Realme XT review

GSMArena team, 13 Sept 2019.

Display

The Realme XT packs a 6.4" Super AMOLED screen with extended 1080p resolution. It's not the same panel as on the Realme X - this one has a waterdrop notch and is a bit smaller - 6.4" vs. 6.53".

The notch is not a new thing for Realme, but it may be a bit disappointing for those looking to get the Realme X full display matched to the best camera the company has put on a smartphone. Apparently, you can't have both just yet.

Realme XT review

The screen uses a familiar Diamond PenTile matrix and has a resolution of 2,340 x 1,080 pixels. That adds up to a 19.5:9 aspect and the excellent for the class 402ppi density.

Realme promises a maximum brightness of 430 nits but the screen exceeded the maker's specs as we measured 447 nits at the far-right end of the brightest scrubber.

There is no Auto brightness boost under direct sunlight, but the screen does well even in the brightest of days thanks to the good brightness and low reflectivity.

We also measured the minimum brightness - it's just 2.2 nits, so you'll have no trouble using the phone in complete darkness.

Display test 100% brightness
Black, cd/m2 White, cd/m2 Contrast ratio
Realme XT 0 447
Realme X 0 448
Realme 5 Pro 0.273 512 1875
Realme 3 Pro 0.285 508 1782
Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 0.358 479 1338
Samsung Galaxy M30 0 437
Samsung Galaxy M30 (Max Auto) 0 641
Xiaomi Mi 9T 0 449
Xiaomi Mi 9T (Max Auto) 0 646
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE 0 444
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE (Max Auto) 0 637
Huawei P30 Lite 0.39 480 1231
Huawei P30 Lite (Max Auto) 0.413 501 1213
Motorola Moto G7 0.315 493 1565

The color reproduction is decent out of the box with lively though not super accurate colors. We measured an average deltaE of 4.9 against DCI-P3 color space and a maximum deviation of 8.8 at point White. Indeed, the white and gray hues visibly shifted towards blue in the default display setting.

There is a Color Temperature Adjustment slider in Display Settings that is set to the 'Default' middle position with 'Cooler' and 'Warmer' at the extremes. Setting this slider to the warmest option yields slightly better results - average deltaE of 4.1 and a reduced but still present bluish tint.

Battery life

The Realme XT has a beefy 4,000mAh battery - pretty much the same capacity as the Realme 5 Pro's and slightly larger than Realme X's. The XT supports VOOC 3.0 fast charging and its box contains both the 20W charger and the proprietary USB-C cable needed for VOOC to work. This pair refills about 50% of the Realme XT's depleted battery in 30 mins, while a full charge takes 80 to 90 mins.

The Realme XT aced our battery lite test - it clocked north of 16 hours of video playback and 13 hours of browsing the web over Wi-Fi. We also measured more than a day of 3G voice calls. And adding the efficient standby performance we got an excellent overall Endurance rating of 100 hours.

When compared to the Realme X, the XT did a tiny bit better in both screen-on tests though it showed a major improvement in standby performance.

Realme XT review

Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Realme XT for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.

Speaker

The Realme XT has a single bottom-firing speaker. It scored an Excellent mark in our loudness test, though unpleasant high-pitched tones are common and probably responsible for the really loud Ringing Phone tone and hence the Excellent mark. In fact, when playing music from YouTube, the speaker sounds (subjectively) quieter than suggested by the score.

Realme XT review

Indeed, Realme has always tuned its speakers for mid-tones and the XT seems no different - when playing music you'll hear the vocals crystal clear, but the music itself will be a little bit on the quieter side.

Speakerphone testVoice, dB Pink noise/ Music, dB Ringing phone, dB Overall score
Samsung Galaxy A30 65.9 66.6 68.4 Below Average
Samsung Galaxy M30 65.6 66.2 70.4 Average
Realme X 67.9 73.5 80.4 Very Good
Realme 5 Pro 66.3 72.9 85.8 Very Good
Xiaomi Mi 9T 70.6 74.8 81.2 Very Good
Huawei P30 Lite 71.5 73.8 83.1 Excellent
Realme 3 Pro 67.5 73.8 90.5 Excellent
Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 69.8 71.5 90.5 Excellent
Realme XT 68.9 74.3 89.8 Excellent
Xiaomi Mi 9 SE 86.2 79.0 87.0 Excellent

Audio quality

The Realme XT’s performance with an external amplifier was exemplary, delivering perfect scores top to bottom and at very high loudness too.

Headphones took their toll on stereo separation and added some intermodulation distortion, plus they dropped the volume to only average. The performance is more or less in line with the Realme 5 Pro and decent for the price range, but hardly spectacular overall.

TestFrequency responseNoise levelDynamic rangeTHDIMD + NoiseStereo crosstalk
Realme XT+0.08, -0.08-92.292.10.00120.0081-91.4
Realme XT (headphones)+0.50, -0.16-92.191.90.0070.363-48.9
Realme 5 Pro+0.03, -0.05-93.393.00.00190.0073-92.0
Realme 5 Pro (headphones)+0.16, -0.39-92.091.90.0090.344-50.6
Realme X+0.06, -0.07-92.992.80.00100.0075-93.3
Realme X (headphones)+0.38, -0.28-90.790.30.00770.391-50.7
Xiaomi Mi A3+0.02, -0.01-93.790.70.00150.0098-93.0
Xiaomi Mi A3 (headphones)+0.53, -0.22-90.688.80.00480.302-50.8
Samsung Galaxy M20+0.02, -0.02-90.590.40.00500.015-91.7
Samsung Galaxy M20 (headphones)+0.17, -0.25-90.891.00.0870.256-58.9
Motorola Moto G7 Play+0.07, -0.01-90.090.10.00190.015-92.9
Motorola Moto G7 Play (headphones)+0.16, -0.10-92.392.50.00690.164-64.8

Realme XT frequency response
Realme XT frequency response

You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.

Reader comments

  • Aba32b
  • 18 May 2024
  • 6sP

Why are you outofspace people always posting things like that here? This is no service center nor a chat room!

  • Zahid Hussain
  • 07 Feb 2024
  • rJ7

My mobile phone screen is white it's not working how to resolve my problem

I absolutely agree: an excellent mobile phone, especially at that price (€220 back in January 2020). If the charging hadn't gone 'crazy' (it thinks it charges all the time, and will only take up to ~93% from the original charger) I wou...