Realme GT5 240W review

Realme UI 4.0 on top of Android 13

The GT5 launched before the Android 14's release, and the device runs on the familiar Realme UI 4.0 + Android 13 combo. The Realme UI overlay is almost identical to Oppo's ColorOS and OnePlus' OxygenOS.

The unit we received has the Chinese version of the software, which isn't much different from the global one, except it comes with a bunch of pre-loaded apps and bloatware.

In any case, the Realme GT runs on a familiar version of Realme UI 4.0, which we've covered in-depth in our Realme UI 4.0 + Android 13 review, so we suggest reading that for more information about the software.

Synthetic benchmark and sustained performance

The Realme GT2 is powered by Qualcomm's latest flagship chipset for 2023 - Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 - that's based on TSMC's 4nm manufacturing process.

To be exact, the phone runs on the early 2023 SM8550-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC with an octa-core processor with one prime core, four performance ones (2+2), and three efficient cores a.k.a. 1+2+2+3 configuration. This means the CPU contains 1x3.2GHz Cortex-X3 + 2x2.8 GHz Cortex-A715 & 2x2.8GHz Cortex-A710 & 3x2.0GHz Cortex-A510 CPU cores.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset comes with an Adreno 740 GPU capable of Ray Tracing. Whether and how that gets used in actual mobile games remains to be seen in the future.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in the Realme GT5 performs as expected, and it scores ever so slightly lower than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC version of the chip. It's also slower in the combined tests against the Dimensity 9200+ running inside the Xiaomi 13T Pro.

Thermal management is once again really good with the handset maintaining relatively high clock speeds for the first 20 minutes at 100% CPU load and slowly tapering down to around 60-70% of the chipset's theoretical performance for the rest of the test.

CPU throttle test: 30 min • 60 min

Last year's Realme GT3 did better in this regard but in the context of 2023 flagships, the GT5 does a decent job. It also maintains consistent clock speeds without jumping up and down, potentially causing stutters during gameplay. The graph is relatively smooth.