, it is a much like switching from USB2 to USB3, the effect is the same.

The screen is also superb, it is very well calibrated, the contrast is excellent and the brightness (in automatic mode) will allow you to use it in direct sunlight and let's not forget the 120hz which will bring a fluidity in the transitions.

These elements are those that we will find on most test sites, but I will also focus on the network part which is often ignored on other sites. The Realme GT has an excellent radio interface which gives it excellent network sensitivity (in 4G anyway, I don't have 5G in Belgium), the wifi sensitivity is also excellent and the download speed follows the same direction. At the GPS level, the performance is average but the use of a Qualcomm CPU has never led to wonders on this side.

For the photo, the Realme GT does not innovate because it re-uses a sensor that we find for example in the Samsung Galaxy A52 or the Poco X3 but is it a bad one? thing? Not at all! The Sony IMX 682 sensor is an excellent photo sensor, it offers one of the best dynamic range, good colorimetry and a level of detail that is sometimes too high (Realme seems to have pushed this point a little too far). I still have not found the time to publish my technical tests for the photo but be aware that this phone produces good photos.

What more can we say? I would add that the sound (with headphones) is powerful and gives quality, the level of finish is really good and it is also very original with its typical "muscle car" design, the autonomy is average and the loading battery life is super fast.

Are there any faults in this phone? Yes, no doubt, but these are not major faults. I have sometimes been a little irritated by the position of the volume buttons on the left of the phone, I do not find it very practical. The operating system is generally quite successful but sometimes with some details that annoyed me (ex: slow recognition of mail, positioning of icons, display of images from elsewhere on the home screen, ...) but overall nothing serious.

Strengths

- raw power
- fluidity / responsiveness
- screen quality
- network sensitivity
- sound quality
- loading speed of the battery

Weaknesses

- GPS performance just average
- battery life just average
- volume buttons on the left

Alternatives to this product

The race for performance has restarted this year with the arrival of a few new models at Poco, notably the Poco X3 Pro or the Poco F3 which may represent less expensive alternatives for performance. The Poco F2 Pro is less powerful but also remains a credible alternative.

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