Introduction and specifications
This year Realme only launched a vanilla Realme GT3 without a Pro. Technically, this isn’t a pure GT either, as it’s a rebranded Realme GT Neo 5 240W, which is only available in China. Still, the specs suggest the GT3 is more of a GT2 successor as far as western markets are concerned.
With the semantics out of the way, the GT3 offers a big improvement over last year’s GT2 in terms of display quality, performance and charging. However, the 240W charging is the GT3’s unique feature, as it is the world’s first 240W charging on a commercial smartphone. The OEM promises all-day battery life in just a few minutes of charging, while a charge takes less than 10 minutes. We will of course test this on the following pages.
In addition to faster charging, the GT3 also uses a more advanced OLED screen. It’s no LTPO, but it has all the bells and whistles. The screen supports 144Hz refresh rate, as opposed to the more common 120Hz refresh rate, it is HDR10+ certified (unlike its predecessor), and it is brighter and has a higher resolution.
Realme GT3 specs at a glance:
- Body: 163.9 x 75.8 x 8.9mm, 199g; Glass front and back, plastic frame; Illuminated RGB (on the back).
- Screen: 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 (1×3.19 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3×2.75 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4×1.80 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): 50MP, f/1.9, 24mm, 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 8MP, f/2.2, 16mm, 112˚, 1/4.0″, 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP, f/3.3, 20 mm (microscope).
- Front camera: 16MP, f/2.5, 25mm (wide), 1/3.09″, 1.0µm.
- Video recording: Rear camera: [email protected]/60fps, [email protected]/60fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: [email protected], gyro EIS.
- Battery: 4600mAh; 240W cable, PD, 1-50% in 4 min, 1-100% in 10 min (advertised).
- Miscellaneous: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); Infrared port; stereo speakers.
Performance is also improved as the new generation uses the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, and we’re glad to see the Plus variant of the chipset, as the GT2 settled for the standard Snapdragon 888. Notably, the GT3 isn’t top- tier flagship model from Realme’s lineup, so it was expected to use last year’s flagship chipset. It’s a potent chipset that can handle anything you throw at it. And besides, we bet most users won’t notice the difference in performance between SD8 Gen 1 and SD8 Gen 2 in daily use.
In the camera department, little has changed, which is mostly good news. The main Sony IMX766 50MP sensor with OIS is here to stay, along with the usual suspect, the 8MP ultrawide shooter, but the fairly useless macro unit has been replaced with a slightly better microscopic lens. It can take some nice close-ups.
Last but not least, the GT3 now takes a largely different design than its predecessor with a huge camera island and customizable RGB LED lighting on the back, which Realme calls Pulse Interface Design. It can be useful for people who miss the abolished LED notification light in modern smartphones.
