Realme GT 3 Review: Supersonic Charging

Value When Reviewed

649

The Realme GT 3 is the primary telephone you’ll be capable to purchase with crazy-fast charging speeds that may flip flat battery right into a full one in simply ten minutes.  

However 240W quick charging apart, can this telephone compete with equally priced handsets from the likes of Google and OnePlus? That’s precisely what I’ve been discovering out over the previous couple of weeks. 

Do notice which you can’t really purchase the Realme GT 3 but: it ought to go on sale round Might/June of this yr.

Design & construct 

• Black and white color choices
• RGB lighting on digital camera module
• No headphone jack

Lengthy gone are the times of garish branding. As an alternative, Realme has opted for just a few sporty touches for its newest GT telephone.  

Coming in a alternative of two colors, Pulse White and Booster Black (seen beneath), the telephone has a easy, matt end with a refined Realme brand on the underside left-hand nook. There’s a large digital camera module, which takes up the highest third of the telephone’s rear.  

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

On the right-hand aspect of the module is a window which, bizarrely, exhibits off a faux model of the Snapdragon chip and NFC antenna. Surrounding it’s a rectangular RGB mild, which glows completely different colors. For instance, it can pulse inexperienced while you get a brand new message, mild up purple when it wants charging and many others.  

Having this on drains the battery faster, so you’ll be able to flip it off if you want. The telephone is 8.9mm thick and weighs 199g, so it’s comparatively slim and light-weight.  

The plastic physique means it’s much less inclined to break from unintended drops than telephones with glass rears, although it doesn’t really feel fairly as premium as some flagships. It has an IPX4 water-resistance score, which suggests it’s protected towards mild splashes, so it’s greatest to keep away from holding it over baths and swimming pools.

There’s a USB-C port for charging, and also you’ll want to make use of Bluetooth for headphones except you get a USB-C to minijack adapter for wired headphones. My evaluate pattern had a single-SIM tray, however dual-SIM variations can be found in sure areas.

Display screen & audio system 

• 6.74in AMOLED show
• 144Hz refresh charge
• Loud stereo audio system

The Realme GT 3 has a 6.74in AMOLED show, with a decision of 2772 x 1250 – a higher-quality show than some equally priced rivals, which solely provide Full HD decision. It has a peak brightness of 1400 nits. 

The show is vivid and dazzling, even below daylight and intense indoor lights comparable to at a conference centre, the place I first bought my fingers on the GT 3. 

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

You may both run the display screen at 60Hz, 144Hz or go for the auto mode, which picks between 60Hz, 72Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz and 144Hz relying on what you’re doing. Its contact sampling charge of 360Hz provides it lighting-fast response when scrolling and swiping.  

Haptics are brief and clipped on this telephone, with the choice to alter their depth or flip them off solely. Vibrations aren’t as sturdy as some rivals, however they’re on the quieter aspect.

The display screen options an under-display fingerprint sensor, which I discovered labored a deal with. You may also allow face recognition, however that’s much less safe.

Stereo audio system produces loud, punchy sound. Nonetheless, don’t anticipate a lot in the way in which of bass tones.  

Specs & efficiency 

• Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
• 5 completely different RAM and storage choices
• Good efficiency
• Solely Wi-Fi 5

The Realme GT 3 makes use of a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. This is similar processor seen within the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the OnePlus 10T.

It’s paired with both 8GB RAM/128GB storage, 12GB RAM/256GB storage, 16GB RAM/256GB storage, 16GB RAM/512GB storage and 16GB RAM/ 1TB storage, although you may not be capable to get each single configuration in your nation. Word that storage isn’t expandable.

Total, efficiency is nice, and mixed with the high-refresh-rate display screen, the GT 3 is fantastic for scrolling by means of social media posts. 

It’s good for informal gaming too, with titles like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp operating easily. I used to be even in a position to play the demanding title Genshin Affect on medium graphics settings, although there was some stuttering. The telephone additionally will get noticeably sizzling if you happen to play video games for some time.

You may see the GT 3’s benchmark outcomes beneath:

Cameras 

• Respectable most important and selfie cameras
• AI processing oversaturates colors
• Secondary cameras underwhelming

Like many telephones, the GT 3 has a triple rear-camera setup. That is led by a 50Mp most important digital camera, which makes use of a Sony IMX890 sensor and a f/1.88 lens. There may be additionally an 8Mp wide-angle digital camera with a 112-degree area of view and f/2.2 aperture, and a 2Mp ‘microscope’ digital camera.  

The primary digital camera performs greatest in vivid lighting however doesn’t have bother in dimmer environments, partly because of the 1/1.56in picture sensor. Textures and nice traces pop nicely, and hues are vivid.  

In reality, maybe slightly too vivid: the GT 3 makes use of the identical ‘AI’ enhancing that I’ve seen earlier than on different Realme telephones, through which colors are barely oversaturated and unrealistic wanting.

That is particularly evident on the shot taken at night time, the place the sky has taken on an unnatural blue tint. The identical is true for the grass, which seems a lot greener than it does to the attention.  You may flip the AI off, in fact, however even then colors are nonetheless a bit too saturated for my liking.

There’s a downgrade in high quality relating to the 8Mp digital camera, with much less element being resolved. Nonetheless, colors stay good and aren’t washed out like on another wide-angle cameras.  

Should you’re trying to take close-up macro photographs, then I like to recommend sticking with the principle lens, because it was almost unattainable to get a transparent shot with the 2Mp ‘microscope’ one. No large shock there: it’s the same story with all telephones which have this sort of digital camera.

