Realme GT 7 review

Design, build quality, handling

The Realme GT 7 is rocking a pretty "standard" and inconspicuous design. There is nothing really stand out about the way the phone looks.

The defining feature of the look is probably the large, flat, mostly rectangular camera island on the back. The chamfer around the island is colored differently and slightly accentuates the entire look.

A bit of text on the side of the camera island says "HYPERIMAGE+". Apparently, that's what Realme calls the camera setup. Besides the REALME text near the bottom of the back side, there is another small bit of text on the back that reads "GRAPHENE". Realme is particularly proud of its cooling system, which incorporates graphene, but we will get to that in the cooling section.

The Realme GT 7 comes in two color options: IceSense Black and IceSense Blue. Our review unit is the latter, and it looks very subdued, creamy and velvety in person. We like the looks of this one. It is subdued enough to blend into any environment, including a business setting.

Speaking of colors, it is definitely worth noting that Realme has a special edition of the GT 7, with the Aston Martin Aramco F1 team.

Realme GT 7 Dream Edition

The phone feels very sturdy in terms of build, with practically no flex or hollowness. The middle frame of the phone is made from some type of plastic composite material. It incorporates a brushed-looking top finish that gives off a rather convincing metal impression.

The phone's back is apparently made of fiberglass. The top finish feels very smooth and almost soft to the touch. It is not exactly what we would call "velvety," but it is soft nonetheless. It attracts and holds on the grease and fingerprints, but our blue color seems to mask them well enough.

The GT 7's front is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 7i. On top of that, the whole device is sealed quite well and offers an IP69 ingress resistance rating.

There is nothing particularly odd about the controls on the Realme GT 7. Well, perhaps other than the fact that there is an IR blaster on the top of the phone, which is not something you see too often nowadays. The only other hardware on the top are two microphone holes.

Realme GT 7

The bottom side is quite busy and houses the main microphone and speaker, the dual Nano SIM tray and the Type-C port. The left-hand side of the frame is empty, and on the right, we have the volume rocker and power button. Both are well-positioned height-wise and comfortable to use. We like the color accent on the power button.

The GT 7 uses an under-display fingerprint reader. It is of the standard optical variety and is both snappy and accurate. We have no complaints there, though it should be noted that the Chinese GT7 comes with an ultrasonic reader instead.

The phone's front is as standard as they come. The display is completely flat and has some reasonably sized bezels, though not exactly small. The same can be said of the selfie punch hole.

There are no visible sensors here. Everything is hidden away under the display. The amplified earpiece is well hidden, too, and just a sliver above the display.