Realme GT Review || Best Budget Smartphone

 

INTRODUCTION TO THE PHONE

Imperceptibly 2 months have passed since I own the Realme GT smartphone . The review was planned for release much earlier, but fate made its own adjustments.  The smartphone turned out to be really cool: unrivaled performance, bright and responsive screen, good camera, amazing charging speed and many other features that are available only in expensive flagships. At the same time, the price tag of the smartphone is within the middle class. I may be wrong, but this is probably the most affordable smartphone with Snapdragon 888 and at the time of writing this review it is ranked 3rd in the Antutu performance rating. Of course, there are a lot of nuances that need to be discused, but which are not noticeable upon a cursory acquaintance with the device. And it was here that the story with the broken smartphone came to the advantage . Not to me, of course, because I incurred losses, but to you, my dear readers. For over a long period of use, I thoroughly studied the device and learned all its positive and negative sides. Actually, let's talk about this ... I know how much you hate photos of boxes, so here I will limit myself to the very minimum.

PERFORMANCE || CHARGING || DISPLAY || BUILD AND BODY

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, fast charging at 65W SuperDart Charge, SuperAmoled screen with a refresh rate of 120 Hz and a triple camera with a main Sony 64 MP sensor . The manufacturer set priorities very accurately and showed that the model is primarily interesting for its performance and charging speed, and only then for the screen and camera. The package bundle is gorgeous: Super Dart fast charging, cable, headphones, silicone case and documentation. And also a high-quality protective film is glued to the screen. A complete case made of darkened silicone completely covers the screen at the edges and creates a protective side that, when the smartphone falls down, will take a hit on itself and save the screen. And on the back side, it will reliably protect the unit with cameras, which also often break and scratch when dropped.

CHARGING || BATTERY

The charger is quite complicated and supports the proprietary SuperDart fast charging technology. It uses modern gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors. If you try to connect another smartphone to the charger, then it will be charged by the standard method with a voltage of 5V and a current of up to 2A. But if you connect Realme GT, then the power rises to an incredible 65W (voltage 10V and current up to 6.5A). Is it bad for the battery? No, because a special battery is used here , consisting of two cells that are charged at the same time. In addition, the elements themselves have twice the 3C throughput. We've already seen all this in OnePlus (Warp Charge 65) and OPPO (SuperVOOC 2.0) smartphones . Charging speed The manufacturer promises to charge the smartphone from 0% to 100% in 35 minutes, but of course we will not take a word for it. I had to suffer a little, because my regular tester, with which I usually check batteries, simply did not pull such power. As soon as the current exceeded 4A, he winked cheerfully and passed out ... Fortunately, I foresaw that the charging power would continue to grow and at one time I bought a TC66, which supports modern charging protocols and high maximum power. By the way, I never saw the maximum 65W, the highest charging power was at the very beginning and was within 50W. As the battery accumulated charge, the power decreased due to the current drop. The voltage was constantly changing and on average was in the range of 8V - 9V, only at the very end it switched to 5V. I note that I did not observe an excessive increase in temperature during charging, the smartphone was noticeably warm in the most active phase, after which the temperature dropped below 36 degrees. Well, actually about the speed. Having connected the charger, I saw the SuperDart animation on the screen and the battery percentage increasing in real time. This is really very fast charging, and while I was admiring the animation, the smartphone has already managed to gain 5% of the charge! It charges very quickly , especially at the beginning. The charging schedule looks like this: 5 minutes - 25% 10 minutes - 44% 20 minutes - 76% 30 minutes - 99% 100% in 34 minutes. It's even a little faster than promised. With this phone, I stopped bothering about charging altogether . I see in the morning that there is 20% left and I need to leave - I connect the charger and while I'm getting ready, dressing (up to 10 minutes), he manages to charge more than half. 

BUILD & BODY

Appearance and interfaces Realme GT has a strong charisma and attracts with its striking appearance. First of all, we are talking about the color Racing Yellow, because the second Silver color, in my opinion, turned out to be simple and inexpressive. In addition to color, there are differences in design: from the camera down there is an insert of black glass, which forms a solid line. And all this evokes strong associations with powerful sports cars like the Ford Mustang. I think this is the goal that the designers set, because Realme GT is one of the most powerful and fastest smartphones in the world. When light falls on the insert, it becomes noticeable that there is an ornament inside, consisting of lines connecting in the central part. And if the silver smartphone is made entirely of glass, then in the yellow color the back is made of pleasant soft plastic that visually and tactilely resembles leather. The block with cameras protrudes slightly from the body and is easily covered by a cover.

CAMERAS

It contains 3 sensors, the main one of which is 64 MP (manufactured by Sony) and a dual flash from LEDs of different color tones.

