Realme GT3 hands-on review

Introduction

The Realme GT3 is this year's direct successor to last year's Realme GT2 and also a spiritual successor to the Realme GT Neo 3. In fact, the GT3 is actually a rebranded Neo 5 240W. And yes, 240W stands for 240W fast charging, which makes it the fastest charging on a commercially available smartphone right now.

Visually, the new model has adopted a design with a big camera island on the back, along with RGB LED and a small transparent cutout that lets you see the chipset itself.

Realme GT3 specs at a glance:

• Body: 163.9x75.8x8.9mm, 199g; glass front and back, plastic frame; Illuminated RGB (on the back).
• Display: 6.74" AMOLED, 1B colors, 144Hz, HDR10+, 500 nits (typ), 1100 nits (HBM), 1400 nits (peak), 1240x2772px resolution, 20.12:9 aspect ratio, 451ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM8475 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (4 nm): Octa-core (1x3.19 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3x2.75 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4x1.80 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 730.
• Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 256GB 16GB RAM, 512GB 16GB RAM, 1TB 16GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
• OS/Software: Android 13, Realme UI 4.0.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.9, 24mm, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 16mm, 112˚, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Microscopic: 2 MP, f/3.3, 20mm (microscope).
• Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.5, 25mm (wide), 1/3.09", 1.0µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS.
• Battery: 4600mAh; 240W wired, PD, 1-50% in 4 min, 1-100% in 10 min (advertised).
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); Infrared port; stereo speakers.

Some of the hardware has been ported from the Realme GT2 from last year though, particularly the camera setup that consists of a 50MP main shooter, 8MP ultrawide one and 2MP macro. Technically, the 2MP macro has a microscopic lens, which was exclusive to Oppo's flagship models. We like the change as it adds a bit more value than the useless 2MP macro sensor everyone uses on their phones.

The newer GT3, however, adopts a bigger 6.74-inch OLED panel with 144Hz refresh rate, instead of 120Hz and the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC is driving all those pixels. This was to be expected, given that last year's GT2 ran the 2021 flagship Snapdragon 888 SoC. But we get the Plus version, this time around.

Battery capacity has been reduced to 4,600 mAh, probably due to technical limitations related to the 240W charging.