The entrance 16Mp digital camera isn’t fairly as spectacular as these you’ll discover on extra premium telephones. Nonetheless, it lets an inexpensive quantity of sunshine in, and particulars are moderately sharp. In portrait mode, the bokeh impact isn’t excellent, usually blurring strands of hair.

Alfonso Casas / Foundry

Video is fairly steady, because of the inclusion of OIS on the principle digital camera. You may document video in 4K, 1080p and 720p in both 30fps or 60fps. The microphones choose up good sound, and there’s an computerized nightscape mode out there if you happen to’re capturing in decrease mild.  

Battery life & charging 

• Stupidly quick charging
• Round a day’s price of battery with heavy utilization

And now the half you’ve all been ready for – the charging.  

This would be the first telephone on sale with 240W fast-charging. Though you could have examine even faster speeds, these are from idea telephones. You’ll want to make use of the included twin GaN (Gallium Nitride) mini charger with a customized 12A charging cable, not simply any previous USB-C cable.

There are some things you’ll must do to get super-fast speeds. You have to allow ‘sensible speedy charging’ within the battery well being part within the settings and switch off the RGB lighting. Realme additionally recommends lowering the variety of occasions that the display screen lights up, comparable to if a notification pops up.

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

As well as, the telephone received’t allow sensible speedy charging when turned off. Realme’s declare of 9 minutes and 30 seconds is a bit sooner than the 11 minutes and three seconds that my evaluate telephone took to cost from 1% to full. There isn’t a wi-fi charging.

Nonetheless, having the ability to cost your telephone in 11 minutes is game-changing. And that’s very true if you happen to solely bear in mind to take action simply earlier than you’re heading out the door. Nonetheless, it’s price allowing for that each the telephone and the charger get extraordinarily sizzling, which isn’t massively reassuring.

Realme claims that the battery ought to preserve 80% battery capability for round 1,600 cycles, but it surely’s unattainable to know if that is true. These within the US seemingly received’t be capable to obtain these speeds because of the decrease voltage used.

Sadly, battery life itself doesn’t fairly have the identical wow issue. The 4600mAh cell managed 11 hours and 59 minutes within the PCMark battery take a look at and on common it lasted a couple of day when watching the odd video, looking social media, taking photographs and different regular stuff.

Should you use the bottom refresh charge and don’t use battery-draining apps then you definitely might be able to stretch it out for longer.

Alfonso Casas / Foundry

Software program & apps 

• Plenty of app bloat
• Two years of OS updates

The GT 3 comes with Realme UI 4.0 based mostly on Android 13. This pores and skin isn’t too dissimilar to Oppo’s ColorOS, and gives a good stage of customisation over the icons, theme and structure. 

Nonetheless, there’s a variety of pre-installed bloatware, with video games comparable to Tile Join, Piano Hop and others taking over house and cluttering up the homepage. There are additionally duplications of sure varieties of apps. For instance, you get each Realme’s personal notes app, plus Google’s Hold Notes.  The video games might be uninstalled merely sufficient, however some apps can’t such because the Realme App Market.

Sometimes, Realme gives two years of OS updates (so Android 14 and 15), and three years of safety updates. This isn’t as beneficiant as what Samsung and Google provide and doesn’t essentially encourage you to hold onto the telephone for a very long time.  

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Value & availability 

The Realme GT 3 was formally unveiled at MWC 2023 however received’t go on sale till round Might or June of this yr.  

The telephone begins at $649 for the bottom mannequin, which interprets to round £537/€610. After all, worldwide prices aren’t all the time easy conversions. Realme continues to be finalising pricing and launch dates, so we should always know extra within the coming months.  

This value is a bit more costly than the previous-generation GT 2, which price round $600 when it first launched. Nevertheless it’s not far off the likes of the Pixel 7 and the OnePlus 10T, and undercuts many different flagships just like the Samsung S23 and the Xiaomi 13. 

Nonetheless, there are many different mid-range telephones to think about. And if you happen to’re not averse to spending slightly extra, you may also like to have a look at our roundup of the very best smartphones.  

Hannah Cowton / Foundry

Verdict 

If you would like the speediest charging round, then the Realme GT 3 is the telephone for you. It isn’t a one-trick pony both: has an incredible display screen, a succesful processor and a good most important digital camera, if you happen to can overlook the oversaturated AI picture processing.

Would I purchase one although? No. For barely much less cash, I’d go for Google’s Pixel 7. Positive, its charging is sluggish, but it surely’s higher in nearly each different method, together with the standard of its cameras and, importantly, its software program.

The Realme GT 3 isn’t dangerous worth, however getting the fastest-charging telephone round isn’t well worth the compromises elsewhere.

Specs

• Android 13 with Realme UI 4.0
• 6.74in AMOLED 144Hz show with 2772 x 1240 decision
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
• 8/12/16GB RAM
• 128GB/256/512GB/1TB non-expandable storage
• 50Mp, f/1.88, most important digital camera with OIS
• 8Mp, f/2.2 wide-angle digital camera
• 2Mp, f/3.3 microscope digital camera
• 16Mp, front-facing digital camera
• Stereo audio system
• 5G
• Bluetooth 5.3
• USB-C port
• 4600mAh battery
• 240W quick charging
• 163.85 x 75.5 x 8.9mm
• 199g
• Launch colors: Black and White