The smartphone is not slippery, fits perfectly in the hand and feels like a high-quality expensive device. The chrome frame of the smartphone looks attractive, the lock button is painted yellow. Volume buttons and a SIM card tray are placed on the left side. The smartphone can work simultaneously with two sim cards of the nano format.

SPEAKER GRILL || HEADPHONE JACK || CHARGING POT

At the bottom there is a headphone jack and a universal USB C, which is used for charging and connecting to a PC. An audio speaker was also placed here . The smartphone has stereo sound, the role of the second speaker is played by the conversational one. The sound is clear, spacious and loud, on par with other flagships. The earpiece speaker is located above the screen and is directed so that your conversations will not be in the public domain . The volume margin is high, the timbre of the voice sounds natural and without distortion. There is a noise cancellation system for external sounds that works well in windy weather or in transport. The front part looks standard for modern Android smartphones: the camera is embedded in the screen (here it is located on the left side), and the frames are insignificant. The only thing that can be blamed for is the lower frame, which is slightly larger than the side and upper ones, due to which we get asymmetry.

DISPLAY

Screen Modern flagship smartphones are equipped with screens mainly on OLED matrices. The Realme GT, which used Samsung's Super AMOLED, was no exception . 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space ensures images are natural and colorful, just like in real life. In the settings, you can change the display mode. For example, when you turn on the soft mode, the screen will narrow the color gamut to sRGB. And the "gorgeous" mode will add saturation to the colors and will appeal to those who prefer a colorful picture. In general, most users will be satisfied with the standard parameters. The display is perfectly calibrated and does not require any additional settings. The color temperature is neutral, without blockage in cold or warm shades. Another indisputable advantage of the screen is its high refresh rate. It can be either 60 Hz or 120 Hz. By default, the settings are set to automatically select the refresh rate. By forcibly switching the refresh rate of the screen to 120 Hz, I began to feel the smartphone much more responsive and faster, although there was no significant deterioration in autonomy . Therefore, I recommend it. But the polling rate of the touch layer here is an impressive 360 Hz, which gamers will appreciate, because this directly affects the accuracy and speed of touch recognition. Also, the advantages of the Super AMOLED matrix are high contrast and the deepest black color.

As a result, it makes sense to use the dimming mode, when the shell and most system applications switch to dark tones. In addition to the aesthetic component, this will also have a beneficial effect on the charge consumption, since the black color in this type of screen does not consume energy. Well, as a bonus, this is the ability to use the always- on screen mode , when the clock, notification icons and various auxiliary information are displayed on the desktop . The screen can be configured so that it turns on automatically when you pick up your smartphone or is always displayed. You can also set a schedule to display the screen during the day and turn it off at night. The screen settings are quite extensive. You can choose one of the predefined styles or create your own, where you can use text or an image, include certain elements and choose a color scheme. Also, by analogy with Always On Display, other chips were used that make sense only on OLED matrices, namely: a fingerprint scanner, which is built directly into the screen, as well as various effects, such as backlighting the screen border when a notification is received. Regarding the scanner, I can confidently say that this is the best sub-screen fingerprint scanner.

In Realme GT, the scanner is lightning fast and accurate, it works no worse than a classic scanner on the back or a scanner combined with a lock button. But let's return directly to the display quality. The smartphone can be praised for its uniform backlight brightness , the spread from minimum to maximum does not exceed 6%. As for the maximum brightness, with the white filling of the screen and automatic adjustment, the screen produces 650 cd / m2, which is enough for use in any conditions. And when playing HDR video, the peak values can reach 1000 cd / m2. Indoors, even in bright ambient light, the brightness slider hardly needs to be turned more than 70%. Outdoors, you will need all the available brightness, but even in the open air, in clear sunny weather, the screen contents will be well read. Viewing angles are excellent, colors are not distorted when tilted, and brightness is reduced slightly.

On a white background, you can see small iridescent overflows that are characteristic of this type of screens. Well, so that you do not think that we have the perfect smartphone, here's a fact. The brightness of AMOLED screens is most often controlled using PWM, i.e. pulse-width modulation. And it is present in the Realme GT. In theory, flickering can cause increased visual fatigue. In practice, this is very individual and is determined only empirically. Although I admit that a small percentage of users will feel there is only one way out - to switch to IPS. If we talk about the norms, then the ripple coefficient (hereinafter CP) within 20% is considered normal. With the help of a heart rate monitor, we will measure this value. With a decrease in brightness from 100% to 60%, the CP does not exceed 6%, but then it begins to grow rapidly. 57% brightness - CP 17%, 50% brightness - CP 93%, 30% brightness - CP 133%, 20% brightness - CP 105%, 10% brightness - CP 73% and minimum brightness - CP 61%. In the settings, in the "Realme lab" section, you can find the DC Dimming function, which reduces screen flickering . The PWM remained, but the KP decreased significantly. At brightness from 100% to 55%, the CP is within the normal range, at 55% brightness - CP 44%, at 50% brightness - CP 66%, at 25% brightness - CP 57%, at 10% brightness - CP 49%, at minimum brightness - KP 50%.

SOFTWARE || OPERATING SYSTEM || RAM & ROM

As you can see, there is a positive effect. Software and firmware features The smartphone runs Realme UI 2.0, which in turn is based on Android 11. Updates come regularly: both in terms of security and to improve the functionality of the shell as a whole. The shell is cool, with detailed settings for everything and everything, from interfaces to the appearance of certain elements. I immediately drew attention to the possibility of increasing the amount of RAM due to the built-in storage. Since the drive here is very fast UFC 3.1, then it can actually be used as a RAM. The real LPDDRX 5 RAM here is 8 GB +, if you wish, you can increase by 2 GB - 5 GB, that is, to maximize it to 13 GB. I tried to increase the memory to the maximum size and opened several heavy games at the same time , a browser with a dozen tabs and a bunch of applications - everything was kept in memory, did not unload, and when the desired application was opened, it started instantly. Now a similar feature has begun to appear in Xiaomi smartphones, but Realme has used it before.

The system is prei with applications and services from Google, there is also a set of useful applications and branded tools from Realme. On desktops, you can create shortcuts and folders, there is also a separate screen with all installed applications. The visual settings are very flexible, you can customize the number of elements and the type of their arrangement, shape, color scheme, icon style and much more. Control is carried out using on- screen buttons, gestures, or both at the same time . I will not tell you much about the system and the main features, I will dwell only on the key points and unusual solutions.

There is Android Auto, which will be appreciated by the owners of modern cars. Separately, it is worth noting the linear vibration motor, which allows you to get a new tactile experience from interacting with a smartphone. Pleasant vibration of different intensity allows you to set different vibration patterns , and there is full sync horizontal for system ringtones.  Thus, you can look at your photos or videos on the big screen , show something to friends and family, go to the Internet page and comfortably view information. For uncontested performance, there is a GT mode when the processor operates at maximum frequency. When you turn on this mode, you will see animation and the smartphone starts working at the limit of its capabilities. At the same time, heating and charge consumption increases, so I would not use it on an ongoing basis.

In general, of course, this flagship has a lot of interesting things, and even after 2 months it continues to amaze me with its capabilities. For example, the Realme lab has a dual audio mode that lets you play audio on both wired and wireless headphones at the same time . I had the opportunity to appreciate the convenience of this solution during an 8-hour trip in the intercity, when 2 people want to watch a movie from one smartphone and at the same time not turn on the sound through the speakerphone, so as not to disturb others. Communication, Internet, navigation The main function of any smartphone is communication and here its implementation is at the highest level.

MY PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS

The speaker and microphones are of good quality, the noise cancellation system is effective but not aggressive.  The proximity sensor works correctly and does not turn on the screen during a call.  Antispam is just a miracle, and in 99% of cases it correctly warns about advertising calls, and in the settings you can immediately block them.  The presence of a call recording depends on the region, in the version with the European firmware EU (including for Ukraine) it is absent, in the RU firmware it seems as it is (but it is better to clarify before buying).  But evaluate the quality of the mobile Internet: from 150 to 190 mbps!  And note this not 5G, which will not appear in my city very soon, but the more widespread 4G +.  It takes minutes to download a movie or music album just on the go.  Of course, the upload is less, from 40 to 60 mbps, but even such speeds are more than enough to upload photos or videos to your cloud on the go.  It is clear that such speeds are not everywhere and not around the clock, but nevertheless, the modem is notable here, and the antennas are sensitive, because I personally set my own speed record in my city (on other smartphones, the speed is usually around 120 - 140 mbps)  ...  With home Internet, things are no worse, because the smartphone supports WiFi 6. In the 5 GHz band, I got an average download speed of 376 Mbps, although sometimes it reached 425 Mbps.  In the 2.4 GHz band, the average speed was 139 Mbps, and the maximum speed was 180 Mbps.  For navigation, the smartphone supports GPS, GLONASS, BEIDOU, GALILEO and QZSS satellites.  Moreover, the navigation module is not simple, but dual-frequency, with support for band 1 (frequency 1575 MHz) and band 5 (frequency 1176 MHz).  Very few smartphones can do this.  What is it for?  The smartphone can receive two signals at the same time from the same satellite.  Thus, the error is eliminated, and the location of the person is determined faster and more accurately.  The connection time with satellites is almost instantaneous, no more than 1-2 seconds.  The number of satellites in the field of view exceeds 8 dozen, more than 50 of which are in operation.